Mad Gene Media is making moves.
Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind’s production company has signed a first-look deal with Endeavor Content that will see the married pair collaborate with the studio’s TV, film and documentary teams to develop and produce content for all platforms. At the same time, Mad Gene Media has scooped up its first executive, hiring Gena Konstantinakos to serve as head of development and production.
The deal marks the first production pact for the company, founded in 2019 and announced in November 2020 by Lind on Instagram with a post teasing that they had “podcasts, shorts, docs, fiction and graphic novels in the making.” They made a splash with one of their first projects, a live-action short film titled The Letter Room, written and directed by Lind (Bobbie Jene) and starring Isaac.
The Letter Room went on to be nominated for an Oscar in 2021, and its list of executive producers includes Konstantinakos, who worked on the project while serving as vp of originals at First Look Media’s Topic Studios. The award-winning entertainment studio develops, finances and produces content for the media company.
“Starting Mad Gene Media a few years ago was a natural progression of the collaboration we have always had as artists,” Isaac and Lind offered via joint statement. “Bringing on Gena, who played a crucial part in our very first project, The Letter Room, and partnering with Endeavor, has allowed us the space to truly uphold our mission of creating quality and thoughtful content. We are building a fantastic team and couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.”
Said Endeavor Content co-CEOs Graham Taylor and Chris Rice: “Oscar and Elvira are multi-disciplined artists with huge hearts who personify that content is King and Queen. Storytelling that drives audiences while doing it with humanity is in their blood.”
Konstantinakos said she “could not be more thrilled” to continue a journey started on The Letter Room, now with the support of a “brilliant team” at Endeavor Content, calling it a dream scenario. She added: “Oscar and Elvira are both uniquely talented storytelling powerhouses who care deeply about the impact the work they do has on the audience and on the cultural conversation.”
Prior to Mad Gene, Konstantinakos developed and executive produced projects for Topic including critically acclaimed, Peabody award-winning Philly DA, by Ted Passon, Yoni Brook and Nicole Salazar, Arian Moayed’s The Accidental Wolf, and the Roger Ross Williams’s curated series, One Story Up. Prior to Topic, Konstantinakos served as a development executive and executive producer at Vice where she first collaborated with Lind on her film, Twiz and Tuck. She served as a producer on the ABC News Peabody Award-winning series Hopkins, earned an Emmy for her work on MTV’s unscripted show Made, and a Webby for her satirical independent short The Internet Must Go.
Isaac is repped by WME, Lede Company and law firm Goodman, Genow, Schenkman, Smelkinson + Christopher.