Billionaire Alki David Launches E-TV Studios With $100 Million Development Fund (Exclusive)
Notorious Hollywood billionaire Alkiviades “Alki” David is launching a new production studio, E-TV Studios, with a $100 million development fund.
David tapped independent producer Emilio Ferrari to serve as president of the newly minted production shingle. The company said it already has three new feature projects ready to go into production by the third quarter of 2020, with five features planned for 2021.
“E-TV Studios is going to make features that will blow viewers away, with some A-list stars we’ll announce soon,” David said in a statement. “I’m very proud of E-TV Studios’ library, put together from some of the most prestigious film libraries in the world. Emilio is the exact right man to head this mix of art and commerce and make it a huge success.”
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Ferrari, who founded Allied Entertainment Group as well as A Plus Entertainment, will hit the ground running. In addition to overseeing E-TV Studios’ $100 million production fund, he’ll also lead a new foreign sales office that will monetize David’s film and TV library of more than 40,000 titles.
The library includes work from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, John Carpenter, Stanley Kubrick, Abel Ferrara, Charlie Chaplin and Federico Fellini. The collection has a robust selection of Westerns, Broadway musicals, blaxploitation flicks, war films and TV documentaries. It also boasts an array of music documentaries with rare footage of artists such as Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Frank Zappa, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. And it includes the archives of the Beatles’ first music company, founded before Apple Corp.
“The sheer volume of amazing quality content E-TV Studios has to offer is astounding,” Ferrari said in a statement. “I can’t wait to get out there and show the world.”
Ferrari plans to launch the studio during the Cannes Film Festival in May. He had planned to also have a presence at MIPTV in March before the event was canceled this week due to fears around the coronavirus.
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Ferrari has produced 38 feature films, directing 16 of them. Some of his credits include producing “Lucky Town,” starring Kristen Dunst and James Caan, “I Know What You Did Last Winter” and “Baby on Board” with Heather Graham.
David is the founder of streaming TV platform FilmOn Networks, as well as the company that created the modern hologram industry, Hologram USA. E-TV is his first big venture since the entrepreneur was ordered to pay $50 million in punitive damages after a Los Angeles jury found him liable for battery, sexual battery and sexual harassment against a former employee, according to the L.A. Times. David has disputed all allegations of sexual misconduct.
A former production assistant who worked at David’s media companies, including FilmOn TV and Alki David Productions Inc., also accused the Coca-Cola bottling heir of sexual assault and was awarded $8.25 million in compensatory damages. That ruling was the third in 2019 against David, who, according to the Times has been accused of a number of acts of inappropriate behavior by former employees.
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