About
Started in 2011, Rush River Entertainment focuses on producing feature films that reflect depth of character, rich story lines and eternal virtues.
The company’s first film, Max Rose, stars Jerry Lewis and screened in Cannes in May 2013 to an enthusiastic audience. Max Rose launched its world premier as the final piece of the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit, Happy Birthday, Mr. Lewis — a tribute to the icon’s 90th birthday — on April 10, 2016. Rush River and its producing partners, Lightstream and Blackbird, have signed a distribution deal with Paladin. The film is set to release in Los Angeles and New York in September.
The Price of Desire, written and directed by Mary McGuckian, is a period piece based on the life of architect Eileen Gray is in final edit in Ireland.
A third film, The Ticket stars Dan Stevens as blind man who regains his vision only to find himself becoming metaphorically blinded by his obsession for the superficial. Co-starring Malin Akerman, Oliver Platt and Kerry Bishe. The film is one of only 10 films selected for Tribeca Film Festival’s 2016 US Narrative Competition and has its world premiere in NY on April 16. Rush River and its producing partners, Blackbird Productions, Cave Capital and Initiate Productions are in talks with distributors, seeking to release the film in the first quarter of 2017.
Chairman and Producer, William L. Walton is also Chairman and founder of Rappahannock Ventures LLC.
Bill’s career spans over 40 years with executive leadership roles such as Chairman of the Board and CEO of Allied Capital Corporation (NYSE) from 1997 to 2009, and as Chairman until 2010 when the company was successfully merged with Ares Capital. Under his leadership Allied Capital grew from $600 million in managed assets to $8 billion. Its private equity portfolio held a majority interest in over 25 companies with aggregate revenues of over $4 billion employing approximately 20,000 people. He served as a managing director of Butler Capital Corporation, a private equity firm; the personal investment advisor to William S. Paley, founder of CBS; and senior vice president in Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb’s Merger and Acquisition Group. Earlier in his career he founded two education service companies – Language Odyssey and SuccessLab.
Bill has had a lifelong involvement in the visual and musical arts, theater and film. He currently is a member the Collectors Committee and the Trustees’ Council of the National Gallery of Art and serves as an Advisor to the NGA Board of Trustees Finance Committee. He is the former President of the National Symphony Orchestra and Treasurer of the Wolf Trap Center for the Arts and Chairman of the Deans’ Council of the Kelley School of Business (Indiana University) and Assistant Treasurer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
He was Chairman of Remains Theater in Chicago, studied acting at HB Studios in NYC and has been active in film and theater since his teens.
"Any filmmaker who has translated some personal vision into a film that actually gets shot and distributed is wildly successful. Congratulations! Anything after that is gravy."
– Andrei Tarkovsky