OSLO, NORWAY, April 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- K5 International, a division known for its Oscar-nominated films that belongs to financing and production company K5 Media Group, today announced a strategic partnership and its financial investment in White Rabbit, the blockchain-based tokenization model that disrupts the way we distribute and pay for access to our favorite films and television series, without forcing users to change their streaming habits. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. K5 co-founder and entrepreneur Daniel Baur will join the White Rabbit Advisory Board and provide access to K5’s library of 50+ films, growing White Rabbit’s global content library.
“I have been actively searching the blockchain space for over a year, looking for companies that can have a massive impact on the film industry,” said Daniel Baur, Co-Founder of K5. “With White Rabbit, I saw a product that properly integrates blockchain and embraces the existing entertainment industry and fans in a unique way. We believe White Rabbit will disrupt the film and television industry, making it the best place for fans, talent, distributors, sales agents and investors.”
K5 has financed and produced films for accomplished directors including Tom McCarthy, Andrew Niccol, Bille August and Mira Nair with respected actors like Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irons, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Paul Walker and Ethan Hawke. K5 was first to believe in the distribution of English language films out of Germany. After 10 years of selling Oscar contenders and internationally acclaimed films, K5 teamed up with Amazon in 2013 to co-finance and produce the latest film by Jim Jarmusch titled “Paterson”, starring Adam Driver. K5’s films have won acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival, which led to their 2017 Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film for Denmark's “Land Of Mine” directed by Martin Zandvliet. K5 Film’s latest cinematic ventures are “ANON” by Andrew Niccol, starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried, which premieres worldwide on Netflix and through other distributors in May 2018, and spy-thriller “The Coldest Game” starring Bill Pullman and Lotte Verbeek, currently shooting in Warsaw, Poland.
Award-winning film producer in Cannes and Venice, Alan R. Milligan, founded White Rabbit in 2017 to solve the failing business model of digital distribution of film and television, making content legally accessible to everyone. White Rabbit is a browser plugin that recognizes content being streamed peer-to-peer and allows fans to pay the rightsholder directly, without the need for multiple streaming subscriptions to access the global content library. Smart contracts enable a transaction in the form of White Rabbit Tokens (WRT) with the option for rights holders to become part of a transparent and instant monetization model for content producers. The company presents a strong challenge to the “new streaming studios and entertainment giants” with its groundbreaking business model, ensuring fair compensation to producers and filmmakers while reducing piracy by legalizing peer-to-peer streaming.
“The new studios disrupted the traditional film industry with streaming, to the benefit of their subscribers,” said Alan R. Milligan, Founder and CEO at White Rabbit. “We´re disrupting the new studios subscription model, to ensure greater rewards and transparency for producers, talent, investors and fans. We do this by ensuring fair access for films and series, competition in streaming services and diversity of content.”
In addition, White Rabbit announced it is expanding its team by adding three new tech executives from Blockchangers, one of Northern Europe’s leading blockchain companies.
- Jonas Therkelson joins as CTO. He is a full stack blockchain developer who mined his first Bitcoin in 2011 and has worked on several Ethereum projects as developer and architect.
- Jon Ramvi joins as lead blockchain developer, with four years of blockchain experience with 30+ corporations. Ramvi founded Northern Europe’s largest blockchain conference, Oslo Blockchain Day, currently scheduled for April 24, 2018.
- Robin Pedersen joins as a full stack developer from the NEM project, with years of open source contribution experience.
“We are incredibly excited to have K5, Daniel Baur and the Blockchangers team support our mission to ensure a legal, innovative P2P streaming market, offering fans the choice and access they deserve and the industry a transparent and instant monetization model for rights holders, film investors and talent,” continued Milligan. “K5 have been visionary in their endeavours, and are a perfect match for White Rabbit´s ambitions. Technically, we couldn’t get a team anywhere in Europe on par with Blockchangers. Luckily for us, we literally live in the same neighborhood.”
White Rabbit's whitelist, an advanced registration for its token sale, is currently open to pre-sale applicants, with plans to issue its minimum viable product (MVP) in Q2 2018. Investors, developers and creatives interested in learning more can visit https://www.whiterabbit.one/ or join the Telegram group here.
ABOUT WHITE RABBIT
White Rabbit is a browser plugin that aims to resolve the failing business model of digital distribution of film and television series. By offering a peer to peer tokenized system powered by blockchain technology, users can access content globally, reduce cost by paying producers and creatives directly, revenue share with streaming sites to encourage an innovative streaming market and offer a transparent and instant monetization model for producers, investors, artists and entertainers. White Rabbit is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and backed by prominent advisors including Gregory Carson (Luxbright, Blockhead Capital), Dr. Daniel Baur, (K5 International), Alexander Yarushin (Milbros Software, Heidenreich Innovation), Hans Clemetsen (Javelin Corporate Services), Alexander Hagerup (Vic.ai, Online Backup Company), Tom Emil Olsen (KIND Norway), and Michael Terpin (CoinAgenda, BitAngels). Visit us at https://www.whiterabbit.one/ or join the Telegram group here.
ABOUT K5
K5 has been in the vanguard for many years. The company launched freeX in 1993, the first ever German script development agency; founded K5 Film, a production company with a studio-like package deal with Bavaria Film; and established the digital content company Nowtilus, which became the German market leader in only three years before selling the company to Rovi.
Keeping pace with the times, K5 has entered the realm of games partnering with one of the most innovative film tech companies, ARRI Media. The company is developing a mobile AR game based on the world Andrew Niccol created in ANON, ultimately to be played on a PlayStation and going full VR. K5 is currently in talks with the biggest publishers to launch the game in the second quarter of 2018.
MEDIA CONTACT: Transform Group, whiterabbit@transform.pr
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