Movie Mogul's Rogue Brand, Hard Rock Hotel Team Up, by Ronald Grover - California Chronicle - 12th May 2009

What do you do when you've raised north of $8 billion to make movies, and the well for private equity funds has dried up? You go to Vegas, of course. At least that's the path being taken by the 34-year-old founder of Relativity Media, Ryan Kavanaugh, who despite the money he has funneled into Hollywood productions remains something of a mystery to most folks in the movie world.

Kavanaugh, who dropped out of UCLA in 1996 to start a dot-com-era venture capital firm, has since 2004 been Hollywood's biggest fundraiser, joining with hedge funds and private equity funds to raise mountains of money for studios such as Sony and Universal to make films. Relativity Media currently finances roughly 75% of Universal's films under an agreement struck in early 2008. But on May 6, Kavanaugh announced a deal to ally with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino that could jump-start a new lifestyle brand called Rogue that he has quietly launched.

Rogue Pictures is the name of a Hollywood production company that Kavanaugh bought earlier this year from Universal for $150 million. Rogue specializes in slasher films such as The Hitcher and Seed of Chucky that appeal mostly to the under-30 crowd. But Rogue is just the jumping-off point. The financier, who has provided money to make films like Talladega Nights and who produced the Russell Crowe western drama 3:10 to Yuma, almost immediately announced plans to create a lifestyle company called, what else, Rogue. Scarcely two months after his Rogue purchase was announced, Kavanaugh said he was making a clothing line and an IamRogue.com social network that are both targeting 15- to 25-year-olds.

Rogue's Promotion Venue So, of course, if you need a place to promote your new company, what better place than Vegas? His deal with the Hard Rock will put the Rogue name on the casino's new concert venue, the Joint, which would also host premieres and screenings for upcoming Rogue flicks. Rogue clothes will be sold at the casino, which will also host Friday-night Rogue pool parties, complete with clips of upcoming Rogue movies shown on the walls. As for in-room TV sets, well, yes, they'll play plenty of Rogue films as well as clips of upcoming Rogue movies.

"Ryan comes to the Hard Rock a lot. He likes to have a good time," says Hard Rock vice-president and chief marketing officer Phil Shalala. Kavanaugh, keeping a low profile that he has cultivated in the past year, refused to talk to BusinessWeek. "The Hard Rock brand has always been a 'rogue' brand, in that it celebrated those rebels who believed they could change the world and then had the courage to do it," Kavanaugh said in a statement. Sounds a little like a movie story line. Or maybe the bio of a guy who has raised billions to make those films come to life. (Credit: California Chronicle)

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