Hallivis Brothers, Ambassador Film Eye Projects With Hispanic-American Crossover Appeal

EXCLUSIVE: Genre filmmaker brothers Julio Hallivis and Diego Hallivis are teaming with Christian de Gallegos’ Ambassador Film Group to develop original English-language projects geared towards bridging the gap between Hispanic and American audiences, the partners say.

The Hallivis Brothers are the award-winning filmmakers behind sci-fi drama Curvature as well as 2016 viral short The Laughing Man. Last year, under their 1inMM Productions banner with Zach Horwitz, they raised a fund to produce and finance two-to-three elevated genre films under $5M per year for global audiences.
The idea for the partnership with film finance and distribution vet de Gallegos emerged from frustration around the type of content normally generated for Hispanic audiences. That audience is estimated to represent 23% of moviegoers in North America.

Says Julio Hallivis, “There is a big market out there that is being ignored due to a lack of understanding of how different cultures can co-exist in film or TV.”

Adds de Gallegos, “Our goal is to make innovative movies that cross borders without exploiting tired stereotypes. Independent film is supposed to be a creative space for filmmakers. As counter programming to studio tentpoles, we embrace the opportunity of entertaining a multicultural audience with a broad spectrum of subject matter and style.”

For Diego Hallivis, “It reflects a limited understanding of the Hispanic market by people who see only one color or flavor that can’t be compatible with the general American audience. This can be very limiting from a storytelling point of view. Once in a while we see movies like Instructions Not Included or shows like Narcos that break that mold. But crossover hits like those require certain sensibilities that place the Hispanic audiences and American moviegoers in the intersection of their markets.”

Diego Hallivis is next slated to direct the action thriller Borderline, which was written by Phillip Tarl Denson, with 1inMM Productions financing, and Julio Hallivis producing. This is the follow-up to Curvature which world premiered at Sitges and will be released domestically by Screen Media on February 23. 1inMM Productions is in post-production on Hell Is Where The Home Is, a home invasion thriller directed by Orson Oblowitz and starring Angela Trimbur, Jonathan Howard, Janel Parrish, Fairuza Balk and Zach Avery.
De Gallegos, who has repped over 90 projects during his career including The Hurt Locker and Dallas Buyers Club, founded Ambassador in 2016 as a production company focused on elevated and culturally diverse entertainment for a global audience. Its first production, Untogether, was just completed by director Emma Forrest and starring Jamie Dornan, Ben Mendelsohn, Jemima Kirke, Billy Crystal, Lola Kirke, Jennifer Grey and Scott Caan.

The partnership deal was brokered by Vision Entertainment’s Liam Scholey, who represented The Hallivis Brothers.

View this article at Deadline.