‘Bel Ami’ on the rise since 2008

Over the past three years, Ben Roberts has built Protagonist Pictures from scratch into a full-service sales boutique with a distinct identity and a burgeoning reputation in the marketplace.Thanks to a close relationship with shareholders Vertigo Films, Film4 and Ingenious Media, Roberts has put together a slate that combines innovative low-budget films such as “Submarine” and “Monsters” with bigger and more mainstream projects, including Vertigo’s “Streetdance 3D” franchise and the Robert Pattinson romance “Bel Ami.”

Roberts himself is a poacher turned gamekeeper — a former buyer for Universal who has reinvented himself as a salesman. Protagonist has been on a roll since AFM in 2009, when it racked up hefty pre-sales for “Streetdance” and “Bel Ami.” The rave reception and boffo sales for “Monsters” and “Submarine” have kept up the momentum.

“It takes a couple of years to establish ourselves as someone who can sell a film, and deliver and collect and support it,” Roberts says. “We’ve shown we can handle quite a wide variety of films. We can pre-sell when the film is appropriate, we can take films to festivals that need a much more sophisticated approach. Producers can feel comfortable they are safe hands now,” Roberts says.