KID MONEY

Jordan Yale Levine

He’s been called the “real” deal and “the hardest worker in Hollywood.” He’s also one of the youngest producers in Tinsel Town. His name is Jordan Yale Levine and at 24 he is a CEO of Fylmar Productions, a feature film finance company.

Levine has executive produced eight films, including “Tooth and Nail,” which starred Michael Madsen, Vinnie Jones and Rachel Miner, and was part of the 2007 Eight Films to Die For lineup at the After Dark Horror Fest. Other career highlights of Jordan’s include, helping to find funding for “Paid” (Corbin Bernsen, Tom Conti), “MO” (Erik Per Sullivan, Margo Martindale), “Acts of Death” (Reggie Bannister), managing hip-hop artist Obie Trice, as well as actor Vince Orlando and wrestler Ernest “The Cat” Miller. Now Jordan is adding acting to his resume with roles in “2001 Maniacs: Beverly Hellbillys,” “Wreckage” and “The Land of the Astronauts.”

PollyStaffle.com recently caught up with this juggernaut of an entrepreneur to try to find out how he does it – especially in this economy. Read on for all the details and you will see why, even though he says he will never release a rap album, we are dubbing him with the hip-hop sounding name Kid Money.

Jordan Yale Levine is CEO of Fylmar Productions.

CCF: I was looking at some of the things you’ve done and it’s pretty damn impressive. Executive producer, manager, actor... and you are just 24. I need to know your secret... But first off, how did you get your start?

JYL: Kind of a crazy story... Basically, my father’s best friend - he invented the 900 number, believe it or not, years ago and this guy has an insane amount of money. He wanted to get involved with the movie business and he invested into the film “The Illusionist” with Ed Norton and Jessica Biel. That summer, while they were promoting the film, doing the press junket and everything, was the summer that I graduated from high school. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life or where I wanted to go to college. My father said to me, “Why don’t you go out to L.A. and experience everything with the film and see if you like it? Then maybe after college, you can go back to L.A. and work in the business.” Long story short, I went to L.A. that summer and I just kind of fell in love with the business and I did not want to go back home to New York. With that being said, I told my Pops, “There’s no way I’m going to school. I want to stay in L.A. I want to do my own thing.” He said, “Alright, that’s fine, but we’re not going to support you financially. So go make it on your own.” And that’s what happened. I didn’t want to work for anybody. I didn’t want to be an intern. I didn’t want to have an entry level job. I always had a big head, even when I was younger. Then I met up with my business partner Franco Sama, who at the time was a publicist that had a lot of relationships in the business. We formed our own company and it went from there.

CCF: That’s pretty crazy. (LOL)

JYL: (LOL)

CCF: So, you had this possibility before you to go to college, be supported and you said, “Nah, I’m just going to go do this.” And you basically started from the ground up with your career at 19?

JYL: Yeah, at 19, exactly. What’s funny is being 19, I was such a naive kid with a big head, I told my business partner, “Why don’t we start a company?” And he said, “Fine. I’m making a good salary right now, if you want to start a company with me, then go out there and find some money. If you find money, I’ll gladly be your business partner.” That’s what I did. Being 19, I thought I could do anything I sat out to do. I went out there, raised a couple of hundred grand and we opened up a company.

CCF: That... (LOL) Yeah, he said, go find money, and you did; that seems like that’s something you are really good at. What is your secret there?

JYL: You have to get your foot in the door anyway you can. I couldn’t just be like anybody else. I knew the one thing out here that would enable me to be involved with different people, different projects, etc., is money. My whole life I have been good at raising money. When I was in New York, I used to make and sell fake ID’s. (LOL)

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: I used to run underage nightclubs. So I have always been involved with raising money. When I came out here, it was like now I am able to raise money for a legitimate business as opposed to that bullshit I did when I was younger, which a lot of people explore. I don’t really have a secret, I think people are just excited about the projects that I bring to them and my pitch. My enthusiasim gets them excited and wanting to do business with me, and more importantly, putting up the money. You know, everybody has a good script, everybody has a good project, people have attachments, there is nothing new there. I think I am very passionate about each project that I have and I think that conveys in my pitch.

CCF: So, if you were giving advance to somebody else. (LOL) Me, myself, I’m a filmmaker, in the situation of currently looking for funding on a project, so what is your advice, just enthusiam about and confidence in the project?

JYL: That’s obviously the big things, but now it’s just a little different because I have made successful movies before and have returned investments to my investors. So with that being said, I am using the same people now over and over. I was able to show them a return on a small level, so now they feel more comfortable investing larger amounts, which is my goal, to progress my budgets, progress my films, and everything to just get larger. But if you are starting out with a new investor... I would say, as you know, there is a lot of competition around town. So, I really just like to package and structure the best film I can and also structure the financing the best way. You give someone a good return, you put them in a good position, and you give them the thrill of the investment. For example, I knew starting out that I would have to give up a lot more of my money and things of that nature to excite these people to invest with me, as oppose to a Bobby Yari or a Harvey Weinstein, or some other producers that have been in the business before I was born.

CCF: You’re kind of all over the place as far as projects you’re involved with, but you’ve done quite a few horror movies with “Tooth and Nail,” “Acts of Death,” and you are going to be in the “2001 Maniacs” sequel...

JYL: I already shot that one actually. That was the first time I acted in a movie.

Jordan Yale Levine, aka Kid Money, recently made his acting debut.

CCF: Well, tell me a bit about that since you’ve already shot it. What was it like?

JYL: That was a great experience. It was trippy. I had planned to make my acting debut in this 10 million dollar action thriller in Fiji that we are now prepping. It was a concept I myself came up with and now David Frigerio, a great writer that wrote “Bloodsport,” is penning it. That was going to be my acting debut in January. What happen was, are you familiar with Diamond Dallas Page?

CCF: Yeah.

JYL: Diamond Dallas Page is a very good friend of mine and he is also tight with Tim Sullivan, the director of “2001 Maniacs” and its sequel. So, I guess whoever was playing my role in the sequel fell out a week before shooting. Tim was talking to Page and Page said, “You know what? You got to call my boy Jordan. He’d be great for the role.” I was in New York, literally relaxing, taking a break from everything out here and I get a call from Tim Sullivan. Tim says, “Hey, you want to come to Iowa next week?” So from there, I got into the New York Film Academy, I studied over there, I worked out with a trainer and a week later I am in Iowa on the borderline of Nebraska shooting a horror movie, strapped in an electric chair with Bill Moseley and Lin Shaye.

CCF: (LOL)

JYL: (LOL) It was going from one extreme to the most extreme that I never thought I could be in, in such a short time frame. But I had an amazing time. It was a great cast, a great crew and it was an all around great experience.

CCF: What was the action movie you mentioned?

JYL: That movie is an untitled project right now, tentatively called “Dead and Gone.” It’s a movie I came up with while I took one class of college. I did not go to college, like I said, because I moved out here, and started my company. But I tried to go to Santa Monica College to balance out my life a bit. I said if I was going to ever act in a movie, it was going to be like this. Now that I have established myself as a producer, I’ve made money, I got my foot in the door, I have a nice office in the Endeavor building in Beverly Hills. I said to myself, “I am 24 years old right now. If I don’t do the acting thing now, I don’t want to wake up 10 years from now, kicking my self in the ass saying, I should have tried it.”

CCF: Right.

JYL: So this is a movie we are doing in the beginning of the year. Right now its being developed, the script is being written and I am getting very excited about it.

CCF: Yeah, the same writer, he wrote another project you were in.

JYL: Yeah. David Frigerio wrote “Wreckage” and that is a film I got involved in after the fact it was shot. It came out around 20 minutes too short and right now we are gearing up to reshoot the film and spend abut two-three weeks out here in Burbank finishing it. It’s another cool little horror project. It has Arron Paul, Cameron Richardson and Mike Erwin in it. David wrote it, produced it and he will be directing the reshoots.

CCF: That’s another project you kind of fell into. Somebody on the outside, might think, “Man, this guy is lucky.” But that’s not the case I am betting.

JYL: Yeah. It’s not like these things are just handed to me. I get projects at all different stages, whether its at the development level, before anything is shot, whether we come in midway or we come in to a situation like this. It’s not like it was, “Okay, Jordan lets go reshoot it.” It was more like, “Hey Jordan, here is my situation: Can you help me finance the last days of shooting, plus the post production, plus get me a distribution deal?”

CCF: Right. (LOL)

JYL: “Help with the premiere party? And put the movie out?” So, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Especially when I go out there to find an investor, I have to say, “Hey, this movie was already shot” and they’re like, “Okay, how come it wasn’t finished?”

CCF: Yeah. (LOL)

JYL: And I have to say, “Well, XYZ happened, but it’s still a great project.” And when I show them footage to sell them on the movie, I am showing them very rough footage, so it looks much different then when you see it in theaters or on DVD.

CCF: With something like that, do you enjoy that type of challenge?

JYL: I do... I do because you know what? I get bored very easily and I wouldn’t want to just be in development. I wouldn’t just want to be in finishing funds type of situations. I like working in all different aspects and different levels. So, yeah, this one is fun because I get to view 90 percent of the movie before I get to decide if I want to be involved with it or not. That is an amazing opportunity. But still the hard part is raising 100 to 200 thousand dollars on a film that ran out of money.

(Continued - Click to read Part II)