Simon Barry recently found himself courted by a host of indie producers looking to bring the Continuum creator and showrunner under their umbrella.

But rather than tie up with big players, Barry (pictured, left) said he turned to his film school buddy, former Brightlight Pictures co-founder Stephen Hegyes, to partner on a pure-play genre film and TV producer, Reality Distortion Field.

“What I’ve learned through the process of making Continuum was to not really focus on becoming a component in someone else’s vision, but to find someone to support my vision directly,” Barry tells Playback of his new shingle.

Hegyes says Barry’s track record working for 15 years in Hollywood before moving to Vancouver. where he runs Continuum and has developed a slate of possible new projects, will underpin Reality Distortion Field as it starts pitching projects in Los Angeles this week.

“Simon [Barry] is someone who knows how to deliver smart, commercial TV. Everything he had put together on the slate has the potential to travel internationally,” Hegyes says.

Their new genre-focused venture will develop original TV series and feature films for the domestic and international market.

Barry and Hegyes will be pragmatic in financing and finding creative for their projects, whether from Canada or the U.S.

“We’re not closing the doors to any collaboration. We’re not defining the company as being necessarily Canadian or not Canadian,” Barry says. “We both live in Vancouver, and feel we can get a lot of done here. But we’re not really not trying to be a competitor in the Canadian marketplace, we’re trying to have one foot in Los Angeles,” he adds.

The Vancouver-based company will be taking on projects with layered mysteries, mythologies, expansive worlds and  socio-political themes that underpin universal and dynamic character pieces.

Hegyes, who will oversee production and financing, says Reality Distortion Field will look to retain rights on projects, rather than delve in service production as he did at Brightlight Pictures.

“The potential upside is so tremendous with ownership,” he says.

And with U.S. cable channels and digital platforms like Netflix and Amazon increasingly doing pilots, Hegyes said it’s only a matter of time before a Canadian scripted series becomes a top-rated show in primetime and elsewhere internationally.

“In terms of the potential, you’re going to see a Canadian show hit the airwaves and it will break through the U.S. market and become a worldwide sensation,” he argues.

Before Continuum, which has been sold in 50 countries worldwide, Barry sold feature film and TV projects to Warner Bros., DreamWorks, NBC/Universal, Columbia, Working Title, CBS, FOX, FX and TNT.

Barry is represented by Abram Nalibotsky at Resolution and attorney Karl Austen in the U.S. and Great North Artists Management in Canada.