Virtual Studios LLC was an American film financier, distributor and production studio based in

The United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

History

Establishment and early years

Virtual Studios was founded by film directors and producers Tibor Hernadí and Benjamin Waisbren in 1986 as a film financier and media company. The funding was backed by

Hedge fund A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...

, Pacific Title, and Stark Investments.

Film industry

The companies first film production and financing credits were the comedy-romance film

Duane Hopwood ''Duane Hopwood'' is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Matt Mulhern, and starring David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo, Judah Friedlander, John Krasinski and Steve Schirripa. After being featured in the Sundance Film Festiv ...

and the dystopian political thriller film ''

V for Vendetta ''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthol ...

'' in 2005. In 2006 they signed a deal to produce and finance films in association with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Their next films (''

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

'', ''

The Good German ''The Good German'' is a 2006 American neo-noir crime film. A film adaptation of Joseph Kanon's 2001 novel of the same name, it was directed by Steven Soderbergh, and stars George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire. Set in Berlin followi ...

'' and ''

300 __NOTOC__ Year 300 ( CCC) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Valerius (or, less frequently, year 1053 ''Ab ...

'') were all distributed by Warner Bros. ''

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ''The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford'' is a 2007 American epic revisionist Western film written and directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Brad Pitt as Jesse James. Adapted from Ron Hansen's 1983 novel of the same ti ...

'' was their last film they co-produced for Warner Bros. and the deal was signed off. Their last film was '' Bangkok Dangerous'' and the company was left dormant after the film became a

box-office flop A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

Virtual Films

Virtual Studios started a film distribution company called Virtual Films in early 2006. The company was short-lived and only lasted a year, and it was shut down in 2007. First Born was the only film Virtual Films distributed.

Closure

Virtual Studios ultimately closed in 2009 after being dormant for a year due to Hernadí and Waisbrein leaving the company to pursue other ventures.

Films

References

Film production companies of the United States Defunct American film studios Mass media companies established in 1986 Mass media companies disestablished in 2009 {{US-film-company-stub