Coming soon, from a producer near you …

The 36-year-old California native spent eight years in the subprime business. For seven of those eight, he was a loan officer and subprime wholesale account executive for HSBC. He exited the industry in 2003 to start independent film company Your Half Pictures with his two partners, Ryan Harper and Rusty Gray.

“(The lending market) kind of afforded me the luxury of going back and forth to L.A. to get our company up and running,” he said.

Arlt, now 15 years in Las Vegas, debuted his company’s second film — which he produced — May 24 at the Brenden Theaters at the Palms. “Steel City” was financed by local investors, contacts Arlt attributes to his time in the lending industry.

The drama, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the St. Louis Film Festival, tells the story of two generations of a working-class family and the damage caused by a father’s abandonment.

The film was the feature-length directorial debut for Brian Jun.

Jun, who also wrote the script and edited the film, approached Your Half with John Heard (“Home Alone,” “White Chicks”) already signed on to act. His commitment was an early building block in Arlt’s success.

“There has to be three elements for an independent film to have a chance to be successful: It must be accepted to a high-profile festival; there must be a name actor or actors in the movie; and there has to be a marketing angle,” Arlt said in a statement.

Heard wasn’t the film’s only big talent. Months after “Steel City” was shot, Golden Globe winner America Ferrera, who plays the principal character’s girlfriend in the film, became “Ugly Betty,” the title character of the hit ABC sitcom.

Your Half waited to gauge the success of “Ugly Betty” before rolling the film out in theaters. Now, Ferrera’s presence is one of the film’s greatest assets, Arlt says.

The film, which cost less than $1 million to make, has already paid for itself, Arlt said. Your Half signed a deal with a distributor for the international market. Finding a distributor in the United States, though, may take longer, but not because of a shortage of offers.

“It’s well known in the independent film world that the producers always get screwed by the distributors,” Arlt said. “We know some of the offers weren’t right.”

Mark Cuban’s Truly Indie distribution label is taking the film into American theaters. “Steel City” premiered Friday in 13 cities, including Las Vegas (at Regal Cinemas’ Village Square), New York and Los Angeles.

Arlt wants to go even wider.

“Ideally, I’d like to go to 30 or 40 (cities) and get out to about 100 screens. That would be a huge success for this kind of film.”

Under the deal with Cuban’s company, Arlt says Your Half has the right to appear in those theaters and will get 100 percent of the box office revenue the film generates. The company will not, however, get a cut of concession sales. Those go to Truly Indie, which does the publicity and marketing for the film, Arlt said.

While the film already is generating a profit, Arlt suggested the bigger payoff is ahead.

“The real money’s in the DVD market,” he said.

Offers have been made for the rights to distribute “Steel City” in the United States, but Your Half will track the movie’s theatrical progress before entertaining them more seriously, he said.

The producer says his company could expect to get $500,000 to $1 million for the distribution rights, plus a significant percentage of digital video disc sales. In all, Arlt said the company conservatively hopes to make double the film’s budget.

The original investors, whom he did not name, were promised a 25 percent return on their money.

Your Half is dedicated to making filmmaking more profitable for everyone involved — not just the distributor. It plans to open its own distribution arm, headquartered in Las Vegas. The company already has established a film fund for three movies, Arlt said, two of which are already lined up.

Ben Stephens writes for the Review-Journal’s sister publication, the Business Press, and can be reached at bstephens@ lvbusinesspress.com or 871-6780, extension 316.