In the UK, the leading legal directories have once again given our film and television practice a top tier ranking. The Legal 500 2009 says "Reed Smith provides a 'professional, knowledgeable and effective service at a competitive price,'" while Chambers 2010 cites client praise for our "vastly experienced and incredibly reassuring top-notch client service."
Our film and television production and distribution team advises on all aspects of production and distribution work, from preparing and negotiating development, rights, talent, crew, and location agreements, to advising on the structuring of production/acquisition finance (including advice on any tax-based products), and negotiating the forms of financing and distribution and licensing contracts across all platforms.
The team counts a number of the UK's leading film producers among its clients, including Mike Leigh at Thin Man Films (for whom we acted on his award-winning feature "Happy Go Lucky" and for whom we are now acting on his next); Gail Egan at Potboiler Productions (for whom we acted on "The Constant Gardener" and are now working on her next feature, "Effie"); Michael Kuhn (for whom we acted on his last Oscar-winning film, "The Duchess"); and Ecosse Films (for whom we acted on "Becoming Jane" and "Brideshead Revisited"). We also work for U.S. studios such as Sony Pictures and Universal on their UK productions - most recently these have included "Robin Hood," "Your Highness," "Get Him to the Greek," "Mamma Mia" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." Other films on which we have recently acted for the producer include Andrei Konchalovsky's "Nutcracker," Lord Attenborough's "Closing the Ring," and Michael Haneke's "Funny Games."
We also represent film distributors such as Momentum Pictures, Celluloid Dreams Sales and Pathé, as well as Universal, Fox and Sony.
Our television production and distribution clients include the BBC, Sony Television, Endemol, FremantleMedia, MTV, Nickelodeon, Gerry Anderson ("Thunderbirds") and Channel 4.
Our distribution experience extends beyond theatric exhibition and broadcasting into new media platforms, including roll-out of digital cinema systems in multiple jurisdictions. The exploitation of format, merchandising and publishing rights is also familiar territory to us, and we are particularly experienced in dealings with the music copyright collecting societies.