Relativity Media today announced that the company has entered into an agreement to acquire Trigger Street Productions, the entertainment production company owned and operated by Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti. At Relativity, Spacey will become Chairman of Relativity Studios and Brunetti will become President of Relativity Studios, effective mid-February. Together, they will oversee all creative content and film production for the company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“I am thrilled to welcome Kevin and Dana to Relativity,” said Ryan Kavanaugh, Chairman and CEO, Relativity. “Kevin’s incredible creative success as a two-time Academy Award winner and star and producer of the critically acclaimed House of Cards speaks for itself. Dana has remarkable instincts and an impressive track record of producing films such as ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and ‘Captain Phillips.’ Both men share my passion for film and Relativity’s unique 360 degree content engine, and I could not be more excited to partner with such talented professionals.”
“They thought we were crazy when we chose to do ‘House of Cards’ with an online streaming service; they thought I was crazy when I went to run The Old Vic Theatre when no one thought it could be saved; and this move with Relativity will be proof for some that we really are crazy,” said Kevin Spacey. “This is an incredible opportunity to make great entertainment. I’m thrilled at this next evolution in my career, having run an independent production company to now be able to run a studio is a great challenge, and I’ve learned that in the end it’s the risk takers that are rewarded.”
“While other studios are focusing on tentpoles and franchises, there is a void with an eager audience for films that are character driven with great storytelling that can be made at a reasonable budget,” commented Dana Brunetti. “Being a disruptor at heart, I look forward to the opportunities that being inside a studio system will present.”
Trigger Street Productions is an entertainment production company owned and operated by Spacey and his producing partner Brunetti. Trigger Street’s credits include Academy Award-nominated Captain Phillips, Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-winning The Social Network, and the Emmy nominated “House of Cards,” Bernard and Doris and Recount, as well as numerous other films including 21, Shrink, Fanboys and the stage production “The Iceman Cometh.”
Relativity Studios is the largest privately held, independent film studio with several movies scheduled to release this year, including The Disappointments Room, Before I Wake, Kidnap, Masterminds and Strangers 2. The studio has produced, distributed or structured financing for more than 200 motion pictures, generating more than $17 billion in worldwide box-office revenue and earning 60 Oscar nominations. Relativity Studios’ films include Immortals, Limitless, The Fighter, Act of Valor and Safe Haven.
The company’s scripted television division is behind CBS’s newest hit show, “Limitless,” based on the film released by Relativity Studios in 2011 which grossed more than $160 million worldwide, and Relativity Digital Studios released its first feature-length film, Summer Forever, in 2015 and is set to release two additional films in the Summer Forever franchise later this year.
