MUMBAI: With the intent to choose at least one project per year to produce and finance, Hollywood filmmaker Larry Meistrich‘s GI Pictures, best known for producing the Oscar-winning film Sling Blade, is soliciting movie and TV pitches from active members of the military, veterans and their family members.
Beyond pitching, GI Pictures wants the projects to be made entirely by current and retired military personnel and family members, including writing, directing, producing acting and all crew members. Those with potential but no experience, he‘ll train. “My management team fits because we all have parents who were in the military,” Meistrich said.
“The skills acquired during a military career are very complementary to production,” he said. “The way a set runs is similar to a chain of command, but we‘re obviously not risking our lives.”
Although Meistrich acknowledges the “fertile ground for ideas” that come from military life and war, he says he‘s encouraging stories having nothing to do with either.
Meistrich revealed that his father was a captain in the U.S. Army and a veteran of the Vietnam War. “We wanted to support the troops with more than just a yellow ribbon,” he said of his incentive to create GI Pictures.
Dana Offenbach, a president of NEHST, will oversee productions at GI Pictures. Offenbach‘s credits include several independent films including the Miramax movie “Hav Plenty.”
Leave a Reply