Wildfire Films Officially Launches in Austin, Texas

Wildfire Films Officially Launches in Austin, Texas

Four Hollywood Veterans bring movies to Texas

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Wildfire Films, LLC, an Austin-based film production company, officially launches today. Wildfire Films was created from four separate film production companies located in both Austin and Los Angeles that will now provide full-service development and production for feature films, television and new media. It is taking an active role in the development of the Texas film industry, with productions that will include a number of films that will support the diverse cultures the state offers.

Wildfire Films' executive team has over 25 years of experience in the production of films for Hollywood. Anton Diether is a writer whose miniseries Moby Dick and Cleopatra received two Golden Globe and five Emmy nominations. Mark Hacker has written and been story editor for major studios including Warner Brothers, 20th-Century Fox, MTV Films and Paramount Pictures. Leon Rodriguez has over 30 years of production experience for Sony, CBS and BBC, and he recently directed Sony/BMG's feature film Double Tap. Jesus Carrera is a production designer, known for his artistic vision in films such as 20th-Century Fox's blockbuster Dragonball.

Austin is home to a number of film companies and producers, including Robert Rodriguez and Terrence Malick, and Wildfire Films is committed to bringing together Texas and LA's most talented and renowned film executives to cultivate a rich, diverse list of film and television projects that will touch all cultures and ethnicities.

Wildfire Films has developed partnerships with Fred Roos Productions, Starz Media, ten leading production companies and eight top studios. It has the financial and creative backing to ensure that every project is a success.

"Wildfire Films possesses the vision and integrity needed to succeed in the film industry," said Academy Award-winning producer Fred Roos. "The company has a rich source of creativity and entertainment experience and comprises a proven team of writers and creators with a good sense for business."

The company will also take an active role in the Texas Motion Picture Association and Austin Producers Association. The executives of Wildfire Films are strong supporters of the Texas Film Incentive Proposal designed to create incentives for more films to be produced in Texas.

"Texas is a great location for the film industry," said Rob Markovich, Executive Director of Original Series Development and Production at Starz Entertainment. "The executives of Wildfire Films have made a commitment to improve the Texas film industry and help build the community they love. By selecting Austin as the location for Wildfire Films productions, the company can create films with a great depth of transparency, which is typically difficult to achieve in Hollywood."

Wildfire is currently co-producing and developing feature film 16 Minutes with Academy Award-winning producer Fred Roos and Overture Films; and two projects with Humble Journey Films, an updated urban feature version of Les Miserables and Mama's Boys, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Blair Underwood and Oliver Martinez. In addition, Wildfire Films is working on projects with Starz Entertainment, HBO, Creation Studios, NBC, CBS, Troublemaker Studios and Pinewood Studios Group near London.

About Wildfire Films

Wildfire Films, LLC, is an Austin-based, full-service film production company founded in October 2007 as part of a merger between four film and entertainment executives. The partners are:

Anton Diether, the writer of the Hallmark TV miniseries Moby Dick, the highest rated long-form show in basic cable history, nominated for five Emmy and two Golden Globe Awards; the ABC-TV miniseries Cleopatra; and the 2002 Hallmark Channel miniseries Stranded, which he also co-produced. Born in Los Angeles, Anton began his Hollywood career as a script analyst for Larry Gordon's Largo Productions at Columbia. He then served as story editor for producers at Warner Bros., 20th-Century Fox, Paramount and Working Title Films. Anton recently wrote Lost At Sea for TNT, to star Patrick Swayze and directed by Nicholas Meyer. Anton is currently developing a project with Eriq LaSalle's Humble Journey Films, as well as producing his feature script Suburban Gothic at Wildfire Films, LLC.

Mark Hacker, who since completing his graduate program in screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, has worked as a story editor and script consultant for Morgan Creek, 20th-Century Fox, MTV Films, Paramount Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and Columbia TriStar. He has done dialogue punch-up for Susan Sarandon, Scarlett Johansson, Russell Crowe, Julianne Moore, Holly Hunter, Nicole Kidman and Jeff Bridges. His screenplay The Journey of Your Life is currently in post-production and is based on his book of the same name, which will be released by Scholastic Books nationwide in July, 2009. He is currently working on the screenplay for Wildfire Films' Sixteen Minutes.

Leon Rodriguez's career has spanned over 30-plus years in the entertainment industry. Leon has produced and directed multi-camera shoots for such clients as Stevie Ray Vaughan, PBS, BBC and Polish filmmaker Mariusz Kotowski. Leon recently wrote and directed Double Tap, a film starring Daniel Baldwin and Pepe Serna, currently distributed by Sony/BMG and internationally distributed through Aspect Films out of London, UK. Leon got his start in the Austin entertainment industry in the late 1970s working for Eddie Wilson, owner and founder of The Armadillo World Headquarters and current owner of Austin's Threadgill's restaurants.

Jesus "Chuy" Carrera, who with 20-plus years of experience in the film industry as a department head in set construction, art, designing and producing, has an extensive list of credits that includes feature films, television series and national TV commercials. In 2007, Chuy worked on Kings of Appletown with Academy Award-winning writer/director Bobby Moresco. His most recent project, the highly anticipated $100 million feature Dragonball, is currently in post-production for 20th-Century Fox.

Source: Wildfire Films, LLC

CONTACT: Dominic Garcia, +1-512-617-6358, cell, +1-512-585-8836,
dgarcia@bernardgroup.com, for Wildfire Films, LLC

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