On July 26, 1999,
Ashok Amritraj, co-founder of
Franchise Pictures, together with
David Hoberman, founder of
Mandeville Films, founded Hyde Park Entertainment, with funds of $200 million and a slate of six pictures. The title came from
Hyde Park, London. The startup company signed a first-look deal with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with a second look deal at
The Walt Disney Studios, both of them were on nonexclusive agreements. Mandeville initially went inactive. On August 12, 1999, Eureka, a consortium of
Kirch Group and
Mediaset signed a distribution deal with Hyde Park Entertainment for the distribution of titles and invested in the home video, television and theatrical distribution rights of its titles. By December 12, 2000, the company signed a deal with
Nordisk Film to handle titles for the European market. In 2002, David Hoberman left the company so the company was allowed to reopen the initially-inactive Mandeville Films at the Walt Disney Studios. By that year,
Jon Jashni became the company's president. In 2003, the company attempted to enter television production, but it never materialized. After a string of box-office flops, the company scored its first hit with
Bringing Down the House. On July 27, 2005, Hyde Park ended its deal with MGM after
Sony purchased the studio and agreed to a co-financing and production deal with
20th Century Fox. In 2007, the company entered into Indian-language production with a deal with Adlabs Films, and a year later, the company is setting up its Asian fund with $74 million. On November 2, 2008, the company set up a deal with
Image Nation Abu Dhabi to co-finance films with global apparel. In 2011, the company partnered with China's Angel Wings Entertainment to co-fund pictures, as well as a deal with National Geographic to partner in various feature films. In 2022, Hyde Park and
Warner Music Entertainment launched the Hyde Park Entertainment and Warner Music Entertainment Asian Women Fellowship, in partnership with
Film Independent, which will showcase women-identifying writers and writer-directors who are Asian or part of the
Asian Diaspora. The Fellowship is aligned with Hyde Park and Warner Music Group's shared, ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion. The recently announced Hyde Park Asia slate includes the
Pulitzer Prize runner-up
Maximum City to be directed by Anurag Kashyap and the best-selling novel Paradise Towers with filmmaker
Zoya Akhtar. == Production filmography ==