In Brief:
- The Sandbox (official site) co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget are lead investors and partners in Hollywood Hills, a cosmic horror feature from writer-director Benjamin Rozovas.
- The film’s community financing campaign opened Oct. 8 on Republic, seeking $1 million with a $200 minimum, a contractual revenue share and 120% repayment priority for investors.
- A 3,000-piece Villa NFT collection minted on Ethereum reaches OpenSea on Oct. 15, with each Villa holding a clue to the film’s central mystery.
Hollywood Hills, a cosmic horror feature led by The Sandbox co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget, opened its public financing campaign on Republic on Oct. 8, seeking $1 million from fans who want a stake in the film before a frame is shot.
The Regulation Crowdfunding offering runs through Dec. 31 and lists a $75,000 minimum target with a $5 million cap. The minimum investment is $200.
Creating new IPs has been my passion for 15+ years. What excites me most is bringing communities along for the journey, letting them participate in building these worlds and even share in their success.
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Investors receive contractual rights to a share of revenue from release, streaming, merchandise, sequels and remakes. They are first in line to get back 120% of what they put in before remaining proceeds split 50/50 between investors and producers. Nothing is guaranteed. Payments depend entirely on the film earning money.
Madrid and Borget are lead investors and partners on the production, and The Sandbox is attached as a strategic marketing and community partner. The project was first announced at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
Villas built as evidence
The first 1,000 investors receive a Hollywood Hills Villa, one of 3,000 digital collectibles illustrated by Steve Scott, whose client list includes Led Zeppelin, Disney and The Washington Post. The collection is minted on Ethereum, with the OpenSea launch scheduled for Oct. 15.
Each Villa represents an address in the film’s version of the Hills and holds a piece of evidence tied to the plot. Rarity adds more. Uncommon holders get a digital art book, rare holders get the full 125-year backstory of the prequel comic, and legendary Villas can become canon in the comic or an investigation game.
Holders also get a private Discord, behind-the-scenes drops, the Black Fire Archive investigation game and early access to the comic prequel.
“The Villas are not simply collectibles. They’re pieces of evidence, carrying clues that invite people to investigate, form theories and become part of the mythology,” Borget said in the announcement.
Ownership has limits. A Villa carries no intellectual property rights and no share of revenue, according to the project’s own FAQ. Revenue participation flows only through the Republic offering.
Tiers run from the $200 Passenger level, which includes a common Villa and a founding investors web credit, to a $100,000 Black Fire tier carrying a single-title-card executive producer credit and the buyer’s Villa recreated in the film. The $2,500 Society tier adds an associate producer credit, a seat on the bus tour or a guaranteed audition.
A dying star over Los Angeles
The story centers on the Dead & Famous bus tour, a night route past the houses where celebrities died. In the film, the bus goes off route as a star dies over the city, echoing a comet that passed in 1899, the year Los Angeles “lost its mind and never entirely got it back,” per the campaign page. 12 people have vanished in the hills.
“A dying star. A sleazy tour bus. A secret society waiting in the Hills,” the film’s official account said in a post.
The tour exists off screen too. The production is working with Los Angeles operator Grave Line Tours to run the Dead & Famous route this month, past locations tied to Ramon Novarro, Peg Entwistle and Dorothy Stratten. Investors get the first rides before it opens to the public around the release.
The Sandbox connection
Madrid and Borget cofounded mobile studio Pixowl in 2011 and sold it to Animoca Brands in 2018. They stepped back from running The Sandbox SAND $0.06765 ▲ +4.3% last year; Madrid is now chairman and Borget is ambassador. The Sandbox’s LAND NFT sales raised $390 million, though the collection’s estimated value sits near $14 million today, according to CoinGecko data.
“Creating new IPs has been my passion for 15+ years. What excites me most is bringing communities along for the journey, letting them participate in building these worlds and even share in their success,” Borget said on X.
Madrid framed the project as a bet on changing film economics. “We really believe that everything is changing in the movies industry, and it’s pretty interesting to build an IP and build a community even before the movie is made,” he said in an interview. “This is the tokenization of a real world asset.”
The script is finished and casting is underway, Madrid said. Rozovas spent two decades as a film journalist for GQ and Première and directed “Sam & Julia.” Principal photography is scheduled for Q3 2027 in Spain, with release targeted for 2028.
Buyers face one immediate hazard: a token called $HILLS launched on-chain on Oct. 2 from a wallet tied to copycat projects, and neither the film’s account nor its website claims it.
