Starstream Entertainment, Inc (SSET)

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Greenwich native co-creates new film company
Joe Meyers
Published 4:57 pm, Wednesday, August 27, 2014

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Greenwich-native-co-creates-new-film-company-5716567.php?

It wasn't entirely coincidental that the new Elmore Leonard adaptation "Life of Crime" was filmed in Greenwich and Stamford last year.

The shoot was a homecoming for producer Charles Bonan, a Greenwich native who moved to Los Angeles eight years ago to get more involved in the film business.

After executive producing a number of films, including last year's hit "The Butler," Bonan co-founded Starstream Entertainment with Kim Leadford.

The company unveiled the black comedy "Life After Beth" earlier this summer and Starstream made entertainment press headlines two weeks ago with the announcement of its next project, "Yoga Hosers," which will co-star Johnny Depp and his daughter Lily-Rose Melody Depp.

Although this is a time of great transition in the movie business -- with many new home entertainment platforms that didn't exist a decade ago -- Bonan said he is reminded of the early 1980s when he worked on the international launch of the CNN cable network.

"I don't think (this period) is too dissimilar from the structural changes when cable started to grow. That was a real dynamic shift in the way people got content," he said.

In a joint phone interview, Leadford said that she and Bonan teamed up four years ago "working in films from the investment perspective," but decided to take a more active part in filmmaking by forming their own company.

"Now we play a role in every aspect, from financing to distribution," Leadford said.

Starstream's goal, Bonan said, is to make movies from "A-list scripts" at a fraction of the cost of the major Hollywood studios that spend upwards of $100 million on an average production.

The just-opened "Life of Crime" illustrates the Starstream philosophy -- with top talent like Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, Will Forte and John Hawkes attracted by the darkly comic story of a kidnapping gone awry.

When shooting commenced in Greenwich last year, Bonan said it was a slightly surreal moment.

"Who would have thought all those years ago, growing up in Greenwich, that one day I would be making a movie (there) and that it would be a story that was supposed to take place in Detroit," the producer said, chuckling, of changing the location of the original Elmore Leonard story, "The Switch," from Michigan to Connecticut.

"We were so thrilled by the professionalism of the people in Stamford and Greenwich. We loved doing it there," Bonan said.

"Life of Crime" was a project that was originally brought to Bonan and Leadford with the idea of them raising only half of the financing.

When those who were set to provide the other half of the budget suddenly fell out of the project, the Starstream partners had to scramble to raise the entire budget. "It came together in a couple of weeks," Leadford said of the nervous-making limbo period. "We had boots on the ground in Connecticut while we were finishing the financing."

Bonan said he is proud of the high quality of "Life of Crime" despite a $12.5 million budget that is a fraction of what a Hollywood studio would spend on a similar project.

"We've got a star-studded cast that did it (for much less than) their going rate because of their love of the film and their love of the filmmaker," Bonan said of writer-director Daniel Schechter.

Despite the closing of some movie theaters around the country, due at least partially to the increased competition from home entertainment, Bonan doesn't fear for the future of theatrically released films.

"People still love to go to the movies -- seeing them on a huge screen. .... There will always be a place for that. Video on demand and digital distribution are growing, but I think the two will play off each other," he said of the natural marriage of movie watching at home and in theaters.

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