Universal, Relativity Capital Team Up For 45 Films

Relativity Capital, the ad hoc investment entity financier Ryan Kavanaugh created with the hedge fund Elliott Associates, announced today a massive deal with Universal Pictures to co-finance (at an average 50 percent of the production, distribution and marketing costs) some 45 pictures, based on picking 75 percent of Uni's slate over the next four years. We've got interviews with the key figures in the deal; check back with this blog for the big picture.

Kavanaugh, profiled in Portfolio Magazine by Amy Wallace last year and a recent victor in a law suit filed by spin-meister Michael Sitrick, has been fending off some negative press lately, and word from his camp is this deal is in large part his answer. Details and comments coming soon.