By Iain Blair

Chatting with Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, who gave me some great insights into the current indie film market. Tom’s “very excited” about their new film from two-time Oscar nominee David Mamet,  “Redbelt,” a ju-jitsu drama. “We’ve done several films with him and we proposed this period piece to him, but he wanted to do this mixed martial arts movie. I was like, “Why this?” and he told me to read this piece he’d done for Playboy on the whole culture. That sold us on the whole concept. It’s a huge culture now – bigger than boxing.” The studio ponied up “under $10 million” says Tom, “and he made it look like it cost three times that, and it premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month, so we’re very excited.” The company has several other films they’re “very happy with” on the way, and don’t seem to be at all worried about a possible SAG strike. “To be honest, it won’t affect us – we’re below the radar,” laughs Tom. “Usually strikes are good for us as then we can get people cheap!”

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