Producer of The Madness of King George and Much Ado About Nothing is offering audiences the chance to attend a special private screening of his new film Cosi on January 12th 2010 at 6.30pm at a private screening room in Soho, London.

This is an opportunity to preview a brand new British romantic comedy adapted from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte starring Richard E. Grant and Sarah Brightman. After the screening you will be invited to question the filmakers about all aspects of the making of the project in the run up to its UK release next year. Only for those interested, there is also an opportunity for investment.

Cosi is being sold by SC Films International, the company headed by Simon Crowe who as Head of Sales at Icon Entertainment used to sell all of Mel Gibson’s films internationally. To date deals have been closed in Korea, Australia, Portugal and the Middle East for a total of $525,000. Low end worldwide sales estimates (excluding US and UK) are $4.4m. Please read on to find out about the opportunity on offer:

The Opportunity:

The producer Stephen Evans has personally invested £1m in the film but because of his position as lead producer he is unable to claim any tax relief. As a result he is offering the rare chance for investors to purchase part or all of the EIS investment. Having seen the film you will have a much better insight into its commercial prospects than is usually the case with EIS film investments which are typically made prior to production.
Tax advantages of the investment: Assuming the investor is a top rate British taxpayer paying 40%, they would receive 20% EIS relief on the investment. In addition the EIS company also takes advantage of the government’s Producer’s Tax Credit which enables the company to get a further 50% recoupment. These tax advantages mean that in the absolute worse case scenario where the film has no revenues (and the film already has $525k in international sales to date), the maximum loss for the investor would be 18%. In a breakeven scenario whereby the film recoups its budgetary cost, then the investors would see a 87.5% return on their investment. If the investor has the appropriate capital gains tax liabilities over the previous 3 years then, because of the change in the CGT rate, then these investments returns are magnified.
Investment procedure: Maximum investment by an individual is £500,000. If interested post the screening, the investor would receive a full prospectus and offering which they would sign and transfer the relevant monies to the EIS company’s account, overseen by the law firm Forsters. Forsters will issue share certificates to the investors within one month of receiving the funds and will apply to the Inland Revenue for the EIS tax certificate for the investor. The investor should receive this certificate from the revenue within 3 months of investing, enabling them to claim an immediate 20% rebate on their tax bill for the current year where they file. Otherwise to take advantage of full EIS relief on the investment the funds must remain in place for 3 years from the initial deposit.
Recoupment procedure: The EIS company sits in second position along side all other investments in the recoupment waterfall (behind the gap investor). Once the gap investor has recouped his monies, all further revenues will be paid into the EIS company on a pari-passu basis with other investors. We anticipate that the film will begin its worldwide release from Spring / Summer 2010 and therefore we anticipate that by the time the 3 year EIS minimum holding period is up, the majority of the film’s revenues will have fed through as theatrical, DVD, pay and free TV windows will have passed.

Parties involved: Stephen Evans, the producer, has producer or executive produced over 15 films, including The Madness of King George, Peter’s Friends and Much Ado About Nothing, which between them have garnered 11 Oscar nominations and 2 Oscar Wins.
The lawyers for the EIS scheme is the highly respected practice of Forsters LLP. The legals for the film itself are handled by Reed Smith, one of the world’s top ten law firms, whilst the film’s accountants are the respected Tenon Group which is the leading accountancy firm for the British Film Industry.

To book a place at either screening please contact Bertold Wiesner bertold.wiesner@firstmediasyndicate.com or +44 (0) 7983 628 553 by the 11th December (for the 17th December screening) or the 8th January (for the 12 January screening).

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