Hyde Park Entertainment

On July 26, 1999, Ashok Amritraj, co-founder of Franchise Pictures, together with David Hoberman, founder of Mandeville Films, founded Hyde Park Entertainment, with funds of $200 million and a slate of six pictures. The title came from Hyde Park, London.^[1] The startup company signed a first-look deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with a second look deal at The Walt Disney Studios, both of them were on nonexclusive agreements. Mandeville initially went inactive.^[2]

On August 12, 1999, Eureka, a consortium of Kirch Group and Mediaset signed a distribution deal with Hyde Park Entertainment for the distribution of titles and invested in the home video, television and theatrical distribution rights of its titles.^[3] By December 12, 2000, the company signed a deal with Nordisk Film to handle titles for the European market.^[4]

In 2002, David Hoberman left the company so the company was allowed to reopen the initially-inactive Mandeville Films at the Walt Disney Studios.^[5] By that year, Jon Jashni became the company's president.^[6] In 2003, the company attempted to enter television production, but it never materialized.^[7] After a string of box-office flops, the company scored its first hit with Bringing Down the House.^[8]

On July 27, 2005, Hyde Park ended its deal with MGM after Sony purchased the studio and agreed to a co-financing and production deal with 20th Century Fox.^[9] In 2007, the company entered into Indian-language production with a deal with Adlabs Films,^[10][11] and a year later, the company is setting up its Asian fund with $74 million.^[12][13] On November 2, 2008, the company set up a deal with Image Nation Abu Dhabi to co-finance films with global apparel.^[14]

In 2011, the company partnered with China's Angel Wings Entertainment to co-fund pictures,^[15] as well as a deal with National Geographic to partner in various feature films.^[16][17]

In 2022, Hyde Park and Warner Music Entertainment launched the Hyde Park Entertainment and Warner Music Entertainment Asian Women Fellowship, in partnership with Film Independent, which will showcase women-identifying writers and writer-directors who are Asian or part of the Asian Diaspora. The Fellowship is aligned with Hyde Park and Warner Music Group's shared, ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion.^[18]

The recently announced Hyde Park Asia slate includes the Pulitzer Prize runner-up Maximum City to be directed by Anurag Kashyap and the best-selling novel Paradise Towers with filmmaker Zoya Akhtar.^[19]