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Karen Robson (born 19 March 1957) is an Australian entertainment lawyer, producer and briefly an actress, best known for her portrayal of the mysterious brunette Irma in the Peter Weir cult classic Picnic at Hanging Rock . [1] She is based in Los Angeles and is a partner in the law firm Pryor Cashman LLP, [2] where she specializes in film finance.
She was born in Malacca, Malaysia.
Robson made her acting debut in Picnic at Hanging Rock , a 1975 film by Peter Weir. She played Irma, one of the three girls who went missing and the only one who was found. Her only other acting credit was in the 2003 film Paris (which she helped produce), in the role of the receptionist.
Robson has helped produce films ranging from Nick Nolte's Affliction to Sylvester Stallone's Cliffhanger . She has represented a significant portion of producers, lenders, equity investors and distributors in a wide range of financings, including senior and mezzanine debt and equity, international co-productions, U.S. and foreign tax incentivized financings and crowd funding, with an added focus on animation and TV joint ventures. She represents a variety of financiers, banks, equity investors, high-profile independent producers and production companies for which she structures film finance transactions, as well as provides production legal representation. [3]
Over the past sixteen years she has handled financing on multiple picture deals and single pictures, television mini-series and major documentaries. Some of her practice has included an overall financing distribution arrangement for a major independent producer with United Artists; a $200 million credit facility for a production company based at Warner Brothers on behalf of a bank syndicate; and tax incentive international film financing for a major independent producer. [3]
She worked on the first HD 3D film, released by Disney in April 2003, the directorial debut of Russell Crowe titled The Water Diviner , James Cameron’s groundbreaking digital 3D IMAX feature underwater documentary Ghosts of the Abyss, ReelFx’s animated feature film Free Birds, Edward R. Pressman’s The Crow and its spinoffs including the Crow feature film reboot, and a series of international TV co-productions for a major US basic cable network. She has also worked extensively in international media and strategic entertainment investments and acquisitions in India, China, Japan, the Middle East, UK, Australia, Europe (particularly Germany) and Latin America. [3]
She has represented a number of slate equity funds for production funding for independently financed films and TV. She has also worked on international co-production pacts involving equity and distribution for major U.S. motion pictures with budgets in excess of a $100 million.
Robson is married to Iranian-born film director Ramin Niami and has two children. [4]
Peter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. He was a leading figure in the Australian New Wave cinema movement (1970–1990), with films such as the mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), the supernatural thriller The Last Wave (1977) and the historical drama Gallipoli (1981). The climax of Weir's early career was the $6 million multi-national production The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).
Picnic at Hanging Rock is an Australian historical fiction novel by Joan Lindsay. Set in 1900, it is about a group of female students at an Australian girls' boarding school who vanish at Hanging Rock while on a Valentine's Day picnic, and the effects the disappearances have on the school and local community. The novel was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was reprinted by Penguin in 1975. It is widely considered by critics to be one of the best Australian novels.
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which have demonstrated high growth. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
Capital structure in corporate finance is the way a corporation finances its assets through some combination of equity, debt, or hybrid securities. It refers to the make up of a firm's capitalisation. It is the mix of different sources of long term funds such as equity shares, preference shares, long term debt, and retained earnings.
The New Zealand Film Commission is a New Zealand government agency formed to assist with creating and promoting New Zealand films. It was established under the New Zealand Film Commission Act 1978.
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is an American-Canadian entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California, United States. In addition to its flagship Lionsgate Films division, which generated the seventh-highest gross revenue in North America in 2015, the company contains other divisions such as Lionsgate Television and Lionsgate Interactive. It owns a variety of subsidiaries such as Summit Entertainment, Debmar-Mercury, and Starz Inc.
Patricia Anna Lovell, was an Australian film producer and actress, whose work within that country's film industry led her to receive the Raymond Longford Award in 2004 from the Australian Film Institute (AFI). Her productions include 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Gallipoli, which received an AFI Award in 1982 as Best Film.
Anne-Louise Lambert is an Australian actress whose acting career began with her role in Number 96 in 1973.
Jean Vivra Gray, known professionally as Vivean Gray, was an English-born Australian television and film actress. She appeared in the film Picnic at Hanging Rock, but her best-known roles were in TV soap operas, including: Ida Jessup in The Sullivans, Edna Pearson in Prisoner and Nell Mangel in Neighbours. She retired in 1988, moving back to her native England to Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, where she lived a quiet and private life.
Film finance is an aspect of film production that occurs during the development stage prior to pre-production, and is concerned with determining the potential value of a proposed film.
Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery film that was produced by Hal and Jim McElroy, directed by Peter Weir, and starring Rachel Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Vivean Gray and Jacki Weaver. It was adapted by Cliff Green from the 1967 novel of the same name by Joan Lindsay, who was deliberately ambiguous about whether the events had really taken place; however, the story is entirely fictitious.
The birth of the cinema of Lithuania was in 1909.
Saxon is a 2007 independent British film.
Film and TV financing in Australia refers to government assistance to TV and cinema in Australia. Over the past 30 years, government assistance has involved a mixture of government support, distributor/ broadcaster involvement and private investment. To a significant extent, government policies have shaped the form and scale of financing.
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland (FÉ/SI), formerly known as Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board (BSÉ/IFB), is the Republic of Ireland’s state development agency for the Irish film, television and animation industry. It provides funds for the development, production and distribution of feature films, feature documentaries, short films, TV animation series and TV drama series.
Samara Weaving is an Australian actress and model. Weaving began her career in her home country, landing her first role on the series Out of the Blue (2008). She came to prominence with her portrayal of Indi Walker on the soap opera Home and Away (2009–2013), for which she received an Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) nomination for Best Female Performance in 2011.
Jeff Steele is an American entertainment industry executive. He is founder and chief executive officer of the media finance company Film Closings Inc., and is publisher of the film finance blog, FilmClosings; he is a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post and The Wrap.
Jacqueline Ruth Weaver is an Australian theatre, film, and television actress. She is known internationally for her performances in Animal Kingdom (2010) and Silver Linings Playbook (2012), both of which earned her nominations for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Hal and Jim McElroy are Australian twin film and television producers.
Red Rock Entertainment Ltd is a film investment and production company based at Elstree Film Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire (UK). It is the studio of choice for many successful British films and many well-known TV shows. The company acts as Executive Producers sourcing investment and finance for film and TV projects. Gary Collins is the CEO of Red Rock Entertainment. Red Rock Entertainment mainly works on projects that are at an advanced phase and are looking for the final financing. They solely focus on film and TV projects that possess a commercial appeal, an identifiable audience, moderately low and manageable costs and a sound financial structure.
