Creating the next Marvel with a martial arts fantasy entertainment universe
THE Team
Peter Shiao Founder & CEOPeter is a leader in East-West media and produced the first Hollywood China film, founded the first East-West content fund, chaired the US-China Film Summit, and orchestrated California-China trade at scale. He also represented the Shaolin brand. The Martial Arts Fantasy genre (Wuxia) has been around for thousands of years, yet it does not have a dedicated global home. We are here to change that – with a vision to modernize and elevate it – ultimate, to Awaken the Hero in Everyone.
Hank KanalzHead of PublishingHank Kanalz has over 33 years of experience in the comics and entertainment industry. He’s worked at WarnerMedia and DC for 25 years, most recently as Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy & Support Services for DC. Carl Potts Storyverse and editorial advisor Carl is a leader in the comic world, and was a former editor in Chief of Marvel Entertainment who oversaw multiple divisions, top franchises, and IP creation, and was also known as a discoverer and nurturer of talent.
Carl Potts Storyverse and editorial advisor Carl is a leader in the comic world, and was a former editor in Chief of Marvel Entertainment who oversaw multiple divisions, top franchises, and IP creation, and was also known as a discoverer and nurturer of talent.
JOIN US & AWAKEN YOUR HERO
Hello, I’m Peter, Founder and CEO of Immortal Studios. We came to Wefunder a few months ago, and have been embraced by a community eager to support a new kind of entertainment company.
The best media companies in the world – Marvel, Pixar, Blumhouse – are known for doing one thing really well. Marvel and superheroes. Pixar and sophisticated, whole-family animation. Like them, Immortal has carved a very specific lane, an original content company, creating stories in the martial arts fantasy genre known as wuxia. It is a genre that has existed for thousands of years but has never had a global home. Until now.
We are here to change that.
Wuxia might sound unfamiliar even while it has inspired some of the East and West’s most enduring stories, from The Matrix to Crouching Tiger to Bruce Lee and Star Wars. Recently, Hollywood has noticed. Netflix is increasing its investment in anime. Marvel is about to introduce its first Asian superhero. Most notable, Sony Pictures bought out a niche anime platform, Crunchyroll, for close to $1.2B. In other words, we are firmly planted in one of the most exciting genres possible.
Another key part of our value proposition is that because there are strong fan bases for Wuxia both in China and around the world, it has the ability to reach a global as well as Chinese audience during a time when Hollywood content is quickly losing ground in China. So Immortal has a unique embedded ability to crack the Hollywood-China divide, and I believe the market will richly reward us for that.
We are also unique because unlike most production companies we own IP, one of the most celebrated libraries in this genre. My father, Shiao Yi, was considered one of the best Wuxia novelists and we have acquired his library of over 65 works, some of which have already been made over 30 times into film and television in China. We own all rights, which means we will be able to create stories for any medium – film, television, games, and beyond.
But first you have to start somewhere and you have to do it responsibly. Hollywood is known for spending millions of dollars on creating and marketing IP – but understanding what audiences want is very difficult. We are taking a different approach. We start with a principle of MVP – or minimum viable product – first developing our stories as graphic novels that allow us to establish our stories, test content, and develop an audience before pouring in the millions of dollars it takes to create and market film and television. With this approach, we can cost effectively determine a product-market fit and establish a built-in audience prior to making the large investments.
We have already proven the efficacy of this model. Last July, we successfully funded our first book, The Adept, on Kickstarter and released it to rave reviews in October.
We did it again in March with Chronicles of the Immortal Swordsmen. Production is underway and the book will be released in July.
Both of these books funded at over 300% of asking, demonstrating a real demand for this type of content.
This year we have plans to release 5 additional titles – all with multiple issues, growing our content library over the next year. In year two, we will continue to broaden our audience and focus on other medium such as short video as our graphic novels begin to reach major retail outlets and scale. Then things get really interesting.
By year three, where we project profitability, we’ll be operating under two primary business models. The first one is a subscription model, where for a reasonable monthly fee, we will provide our fans with exclusive access to content, to our creators and even the ability to develop stories alongside them. We foresee an active relationship between our creators and our fans – a true community that is shares a passion for this genre.
Meanwhile, we will be launching titles from our premium film and television studio, all adaptations of the graphic novels we have been seeding over the previous years. This is a model that we believe will responsibly establish a major new content studio, but do so in a way that is responsible to those who have invested in us.
I spent a lot of time here talking strategy, numbers, and projections. But obviously, as storytellers, what we are most excited about are sharing stories of empowerment and meaning that Wuxia has always been about with a modern audience. For us, it will always be about awakening the heroes in everyone.
None of this will be possible, certainly not in the early days, without a crack team of colleagues, advisors, and other strategic partners. Our team comes from a top tier of entertainment companies including NBC and Disney. Our advisors hail from Disney, Marvel, Legendary, and DC. We have strategic partnerships with Nextshark, Wizard World, and Kung Fu Magazine.
All we are missing is you. Please come join us on what will be a tremendous journey.
https://wefunder.com/immortal.studios
https://www.immortal-studios.com/
