Mark Gill Is Exiting Millennium Films
EXCLUSIVE: Millennium Films president Mark Gill, who joined the company about six years ago, is exiting after a failed attempt to buy it. Avi Lerner and Trevor Short continue to preside over the company, and there’s word that there’s still a pending sale for the company that has been behind The Expendables franchise. The company is in the midst now of restructuring its executive ranks now, insiders at the company confirmed to Deadline. We hear that the two sides are working on an exit package after a clash between he and the owners.
Gill’s VP of production and development Christine Otal (formerly Crow) left two weeks ago for another job, sources tell Deadline. When phoned about Gill and his team, Millennium’s Office have responded that “they are unavailable.”
Under Gill’s watch, The Expendables franchise grew another two sequels earning together $529.5M and taking the Sylvester Stallone franchise to $803.9M worldwide. Stallone is said to be working on the script for the next installment now for his friend Lerner. (The Expendables started prior to Gill being hired). There was also the two-picture Gerard Butler series Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen which together have $376M.
Gill joined Millennium in June 2011, arriving from the Film Department where he served as CEO and co-founder. At the time, the independent movie production and finance company was best known for Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler’s Law-Abiding Citizen, a $40 million thriller that earned $133 million at the worldwide box office. In sum during his 30-plus year film industry career, Gill counts a production track record of more than $1.5 billion at the box office.
In the three prior years, Gill served as the founding president of Warner Independent Pictures. In his tenure, the company produced 15 films and earned 11 Oscar nominations, notably for March of the Penguins and Good Night, and Good Luck.
Gill joined Warner Independent from Stratus Film Co. (a partnership with Saving Private Ryan producer Mark Gordon and financier Bob Yari) where he helped put together four films including Laws of Attraction, Matador and The Painted Veil.
Prior to Stratus, Gill spent eight years at Miramax Films, where he was President of Miramax/L.A. He was involved in the production or acquisition of more than two dozen films, among them The Talented Mr. Ripley, Central Station, Apocalypse Now Redux, In the Bedroom, Amelie, The Quiet American, Frida, Rabbit-Proof Fence, City of God and Under the Tuscan Sun.
Gill joined Miramax in 1994 and served for three years as the company’s marketing chief, based in New York. Among the films he marketed: Pulp Fiction, Scream, Good Will Hunting, Muriel’s Wedding, Flirting With Disaster, Trainspotting, Slingblade, Emma, Bullets Over Broadway, The Postman/Il Postino, The English Patient, Life is Beautiful and Shakespeare in Love.
Prior to joining Miramax, Gill worked for six years at Columbia and TriStar Pictures, culminating in a three-year tenure as SVP in the marketing department. There, he worked on such films as The Age of Innocence, Awakenings, Boyz N the Hood, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, El Mariachi, In the Line of Fire, A League of Their Own, The Prince of Tides, The Remains of the Day, A River Runs Through It, and Terminator 2.
Prior to joining Columbia, Gill worked for nearly four years at Rogers & Cowan, the publicity agency. Before that, he served as a general assignment reporter for Newsweek magazine and for the Los Angeles Times.
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