Exclusive Media Shake-Up In Works Amid Berlin Film Festival

UPDATE, 4:25 AM: Exclusive Media co-chairman/CEO Nigel Sinclair has confirmed Deadline’s exclusive story last night that a reorganization is underway at the company, one that very well could leave the co-founders no longer running the label after some big bets didn’t pay off. Sinclair issued this statement: “Exclusive Media’s management is engaged in collaborative discussions with our partners from Dasym Investment Strategies BV regarding the forward plan for the company. We will make an announcement regarding the outcome of these discussions at the appropriate time.”

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE, THURSDAY PM: The talk of Berlin is a shake-up that is going on right now at Exclusive Media, the production and foreign sales company that is headed by Nigel Sinclair and Guy East. I’m hearing that this will likely end with both of them either leaving those executive posts or transitioning into producing deals. Insiders acknowledge the turmoil, but denied that Sinclair or East could be fired because they are part owners of the company. Sinclair and East — well respected veterans who were behind Let Me In, The Ides Of March and Woman In Black as well as the music documentaries Last Play At Shea with Billy Joel and the Martin Scorsese-directed docu on George Harrison — formed Exclusive Media when they merged their Spitfire Pictures label into the venture, with an acquisition of Hammer Films coming after. The company is backed primarily by Netherlands-based investment company Dasym Investment Strategies. They are selling numerous films at Berlin including the Kristen Stewart-Nicholas Hoult-starrer Equals directed by Drake Doremus, and they are in the middle of A Walk Among The Tombstones and The Woman In Black: Angel Of Death. They were expecting to sell the Philip Seymour Hoffman-directed Ezekiel Moss with Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams, but tabled that after Hoffman’s tragic death. They are also selling Black Mass, the Whitey Bulger film; the Keanu Reeves-starrer Passengers; and are showing a sizzle reel on Dark Places.