Christa Campbell, a longtime independent film producer, has launched a new financier-producer called XTA Media, and she is using this year's American Film Market to assemble a slate of projects across a range of budgets.
The company is backed by $150m in seed funding from London-based Three Thousand Capital. Its central ambition is to own a stake in the intellectual property it backs, rather than simply supplying cash to other people's films, according to a report by Screen Daily.
A Financier Built Around Owning IP
Campbell has made clear that ownership is the organizing principle behind XTA Media. She is actively looking for books and articles to option, and the company intends to put money into development so that it can steadily build a library of its own.
That approach reflects a broader shift in the film business, where owning rights to stories and characters often carries more long-term value than a single release. A library can generate revenue through licensing, remakes and spin-offs long after a film's initial run.
XTA Media is open to working with partners from both the studio world and the independent sector, giving it flexibility in the kinds of deals it pursues.
Decades of Independent Film Experience
Campbell spent 17 years at Millennium Films, a company known for its action-heavy independent output. Her producer credits include Red Sonja and Tesla, and she holds executive producer roles on the upcoming John Rambo and Shout It Out Loud, a biopic about the band KISS.
Most recently she worked as a consultant for STX. She says her network in independent film is extensive, and many of those contacts have already been bringing her pitches.
A Lean Model for Financing and Sales
XTA Media will either fully finance projects or co-finance them alongside other backers. The company does not have an in-house sales team; instead, its CEO will bring in an outside sales agent when a project calls for one.
Campbell argues that her experience lets her judge a project's value accurately. For an action film, for example, she describes a strategy of assembling the elements, selling to international buyers, and leaving room for a separate domestic deal.
Keeping sales external allows the company to stay lean while still drawing on specialists for distribution.
First Projects on the Slate
One of the company's early commitments is co-financing In The Blue, a dark comedy thriller written and directed by Delilah Napier and Lucy Powers. The story follows an aspiring actor working as a tutor who is paid to complete a client's college applications during a luxury yacht trip that goes badly wrong.
Uri Singer and Isabella Zanobini of Passage Pictures are producing. Napier and Powers met at Yale and previously made Voyeur and Floating Carousel, and Campbell has described them as part of the next generation of filmmakers.
Beyond that title, Campbell is developing two larger studio-level efforts. One is an action package with a director she characterizes as major, which she has worked on for 18 months with a partner who owns the project. The other is a potential co-financing partnership with a studio that has been in the works for three years.
A Hands-On Producer, Not Just a Check Writer
Campbell intends to stay closely involved in the projects XTA Media owns and develops, including spending time on set. She has said the company does not want to simply hand over money and step away.
That hands-on posture distinguishes XTA Media from passive financiers and aligns with its goal of shaping the IP it holds from development through production.
What XTA Media Signals for Independent Film
The launch arrives at a time when many in the industry describe the independent film market as difficult. Campbell rejects that pessimism outright. "People say the business is dead; that's bullcrap," she said, adding that persistent producers can still get films made.
For independent filmmakers, a new financier with $150m in backing and an appetite for development money represents another potential source of capital. For the wider market, XTA Media's focus on owning rights rather than just funding productions underscores how central IP has become to building durable value in entertainment.
Source: Screen Daily
