As STX looks to untangle itself from previous company Eros, and segue to its new finance partner Najafi Companies, the Robert Simonds studios has put its latest Chris Pine & Ben Foster thriller, The Contractor, in chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Showtime and Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment, as Deadline first told you, acquired U.S. distribution rights to the Tarik Saleh-directed action movie, which will be released later this year. Similar to Queenpins which STX sold to Paramount+ and Showtime for $20M, the deal on The Contractor will see the pic released in a limited number of theaters by Paramount with a simultaneous PVOD release across platforms.
So what’s going on here?
A company spokesperson tells Deadline, “This filing, like our previous filing on Greenland 2 is surgical and strategic as we protect our rights while we work towards our closing for strategic alternatives for our company.”
“Migration is the entity that now owns the global distribution rights in The Contractor,” the rep added, “We determined that it was necessary to seek bankruptcy relief to protect the value of that entity for all of our stakeholders.”
The new SEC Eros filing says that the Dec. 6, 2021 agreement that STX made with Najai Companies was amended on March 15. Najafi now has 85% of STX and 100% of its voting interest. Eros STX Global Corp. still has 15% of non-voting shares. The SEC filing reads that the purchase price and outstanding debt to be around $157M at the time of closing.
Pine stars in The Contractor as Special Forces Sgt. James Harper, who is involuntarily discharged from the Army and cut off from his pension. In debt, out of options and desperate to provide for his family, Harper contracts with a private underground military force. When the very first assignment goes awry, the elite soldier finds himself caught in a dangerous conspiracy and on the run for his life.
Gillian Jacobs, Kiefer Sutherland, Eddie Marsan, Fares Fares, Nina Hoss, and Amira Casar also star in the J.P. Davis-penned movie.
Thunder Road Film’s Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee (John Wick franchise, Greenland, Sicario) produced with 30WEST having fully financed the film. 30WEST’s Dan Friedkin, Micah Green, and Dan Steinman are executive producing along with Pine, Jonathan Fuhrman, Tom Lassally, and Josh Bratman. Esther Hornstein of Thunder Road Films is executive producing.
