Anonymous Content To Produce Film Adaptation of Baldwin: A Love Story

Production company Anonymous Content is entering a new era where they are looking to become a financier in the film marketplace, rather than just a “fee-for-hire production company,” which will allow them to finance their own projects.

For one of the new projects, announced during the Bloomberg Screentime conference Thursday, Anonymous has commissioned author Nicholas Boggs, to write the script for a feature film adaptation of Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story, along with his partner, author Marlon James, author of The Disappearers. The project will be co-produced with Higher Ground.

Additionally, the company, backed by Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective, said it will look to move into live events including Broadway and potentially move into the content creation space. This comes after the Emerson Collective made a “material investment” in the company in January, alongside Walker’s appointment as CEO.

“So there’s no doubt that the content creators, these independent content creators, figuring out how to have a portal to that community, that community of writers, that community of creators in places that we don’t normally go, and making sure we have team members who can have tentacles in those places,” Walker said. “And then looking at things like theatrical, and looking at different ways for us to work. And when I say theatrical, I mean Broadway. I mean live events.”

As part of this new era, under Walker, who joined in January after serving as the president of the Ford Foundation, the company is also reconstituting the board, with Jobs joining as a board member, alongside former HBO CEO Richard Plepler.

Over the next year, Walker added that he’s committed to doing a minimum of eight films, with more to come in the following years. Up until now, the media production company has been behind shows such as Netflix’s upcoming East of Eden, and the Emmy Award-winning Remarkably Bright Creatures, as well as shows such as True Detective, Mr. Robot and 13 Reasons Why.

“We have been a fee-for-hire production company. We have not invested for the most part. We have not been lead, in part because we haven’t invested. The board now and Emerson has made it possible for us to become a financier in the market, so we’ll be able to co-finance, finance, take the lead in financing in film,” Walker said.

“It’s necessary because fee-for-service is a bad way to build a company,” Jobs added.

They added that this will mean the balance sheet for the company will increase, but that the company will have “an envelope” with which to make the financing decisions.

“It’s is a slight, subtle change in priorities when you look for excellence, when you look for the highest quality, when you look for material that moves humans and touches us and stays inside us and reminds us of what we’re capable of, if that’s your number one, and then making money is number two, then you actually end up making films that people really want to see that,” Jobs said.

Pressed about whether this means the company is “not in a rush” to get a return, Jobs said “that’s correct,” adding “but the company has to be self-sustaining.”

The company also has a management arm. Asked if they would look to combine with other management firms, Walker said they would likely make some “acquihires.”

“I’m not going to comment on any particular part of the verticals and target companies, but we plan to grow. We’re going to grow through. We’re going to grow organically. We’re going to probably make some acquihires, and if there is a transaction that makes sense, which is these days because valuations are so inflated. We would look at that absolutely,” he said.

While Jobs’ Emerson Collective has invested more than $1 billion in artificial intelligence, when asked, she added that she did not foresee any conflict between that and in working with filmmakers who may be against AI.

“We actually want to be part of human flourishing and the positive momentum forour human race and our planet. If it doesn’t fit into that category, then it’s not for us,” Jobs said of Emerson Collective. “As far as AI is concerned, it’s really important to have a seat at that table and understand how models are being trained, and perhaps speak to them as they’re learning and course correcting along the way. Much better to be in the conversations than to be outside.”