The High Stakes Business of Producing Big Budget Films
What does it take to get a big-budget film financed, produced, and out to audiences in today’s marketplace? Leading producers and executives share firsthand experiences, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and insights into the financing strategies, partnerships, and high-stakes decisions involved in bringing ambitious films to the screen.
Moderator:
Darren Frankel, Head of Film & Television, Adobe
Speakers:
Jeffrey Greenstein, Founder & CEO, A Higher Standard
Sam Pressman, CEO, Pressman Film
David Kehrl, Head of Acquisitions & International Co-Productions, Constantin Film
Mark Fasano, CEO, Nickel City Pictures
Speakers
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Darren FrankelHead of Film & Television, AdobeDarren Frankel brings 40 years of experience in visual effects and post-production in television and media, to both domestic and international clients. Prior to joining Adobe as Head of Film & Television, Darren was Head of Post Production and Visual Effects for Marvel Television working in both studio oversight and creative capacities covering 14 different series, including such shows as Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones and Agents of Shield. Prior to joining Marvel, he was President of International visual effects company Stargate Studios and was responsible for the day-to-day management of the company overseeing all operations at ten facilities in seven countries including business development, corporate strategy, technology and financial activities. He led the company to three Emmy Award wins in five years and is often credited as bringing visual effects to episodic television. He was a freelance producer and post producer before joining Stargate. Darren consults for various visual effects companies including Untold Studios, and helped to build the episodic division of Framestore, along with two stints on the Executive Committee at the Television Academy in visual effects. Darren attended Northwestern University and UCLA and majored in Theatre Arts. When Darren isn’t working, he’s either working out, running or spending time with his wife and their two rescue dogs.
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David KehrlHead of Acquisitions & International Co-Productions, Constantin FilmDavid Kehrl is Head of Acquisitions & International Co-Productions at Constantin Film, Germany’s leading independent producer and distributor and the company behind the Resident Evil franchise.
Reporting to the executive board and working between Munich and Los Angeles, he runs Constantin’s acquisitions, co-financing, and co-productions, both international and German.
His acquisitions include A24’s Babygirl and Backrooms and the AFTER franchise for German-speaking territories. He also brought Constantin on as international co-producer of Dimitri Rassam’s two-part The Three Musketeers, and he co-produces German-language films for Constantin’s domestic slate.
Before joining Constantin in 2020, David held executive roles at Universal Pictures International Entertainment, where he oversaw global acquisitions of scripted content, as well as at Wild Bunch, ProSieben and New Line Cinema. He studied economics.
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Jeffrey GreensteinFounder & CEO, A Higher StandardA Higher Standard was founded by Jeffrey Greenstein, who rose through the ranks at Millennium Media becoming President of the indie studio and President of International Sales & Distribution prior, in April 2015, during his near 15-year tenure.
Overseeing sales and distribution of all the company’s productions he’s handled over 70 films that have grossed upwards of $2 Billion in worldwide box office, including the Expendables franchise, the ‘Has Fallen’ franchise, the Mechanic franchise and the #1 box office hit, The Hitman’s Bodyguard.
Greenstein is a graduate of the University of Central Florida – College of Business Administration, where he majored marketing with a concentration in sales.
Prior to entering the film business, he worked as an Assistant Trainer for the Anthony Robbins Foundation, owned and published a professional development magazine for young professionals, and owned and operated a commercial carpet cleaning company he started at the age of 19.
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Mark FasanoCEO, Nickel City Pictures.Mark has developed and produced over forty films and recently was a Producer on the upcoming Sunny, starring Angelina Jolie; Runner, starring Alan Ritchson & Owen Wilson; Solo Mio, starring Kevin James; Amazon’s Playdate, starring Alan Ritchson & Kevin James; Land of Bad, starring Liam Hemsworth & Russell Crowe and Marlowe, starring Liam Neeson. Mark previously was president of production and PalmStar Media, where he developed and produced Netflix’s True Memoirs of an International Assassin, starring Kevin James; Collateral Beauty, starring Will Smith; American Ultra, starring Jesse Eisenberg & Kristen Steward and John Wick, starring Keanu Reeves.
Prior to 2012, Mark worked with acclaimed writer/producers such as David E. Kelly, Gary Scott Thompson, and Doug Liman at both Universal and Warner Bros. Mark subsequently worked directly with John Herzfeld at New Redemption Pictures where he helped develop and produce two feature films as well as two television series which were sold to the Starz network and HBO in just over a year. Mark holds a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Television from The University of California, Los Angeles.
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Sam PressmanCEO, Pressman FilmSam Pressman was named CEO, Pressman Film, in January 2023. Since then, he has ushered in an exciting new era of growth for the company through his long-standing relationships with talent, industry insiders and an expansive independent financing network. Pressman Film was founded by Sam’s late father Edward R. Pressman, who produced such iconic films as Badlands, Conan the Barbarian, American Psycho and Wall Street. The Los Angeles-based production company produced four films in 2025, including Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo and Gus Van Sant’s hostage thriller Dead Man’s Wire starring Bill Skarsgard, Coleman Domingo and Al Pacino. Pressman Film currently has over a dozen new films in active development, including Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Josephine Decker’s Chasing Summer (Iliza Schlessinger, Lola Tung, Megan Mullally), Daniel Cockburn’s The Eden Express (Jonah Hauer-King, David Duchovny) and Jenny Suen’s Peaches (Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu).
Under Sam’s leadership, Pressman Film is also pushing into TV and stage, expanding operations internationally with new creative execs, and the company recently secured $2 million in an unprecedented crowd-equity development raise on Republic.com that allows big screen fans a chance to invest in its upcoming slate—a first for Hollywood. Pressman Film recently announced its teaming with Tomorrow Studios on a new limited TV series at Apple about the Claus von Bülow trial from Jack Thorne (Adolescence) and unveiled its first slate of TV projects with writers, directors, and producers behind such series as The Wire, Bosch and Tehran.
The company is also incorporating VR, AI, blockchain and other cutting-edge technology into its everyday business models and the company has recently produced several projects that showcase new tech. Pressman Film recently partnered with Asteria to bring John Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed AI installation Beyond The Vivid Unknown to last year’s Immersive Competition at Cannes and a year earlier, alongside EP Terrence Malick, produced VR experience Evolver, which features the voice of Cate Blanchett and was part of the inaugural Cannes Immersive Competition.
Pressman Film also brought the VR experience Dark Rooms to the Venice’s Immersive Competition last summer and will their groundbreaking film About a Hero will be released by Utopia’s Circle Collective label in the US, which was created through a collaboration between director Piotr Winiewicz and Kaspar, an LLM trained the work of Werner Herzog (with his permission.) Before assuming the role of CEO, Sam worked with his father on such films as Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Barry Levinson’s Paterno, Keith Maitland’s Dear Mr. Brody, Matt Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity, Mary Harron’s Daliland and Rupert Sander’s reboot of The Crow. With a deep reverence for his father’s contributions to independent cinema and a firm commitment to carrying on the Pressman penchant for storytelling, Sam approaches his role as producer with a sense of humility and a fierce determination to create films that honor the company’s legacy. Sam graduated from Stanford University, where he majored in Film & Media Studies and was the president of the Stanford Film Society and head of the Advanced Film Workshop.
