Toronto Film Festival Dailies

HARVEY WILL TAKE THE LEAD ON LEXICA FILMS LABEL;  NEW TITLE ‘THE NIGHT WATCHMEN’ ANNOUNCED

Independent feature production, financing, and distribution company Covert Media today announced the hire of the veteran executive Jim Harvey as Senior Vice President of International Sales. Reporting to President of International Liz Kim Schwan, Harvey will handle sales for Covert’s current and upcoming production slate as well as titles being championed through Covert’s newly announced Lexica Films foreign language label.

“Covert has established themselves as one of the go-to places for star driven material,” stated Harvey. “I’m very impressed by their slate of films and I look forward to working with Liz and Paul and the entire Covert team.”

“I’m thrilled to have such a well-loved executive like Jim onboard,” commented Liz Kim Schwan. “Jim’s experience and knowledge make him a critical member of our growing team as we expand our slate.”

Harvey joins Covert as they announce sales on the new fantasy thriller The Night Watchmen. From the producers of Hipsters, written by Oleg Malovichko and directed by Emilis Velyvis (Redacted), the Russian-language thriller follows an eighteen-year-old courier who rescues a beautiful young woman from a band of strangely powerful attackers. This encounter leads him to discover an underworld of supernatural beings living among humans and the organization that keeps them under control. The film stars Ivan Yankovski, Lyubov Aksenova and Leonid Yarmolnik (Hard to be a God, Hipsters).

The Night Watchman joins the Lexica slate alongside the previously-announced epic disaster film Earthquake which stars the Cannes Best Actor award winner Konstantin Lavronenko (The Banishment, Name Me).

Harvey brings over twenty years of experience to Covert Media including a background at some of the leading companies in the entertainment industry. Most recently, he was EVP of Inception Film Partners where he was involved in the sale of Imperium starring Daniel Radcliffe and Boulevard starring Robin Williams. Harvey was the EVP of Sales at Affinity/Bold Films where he sold a wide range of titles including Rabbit Hole starring Academy Award Nominee Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan and the Joe Dante film The Hole in 3D.

Prior to working at Bold, Harvey was the VP International Sales at Element Films where he handled the hit thriller Mr. Brooks starring Kevin Costner and Demi Moore, Five Fingers with Laurence Fishburne and Ryan Philippe and The Last Time with Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser. Before Element Films, he worked at Myriad Pictures, Lakeshore International and Summit Entertainment. 

ABOUT COVERT MEDIA

Launched in August 2015, Covert Media is an independent production, financing, and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, a partnership between global private equity fund Media Content Capital (MCC) and veteran film executive Paul Hanson. Covert Media focuses on high-quality, commercial content for worldwide audiences in the feature film, television, and digital marketplace by fostering meaningful relationships with filmmakers and creative artists.

Along with Covert’s own production slate and sales, including the upcoming Ophelia starring Naomi Watts and Daisy Ridley, the company services and supports the library and upcoming projects for MCC-owned QED. Covert Media recently launched Lexica Films, an international label set to champion 5 – 10 foreign language feature film titles per year for the worldwide marketplace.