Mining for gold: making the backlist sing.

ABOUT

We find the stories waiting to be retold, the old novels, the forgotten memoirs, the estates, the properties that with a bit of love and imagination can be re-packaged and sold on, and made into the movies and TV shows of tomorrow. We are mining for gold.

In the way that a development executive or literary scout scours newly released books, we can scour the archives, the back catalogues, to find the vast, hidden value laying dormant. Production companies often don’t have the time or the resources to do this job: but they will pay for the results of such work.

WHO ARE WE

We are uniquely placed to offer this service. With over twenty year’s experience in film development, production, acquisitions and finance we have a good idea of what producers, talent and studios are looking for, and we know how to get the projects to them in accessible and appealing ways. We have worked with Working Title Films, Fine Line Features, Studio Canal, BBC, BFI and many others and continue to work in the industry.

Led by Ben Lyle, we have a wealth of writing experience. Writing as HB Lyle, he’s published four historical spy thrillers with Hodder & Stoughton (each one a book of the year in the national press), and adapted the first one into a pilot with Saul Dibb for See-Saw Films. He’s also written for Lionsgate UK, and penned the multi-award winning short Help.

This industry experience and know-how, combined with a writer’s expertise, allows us to look at properties beyond a simple yes/no binary. We can creatively present them (maybe they need an update, a new setting, a character switch etc) in ways that will vivify an otherwise dormant property.

We are perfectly placed to find the value in any rights holder’s catalogue, be that for film and tv adaptation/remake or for literary continuation.

WHAT WE OFFER

Creative Audit:
The central pillar of the service, digging into an archive, finding those properties with the most potential, and presenting them in a digestible and attractive form ready to take to market. A task of evaluation and imagination, working out what something is and what it could be, whether that’s updating it in a certain way, or getting it to specific talent or often both.

Targeted Audit:
Specific briefs worked out with the client (thrillers, heists, rom-coms etc.), we can dig into the material, extract the most promising properties, creatively present them and help bring them to market. It is a similar service to the audit, but done in a more targeted way.

We can consult on an on-going basis, or project by project (e.g. by genre, by estate etc.) Either way, we produce tangible outcomes in terms of identifying what value exists and how best to exploit it.

In short, we offer a unique, tailored service that will more than pay for itself over a catalogue or archive. There’s value waiting to be tapped, and we can help you find it.

Menu