Jim Townsend

Jim Townsend is President of Production at Canazil Entertainment Group, an independent film finance, production, and distribution company with the unique financing advantage of being able to receive subsidies, tax incentives, rebates and financing through its ability to produce and distribute feature films and television projects worldwide. The company is led by a management team with over 30 years of experience in development, production, distribution, finance and marketing of feature films and television programming.Canazil Entertainment Group has offices in Los Angeles, Toronto and Rio de Janeiro. The company most recently completed principal photography on "Rio Heat", an action adventure Feature Film produced in Rio de Janeiro in 2015. A Television Series based on the film is scheduled to go into production in the fall of 2015. "Rio Heat" is the story of an ex-secret service agent who is called back into service on a special assignment in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Jim Co-Executive Produced the project and was involved in the certification of the project as a Canada - Brazil co-production. "Rio Heat" stars Harvey Keitel, Victor Webster and Thaila Ayala and is also Executive Produced by Jon Cassar who is best known as Executive Producer and Director of the Television Series "24" staring Kiefer Sutherland.Jim is currently in active development and pre-production on numerous Film and Television projects scheduled to be produced in 2016 and 2017. A $25M Feature Film, "The Final Game" is an action thriller about America's beloved underdog football team that is finally on its way to their first Super bowl. The team is kidnapped and taken to a remote area and held by terrorists where they are forced to play a game of life and death. Also in development is the $35M Feature Film "In God We Trust" which will be filmed in Italy, U.S. and Brazil and is written and will be Directed by academy award nominated Roland Joffe.During a 25-year career as a film executive and producer, Jim Townsend has supervised the production of film and television projects around the world including Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, The French Rivera, Rio de Janeiro and various Islands in the Caribbean. Mr. Townsend will oversee each project's progress during pre-production, production and post production. This includes analyzing a project's risk in terms of personnel, budget and production schedule. During production he will oversee the budgeting and cash flow on the productions, implementing payroll services, accessing insurance needs, arrangements for completion bonds, cast negotiations, union contract negotiations, closing negative pick-up contracts, production travel and location coordination. He has negotiated and worked with Unions throughout the world including International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (I.A.T.S.E.), Directors Guild of America, Directors Guild of Canada, Teamsters, Screen Actors of Guild America, Writers Guild of America, Writers Guild of Canada, Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television & Radio Artist, and Union of British Columbia Performers.Past films include the feature film "Blonde & Blonder" staring Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards. Mr. Townsend was recently named President of EFG's sports programing division Empire Sports Group which produced the 2010 Golden Gloves Boxing Championships which aired nationwide.Prior to joining EFG, Jim was Senior Vice President at Canadian Global Media. His responsibilities included overseeing the physical production of all of the Company's projects. These included the award winning Supermodels in the Rainforest Documentary Series, feature films "Savage Land", "The Road Home", the Television Series "Dream Team" and most recently a documentary series filmed in the Caribbean. Mr. Townsend is currently coordinating all of the pre-production activities on all of the company's film and television projects. He is actively involved in all of the government applications that are required for government labor rebates, subsidies and grants. In addition, he is working with various production personnel and finalizing the production budgets and schedules for all of the company's projects in Canada, Latin America and the United States.Born in Upstate New York, Townsend received his B.A. in Theatre Arts from St. Lawrence University. He attended the University on wrestling scholarship and competed for four years on their nationally ranked team. In 1984, Mr. Townsend moved to California to pursue a career in the film industry. He has appeared as an actor in numerous television shows which included "Days of Our Lives", "Knot's Landing", "Scarecrow and Mrs. King", "Falcon Crest", "Quantum Leap" and "The Wonder Years". In 1987, Mr. Townsend became the Senior Operations President at Go Between, Inc., the film industry's leading production service and information company whose clients included major studios, television networks, talent agencies and management companies in Hollywood. Show less «