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Paul Scanlan On Legion M – The First Fan-Owned Entertainment Company

legion-mJames Sabata writes.

Following their successes with MobiTV and the New York Rock Exchange, Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison took the opportunity to start Legion M, the world's first fan-owned entertainment company. With their sights set on "opening the gates to Hollywood," Scanlan and Annison built an entertainment company where we the fans can invest and participate in the upside of the Company, which plans to work on multiple projects. It was 113 degrees as I sat down at the Legion M booth outside of Phoenix ComiCon with Paul Scanlan, but he exuded the same excitement I'd witnessed earlier in the day at his panel.

Bleeding Cool: You were part of a panel here at Phoenix Comicon this morning called Energizing Your Fan Base. How are you energizing the fan base for Legion M?

Paul Scanlan: With the introduction of the JOBS Act, the fans are able to invest in the company, meaning we're creating an emotional and financial investment in Legion M; something no other major production company is doing. We always hear people complaining that Hollywood just retreads the same stories or makes updated versions of the same movies. There's a reason for that: They want a sure thing. These properties have fans that are already invested emotionally. We're giving fans access to the projects while they're in production; bringing an emotional investment to the work long before the first trailer. This allows the investors to become fans of the project and share it with their friends or discuss it online, reaching more people, generating a bigger audience. When the movie is released, these same fans are investors, which means they now have that emotional and financial investment in the film. They want it to succeed as much as we do, because everyone benefits more when it does.

BC: And do these investors own stock in the full company or in each project?

PS: They own stock in the whole company, which will be developing a slate of projects. We believe that having a Legion of co-owners is the source of our super power and together we can create one of the most influential and powerful studios on the planet. We're taking a proven business model, content creation, and improving it by allowing fans to co-own the studio with us.


BC: It sounds like this differs pretty strongly from other crowdfunding, such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe.

PS: While those are great tools for donating to a project you want to see succeed, that's where it ends. You make your donation. You usually receive some type of reward. That's it. With Legion M, we're selling actual stock in the company. The creators we're working with are not asking for a donation. They're individuals seeking investors in return for quality entertainment that grows those investments. We're a team, working together, for the same goals.

Another major difference between this and crowdfunding is that we're making the process easier, faster, and more efficient. People who use crowdfunding will often find they have to spend more time fulfilling and managing the crowdfunding campaign than working on the projects themselves. We enable creators with the time and energy they need to create, instead of managing the fundraising process. Lastly, one of the downsides of a Kickstarter-like campaign is that typically creators are preselling a DVD of the content, which then hampers the ability to monetize the project into the marketplace. Potential distribution partners see the project as already being monetized. On the flip side, with Legion M, distribution partners see our model as an added value, therefore increasing their interest in the project.

BC: Are there any particular genres you're currently interested in?

PS:  We want to be diversified. We are looking at Sci Fi, horror, animation, and comedy, and we will continue to engage the Legion to optimize our projects based on their tastes and preferences. As you can tell from our Alliance Partners, we have some affinities already.

BC: Will Legion M be solely focused on the film industry?

PS:  Oh no. We're looking at everything. We're very interested in television as well, and we're looking even further at virtual reality and potentially online games; basically merging the boundaries and creating a union of games and other media.

BC: You have some impressive partners signed on to help with this project.

PS: Absolutely. We're working with top Hollywood producers like Seth Green's Stoopid Buddies Stoodios, the studio behind Robot Chicken. We're working with Meltdown Comics, the birthplace of the Nerdist. We recently announced a distribution deal with Alamo Drafthouse. 42 Entertainment is working with us. They specialize in creating and producing alternative reality games. And there are several other partners we cannot announce just yet, but they are coming, so make sure you're following us on social media.

LINKS:

www.TheLegionM.com

https://twitter.com/legionmofficial

https://www.facebook.com/thelegionm/?fref=ts


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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