On the heels of a well-received world premiere for Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest at the Cannes Film Festival, producer Jason Michael Berman and his newly launched A/Vantage Pictures have solidified the company’s ranks.
Jordan Moldo, who worked with Berman at Mandalay Pictures, has assumed the post of executive vp and he’ll be charged with using his skills in creative development and packaging to build out the company’s film and TV strategies across its outposts in Los Angeles, New York and Boulder. The A/Vantage Pictures roster also includes Matthew Lindner who joined as partner and vp, Mike Downing, another Mandalay vet, as director of development and Tori Kotsen as coordinator, the latter of whom joined from Lionsgate.
Team A/Vantage Pictures: Jordan Moldo, Jason Michael Berman, Tori Kotsen and Mike Downing.
(Photo credit: Jay Lawrence Goldman)
“This team reflects the company we’re building at A/Vantage,” Berman said in a statement. “One that prioritizes creativity, integrity and the entrepreneurial spirit it takes to thrive in a rapidly shifting industry. Jordan is a visionary executive, and alongside Matthew, Mike, and Tori, we’re well-positioned to continue supporting filmmakers with meaningful stories in a large-scale way.”
For his part, Moldo said joining A/Vantage at a time of growth is “incredibly exciting.” He added: “Jason has built a company that puts creative ambition and cultural relevance at the center of everything and I’m thrilled to help shape a slate that pushes boundaries, empowers bold voices, and reaches audiences in new ways.”
A logo for production company A/Vantage Pictures.
Courtesy of Subject/A/Vantage Pictures
Speaking of that slate, in addition to Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, A/Vantage is in post-production on Rock Springs. Described as a psychological horror film from writer-director Vera Miao, the film stars Benedict Wong, Kelly Marie Tran and Jimmy O. Yang. Per the company, its mission is to develop and produce “elevated, commercially driven films with a focus on culturally resonant storytelling and bold, director-led vision.” That seems to reflect what it has in Highest 2 Lowest, Lee’s “reinterpretation” of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 police procedural High and Low.
Lee’s version stars frequent collaborator Denzel Washington as a music mogul who becomes the target of a ransom demand that forces him into a moral dilemma, between life and death. Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, Wendell Pierce and Ilfenesh Hadera round out the cast. Highest 2 Lowest will be released by A24 theatrically and Apple TV+ globally.
Berman launched A/Vantage Pictures earlier this year following a decade as president of Mandalay Pictures. His recent credits include Ben Affleck’s Air for Amazon Studios, Surrounded for MGM and festival standouts like Nine Days and The Birth of a Nation, the latter of which won both the grand jury prize and audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
As for Moldo, the newly-installed executive vp comes to A/Vantage Pictures from a tenure at Mandalay where he executive produced the critically acclaimed Air, which earned a Golden Globe nomination for best picture — comedy or musical. He also has a co-producer credit on Highest 2 Lowest. The native Angeleno — a graduate of Santa Monica’s prestigious Crossroads School before earning dual degrees from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Stern School of Business — began his entertainment industry career in CAA’s motion picture literary department.
He segued to the Weinstein Company in 2015, and subsequently rose through the ranks from coordinator to creative executive with hands on such films as The Current War, The Upside, Lion, The Founder, Wind River and The Hateful Eight. Following TWC, Moldo served as an executive at BRON Studios, where he specialized in both prestige and commercial films, contributing to such projects as Jay Roach’s Bombshell starring Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie, Taylor Sheridan’s Those Who Wish Me Dead starring Angelina Jolie, and David Lowery’s The Green Knight starring Dev Patel. He served as co-executive producer on Patel’s directorial debut, Monkey Man.
