NBC Universal is a company with many divisions, one of which is movie studios Universal Pictures. Given the variety of tastes and the respective movie genres, Universal Pictures decided to divide itself in specialized studios.

One of these studios is Rogue Pictures - a partition assigned to producing low budget, usually action or thriller movies. Rogue Pictures initially belonged to Focus Features, and was launched in 2004, but became a direct division of universal Pictures in October 2007. Some of its most famous productions are spin-offs, such as sequels for the “American Pie” series, but without any of the original cast.

Despite low incomes as the box office, Rogue Pictures seems to have sparked the interest on an independent movie financier, by the name of Relativity Media. The latter is very engrossed with acquiring Rogue Pictures from media giant Universal Pictures. Sources have confirmed that during the initial negotiations, sums up to $150 million were brought into play. Ryan Kavanaugh of Relativity would thus acquire about 25 library titles, four movies which are about to be released and about 30 current projects. Also, in case Rogue Pictures is indeed acquired by Relativity, the latter has the right to distribute the movies produced by Rogue and the titles it is acquiring.

Relativity has so far acquired important project, of which we mention “The Low Dweller”, a combined effort of actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Ridley Scott. The project was unable to be distributed, but this aspect may change when Relativity buys Rogue Pictures. Universal Pictures, however, will still have the right to distribute the films produced by Rogue Pictures. They would also get a distribution fee, which may be anything from 12.5% to less than 10%.