Magna Studios has been officially launched by co-founders Marisa Clifford and Davud Karbassioun.
The company, which spans film, non-fiction, commercials, branded entertainment and music content, has been quietly operating for over a year, with Clifford, who co-founded Pulse Films before exiting the company in early 2022 following its takeover by Vice, and Davud Karbassioun, who served as Pulse’s global president, having been setting up the business across its hubs in London, New York and Los Angeles.
But now, with a roster of talent on its books, a team of department heads in position and a pipeline of production in place, the two are ready to formally unveil Magna and tout its upcoming projects, including a feature that was launched in Berlin and a “noisy” Oasis documentary.
“What we did at Pulse was build something really exciting with a lot of great people,” says Clifford. “But this was an opportunity to do something different, to take all the best people that we’ve met over the years in this industry and put together this team of rock stars, across our divisions and sign the best talent.”
Alongside Clifford and Karbassioun, the Magna team also includes fellow former Pulse exec James Sorton (managing director, commercials), Olly Calleja (SVP, non-fiction), Louis Mole (creative director, non-fiction), Sam Bridger (head of music documentaries), and Tim O’Shea (group director of commercial & business affairs).
Clifford also notes that Magna comes with “significant capital,” having launched with backing from Lumina, the investment platform founded last year by her fellow Pulse co-founder Thomas Benski (who also serves as Magna chairman).
“What was going to make this business different was having access to funds,” she says. “You have to be able to put money down, to finance, IP, finance development. If you’re spending all your time just trying to go through development deals with all the different networks, it takes too long.”
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Waiting to get projects commissioned, Clifford notes, is not really what they wanted to do at Magna.
“So it was key for us to raise significant capital and be able to invest into our own projects and invest into the talent that we represent,” she says.
The first feature project from Magna Studios is “Straight Circle,” the feature debut of London filmmaker Oscar Hudson and a dark comedy on the absurdities of conflict. The film, also being produced by recent hitmakers 2am (“Past Lives,” “Babygirl”) recently launched at the European Film Market in Berlin, with Film Constellation handling sales.
“We helped develop it, package it and then produce it, and it’s in post-production at the moment,” says Karbassioun. “I think it’s really great. It’s a really conceptual piece from a filmmaker that we’ve grown up with.”
Hudson is part of Magna’s roster of talents that it’s working with across its divisions and, like several of its directors, was originally at Pulse (where he won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions for a Nike commercial). Others include Asif Kapadia and James Marsh, both Oscar winners who are also working in the commercial space. A recent signing is Brady Corbet.
Corbet made headlines earlier this year when, in the midst of awards season, he revealed that he was yet to make a dollar from his epic feature “The Brutalist” (which would later win three Oscars).
“I just directed three advertisements in Portugal,” he told Marc Maron on the WTF podcast. “It’s the first time that I had made any money in years.”
As it turns out, the commercials were for Bloomberg and produced by Magna.
“I had to chase him for his invoice and I got this amazing text from him say, ‘This is my first paycheck,” recalls Karbassioun. “Meanwhile, he’s at the Oscars, he’s winning best director at the BAFTAs. It’s insane to me. And just shows there is a fundamental issue with the system.”
In the meantime, Magna is happy to provide such auteur filmmakers with vital revenue streams between their features. Karbassioun says Corbet is planning more projects with them.
Branded entertainment is another key focus for Magna, with the company working with brands “that can really embrace the entertainment mindset,” according to Karbassioun, away from standard commercials or product placement.
Among the projects to come out of that is a feature film — set to have a major piece of casting in the lead role — that has been significantly financed by a brand.
“They see the value of it from a brand perspective and relationship perspective, but they’re also invested and there’s a commercial return on that investment,” says Karbassioun. As Clifford notes: “It’s about finding way to finance opportunities and brands are really interested in financing projects.”
Alongside the brand-funded feature, another major film is in the works at Magna. Meanwhile, as was announced earlier this year, Magna is working on what’s likely to create a whole lot of noise, a documentary charting the upcoming Oasis reunion tour, which it’s producing alongside “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight. Due to what must be an impressive folder of NDAs, very little can be said about the film.
“It’s an exciting project, incredibly noisy and very cool,” says Karbassioun, somewhat cautiously.
The Oasis documentary — which Sony Music Vision will distribute — is being directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, which takes Magna back to its original roots. Back in 2012, Southern and Lovelace directed LCD Soundsystem film “Shut Up and Play the Hits,” which was a very early success for Pulse Films and heralded its move into music doc and, later, scripted.
In a way, Magna Studios — which is already working in the commercial, branded, unscripted and scripted space and with a library of established and fast-rising talent — feels much like an accelerated version of Pulse.
“It’s a funny thing to do again,” says Clifford. “When we did it the first time around, we were young, naive, we were running around. When you do it the second time round, there’s so many expectations on yourself and everybody else you about what are you doing and why is it different. But you also know so much, you know all the pitfalls.”
As she notes: “I just think we’ve really enjoyed the challenge of building it leaner, smarter, faster and scaling it up quickly, on focusing on profitability so that we can keep financing opportunities and putting together a really stellar team of people.
From Variety US