There's a moment early on in "Men in Black 3" when Will Smith's Agent J sits down next to his longtime partner, Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K, and bemoans the fact that he's too old for this sort of thing — for running around New York in matchingA movie premiering at the Sundance Film Festival tonight has Fort Wayne ties.
“Robot & Frank,” a feature-length film about a curmudgeon and his robotic caretaker, was executive produced by White Hat Entertainment, a division of North River Capital LLC.
North River Capital LLC is a privately held equity capital firm in Fort Wayne.
Daniel Rifkin, a founding partner of North River Capital, says the decision to invest in an independent film was a natural consequence of the company’s other business.
“We have met a great deal of people in a number of industries, and as a result, some relationships have developed,” he says. “In New York, we were introduced to the principals of Park (Pictures).”
“We had a very positive impression of the principals of Park (Pictures) ... and once we saw the cast (of ‘Robot & Frank’), we were thrilled,” Rifkin says.
Park Pictures is a New York City commercial production house that decided last year to form a feature film unit, Rifkin says.
Rifkin says Park Pictures’ Jackie Kelman Bisbee and Lance Acord teamed with writer-producer Galt Niederhoffer and producer Sam Bisbee on the new venture and they chose “Robot & Frank” as Park Pictures Features’ first project.
On “Robot & Frank,” White Hat Entertainment “was primarily involved in funding and the business end” of things, Rifkin says, “the capital-raise and business structure.”
Rifkin says White Hat knew little about investing in films at first but “our philosophy, especially in areas we are less familiar with from a business perspective, is that it really comes down to the people. When you work with outstanding people who operate from a base of high integrity, your prospects for success increase dramatically.”
“Robot & Frank” boasts a cast that includes Frank Langella, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler, Jeremy Strong, Liev Schreiber and Peter Sarsgaard.
It was chosen as one of the “15 Must-See Films of Sundance 2012” by the website Film School Rejects.
The film will screen eight times at Sundance, including twice tonight at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in Salt Lake City.
Sundance is an annual independent-cinema showcase started by Robert Redford. It opened Thursday and continues for 11 days.
“Robot & Frank” is not in competition at the festival, Rifkin says. Rifkin says White Hat will almost certainly invest in more films, but probably not with any company other than Park Pictures Features.
“We really hitched our wagon to Park Pictures Features,” he says. “Anything that we would do in film and entertainment would be through that entity.”
