Crazy Rich Asians, Crazy Rich Opportunities
Speaker Series: John Penotti,
CEO, SK Global Entertainment (Producer, Crazy Rich Asians)
Breakfast, Saturday, 11 May 2019, 09:00-11:00 am, China Club
How Turning Down Netflix Was the Best Decision John Penotti Took for his Studio and His Plan to Conquer Global Film
Event Details:
The Stanford GSB Chapter of Hong Kong is pleased to invite you a special SHORT NOTICE breakfast with John Penotti, CEO, SK Global Entertainment and Producer of the 2018 record-setting film, Crazy Rich Asians.
Crazy Rich Asia has been the highest grossing romcom in the USA in 15 years (grossing more than 8x its cost of production), the 6th highest grossing romcom of all time, and the first Hollywood all-Asian cast since Joy Luck Club 25 years ago.
Not bad for a film/strategy to which most of the major studios said, “we’d love to do Crazy Rich Asians if you could only change the female lead to a blonde……”
In October 2016, producer Pennotti, director John Chu and author Kevin Kwan received an ultimatum from Warner Brothers. “Choose us as the distribution partner in the next 15 minutes – or go with Netflix and don’t call us back”. That fateful decision – turning down an immediate seven-figure payday/3 picture deal for each partner for a roll of the dice on a traditional big summer in-theatre release – went against the advice of each and every outside advisor to the film.
But Penotti/his partners felt a bigger goal was at stake – establishing a trusted platform for non-traditional/cultural specific stories that deserved a global voice – complementing Penotti’s original strategy of “reversing the Hollywood Highway”, remaking Hollywood stories for local/int’l audiences in their own languages/settings (such as The Lincoln Lawyer or The Kite Runner).
Today, this successful roll of the dice has established SK Global and Penotti as the “go-to” house for this vision.
Billionaire Whale (the story of Malaysia’s IMDB/Jho Low scandal) and the Thai soccer team cave rescue are just some of the many films now being made, with acclaimed television series, such as Delhi Crime (distributed by Netflix) based on the real-life experiences of Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Inspector General, India, and one of the rare women in any such role in the sub-continent, broadening this strategy into other formats.
For a producer and Wong Kar-wai fan that less than 10 years ago almost lost everything in the post-2008 crash, it has been a critical validation of a both commercial and artistic vision. Not recreating the Hollywood model, abroad, but rather a true local-language specialized studio, building on its local context, not fighting it.
The Stanford GSB Chapter of Hong Kong could not be more pleased to have you join us for this event and to hear directly from one of global film’s most important pioneers.
Speaker’s Bio: John Penotti
In his career, John Penotti has produced over 45 films since his start in the industry working with legendary director Sidney Lumet (Network, Dog Day Afternoon).
After co-founding Ivanhoe Pictures – an int’l local-language content company with Robert Friedland – in 2013, Penotti was hand-picked to serve as president of the U.S. independent production company Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and in 2017 officially merged both entities to form the parent company SK Global.
Through Ivanhoe Pictures, Penotti produced and co-financed with Warner Bros. the Golden Globe nominated comedy Crazy Rich Asians from director Jon M. Chu, one of the highest grossing romantic comedies in the USA of all time and the first-all Asian cast since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Under his leadership, SK Global Entertainment has become the “go-to” production house for int’l stories seeking a global audience, and has been tapped to produce both the Thai soccer team rescue story and Billionaire Whale, the Jho Low/IMD story of global financial theft from Malaysia.
Additionally, Penotti has established a number of key Ivanhoe partnerships to produce local-language films in China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Latin America and Indonesia, including a deal with Blumhouse Productions (Get Out, Halloween) for a slate of local-language genre films in India.
Penotti was the founding partner and President of NY-based GreeneStreet Films from 1994-2013 where he oversaw financing and production of features including the five-time Academy Award-nominee In the Bedroom, the #1 box office thriller Swimfan, the studio hit comedy Uptown Girls, and Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion, amongst many others. Under the Sidney Kimmel Entertainment banner, Penotti’s past productions include the 2017 Academy Award Best Picture nominee Hell or High Water, the thriller Greta from director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) released via Focus Features; and the dark comedy Going Places, written and directed by John Turturro.
John graduated with honors from Tufts University with a dual degree in Biology and Psychology. A nationally ranked squash player, John led the Tufts team as captain to a national championship final. Penotti lives in Santa Monica with his wife, Sheryl, and son, Luca.