Outerlight Buys Bleecker Street, Which Keeps Its Own Leadership

Outerlight Entertainment, the media investment firm formerly known as First Look Entertainment, has acquired Bleecker Street, the independent studio behind Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary "Musk," Variety reports. Bleecker Street will keep operating independently, under CEO Kent Sanderson and president and chief marketing officer Tyler DiNapoli.

That last clause is the one indie producers will read twice. Keeping the label and its leadership in place is a bet that what is being bought is relationships and taste, not just a back catalogue — and the arrangement gets judged later, on which films the new parent says yes to and how quickly its name shows up before the studio's.