But we do hope it all works out. Hannover House has a contract for the exclusive North American distribution rights in all media. The "Wild Oats" production team has made an offer - and Hannover House accepted - a "buy out" of the Hannover House distribution rights in order that they can accept a similar agreement from the Weinstein Company. To date, despite the existence of a buy-out agreement, Hannover House has not been paid.
Our position is simple. Either they buy us out, or we will seek legal remedies to enforce our distribution rights in the film. So obviously, we're hopeful that they get it together as we feel that the company comes out positively "either way."
That said, I believe that this picture would have been made over two-years ago had they not made the decision to try and fund it without the Hannover House support. Clearly, their "better methodology" has not yet resulted in anything more than occassional trade-publication write-ups of their revolving door of cast members. If you're interested, here's the recent story from VARIETY:
http://variety.com/2014/film/news/demi-moore-replacing-sarah-jessica-parker-in-wild-oats-1201218824/
There's another production that Hannover House is "attached" to that hasn't seem to go anywhere either. "Dances with Werewolves" was supposed to shoot in 2011, yet hasn't launched. We hope that they get it completed as well, as it's a very fun script with solid commercial prospects.
For those shareholders of you that have not tried the "hands-on" task of arranging for motion picture production financing, let me assure you that it's a difficult task. Most producers take years to get funding together - and many ultimately "fail" at the task. In the process of putting together the pieces, producers (such as "Wild Pictures") will seek distribution agreements and funding commitments from companies (such as "Hannover House"). If in the course of putting it all together, they find that they have lost any of the pieces of their funding, they are sometimes "stuck" without a whole strategy to make it happen. In the case of "WILD OATS", the "other piece" of the financing was a company called Peace Arch, and they have since gone out of business... leaving the producers with only a "partial" plan (Hannover House) to make the movie happen. Their strategy of getting most of the funding from Weinstein Company is a good one, but it involves another level of approvals and requires some house-keeping (such as dealing with Hannover House).
The project is TOP SHELF and solid. Very commercial, very funny, and certainly capable of attracting cast. If they can get it all together, it will be a good film... and a good result for HHSE.
