Mark Gill named president of Millennium Films

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Just a month after his independent venture, the Film Department, shut down Mark Gill is joining Millennium Films as president.

Millennium, headed by veteran film executive Avi Lerner, has been expanding its production slate recently and is aiming to produce five to eight movies a year with budgets of up to $80 million.

Last year the Los Angeles production company had a hit with the Sylvester Stallone action movie ‘The Expendables’ and its next big-budget bet is August’s ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ with both being released in the U.S. by Lionsgate.

Gill will work on production, marketing, and development at Millennium, which is part of Lerner’s international film financing and sales company, Nu Image.

Under Gill’s tenure as chief executive of the Film Department, the company produced three movies during its brief existence from 2007 to 2011. Only one, the thriller ‘Law Abiding Citizen,’ was released in the U.S., by the now-defunct Overture Films.

Gill and his team at tbe Film Department spent much of 2010 unsuccessfully attempting to launch an initial public offering in order to pay down debt.

Before cofounding the Film Department, Gill ran Warner Bros.’ now-shuttered specialty film unit, Warner Independent Pictures, and spent eight years as an executive at Miramax Films.

-- Ben Fritz

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