Paul Scanlan, CEO and co-founder of the fan-owned Legion M, attributes some of the success of the company’s latest film “My Dead Friend Zoe” to the community support from its many fan investors.
Speaking with Variety‘s Jennifer Maas on the weekly Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Scanlan explained that Legion M seeks input from its investors on everything it does. Legion M is a company that fans can own a part of for as low an investment as $40.
“Legion M is a fan-owned entertainment company, and what that means is we’re guided by and supported by our community. And so before we embark on these long journeys, we always go to them and say, ‘Hey, what do you what do you guys think of these projects?’ And this was a project that really resonated with our community,” Scanlan said.
Legion M can use its fan community to assess decisions ranging from trailers to casting. “We have this sort of built-in focus group. We can go to them, and we can pose these questions. And literally overnight, we can have tens of thousands of people giving us feedback,” he said.
“My Dead Friend Zoe” won the Audience Award at SXSW this year. The film’s cast includes Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman.
The company aims to bring new material to viewers.
“Our Hollywood obsession with the built in audience has created a little bit of a paradox, right, where we prioritize existing IP over anything else, and then we’re starving for fresh ideas,” Scanlan said. “And one of the things that we really feel like Legion M can represent is this entertainment company that’s owned by a built-in audience, but that built-in audience is diverse and it’s versatile. So it’s not tied to existing IP or focused on retreading an existing franchise.”
Scanlan called “My Dead Friend Zoe” “one of the best projects that we’ve ever been involved in.” He didn’t specify the exact budget but said that “two-thirds of the finance came from our community.”
Legion M continues to develop projects. “We have one in post production right now that we’re really excited about we just watched the first rough cut from the director, and it just completely blew us away,” Scanlan said.
