Michael Ryan // Producer and Finnancier

Michael Ryan started his career as a writer with the information services of the British Government which led to an offer from Television International Enterprises as a programme buyer for TV stations across Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia.

ITC, Lord Lew Grade’s programming subsidiary of ATV, then the world’s largest library of tv and film, brought Ryan on board to handle sales of their library internationally. This led to a progression into the theatrical world when ITC became a feature film production house creating movies with major talent becoming a force in the field with movies such as On Golden Pond and Sophie’s Choice. Ryan became part of a small team creating a ground breaking method of sales and financing that was to become the bedrock of independent film making in the modern era. His partnership, as part of that team, with Julia Palau, led, in 1978, to them creating their own sales and financing company, J&M Entertainment, which became a powerhouse of independent film product for the next 22 years.

In early 2000 J&M was sold to a German television company and Ryan joined forces with another veteran of the film finance world, Guy Collins, to form Sequence Film.  Sequence became a regular supplier of quality feature films to the marketplace and was snapped up in 2006 by the then public company, Handmade Films, formed originally by Beatle George Harrison to finance the Monty Python epic The Life of Brian. The subsidiary they formed became Handmade Films International and financed and produced films including Fifty Dead Men Walking and the hugely successful Planet 51. In 2011 Collins and Ryan, together with the HFI Head of International Sales, Fred Hedman, formed GFM Films.

Films produced, financed and/or sold and marketed by Ryan include; The Running Man, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Trip to Bountiful. Major League, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The English Patient, Highlander, The General.

Looking for: My preference starts and ends with a writer whose work would show passion in whatever the genre they are working in, whether it be features in live action or animation.