Their first joint production received an Academy Award nomination. Now Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind are ramping up Mad Gene Media under a first-look deal with Endeavor Content, hoping to build on the success of “The Letter Room” with a wide array of future projects. The married couple, who are raising two children together, are building this banner while Isaac stars in high-profile offerings such as “Moon Knight” and “Scenes From a Marriage.”
“We’re not always on 24/7; I’d say 23/7,” Isaac says.
“We never sleep,” Lind adds.
The couple launched Mad Gene Media in 2019, and recently hired Gena Konstantinakos as head of development and production, after working with her on their Oscar-nominated short film.
Konstantinakos was formerly VP of originals for First Look Media’s Topic and executive produced “The Letter Room,” which starred Isaac as a warm-hearted prison officer and was written and directed by Lind. Isaac also served as executive producer on the short.
“One of the things I’ve noticed about the two of you is the deep, mutual respect that you bring to every conversation with one another on each project. It’s a really wonderful aspect of the dynamic,” Konstantinakos says.
Isaac and Lind’s collaborative relationship extends from their home to their production banner, named after their two children, Mads and Eugene.
“There’s no one I trust more for an artistic mind than Elvira,” Isaac says. “So whatever I’m going to do, I want her to read. Whatever I make, I want to see her notes. Anything she can contribute is incredibly helpful. It’s been a very natural progression. Now it has an official stamp on it.”
The Mad Gene team has plans to develop documentaries, feature films, TV series, graphic novels, plays and podcasts. Within that slate will be Lind’s directorial feature debut and other vehicles in which Isaac will star and produce.
Prior to “The Letter Room,” which was the couple’s first formal collaboration, Lind focused on documentaries such as “Songs for Alexis” in 2014 and “Bobbi Jene,” which picked up awards at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. While Konstantinakos was working at VICE, she executive produced Lind’s doc series “Twiz and Tuck,” marking the first time the pair would work together.
“We talked about having that haven, where you can nurture things to life,” Lind says. “From the get-go, we were really inspired by each other. Whatever we were doing, we found ways to collaborate. It was always a dream for both of us to have a production company.”
For Isaac, Mad Gene represents a new, exciting chapter in his career.
“I think it’s a pivot into a different space, where we have a bit more control and architecture, more agency over who we work with, what we work on, what kind of things we do together,” he says.
And Isaac says that he’d love to work with his “Star Wars” alum and pal Pedro Pascal “sooner rather than later.”
“We’ve seen how great it is to be a team,” Lind says. “Gena, with all her talent and wisdom, is taking it to a whole other level. That’s huge, it feels like it really has begun. We’re so excited, it’s coming together in a whole new way now.”
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