Producer-Financier Oceana Studios Launches With ‘Big Gold Brick’

Dubai and LA-based producer Danny Sawaf is launching production outfit Oceana Studios with a slate of features including recently announced Big Gold Brick, which has Andy Garcia, Emory Cohen, Oscar Isaac, Lucy Hale and Megan Fox attached to star.

According to Sawaf, the privately-backed company will specialize in film development, production and financing. It recently acquired a percentage of Dubai-based Hanzo Films, a commercial production house and is in discussions with post houses in both Asia and the U.S. about potential partnerships.

Also on the company’s development slate are Robbery 101, a heist comedy film from writer Scott Reynolds, directors Cary Murnion and Jon Milott (Bushwick), and producer Nick Moceri (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night); La Vida Coca, a gangster anthology consisting of five short films to be directed by five different directors; and Open Waters, a thriller film written and directed by Sikandar Sidhu about a celebrity actor being abducted by a fanatical director. The company is also in development on an animated film from director Lubomir Arsov.

Newcomer Brian Petsos is directing English-language film Big Gold Brick. Also written by Petsos, the story centers on fledgling writer Samuel Liston (Cohen) and his experiences with Floyd Deveraux (Garcia), an enigmatic, middle-aged father of two who enlists Samuel to pen his biography. Petsos produces with Greg Lauritano, Jonathan Bronfman, Sergio Rizzuto and Sawaf. The film is currently in production.

“The game plan is for the studio is to produce five to six films per year,” explained Sawaf. “Oceana is about producing and financing films that move audiences around the world. We have the capital to fund content at the forefront of originality and storytelling. The game plan is to entertain a worldwide audience while launching the next generation of filmmakers.”

“It’s about forming alliances with companies around the world, so it goes beyond production and post,” continued Sawaf. “It’s about vertically integrating so that we create an international team catering to audiences around the globe.”