Print Email this page Motion Picture, Corporate Media and Entertainment: Transactional Experience

Pryor Cashman's transactional experience includes every facet of the entertainment industry and the negotiation of every kind of deal, small and large, in established and new forms of media, both domestic and international. Our services are tailored to our client’s specific needs. We are capable of representing our clients at every step of a project, from the inception of an idea, to investment and development, to exploitation in all its many forms. We represent individuals, studios and production companies. Our representation includes advising about the creation and execution of business plans and serving as an “outsourced” business and legal affairs department.

Pryor Cashman has been involved with P&A fund deals for both single pictures and multipicture slates. Our representation has included arranging complex international financing on international productions, arranging for international tax subsidies and organizing financing from a combination of pre-sales, investment and debt. We have rendered services on many types of projects including feature films, direct-to-video motion pictures, documentaries and all forms of television programming including animation. 

Pryor Cashman represents lenders and borrowers and has wide experience in negotiating and concluding transactions for acquisitions, development, production, distribution and other exploitation as well as for completion bonds, insurance and all production legal matters. We bring significant experience in the domestic and international sale of motion pictures, have extensive contacts in the foreign sales market and also advise clients in the complex realm of foreign pre-sales financing. Our experience includes dealing with motion picture unions and guilds, such as negotiating settlements concerning residual payment obligations.

Our team reviews treatments, screenplays and films for producers of documentary and feature films, including various Emmy Award and Academy Award winning motion pictures and television programs. We advise writers, directors and producers on the risks of third-party claims of copyright and trademark infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy, unfair competition and similar claims.

Our attorneys have also provided expert advice to insurance companies concerning the issuing of errors and omissions insurance coverage for more than 1,000 television and theatrical feature and documentary motion pictures in the U.S. and Canada, assisting the carriers in their evaluation of risk and allocation of deductibles and exclusions to reduce exposure.