Artist View Entertainment

Artist View Leans into Thrills & Romance

Artist View Entertainment has been growing its production slate, focusing on female-driven thrillers and romantic comedies. “We have also been very busy in our placement of library titles into the OTT marketplace as it continues to expand,” says Scott J. Jones, the company’s president.

With all the feature films and TV projects in its varied lineup, Artist View is trying to “target a specific demographic with titles offering unique storylines,” Jones says. “We have always prided ourselves on representing titles that offer a unique marketing hook.”

The company is heading to MIPCOM with a bevy of titles true to exactly this promise. The thriller Get Away If You Can, starring Ed Harris, is about a troubled married couple hoping that sailing across the open ocean might bring back the spark that’s been lost between them. Their relationship is brought to the breaking point when one refuses to explore a mysterious deserted island.

Also in the mix is the rom-com Valentine’s Town, which will be ready to air for Valentine’s Day 2024. Meanwhile, She Wants My Baby and Bad Tenant are two tightly crafted female-driven thrillers. The latter stars Veronica Long, Laura Dennis and Sam Benjamin.

These sit alongside the Lifetime premieres Secrets Under the Floorboards (aka House of Lies) and She Inherited Danger (aka Help Wanted). Katerina Eichenberger, Colt Prattes, Rib Hillis and Lindsay Hartley star in the thriller House of Lies, about a troubled widow who learns of her recently murdered husband’s corrupt past and hidden fortune. Also a thriller, Help Wanted features Sarah Fisher, Conner Floyd, Tiffany Montgomery and Robert Peters in a story about a woman who inherits her grandfather’s theater and finds herself mixed up with an eager group of ruthless investors.

On Artist View’s action slate, titles include the newly acquired Remote Danger and Night Train, which spent four weeks at number one on Hulu this summer. Remote Danger follows as a beautiful young woman picks up a scruffy hitchhiker, who may or may not be a serial killer known as the “Highway Hunter.” Night Train centers on a single mom who winds up running black market medical supplies and must stay one step ahead of the FBI.

On picking up new titles, Jones says: “For the past 32 years, our acquisition model has stayed consistent. We look to present 15 to 20 titles each year covering all genres and budget ranges.”

Artist View has also been involved with a number of co-productions in Calgary, Canada, over the past eight years and will continue to work on projects in that area. It is also involved in the development of a large slate of movies-of-the-week shot in Oklahoma, Florida and Massachusetts.

“As we enter our 33rd year of operations, it is our hope that independent distributors, free- and pay-TV broadcasters and the wide spectrum of digital platforms in the world will continue to look at Artist View as a consistent supplier of quality programming,” Jones says. “It is our goal to service this part of the entertainment business with integrity and respect for all those we have the good fortune of being in business with.”

SHOWCASE: Artist View Keeps an Open Mind & Open Door

Now in its 32nd year of operations, Artist View Entertainment continues on its mission to find and build long-term relationships with buyers and producers in the global market, represented in all genres and budget ranges.

“In 2020, we were able to align ourselves with three key production companies that were willing to develop projects with us,” says Scott J. Jones, president of Artist View. “This allowed us to add titles to our slate that we believed would fit nicely into today’s marketplace. Our focus was and still is on action, female-driven thrillers and rom-coms. At the same time, we stayed true to our original business plan and have been able to acquire some very strong titles outside of these three production partners.”

The company’s approach to having a diversified offering stems from Jones’s early days in the entertainment business when he was opening and buying movies for video stores, he says. “At that point, I learned not everyone likes the same thing. So, with that in mind, Artist View has always kept an open mind and open door for every sort of genre and budget. It’s fun to be able to say, ‘Our niche is that we don’t have one.’” 

Artist View’s MIPCOM slate is testament to this as well. Among the highlights are The Furry Fortune, featuring a pet dog that can shed money; The New Order, which follows as an American detective travels to Ukraine to investigate the disappearance of his former mentor; and Stay the Night, about a woman pursuing a one-night stand. 

The slate also features the tightly crafted action-adventure Night Train, the thrillers House of Lies and Help Wanted and the romantic comedies Looking for Dr. Love and Hearts Creek. Night Train follows as a struggling single mom agrees to run black-market medical supplies in her pickup truck. House of Lies centers on a troubled widow who learns of her recently murdered husband’s corrupt past and hidden fortune. Help Wanted sees things heat up when a young woman who inherited her grandfather’s theater decides not to sell to an eager group of investors. With touches of romance at their core, Looking for Dr. Love features a woman reuniting with her college sweetheart, who turns out to be a popular radio DJ, while Hearts Creek centers on a young event planner lost in the mountains who is rescued by a handsome guide on horseback. 

Further highlights include My Dead Dad, a drama about a young rebel who discovers his estranged father has passed and left him a rundown Los Angeles apartment complex to manage, and Double Threat, an action-adventure movie featuring a young woman who finds herself on the run from the mob with a kind stranger in tow.

Artist View Entertainment is currently involved with five to ten productions each year, and the goal is to acquire up to five additional titles from other independent production companies. 

Jones says that, above all, his message to the international community at MIPCOM is Artist View is “extremely grateful for the support we have received from both our producers and buyers over the years.”

SHOWCASE: Artist View Delivers a Broad Offering Packed with Star Power

While it has no doubt been a challenging time for the media industry, Artist View Entertainment has been quite busy as of late, picking up a raft of indie gems over the last year and ramping up activities on the production side of the business. “Recently, we were able to secure financing for a new slate of product that will be announced as we go into the fall and feel fortunate that we were able to pivot into production at a time when the market’s needs have been so niche-driven,” says Scott J. Jones, president of Artist View. “Having this new slate should help keep Artist View very relevant as we move into 2022 and will help all of the feature films we represent.”

During the last year, the company picked up a slew of independent films, including Here Awhile, starring Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), a romantic adventure entitled Navigating Love, starring Finnerty Steeves (Orange Is the New Black), and two sexy dramedies: Paint, starring Josh Caras (The Highwaymen, Hell On Wheels) and Olivia Luccardi (The Deuce, Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block), and Plus One, starring Rachel Alig (The Bet, The Shop) and Ryan Caraway (By Jingo, Reckless Juliets). The slate is rounded out with two very edgy thrillers entitled Blood Born, starring Rosie Moss (Fall Into Me) and Antoine Perry (Waking Up with Strangers, In Limbo), and The Believer, starring Aidan Bristow (Bad Vibes, L.A. Macabre), Sophie Kargman (Malibu Horror Story) and Billy Zane (Dead Calm).

The independent market has presented strong opportunities with both romantic comedies and female-driven thrillers, Jones notes. “There is also an appetite for holiday films, and I believe that action titles will always have a strong place in the market.” In line with this demand, Artist View has acquired its fourth movie from producer and director Shane Stanley, Double Threat. The high-impact action-adventure title stars Danielle C. Ryan (Mistletoe Mixup, Nowhere Safe, Criminal Minds), Matthew Lawrence (Desperate Waters, Melissa & Joey, Boy Meets World) and Dawn Olivieri (SEAL Team, The Hot Zone: Anthrax, American Hustle).

The company acquired two new thrillers in 2021 and will have three female-driven thrillers available by the end of the year. These include A Thousand Little Cuts, starring Rebecca Liddiard (Alias Grace, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Departure), Marina Sirtis (Star Trek) and Colin Ferguson (Haven, You’re the Worst); Black Bags, starring Olesya Rulin (High School Musical 1, 2 and 3) and Laura Vandervoort (V-Wars, Ice); and Help Wanted, starring Sarah Fisher (The Potwins, Degrassi: The Next Generation, Heartland), Tiffany Montgomery (Five Women in the End, Nashville), Conner Floyd (Sick, Malicious Motives) and Robert Peters (South of Sanity, Lincoln).

In the way of romantic comedies, Artist View is highlighting Rent a Groom, starring Kylee Bush (A Picture Perfect Wedding, Paper Champions) and Stafford Perry (Remote Danger, Wynonna Earp, Tribal) and Hearts Creek, starring Duff Zayonce (Black Summer, Global Meltdown) and introducing Krista Chyc.

Artist View has also been hard at work on its development slate. “We have spent a good part of the last year developing projects from a pitch level right through treatment and script,” says Jones. “These projects were all developed with the market in mind and an understanding of what our buyers need to acquire at this time.”

As the company gears up for MIPCOM, Jones’s priorities focus on “communicating with as many buyers as possible,” he says. “It’s a good time for the company, as we head into our 31st year in operations and believe we have a nice story to tell with our new titles as well as our large library that includes all types of genres and star power.”