Content Media acquires 50% in Jigsaw Production

MUMBAI: Global entertainment company Content Media Corporation has acquired a 50 per cent stake in New York-based production company Jigsaw Productions, further adding to the company?s growing investment portfolio.

The agreement will see Content investing in Jigsaw and working closely with founder Alex Gibney to build a diversified Production Company operating across film and television.

Content will invest in Jigsaw and it will add additional staff, expand development and increase its production output. Content?s film, television and digital divisions will act as international distributor for Jigsaw?s programmes when appropriate.

Jigsaw has produced documentary films, such as ?Taxi to the Dark Side?; ?Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer?; ?Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room? and ?Magic Trip?.

Jigsaw and Gibney have also produced episodic television, such as The Blues with Martin Scorsese and David Halberstam?s The Fifties.

Jigsaw president Alex Gibney said, ?We have a prolific documentary production business here at Jigsaw, and I have wanted for some time to expand into episodic television, international rights and additional fiction projects. Content?s investment in Jigsaw and its sales platform and management team will give me the resources to do that. I am very excited about our next steps and the future of Jigsaw, and am delighted to be in business with Content and its great team.?

Content CEO John Schmidt said, ?This new partnership is a further example of our continued strategy to expand our portfolio through collaborations with world-renowned producers. We have admired Alex Gibney and his work at Jigsaw for many years. With Alex as a visionary director and producer at the helm, the company has gained a well-deserved reputation as one of the world?s greatest documentary companies. Jigsaw has also generated great episodic television over the years, and we look forward to providing Alex with the support and resources to grow and expand production across a variety of genres.?

Content Media Corporation is based in London and Los Angeles and operates in the areas of film, television and digital rights. This new agreement with Jigsaw adds to Content?s investment stakes in several companies, including Collins Avenue, a reality television Production Company founded by Jeff Collins and based in Los Angeles; Phase Four Films, a film distribution company based in Toronto and operating in the North American market; and Spirit digital media, a digital studio founded by Peter Cowley and based in London and Los Angeles.

The companies will collaborate on a variety of on-going projects, including an upcoming project for HBO that is produced and directed by Gibney; Untitled Eagles Project, a documentary on the legendary band, produced by Gibney and directed by Alison Ellwood; Finding Fela!, a documentary on the Nigerian singer; and 740 Park Avenue, a documentary in the series ?Why Poverty?? Jigsaw is also currently developing two originally scripted feature films, as well as a miniseries based on the book Black Banners by Ali Soufan.