R ecently formed film company Mogul Productions is looking to shake up the world of film financing and production with a platform that uses blockchain technology to bring independent projects to market.

Using its proprietary platform – described as a decentralized film-financing platform connecting creators, movie fans, financiers and other contributors – Mogul says it aims to bring more transparency and accessibility to film production and financing.

Specifically, the platform uses the Chainlink Network, which is a blockchain oracle network, to bring budget and profitability data onto the blockchain. According to Mogul, this will enable the “disbursement of audited, fair-market profit sharing with investors in a more efficient, transparent, and accurate way than ever before.”

The platform also serves as a destination for producers to showcase their work and as a place where fans can financially support projects using an “in-app  currency” called STARS tokens. Users of the platform then vote for their favourite films to be greenlit and participate in key decisions regarding aspects of the production. Since the platform went live just over a month ago, more than 35,000 users have signed up for the platform, which caters primarily to films with budgets of $5 million or less.

Mogul is led by CEO Gagan Grewal, who tells Playback Daily the idea for the company came in 2016 when he was chatting with film industry friends about Deadpool. The conversation turned to how the project had been in limbo – sat on the desk of the major studios for about eight years – until test footage was leaked, went viral and sparked a fan campaign to get the film made.

“The studios wanted to go a certain route with the film, and then this proof-of-concept trailer was leaked, people got really excited, and they kind of forced the studios’ hands into making it. We thought it was a cool idea – that the fans got to push forward what they wanted to see,” said Vancouver-based Grewal.

Fast forward two years and Mogul started building out its proprietary platform, with Grewal also engaging a team of advisors to help guide the project. Among them is veteran producer and DCTV president and co-founder David Cormican, who has lent his expertise to helping shape the vision for Mogul. While Cormican continues to work with Mogul in an advisory capacity, his role and responsibilities with DCTV – through which he’s worked on projects including Tokyo Trial, Northern Rescue, Shadowhunters and Between – remain unchanged.

Projects currently being showcased on the platform include The Cheerleaders Must Die, co-written by Svet Rouskov, who most recently penned Raven Banner’s Spare Parts and David Murdoch, who wrote and executive produced the Netflix original film The Most Assassinated Woman in the World. Wolf Cop director Lowell Dean is attached to helm the project, which is being produced by Cormican, who also came up with the original concept and story.

Between three and nine projects are showcased on the platform at any one time, with the Mogul team sifting through the most viable titles and deciding which ones are showcased. Other projects currently being showcased on Mogul’s platform are The Sacrifice Game from director is Jenn Wexler (The Ranger), Skate or Die from filmmaker Jerome Sable (ABCs of Death 2) and Lights, a VR project from Atlas V.

Grewal says he doesn’t believe this type of financing technology will ever completely replace traditional film financing models, but, rather, that it will act as an alternate method by which films can move from concept to greenlight.

He adds that the platform isn’t designed exclusively for experts in the fields of blockchain technology or cryptocurrencies. “The idea behind it is to create a simple user experience, whether you’re a crypto person, blockchain person, entertainment person, or just a regular fan of film.” said Grewal. “It’s really a platform that’s bringing people together to get great content made. That’s what we’re trying to do – open the doors to a very opaque business that doesn’t really have much transparency. We’re trying to get fans engaged in the process at an earlier time, and carry the audience through the script-to-screen process.”

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