Cue the music! Tonight is the World Premiere of Legion M's William Shatner documentary You Can Call Me Bill at the SXSW (South By Southwest) Film Festival. We're in Austin, where Bill just finished a SXSW Keynote session and is about to walk into a Happy Hour with Legion M investors. But before that begins we wanted to take a moment to say hi to all the folks that couldn't make it to Austin. 

Join us around 3:15 on the Legion M Facebook page to say hi and ask us your questions!

Also, follow @LegionMOfficial on Instagram, Twitter, & Facebook to keep up with updates through the evening!

Onward and Upward!

-The Legion M Team

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JOIN OVER 40,000 INVESTORS IN LEGION M!

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing in that offering. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

Tonight is the world premier of You Can Call Me Bill at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Film Festival. In anticipation, we've worked with renowned poster designer Andrew Bannister to create a special poster to commemorate the occassion. You can see the artwork below, or read the exclusive article on Collider. 

Onward and Upward!

-The Legion M Team

******

JOIN OVER 40,000 INVESTORS IN LEGION M!

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing in that offering. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

SXSW opens tonight, which means that many sites have been publishing their list of “must see” films. It’s been exciting to see how many of them have included our William Shatner documentary, You Can Call Me Bill. 

This is a great sign. There are many different metrics for evaluating the success of a film, but “how many people want to see it” is obviously one of the most important factors when it comes to a movie’s commercial prospects. 

The fact that the outlets below looked at ALL the films/shows playing at the festival (over 120 in all!) and put ours on their shortlist is an honor. Especially when you consider the caliber of the competition – the odds of getting into a major film festival like SXSW are about the same as getting into an Ivy League school. It’s like our movie got into Harvard–and now has made the dean's list!

The next huge test will come Thursday when the film premieres. That will be the first time we see how the movie is received by a live audience in a real theater. We’re looking forward to that -- a premiere is one of the most exciting (and also harrowing!) nights in the release of a film! 

In the meantime, we believe everyone at Legion M – both team and investors alike – can be proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and bask a bit in the glow of what we’ve already achieved. 

Onward and upward!

ROLLING STONE

20 Movies and TV Shows We Can’t Wait to See at SXSW 2023

VARIETY

From ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ to ‘I’m a Virgo’: The 13 Weirdest, Buzziest and Unmissable Movies and Shows at SXSW

THE CHIVE

The film and TV premieres we’re hoping to catch at SXSW 2023

LA TIMES (Print Edition)

From the Buzzy to the Offbeat at SXSW

THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Previewing SXSW 2023

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

What star-studded movies, TV shows, documentaries to see at SXSW 2023 in Austin

SCREEN ANARCHY

SXSW 2023 Preview - So Many Great Flicks

The next couple weeks have the potential to be some of the most impactful in the history of Legion M. That’s because our film, You Can Call Me Bill, will be premiering at the South By Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival and starting the sales process. This has ramifications for all investors in Legion M, as well as those that invested directly in the film.

FAN-FIRST FINANCING

If you aren’t familiar, one of the things that makes You Can Call Me Bill unique amongst Legion M projects is the fact it was entirely financed by fans. This was the first time we ever offered fans the ability to invest directly in a Legion M title, and participate in any revenue generated by the film right alongside Legion M (and William Shatner).

When you invest in Legion M, you are investing in the company. Your ROI is based on how the company does over time -- if we succeed you can win, if we fail you lose. The ROI of an investment in You Can Call Me Bill is solely based on the success of the film -- if it does well investors can win, if it flops they can lose. 

Investors were given a chance to invest directly in "You Can Call Me Bill" 

We created the offering with fan-first financing terms intended to provide transparency and simplicity for investors. Hollywood has a reputation for complex accounting that can lead to sucker bets and bum deals. As a company OWNED BY FANS, we’re trying to change with terms that put fans first, and are designed to let you know exactly where you stand. 

Like most things Legion M attempts for the first time, we treated this as an experiment. So far, the results have been a resounding success – the $750,000 offering was fully subscribed in less than 4 days. It was fully subscribed before we even got a chance to issue our press release, announce the film was accepted into SXSW, or have Bill tweet it to his 2.5MM Twitter followers.

THE SALES PROCESS

While the financing of the film was an unequivocal success, the REAL TEST comes as we go through the sales process. This kicks-off next week when buyers (i.e. streamers, distributors, etc.) have a chance to see the film for the very first time. Director Alexandre O. Philippe, Producer Kerry Deignan Roy, and the Exhibit A team have been working around the clock to put on all the finishing touches - the final package was just turned over a day or two ago for mastering of the final DCP (“Digital Cinema Package”) that will play at the premiere Austin for South By Southwest. 

The goal of the sales process is to find a good home for the film with one or more distributors around the world. The results of these sales will determine how much money, if any, the film makes, which in turn will determine the ROI for all the individual investors who financed the film, along with how much money Legion M makes as the producer of the film. 

To assist with the sale we’ve partnered with XYZ Films as our sales agent for You Can Call Me Bill. If you aren’t familiar with what a sales agent is, they are kind of like a real-estate agent. They help us sell the film and earn a commission on the sales price. Here's what Pip Ngo, Senior Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions at XYZ Films, had to say about this project:

"William Shatner is an icon and a legend, and XYZ Films couldn't be more thrilled to partner with Legion M on this special film that celebrates his exceptional life and career. The support of Legion M's community will be crucial to the success of this movie and we're excited to bring this to audiences together."

-Pip Ngo, XYZ Films

We believe we’ve done everything we possibly can to set the film up for success. XYZ is one of the best in the business. That said, the sale of a film is always a crapshoot. Unlike a realtor selling a house, the value of a movie is HIGHLY subjective (this is art, after all). The fact our film features a worldwide icon and was accepted into a prestigious film festival works heavily in our favor, but at the end of the day the price we receive will depend entirely on how this film fits into the worldwide marketplace. This is dictated not just by the quality of the film, but also by macroeconomic factors like supply and demand of similar films, the state of the industry and even the worldwide economy.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This is an exciting time for Legion M. And while we don’t yet know the financial impact of You Can Call Me Bill, we feel like we’ve already won:

1. We’ve demonstrated that the Legion M community can finance a feature film (by fully subscribing the offering in just 4 days!)

2. We’ve demonstrated that Legion M can take a film from inception through release (and get into one of the largest film festivals in the world!)

3. We’ve demonstrated that FAN-FIRST FINANCING can work – especially if we get a good sale. This not only puts us in the driver seat when it comes to choosing new projects, it’s also an extremely capital efficient business model. That, however, is a different topic for a future update…

WISH US LUCK!!

As we mentioned at the outset, the next few weeks are really important for Legion M and everyone associated with You Can Call Me Bill. So if you have ANY pull when it comes to manifesting destiny – whether it’s crossing your fingers, saying a prayer, or sacrificing a chicken – please do it now. We’ll take all the help we can get!!

Onward and Upward!!

Paul, Jeff, and the Legion M Team

Did you miss the chance to invest directly in this documentary? You can still invest directly in Legion M, and have a stake in ALL our projects. Join us in making history by investing in Round 9 on StartEngine!

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

As a company with a stated goal of having 1,000,000 shareholders, people often have questions about how decisions are made at Legion M. They wonder whether it’s a democracy where everyone votes on everything (definitely not) or whether the opinions of our shareholders mean anything at all (absolutely!) The fact is, we’ve put a lot of thought into how decisions should be made at a fan-owned company, and we thought it was worth taking a moment to share those thoughts.

Wisdom of the Crowd

The foundational idea behind Legion M is that a company owned by a large audience of fans can develop competitive advantages. One of the ways we hope to do this is by harnessing the “wisdom of the crowd” when making company decisions.

When it comes to entertainment (or any business, really), it’s remarkable how many REALLY BIG DECISIONS come down to the gut feel of a single executive. Or the collective gut feel (subject to all the personal and corporate politics at play) of a very small group of executives. These people determine what we watch by deciding what makes it to the screen and what never sees the light of day. The results of these decisions can mean the difference between success and failure for an organization. 

Whenever possible, Legion M tries to bring our community to bear on these decisions. We believe our community as a whole can be much smarter than we are as individuals. We also believe there is no better resource on the planet for evaluating entertainment projects than a large audience of the very people who buy tickets, pay subscription fees, and decide what to watch. Content may be king, but the audience is the kingmaker, which is why we believe a company OWNED by the audience has such great potential.

We work hard to create fun, gamified tools like M-Pulse and Film Scout that give our community a direct voice in the decision making process. For example, the feedback we received from our army of Film Scouts led directly to Legion M’s involvement with Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) and Save Yourselves! (2020). The decisions to move forward with many of the projects on our slate were made based on feedback from M-Pulse polls. So were the decisions NOT to move forward with many projects that didn’t poll well within our community.

In addition to M-Pulse and Film Scout, we also gather input informally via surveys, live Q&As, online development meetings, and discussions in our members-only FB group. For example, the idea of developing a feature film about the life of Captain Robert Smalls (Defiant) came directly from our member’s only Facebook group. As a company, we make time for our executives to interact with shareholders, whether it be  online via social media or in person at comic-cons, film festivals and other Legion M events. While this adds overhead for Legion M, we believe it’s appropriate – our shareholders are the ones that own the company after all. More importantly, we think harnessing the “wisdom of the crowd” can help us make better decisions that ultimately make the company more successful.

Business Matters

While we believe a large audience of fans is one of the best sources in the world for helping us evaluate projects and creators, we don’t think it’s particularly well suited to negotiating deals or navigating the “business side” of entertainment. That’s because the information needed to make these business decisions is often nuanced and highly confidential. The legal and economic intricacies of the entertainment industry are notoriously complex – which is one of the reasons you hear so many horror stories about investors getting ripped off by bad deals and “Hollywood Accounting”.

Film and TV is one of the most ruthlessly competitive industries on the planet. To build something that can stand the test of time, you need experienced hands on the wheel. For that we’ve got the Legion M team, as well as a deep well of knowledge from an advisory board that has centuries (literally!) of combined experience in everything from modern day streaming strategies to traditional film and television release models. 

Our job as a management team is to balance the "will of our shareholders" with input from our advisors, and use that information to chart the course of the company. But our North Star will always be our community. You own the company after all – we work for you.

Corporate Governance

One of the decisions we had to make early in the formation of Legion M was how to govern a company that could (hopefully!) someday have 1,000,000 investors on its cap table. Traditional publicly traded companies (even those like Disney with lots of retail shareholders) are primarily owned by large institutional investors. Legion M is designed to be the inverse – a company built from the ground up to be owned by a very large number of small, casual investors with very little experience (or interest in) corporate governance.

Our solution was to employ a dual-class stock structure modeled after those used successfully at companies like Facebook, Google, and Berkshire Hathaway. While the financial terms of ALL Legion M shares are identical (i.e. the shares owned by the founders and large investors have the EXACT SAME financial terms as the shares owned by small $40 investors), the founders and seed investors have a 10X voting preference that concentrates decision-making power in their hands. This not only ensures corporate decisions are made by experienced professionals, but also dramatically reduces the chance of a large investor buying blocks of shares in an attempt at a hostile takeover. And because there are no financial preferences (i.e. everyone's stock has the exact same financial terms) we're all in the same boat -- we win together or we lose together.

That said, it’s worth noting that in the company’s entire  6+ year history we’ve only had one decision that needed an official shareholder vote (a proposed stock split). In that case the founders agreed to vote their shares in accordance with the results of the vote by the equity crowdfunding investors. Even though the founders had the power to make the decision themselves, they left it up to the community to decide.

You Don’t Make Great Art By Committee

Finally, one of the questions we’re frequently asked is how much creative input our community has into our film and TV projects. Our answer can be summed up by a simple motto:

You don’t make great art by committee. You make it by empowering great artists…and then staying out of their way. 

What this means is that while we lean heavily on our community to determine what artists and projects Legion M backs, when we invest in an artist we are investing in THEIR vision. We’re happy to offer our community as a resource for everything from focus group testing to crowdsourcing ideas, but it’s entirely up to the artist to determine if they do so and how.

When we unite, we can do anything!

At its core, Legion M is about uniting fans to leverage our collective strength. Individually, we have no power, but together we’re responsible for a multi-trillion dollar global industry. Entertainment is home to some of the most valuable companies in the world – but their value comes from the people like us that buy the tickets, pay the subscriptions, and decide what to watch. 

And while nobody’s attempted anything quite like Legion M before, we’re dedicated to  developing systems and processes that allow us to tap into the true power of community – creating an entirely new type of company that we believe has the power to change the world. 

Onward and Upward!

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, our documentary about William Shatner You Can Call Me Bill will premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. And we want to know… ARE YOU IN??

The premiere will take place at the prestigious Paramount Theatre in Austin, TX, March 16 at 7:30pm CT. 

Legion M has a limited allocation of tickets to the premiere (and potentially, an afterparty!) and we're pressing as hard as we can to try and get more. Our goal is to get as many investors as possible the chance to participate in a bucket-list opportunity like this.  

While many of the details are still in flux, we wanted to get the word out and gauge interest. If you're available and interested in coming to the premiere (or already have plans to be at SXSW) please visit the link below and answer a few quick questions:

GET ON THE LIST!

Once the details have been locked down, we'll provide additional information and figure out the fairest way (e.g. a lottery) to allocate the tickets we have. We plan to allocate some tickets for investors in the William Shatner Doc, and some for investors in Legion M. Those who have made investments in both Legion M and the documentary will be eligible for both pools of tickets.

If you have questions feel free to reach out to team@legionm.com. 

Hope to see you in Austin!

-The Legion M team

PS - If you can't/don't get to attend this event, don't despair. We're hoping to create additional opportunities like this in the future, though we won't be able to commit until our distribution partner(s) are secured.

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ROUND 9 IS OPEN NOW

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing in that offering. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

This has been one heck of a week for our William Shatner documentary, You Can Call Me Bill. First, we SOLD OUT our equity crowdfunding offering, funding the entire budget of the film in less than 4 days (more on that below). Now, we’re thrilled to pile on the good news:

WE GOT INTO SXSW! The South By Southwest Film Festival (which takes place every March in Austin, TX) is one of the top ranked film festivals in the world. It’s also one of the most fun. Austin is rad. See the film on the schedule here.

We expect to release specific details about the premiere in the coming weeks, and we’re working hard to secure a limited block of tickets to the show so investors in the doc & Legion M can attend. We are also working on some fun plans for a potential after party, so stay tuned for that info as well.

In case you hadn’t heard, in 2022 we announced that this documentary would be entirely financed by fans, giving those who invested the potential to earn a return based on the revenue generated from the picture. Last Thursday, we launched the offering and notified those on the priority access reservation list. In less than 4 days (before we even got a chance to open it to the public) we sold out the entire offering!

If you missed this opportunity, there’s still time to invest in Legion M as part of our Round 9 Offering on StartEngine. As an investor in Legion M you own stock in the company, which gives you a bit of a stake in all Legion M projects, including the William Shatner documentary.

Onward & Upward,

Paul, Jeff, Terri L, David, Eric, Michelle, Terri P, Mandy, Taylor, Brandi, Greg, Prophetess, Clare, Ramona, Chris, Tyler, Olivia and the rest of the Legion M teamFAQ

What is the difference between investing in Legion M, and investing in this film?

When you invest in Legion M (check out our Round 9 Offering for more information) you are buying stock in the COMPANY, not an individual project. It's like investing in Walt Disney Studios, as opposed to investing in the movie Snow White. Your upside is tied to the long term success of the company and our ability to achieve an IPO or some other exit. If the company succeeds you can win, but if the company goes out of business (which is what happens to most startup companies) you lose.

With this film, we're giving you the opportunity to invest directly in one of our projects (i.e. investing in the movie Snow White). It's more like a profit-sharing arrangement, where you receive a percentage of the Net Picture Revenue right alongside Legion M and William Shatner. In this case, the return on your investment is solely determined by the fate of this film. If it's a hit you can win, if it's a flop you can lose.

*****

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing in that offering. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

It’s honestly stunning what the power of fans, united with a common purpose, can achieve. Like raising the entire budget for our William Shatner documentary You Can Call Me Bill… before we even made a public announcement!

Last summer, Legion M announced a partnership with William Shatner and Exhibit A Pictures (the award winning documentary team behind our project Memory: The Origins of Alien) to produce a documentary about the life of William Shatner. We also announced that we'd agreed with Mr. Shatner (or Bill, as he prefers to be called) to finance the movie entirely with fans via equity crowdfunding, and started taking reservations under a Reg CF "testing the waters" campaign.

Last Thursday (1/26/2023) we launched the documentary offering for reservation holders, giving them priority access until the press release, which went out this AM. However, yesterday afternoon the offering reached its cap – selling out while still in the reservation period. This is great news for the film, and for Legion M!

We'll have more to share about this in the coming days, but for now we want to let everyone know there is still room to join the waitlist. There's no guarantee that folks on the waitlist will get to invest, but there may be a chance if the reservation holders in front of them cancel or are unable to move forward with their investment.

And if you missed this opportunity, there’s still time to invest in Legion M as part of our Round 9 Offering on StartEngine. As an investor in Legion M you own stock in the company, which gives you a bit of a stake in ALL Legion M projects, and will get you first on the list to learn about the next opportunity like this.

FAQ: 

Why am I just hearing about this for the first time? It’s already sold out.

We announced this project and started taking reservations last summer, and this news has been included in many Legion M updates and emails since then. We opened the offering last Thursday, and provided reservation holders with 96 hours priority access. Ultimately it sold out during this period – before we even had a chance to make the public announcement.

We’re sorry to everyone who is disappointed they didn’t get to participate, but we had a limited amount of space available and needed to do right by the folks who had already made reservations -- most of them last summer. If you haven’t already, be sure to join Legion M and make sure you are getting our emails so you can be first on the list the next time we announce an opportunity like this.

The William Shatner documentary offering is sold out, but can I still invest?

Even though the offering is SOLD OUT, you can still join the waitlist in case any of the reservation holders back out.

Do I need to be an investor in Legion M to invest in the William Shatner Documentary?

No, you don't need to be an investor in Legion M to invest in the documentary. Or vice versa. The two offerings are completely independent of each other.

As a Legion M investor, don’t I already have a stake in this film?

Yes. Legion M is the production company, and so the company has a stake in the film. This new offering gave people the opportunity to also invest directly in the film. 

What is the difference between investing in Legion M, and investing in this film?

When you invest in Legion M (check out our Round 9 Offering for more information) you are buying stock in the COMPANY, not an individual project. It's like investing in Walt Disney Studios, as opposed to investing in the movie Snow White. Your upside is tied to the long term success of the company and our ability to achieve an IPO or some other exit. If the company succeeds you can win, but if the company goes out of business (which is what happens to most startups) you lose.

With this film, we're giving you the opportunity to invest directly in one of our projects (i.e. investing in the movie Snow White). It's more like a profit-sharing arrangement, where you receive a percentage of the Net Picture Revenue right alongside Legion M and William Shatner. In this case, the return on your investment is solely determined by the fate of this film. If it's a hit you can win, if it's a flop you can lose.

*****

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to Legion M’s Round 9 Offering before investing in that offering. The Round 9 Offering is a Reg A+ offering made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. These investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M or any equity crowdfunding offering.

We get this question a lot, so we figured we'd publish our standard response. It's a good question -- new investors naturally want to understand what the ROI has been for existing investors. That said, equity crowdfunding is unlike most other investments, so it takes a bit of education to understand how it works. 

Here's our response:

What is the ROI for investors in previous rounds?

When you invest in Legion M, you are buying stock in the company. It's not like buying stock in a public company like Disney -- it's like buying stock back when Disney was first starting up, and nobody knew if it would succeed or fail. 

Unlike public companies, stock in startups like Legion M is not liquid, which means you generally can't sell it until the company IPOs or has some other sort of listing/exit. This is a huge risk, because if the company fails (and most startups do) the stock will be worth nothing but a tax write-off. Startups are very risky, so you should never invest more than you can afford to lose. 

That said, startups that succeed can go on to change the world. If you are lucky enough to get in early on a big one, the returns can be very substantial. This is how venture capitalists make their money. The 1% have been investing like this for generations, but it only became possible for the general public a few years ago with the JOBS Act. 

So, the short answer to the question of ROI is "nobody knows yet". It's kind of like asking "did you win your bet?" when the game is only at halftime. Our current share price is over 2X what it was in the beginning, so one could argue our early shareholders have "paper gains". But all that is meaningless until the game is over, as all that really matters is the final score. If Legion M is able to successfully IPO or have some sort of exit, our shareholders can win. If we go out of business, they lose. 

One thing worth noting is that all the stock in Legion M (including the shares owned by the founders, the shares owned by large investors who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the shares owned by small investors who just put in $40) have the EXACT same financial terms. So no matter what happens, we're all in the same boat -- we win together or we lose together.

ONWARD AND UPWARD!

*****

Read the Offering Circular and risks related to this offering before investing. This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M (or any startup).

We wanted to give a SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to over 7,000 investors who have joined our journey in Round 9. In total we have over 7,600 Round 9 investments, which just surpassed the mark we set in our last round (7,582 total investments), and currently ranks as the 6th largest round (in terms of number of investors) in the history of StartEngine. 

These are humbling numbers, but we couldn't be more excited about what the future holds for Legion M, and we can't wait to welcome all our new investors to the team. If you are a Round 9 investor who's investment has closed, you should be hearing from us soon with information on how to log in to see your shares on KoreConX (our transfer agent). We'll also be reaching out with welcome information, gift cards and other rewards. Stay tuned!

Onward and Upward! 

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Read the Offering Circular and risks related to this offering before investing. This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should never invest more than you can afford to lose in Legion M (or any startup).