In a move aiming to disrupt the Hollywood establishment with a distinct ideological bent, a new Dallas-based production company backed by high-level Palantir executives is seeking investors for a bold slate of right-leaning film and television projects.

Founders Films, the brainchild of investor Christian Garrett, Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar, and early Palantir staffer Ryan Podolsky, is pitching itself as a creative counterweight to what it calls a “cautious, ideological” entertainment industry. In a pitch deck first obtained by Semafor, the company positions itself as a home for “American exceptionalism,” promising to support risk-taking IP, name geopolitical adversaries, and “back artists unconditionally.”

“The American Brand is broken. Hollywood is AWOL,” the deck declares. “Large segments of American and international viewers are underserved. Production costs have soared and sales are flagging.”

Their proposed slate reads like a manifesto for an “American Cinematic Universe”—a phrase Sankar himself used in a Substack essay—aiming to rekindle the patriotic swagger of Top Gun, Red Dawn, and Rocky IV. Among the projects:

• “102 Minutes”: A feature focused on the evacuation of the World Trade Center on 9/11, celebrating American courage.

• “Atlas Shrugged”: A three-part screen adaptation of Ayn Rand’s libertarian opus.

• “Operation: Pineapple Express”: A dramatization of America’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.

• “Roaring Lion”: A military thriller highlighting recent Israeli and American operations in Iran, casting Israel as a nuclear peacekeeper.

• “When the Towers Fall”: A look at Israel’s 2024 conflict with Hezbollah.

• “The Greatest Game”: A globe-trotting spy thriller framing China as the primary antagonist to U.S. hegemony.

• Plus documentaries about Elon Musk, nuclear Navy pioneer Admiral Hyman Rickover, and Oculus founder Palmer Luckey.

In addition to original productions, Founders Films intends to co-finance, distribute, and develop branded partnerships to bolster its portfolio.

The project arrives amid a broader conservative push into the entertainment space, following in the footsteps of Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and Angel Studios. While some efforts have found traction with audiences, others have struggled to move beyond echo chambers.

Sankar, for one, believes the time is ripe for a cinematic course correction.

“These movies were the pump-up material of Peak America,” he wrote in his December 2024 Substack post, referencing films like The Hunt for Red October and Top Gun. “They instilled a healthy aversion to ushanka-wearing commies.”

He adds that the malaise in Hollywood mirrors the late 1970s, before a wave of iconoclastic filmmakers—Milius, Spielberg, Lucas—reignited public imagination.

“They brought back heroes, villains, and romance,” Sankar wrote. “They rekindled the flame of the American Cinematic Universe.”

Whether Founders Films can channel that same spirit—or break out of the partisan echo chamber—remains to be seen. But with Palantir cash and a sharply defined worldview, the company isn’t playing coy about its intentions: it wants to make movies that “choose America.”