![]() I don’t see us making $200 million DC-level movies. We’re developing a horror movie for them to star in together. I went to high school with their mom in Petaluma. The two young girls who starred in “The Black Phone” and “M3GAN,” they are sisters. We’re also dipping our toes into horror for the first time. We’re also setting a five-picture slate that will expand our holiday content into Valentine’s Day, St. We’ve got some really great diverse stories we’d like to tell, and we’re looking to go back into action. We want to ramp up back to eight to 12 film releases per year. Where do you see the company in five years? With all the changes happening in landscape - from the streaming retreat to the state of theatrical - it’s a game about survival right now. The last 10 have been ordered through larger corporations. Our biggest challenge is keeping the volume rolling and trying to get the stories that make sense. The first half of our movies were independently financed through private equity and high-net-worth individuals. I played the butler! We ended up doing seven holiday films back to back after that, some at Netflix and others at HBO Max. We used actors who were a real-life couple and already in a pod together. But COVID hit, and we decided to take a chance. I’m Iranian-born, I don’t event celebrate Christmas that much. We use the same local crews over and over again. We’ve shot 17 of these 23 films in my hometown of Petaluma, where I built a barn and a soundstage. I don’t come from a traditional Hollywood pipeline, we like to do things our own way. We made a name for ourselves punching above our weight class. was an action project called “American Wrestler: The Wizard.” It was about my life coming to America from Iran. The movie that introduced us to Warner Bros. That’s like “Yellowstone” with a Latin infusion, launching as a five-episode miniseries. We also have our series “Casa Grande” releasing May 1 on Amazon. Jared made a few introductions and a few months later, we made our first film, “Born to Race.” Fast forward to now, we’re finishing our 23rd movie. I met an indie film financier named Jared Underwood through the racing world, and he said if I ever wanted to make a move to let him know. movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” and I booked it. but working with a race team I learned how to put people from all over the world together, winning many championships, and unknowingly I was learning how to produce. I worked consistently but took an eight-year hiatus in 2002 to become a pro race car driver for Subaru America. I missed acting. My first job was on “Saved by the Bell: The New Class,” and it was the second audition I ever went in for. Over our conversation, Afshar discussed the winding path to his production company, his desire to move into other genres, and expanding his holiday game past Christmas. ![]() She may be in store, of course, for a Christmas miracle when she falls for the world’s worst carpenter. Alex Ranarivelo is directing the project that follows a young widow struggling to keep a local vineyard from falling into the wrong hands while raising her two young boys. ![]() Afshar’s well-oiled Christmas machine functions at such a level that, during a recent conversation with Variety, he revealed he was in the middle of shooting another film - “A Wine Country Christmas.” The latest stars frequent Afshar collaborator Josh Swickard, Sol Rodriguez (“Grachi”), soap vet and “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum Eileen Davison and Omar Gooding.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |