The deal witll see the equity-based company EarlyShares and the producers of the TNT funded film The Hero starring Dwayne Johnson develop future projects via the EarlyShares site.

EarlyShares will seek to define itself against popular crowdfunding sites such as Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo by allowing people to invest directly in the film, taking an equity stake in projects. Users donating money to projects on Kickstarter, by comparison, do not receive any financial returns.

Feature films, television series and digital media can now pitch to investors online using EarlyShares as a platform.

Stephen Temes, a co-founder of EasyShares, told The Hollywood Reporter: “A great number of great projects fail because they can’t close that gap – that 15-30 percent of a budget – that prevents great projects from getting done.”

The founders of EarlyShares will be hosting a live chat on their Facebook page on December 12 to explain their system to interested producers and potential investors.