Is Legion M changing the way film financing is done?
They’ve taken an old model of indie film financing, which is reliant on mostly single equity partners which can be hard to find, or pre-sales which is pretty much evaporated or tax incentives which are difficult to deal with, and found something new.
What Legion M does is empower audiences to actually choose what they’re going to watch by investing in projects before they hit the screen.
I sat down with Legion M’s co-founder and CEO Paul Scanlan, to discuss.
He shared that this Legion M does not do not do crowd-funding. His members actually get runemerated based on the performance of the films they fund.
His company has been a part of indie film history, helping fund Neon’s first film, Colossal (2016), starring Anne Hathaway. Later they supported Mandy (2018) starring Nicolas Cage, a fever dream of a film that premiered at Sundance.
Their selected credits list is pretty epic:
Jay and Silent Bob: Reboot (2019)
Dir: Kevin Smith
Ben Affleck, Fred Armisen, Adam Brody, Val Kilmer, Justin Long, Matt Damon
Fackham Hall (2025)
Star: Tom Felton
Co-distributed with Bleecker Street
My Dead Friend Zoe (2024)
Premiere: SXSW
Winner: Narrative Spotlight Audience Award
Cast: Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris
My Dead Friend Zoe is particularly impressive, and Paul’s got a great story at the end of the interview about how they convinced Morgan Freeman to come on board, a first-time director's film.
On occasion, Legion M even involves its community in more than just funding. Members often become extras on set or even crew members.
Learn more here.
