EXCLUSIVE: Veteran producers Frida Torresblanco (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Frank Murray (First Reformed) have teamed up to launch Hangtime International Pictures, a new transatlantic production company headquartered in London and New York.
Backed by an eight-figure investment out of New York, the company will focus on developing and producing what London-based Murray and NYC-based Torresblanco described to us as “U.S. and regional content with global appeal.”
The partners told us they will work on high-end, specialist, and mainstream content across film, television, and documentaries in both English and Spanish. In addition to the US and Spain, Torresblanco and Murray told us they will prioritize producing content in other key markets, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and LATAM. The company is currently in the process of securing cash for an additional development fund.
“We are so very thankful to our backers for believing in our vision for Hangtime,” Murray told us. “As a collective, we were quick to recognize the value of marrying Frida’s commitment to prestige auteur projects to my own devotion to hard and elevated genre. The global appetite for stories that excite, challenge, and even play to the darker corners of our nature is what I am personally committed to satiating.”
Murray is best known internationally for his recent stint as Scripted Head of Production in the UK at Amazon MGM Studios. He oversaw production on several original series including The Devil’s Hour with Peter Capaldi and Jessica Raine which is currently filming its third season, and the science fiction thriller The Power starring Toni Colette and John Leguizamo. Before that, he was an independent producer, working on titles like Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. He also worked in production management across studio blockbusters and independent feature films including The Wrestler, Young Adult, 22 Jump Street, Hope Springs, and Sisters.
Torresblanco was most recently CEO of Braven Films, which she founded in 2010. Her credits at Braven included Sebastian Lelio’s Disobedience, starring Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, and Alessandro Nivola. Before Braven, Torresblanco co-founded Esperanto with her producing partner and four-time Oscar-winning filmmaker, Alfonso Cuarón. During her tenure, she produced several titles including Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and The Assassination of Richard Nixon with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts.
Below, Torresblanco and Murray speak with us about why they decided to launch Hangtime, their upcoming slate, and why they’re both “optimistic” about the current correction happening in the market.
DEADLINE: Frida and Frank, how did you first meet? And how did we end up here with Hangtime?
FRIDA TORRESBLANCO: We met a couple of years ago. I was listening to Frank talk and I was fascinated by him. I thought, this guy is incredibly intelligent and has so much experience. The way he saw the market was engaging and organic. We then started to look around and think about the industry. It was then that we identified this huge window of opportunity and decided to partner and create this company.
FRANK MURRAY: To echo what Frida said, when we first connected, it was really on the back of me having unique visibility from inside a big streamer that was making big plays globally. What was interesting about the data I had access to was that it was showing an increasing demand for non-U.S. English language and Spanish language content from global and U.S. audiences. When Frida and I came together, we looked at our singular international experience. Me being French-Canadian from Montreal, coming up in the business in New York City, ending up in the UK. And then Frida came up through Spain and ended up in the U.S. Having worked with many high-stakes A-list filmmakers, we realized we probably are uniquely positioned to fill this need in the market.
DEADLINE: So what year did you decide to start the company?
MURRAY: I think we really actively started talking in the late summer of 2020.
DEADLINE: You mentioned noticing trends that signal an increase in non-U.S. English language and Spanish language content. I know there are many distributors out there, particularly in the UK, that might argue it’s still difficult to get international films with subtitles on screens. Can you speak more about the specific trends you’ve noticed?
MURRAY: To give a little more clarity on international, even though my first language is French, my focus is English-language. So we don’t have to worry too much about the subtitle or dub component. But that said in terms of trends, we try to be genre agnostic, but we are quite targeted about where and what we work on. There is a very specific strategic direction that we want to take on a non-U.S. market-to-market basis. That’s where we start exploring genres based on territory, keeping our ears to the ground, and listening to what the commissioners and broadcasters are asking for. But, you know, one’s gut still informs things. We’re in a very data-driven industry now where everything feels quite reactive, but Frida and I are quite confident in our ability to leapfrog the zeitgeist as opposed to trying to chase it.
TORRESBLANCO: To go back to your original question, English is our main language. We have a lot of English-language projects, but we also have projects in Spanish, because it’s an emerging market that is growing incredibly fast. Just remember that 500 million people speak Spanish in the world and 16 million in America. So for us, it’s a very important market to cover. With that said, the film will always dictate the language because, for us, the story is incredibly important. Frank has a lengthy background in the studio system. I’ve been more involved in the independent world. We don’t want to have boundaries. If you see my filmography, you see it travels the world and people remember the films because the content is powerful. They don’t care about the subtitles, they care about the stories.
DEADLINE: What is the structure of the company? And who are your investors?
MURRAY: Well, without giving names because we’re gonna keep the money quiet, the structure is a four-person team, us two as the founding partners, and the board is rounded out by our two primary investors who are our first investors. There’s another investment round in progress with others for a development fund but that’s an announcement for later.
DEADLINE: What does your current slate look like? Who will you be working with?
MURRAY: We’re being quite conscious about not mentioning anyone by name. Our slate is there and it’s very diversified and will be announced in the coming weeks. But what I can tell you is that it is very much a continuation of the brands Frida and I created independently. Frida’s is slightly clearer because I spent so much time working as a physical producer. But in the circles that know, I tend to be definitely on the harder genre and sort of emerging talent side, willing to lean into sort of taking a few more risks. But also on the tent pole side, the bigger directors I’ve worked with are still very much in the conversation.
TORRESBLANCO: The slate is very robust. We’re gonna do films in English and Spanish. We’re going to do television and docuseries. The slate is going to be big and we aim to grow.
DEADLINE: Frida, you had been attached to multiple projects before this announcement was made. Are those projects now under Hangtime?
TORRESBLANCO: Everything that I’ve been working on in the past is now part of this company. Frank also had things he was working on and has brought to the slate, so we’re very lucky. A lot of companies start from zero. This company already has a history with extraordinary talent.
MURRAY: Yes, we came in having to almost do triage because we had so much stuff between everything from Frida and everything I took off ice from when my non-compete with Amazon ended, so we started from a place of momentum instead of a standstill.
DEADLINE: This may be an odd question to ask when you’ve just started a company. But are you two optimistic or pessimistic about the direction the industry is heading in?
TORRESBLANCO: I’m very positive and optimistic. I think the right correction is happening in the market because it extended too far. And when things happen like that without control you expand in a way that doesn’t make much sense. So I think the correction happening right now will bring a lot of balance to the industry. I truly believe the market is going to be a much better place. Perhaps it’s going to be more attractive for people to use less social media and start watching more films and amazing TV series that will be of a much higher quality. The future will maybe mean less content but of a higher quality.
MURRAY: I’m really optimistic for us. I’m a fundamentals guy. I came up as a very high bond-rated fixer of problem productions. I thrive in this environment. I use the word future proof all the time in how we’re devising the strategic direction of the company to make sure that we continue to be attractive to the people who know what it means to play the fundamentals and the business case leads almost everything to us.
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