Production company Stone Village (“The Lincoln Lawyer”) has formed a new-media arm and tapped former Zynga exec Andy Kleinman to head up the operation with Stone Village topper Scott Steindorff.
Stone Village Media will invest in new media with a focus on new channels to develop content, market it using the Web and distribute it. It will also create new intellectual property — ranging from mobile games and apps to TV and films — focused on building new audiences and integrating placement and sponsorship opportunities for brands. SVM’s first project is the Bridge, a content incubator that will be used to find new talent and develop intellectual property.
Kleinman is joining the new entity as chief business officer following a stint as a general manager of Zynga, the social gaming giant with three of the biggest games on Facebook — “CityVille,” “CastleVille” and “FarmVille.”
“I want Stone Village Media to offer a bridge between Silicon Valley and Hollywood,” Steindorff said. “Zynga’s 240 million active monthly users show the potential for new content distribution outlets. Andy is a pioneer and is coming to Hollywood for the digital revolution. The migration from content distribution to content creation is happening now in digital media, and we want to participate in this in a big way.”
Kleinman’s first startup was Emepe3.com, which was founded in 1998 and became one of the first digital musicstores. In 2007 he co-founded Vostu, which became one of the largest social gaming companies in Latin America and produced the films “The Paranoids,” “Blacktino,” “Malaventura” and the upcoming “Mexican Ninja.”
“When you hear digital, most people talk about distribution and how companies like Netflix and YouTube are changing the space,” Kleinman said. “Nobody talks about two key areas that are also changing and revolutionizing the industry: content development and marketing.”
Stone Village will announce new films for summer and fall production at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The company is also working on the $100 million film adaptation of Russian novel “The Master and Margarita,” with plans to shoot in the fall.
