Beastie Boy to try Hand at Indie Film Industry

Beastie Boy member Adam Yauch is working right now to launch an indie film distribution and international sales company Oscilloscope Pictures. The new company will be a new arm of his Oscilloscope Laboratories, a music an film production outfit.

Former ThinkFilm vice president David Fenkel will be running the new company, for which he and Yauch plan to acquire narratie and documentary features from festivals, as well as providing funs to complete and release unfinished films.

This isn't the first time Yauch and Fenkel have worked together, as the two released Beastie Boys documentary Awesome! I fuckin' Shot That! and Thinkfilm.

"We're kind of winging it," said Yauch. "We're not looking to throw big (minimum guarantees) at filmmakers or have lawyers throw numbers at us demanding a big minimum P&A. It's been the downfall of many distributors."

With the new business, Yach hopes to establish deals with "real back-end participation" for the filmmakers, and could even include outside film financing for marketing the film if needed.

Oscilloscope Pictures will manage its own film distribution and marketing for theater releases, but will likely work with an outside distribution company from home video release. Its first theatrical release is set to hit theaters by this summer, and will be announced within the next month.