Some how 50 Cent has turned his straight-to-DVD factory known as Cheetah Vision Productions into a $200 million investment. It was announced that health care executive Richard Jackson and real estate developers Gary Sakwa and Daniel Ret will be fronting the cash for 50 and production partner Randall Emmett to produce 10 more films for the next two years. Either these guys are really bad at business or they know something we don’t. So far every one of 50’s Cheetah Vision films has gone or will go straight to video…some cashing out at $5 million a picture against $20 million budgets. Some where the math doesn’t add up. BUT…for 50 this is all good. He’s taking candy from a baby and you can only give him mad props for this.
“The thing about ‘50 Cent’ is that, just like in his music career, he isn’t someone who sits around and waits for things to get done. He came to me and said, ‘How do we move quicker on projects?’ With this new fund, we are able to do that,” Randall Emmett told Variety.
The next films under the deal are Set Up, which started shooting last month, in addition toCatch .44, which stars Bruce Willis, Forest Whitaker and Malin Ackerman. Expect 50 to start focusing much more on his film career with this deal…it’s clear this is where the money is now. The films will be distributed through a deal with Lionsgate. Seriously, mad props to 50 Cent and Randall Emmett for pulling this off during a time when film funding is almost dried up.