BOSTON FILM MAGIC
Local tech pioneers Paul English and Wayne Chang are going into show biz. The pair are teaming up to form a new film production company called
Wicked Magic and are promising to keep the Hub in mind when planning out their projects.
“We have deep roots in Boston, so we'll weight scripts set in Boston and projects where actors from Boston are involved more,” Chang said. “We can be there on set with everybody and be more thoroughly involved in production.”
English agreed with the idea of giving special consideration to Hub-based projects, saying, “I definitely have a bias to Boston.
“It has a strong film history,” he said. “A lot of movies have been filmed here and a lot of actors in the film industry are from Boston. But while I would say that there's a Boston bias — it's not a requirement.”
Chang, who's also an active angel investor, founded Crashlytics, a company that was sold to Twitter in 2013 and then to
Google in January. Following the Google acquisition, Chang said he decided to step down from his role with the company. English founded Kayak, which sold to Priceline in 2012 for a staggering $1.8 billion. Since then, he's launched and shuttered a Bostonbased venture accelerator called Blade and is now working on his latest startup called Lola
Travel in Fort Point. So far, Wicked Magic Productions has one complete project under its belt: “Coup d'Etat.” The film, which was shot in Savannah, Ga., and stars Katie Holmes, Michael Caine, Seth Green,
Jason Biggs and Odeya Rush, is a satire about a dictator who bolts from his Caribbean island nation in search of refuge in an American suburb. After relocating, the dictator helps a teen who helped hide him overthrow the mean girls at her high school. The film, which was written and directed by
Lisa Addario and Joe Syracuse, is currently being shopped for distribution.
In the past few days, Chang and English have been inundated with new scripts and are currently evaluating a few projects for Wicked Magic's next production investment.
“The flow has already picked up quite a bit,” Chang said. “The sheer amount of interest that's coming in, I think, has to do with our business experience in tech. We're filling a void.”
In addition to a link back to Boston, Chang and English say Wicked Magic is looking for a few stand-out elements when sifting through the film scripts that come across their desks.
“I personally like movies with business elements, ones that have strategy and mind games,” Chang said. “I find those super interesting because they aren't just a bunch of explosions on the screen.”
English, meanwhile, said he's looking for “movies that are offbeat, eclectic and humorous.”
“Ones that have good music,” he said. “But any movies that are quirky or have an aspect of black comedy.”