Tom Quinn, discussing his legendary career and the wild success of the distribution and neon production company at the annual conference of the Zurich Film Festival, attributed his achievements not only to his 30 years of experience in the industry, but also to the instinct of his obstinate team, to the entrepreneurial spirit of his wife and his ability to win the fidelity of filmmakers.
Quinn was honored at the Summit of Zurich with the price of the game changer of this year “for its exceptional achievements and its excellent contributions in the film industry”.
This includes the consecutive five -palm neon with “Anora”, “anatomy of a fall”, “triangle of sadness”, “titanium” and “parasite”.
This year in Cannes, the company presented the “sentimental value” of Joachim Trier, “Alpha” by Julia Ducournau, “Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5” by Raoul Peck, and “Splitsville” by Michael Angelo Covino, with Dakota Johnson, who has just opened the Zurich Film Festival.
Neon’s recent releases include Osgood Perkins’ horror film “The Monkey”, which marked its second largest opening weekend at the box office after “Longlegs” by Perkins-the most profitable independent horror film in a decade and the first independent title of the year with a national box-office of $ 75 million.
Addressing Roeg Sutherland, leader of the CAA media finance group group and international films, Quinn noted that he “did this for 30 years, which seems to be so quickly. UM, you know, I counted the number of movements on which I worked, and it is something like 400.”
This vast experience includes major relays with Samuel Goldwyn Films and Magnolia images of Mark Cuban before joining the partner Jason Janego to train the Radius store with Harvey Weinstein in 2011.
Radius turned out to be a springboard “to really become an entrepreneur, starting the label from zero,” said Quinn.
“And the big passage from the neon department was the conviction that I finally had the courage and the know-how to go out alone. There is a big difference there. Being an entrepreneurial is not an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is that you have to pay the bills, that you have to raise funds and do all the other things you have done to these previous jobs.
“And I give a lot of credit to my wife,” he added, noting that she became the first entrepreneur of the family after opening her Brooklyn Stuart & Wright store.
“She was in this store every weekend, making sure that the lights were on. She made all the purchases, all the creatives. And you know, I learned by looking at her what it was going to take and what you need to get involved to manage a business. And stupidly, I thought I could do it. ”
Quinn and Janego left Weinstein to train their own business, with the intention of “working only on films that we could sell with an impassive face, which we could really believe 100%”.
While Quinn initially expected to increase the necessary capital in one to two months, he ended up needing two years.
It was Sutherland who helped Quinn establish a neon in 2017 after finding his first investor, SR Media based in Hong Kong of Jackie Chan.
“Everyone should know that without Roeg, neon would not be here today.”
While Janego quickly left the new company, no longer wanted to work in the distribution, the company took a good start, initially with six people, including the people with whom Quinn had worked before, in Radius and elsewhere, which provided “a comfort and a certain synergy which, I think, is super important for any startup”.
“We were like a very functional amibe. We were really lucky because we were clearly knew who we were. ”
“We brought a whole multitude of filmmakers with us with whom we had worked in the previous two decades”, including Bong Joon Ho and Laura Poitras.
Neon then acquired the black comedy of Matt Spicer “Ingrid goes to the west” in Sundance. “This is where we really perfected our skills as marketing specialists and distributors. And someone pointed out this film, and it was Margot Robbie and what we did on this film.”
Neon ended up catching “I, Tonya” from Robbie.
“All of our own funds were going in the business – if super risky. There was no room for error. You really only had one blow to do things. Everything changed after that.
A key element in the success of the company was the independence of its team members.
“We don’t think of a group,” said Quinn. “We are not seated and decide by the committee. I am not a big fan of this. I am a fan of when two or three people, or one, it’s like:” It’s the hill on which I will die if we are not making this film. “”
“I did it myself and there are other members of the team who did it. A member of the team, Jason Wald, vice-president of acquisitions and production, brought me` Longlegs ” and he showed me this little two-minute clip. I said: “You must joke. We don’t do that. “”
Finally, Wald convinced him and he continued to acquire the next two photos of Perkins, “The Monkey” and “Keeper”.
Neon and Perkins have since designed a first agreement, with Neon which should also produce the filmmaker’s future projects.
Asked about the origin of the name of the company, Quinn said that he had come across the first sign of neon that existed in the United States, hung over a Auto Packard dealer in Hollywood in 1923.
“It was the same year that the Hollywoodland panel was erected. So, in my mind, these apparently different animals, but the fraternal twins, the film industry and neon, had something in common.”
“And you combine this with the films that I love and that I absolutely like, whether it be” drive “or” blade runner “or” psycho “, neon is always there in the background, and it is this cool thing that you cannot ignore.”
During the visit of the Saint Cecilia hotel in Austin, Texas, Quinn saw a sign of neon above the swimming pool which said “soul” and was immediately taken by it and managed to find the artist who did it.
“He made a sign of neon that said” neon. “”
The company used an image of this sign for its first film, “Colossal”, when it screened Sundance in 2017.
