No Fame, Please, Just Go See Our Pictures

It was conceived as a low-budget indie with no-name actors, and after reading the script, several U.S. movie studios took a pass. Then, “The Mexican”--an action-comedy about a mobster who travels south of the border to hunt down an ancient pistol--signed two of the biggest stars in the world: Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts.

This week, with the rights to several foreign territories up for sale here at the Cannes International Film Festival, the project--which started shooting earlier this month--has generated a lot of buzz about its star power and its executive producers, two former Lloyd’s of London bankers whose company some describe as one of the best-kept secrets in Hollywood.

William Tyrer and Chris J. Ball are the founders of the Newmarket Group, a film financing, acquisition and production company based in Beverly Hills that is co-producing “The Mexican” with DreamWorks SKG. Since 1994, they have quietly co-produced and financed an unusually broad collection of films, from the teen thriller “Cruel Intentions” to the costume musical “Topsy-Turvy.”

Compared to many in Hollywood, these guys are reserved, preferring to make money than to toot their own horns. While they agreed to an interview here, for example, they refused to have their photos taken, making them perhaps the only people in this publicity-seeking milieu to do so.

“We’re financiers, not movie people,” Tyrer said.

“It’s a seductive business, but we’re certainly not seduced by it,” agreed Ball.

But for a moment this week, after the Newmarket Group and its partner Summit Entertainment sold off three key international territories to “The Mexican” (Japan, Germany and Spain), Tyrer and Ball were briefly the toast--if not the envy--of Cannes.

“Ah, the really rich table! ‘El Mexicano’!” Amir Malin, co-CEO of Artisan Entertainment, bellowed when he spotted Tyrer and Ball breakfasting the other morning at the Majestic Hotel. Malin later joked: “I remember reading the script. It was supposed to star Ruth Buzzi. Now with Julia Roberts, you can bet that’s changed their foreign sales!”

Whether or not it ends up making big money for Newmarket, the film already is putting the company--which has been helping fund movies since 1995’s “The Usual Suspects”--officially on Hollywood’s radar.

“I call it six degrees of Newmarket,” said an acquisitions executive at one of the major studios, noting how the company seems to have its fingers in a lot of pies lately.

From ‘American Pie’ to New Take on ‘King Lear’

For example, Newmarket helped to finance last year’s popular gross-out comedy “American Pie” (and, with Summit Entertainment, made a tidy sum from international rights sold off by Universal Pictures). On the other end of the accessibility spectrum, though, the company also put up most of the budget for one of the tougher sells of this year’s Cannes festival: the Dogma film “King Is Alive,” about a busload of people stranded in the desert who decide to put on a performance of “King Lear.”

Notably, neither Tyrer nor Ball seem at all worried that the film, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Janet McTeer, among others, may only show theatrically outside the U.S.

“We’re not going to cry if we don’t get domestic theatrical distribution, because those are good people to be in business with,” Tyrer said, noting that Newmarket’s satellite home video and DVD distribution company, Saturn Home Entertainment, would keep profits up even if Newmarket didn’t produce a movie all year.

In fact, Ball and Tyrer say, at any given time they’ve got about $100 million invested in various movie productions--most of them in the $20-million-and-under budget range. Usually, they finance or help finance 12 to 15 projects a year. Recent examples include Universal’s “The Skulls,” Paramount’s “A Simple Plan” and Miramax’s “An Ideal Husband” and “Velvet Goldmine.”

The story of how “The Mexican” came to be an A-list project says a lot about Hollywood’s unpredictable ways. Newmarket had acquired and developed the script, by J.H. Wyman, with a modest movie in mind. As is their habit, they brought in a respected producer--Lawrence Bender, who has worked with Quentin Tarantino, among others--to make the film, hoping to develop an ongoing relationship with him. At that point, they hoped to snag “Waterworld” director Kevin Reynolds to take the helm.

“We were definitely thinking small--an $8-[million] to $10-million film,” said Tyrer, recalling how surprised he was when Creative Artists Agency, which represents Pitt, called and said the star was intrigued. “We knew Brad Pitt wanted to do something more interesting--a Sean Penn kind of film. But we also knew he was attaching himself to a lot of things, so it didn’t mean it was a go picture.”

They started courting directors approved by Pitt, and suddenly, just before the Venice Film Festival last fall, David Fincher signed on. Fincher and Pitt knew each other from two previous projects--”Seven” and “Fight Club.”

“When we had Fincher attached, we went around to the studios, thinking that we’ll sell the big news to everybody and we’ll make a fortune,” said Tyrer, laughing. “They all liked it. They said, ‘If you get Fincher and Pitt, we’re in, we’re in.’ Then, a couple of weeks after Venice, Fincher said no, he was too burned out. Fincher was out.”

That’s where DreamWorks came in. Co-founder David Geffen had brought the project to the attention of Jeffrey Katzenberg, who loved the script and vowed to make “The Mexican” even without big stars attached. For a brief moment, “The Mexican” appeared slated to be a little movie once again.

Director Gore Verbinski, who had made “Mouse Hunt” for DreamWorks, was chosen to direct, and “we were thinking about who to go to [for the lead]--like an Owen Wilson--when Jeffrey said, ‘No, give me until Jan. 1 as a drop-dead date to get a movie star,” Tyrer said.

‘The Mexican’ Script Attracts Big Names

Around the same time, Roberts’ agent, Elaine Goldsmith, was looking for interesting parts for the superstar actress, who had recently finished working with director Steven Soderbergh on “Erin Brockovich.” She liked “The Mexican.” Katzenberg closed the deal.

“We didn’t necessarily believe it at the time. You never know,” said Ball.

“But then, when it happened, it happened very quickly. Brad was straight back in, with Julia there,” recalled Tyrer. Pitt and Roberts approved Verbinski. The budget grew, though one source close to the film said it is still relatively modest because the stars took less of a payday in exchange for back-end participation.

“A lot of this is luck,” Tyrer admitted. But there’s also strategy at work. Newmarket courts successful producers like Neil Moritz (who made “Cruel Intentions” and “Skulls”), offering them not only funding but a lack of big studio bureaucracy and personal financial rewards as well. Among those with whom they have development relationships: Bender, John Woo, Terence Chang and Suzanne and Jennifer Todd (two sisters known as Team Todd who produced “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” and “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”).

“We’re providing a home for good young producers, a good alternative to the studios--[with them] owning part of the negative and seeing some real upside in the movies,” said Ball. “The success with Neil has certainly helped us attract other people.”

Both Tyrer and Ball acknowledge they had things to learn when they started out. On “The Usual Suspects,” for example, they didn’t ask to share in the profits of the movie.

“It was the first deal we ever did, so we felt relieved that people wanted to do business with us, so we forgot to ask for profit share,” Ball said, laughing about the big hit that got away. “It was probably a very good way to learn. If it had not been successful, we would have continued to forget to ask for a profit share.”

Here in Cannes, “The Mexican” is not all they’re thinking about. Newmarket has scooped up U.S. video rights to several Hong Kong martial arts movies with Jet Li, who starred in the recent Warner Bros. hit “Romeo Must Die.” They will dub them in English and add hipper music.

Asked to describe their cinematic vision, Ball said, “Working with good, quality people at the top of their genre. And upfront, always keeping a commercial view, a business view, of the potential outcome.”

Said Tyrer: “It’s usually when you say, ‘We’ve got to make six films a year’ that you are forced to do mediocre things. But we are selective. If you do anything mediocre in this business, you’re usually going to lose money.”