Los Angeles-based production company Pressman Film is turning to crowdfunding to finance its latest slate. The indie studio behind films including “American Psycho,” “Wall Street” and “The Crow” is targeting $1.5 million in the first tranche, hosted by investment firm Republic. As the movie industry continues to regain its footing following the impact of COVID-19 and the Hollywood strikes, companies continue to seek innovative ways to move forward. “Get in on the ground floor of the filmmaking process, get exclusive insider perks, and share in the returns,” explains Republic’s website. Minimum buy-in is $200.

“We need to galvanize audiences to be a part of the future,” Sam Pressman, who took over the firm his father founded, told the Los Angeles Times, adding that “there’s great reason for optimism in our industry, but it’s incumbent on the producers to be able to provide fresh movies and fresh ideas and fresh filmmakers.”

Crowdfunding is becoming more common as “producers have found it increasingly difficult to raise cash for development from traditional financial sources,” writes LA Times of the technique, which not only addresses cash needs, but can also engage fans.

Republic helped raise cash for Skybound Entertainment, producer of AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead.” More recently, rapper Snoop Dogg and director Robert Rodriguez announced fundraising ventures with the platform.

“This is a new avenue for film producers to tap their communities for investment,” Marc Iserlis, Republic’s point man for film, told Bloomberg.

On Pressman’s initial round the maximum individual investment is capped at $1 million. The Republic site for the Pressman raise touts ownership not only in film one-offs, but an intellectual property cache that includes “books, articles, comics, and remake rights.”

If Pressman hits its initial $1.5 million goal, it will develop six projects including existing IP and newly acquired works. According to the pitch, “investors begin to get their money back at the start of a project’s production, then will receive a portion of Pressman’s producer fee and any rights fee for every successfully produced film in the slate,” LA Times writes. “Pressman Film needs to raise at least $500,000 to close this round, which ends in November.”