Established by Ernst "Etchie" Stroh and his wife Yael at the Cannes Film Festival of 1992, Moonstone Entertainment has become one of the world’s leading independent film producers and distributors, known for films of high quality and commercial success. A cornerstone to Moonstone’s achievements are the close relationships Etchie enjoys with distributors worldwide, as well as his connections to respected filmmakers.
In 1996 Moonstone Entertainment transformed from a sales agency into a production, financing and distribution company for theatrical-quality films. Some of Moonstone’s films and Etchie’s credits as a producer include: AFTERGLOW, produced with Robert Altman and directed by Alan Rudolph, starring Nick Nolte and Julie Christie (in a role that captured a 1998 Academy Award nomination for Best Actress); COOKIES FORTUNE, another Moonstone/Altman collaboration directed by Altman and starring Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell and Charles Dutton; DANCING AT THE BLUE IGUANA, directed by Michael Radford (IL POSTINO), with Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh. Etchie’s relationship with Mike Figgis (LEAVING LAS VEGAS) has resulted in two films so far: MISS JULIE, starring Saffron Burrows and Peter Mullen; and HOTEL, a visually innovative and provocative dark comedy with an ensemble cast including David Schwimmer, Rhys Ifans, Salma Hayek, Saffron Burrows, Burt Reynolds, Lucy Liu and many others. THE PROMISE, which marked Etchie’s second collaboration with director Chen Kaige and producer Chen Hong, was the largest production ever mounted in China at the time, was the Chinese Official Submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2006 Academy Awards and garnered a Golden Globe Nomination for Best Foreign Film in 2006. Two of Etchie’s recent feature films are designed as pilots to franchises: THE HOWLING: REBORN, targeting the young-adult demographic, and FALCON RISING, produced with Shahar Stroh, which is the first feature in the CODENAME: FALCON action franchise. In addition to Moonstone’s busy production slate, acquisitions of the Imperial catalog of films and several other independent classics have doubled the size of the Moonstone catalog of films over the last 10 years to over one hundred fifty titles. As Executive Producer on VENGEANCE: A LOVE STORY, a thriller which stars Nicolas Cage, Etchie worked with producer Michael Mendolsohn. The two formed a collaborative venture between Moonstone Entertainment and Mendolsohn’s Patriot Pictures that will produce and distribute 2-3 theatrical pictures per year in addition to Moonstone’s own production line-up. The first film from this partnership, now in post-production, is HANGMAN, a thriller in the vein of SEVEN and starring Al Pacino, Karl Urban and Brittany Snow. Also in post-production is director Alan Rudolph’s second Moonstone Entertainment film, RAY MEETS HELEN, which stars Keith Carradine, Sondra Locke, Jennifer Tilly, Keith David and Samantha Fox. Moonstone projects currently in development or production stages include a Joe Eszterhas film, a third collaboration with Mike Figgis, and a fourth Chen Kaige film, THE LEGEND OF THE DEMON CAT. Kaige’s colossal film will be the biggest Chinese production to date with a massive set to be turned into an amusement park following the film’s completion. |
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