New Indie Banner Sets Up Shop In Burbank With Studio Campus Plan

Los Angeles County will take green shoots wherever it can find some given the volatile film and TV production sector right now, and in Burbank that takes the form today of a new indie banner that plans to set up shop with a studio campus.

The group behind the plan, Michael Burke, Rachel Williams, Justin Younesi, and Michael Younesi, has a background in marketing and social media content. And they’re in the process of launching a company titled SuperCinema on a lot with three soundstages in Burbank. The 30,000-sq-ft property, on 625-633 Glenwood Ave, was previously an industrial lot in an area of the Burbank Media District nicknamed Audio Alley, for the number of pro audio facilities in the surroundings.

The move is a roll of the dice on a brick-and-mortar soundstage and post-production space (designed by NG+P Architects) at a time when fewer of those bets are being made in L.A., with vacancy rates rising around the county and studio operators trimming their footprints.

But, as Michael Younesi and Michael Burke tell The Hollywood Reporter, the current uncertainty in the film and TV sector reminds of a time not too long ago when traditional ad agencies were pulling back in the early 2010s ahead of the creator boom that we’re now seeing. They helped build the branded content studio Concrete, which describes itself as a “cinematic content studio” and is focused on social advertising. That agency has counted clients like Netflix, Disney, Paramount, and NBCUniversal.

“It takes some risk and some creativity to operate outside that system to a degree,” Younesi tells THR, noting that he sees opportunity for an indie company like SuperCinema to capitalize in the backyard of the major studios.

Younesi and Burke say that the build of the SuperCinema campus will be financed City National Bank and private investors. Construction is currently in process and the hope is that the studio will be up and finished by early 2027. The duo say that the lot they’re building on used to be envisioned as a music studio that never ended up working out.

The team is looking for the campus to house two distinct companies (Concrete and SuperCinema) on the same lot, with the former focused on brand content and the latter on films. SuperCinema is launching with indies including Loose Ends, from producers LB Entertainment/Lee Broda and Zero Gravity Management, and The Backlot, from producers Range Media and Artists for Artists, which appears to be a supernatural tale set on an abandoned movie studio lot.

The plan has swayed the city of Burbank to help the team cut through the red tape, Burke and Younesi say. The mayor of the city, Tamala Takahashi, backed the build in her own statement, adding of the SuperCinema development, “Their investment in a new studio campus brings new energy and opportunity to our community while reinforcing Burbank’s continued role as a place where filmmakers and entertainment companies can grow.”