As AFM attendees settle into their new home Las Vegas home, Screen profiles a selection of key titles, at various stages of production, available across the market.
FilmNation swings into town with the upcoming Brides, a 1960s-set feminist take on the Dracula myth that sees Maika Monroe from independent horror smash Longlegs reteam with Watcher director Chloe Okuno. Likely Story is producing and cameras are scheduled to roll in spring 2025. UTA Independent Film Group jointly represents US rights. FilmNation’s slate also includes Painter from in-house production label Infrared starring Amber Midthunder and Reacher’s Alan Ritchson in the action story of a young woman who must employ every skill in her deadly arsenal to rescue her kidnapped father. CAA Media Finance co-represents US rights.
AGC Studios begins talks on The Journeyman starring Dev Patel as a down-on-his-luck tennis pro drawn into the dark world of match-fixing. Tarsem Singh directs and production is set to commence next year. AGC Studios will fully finance and produce, and CAA Media Finance co-represents US rights. The Last Druid stars Russell Crowe as a Celtic druid battling the Roman Empire. Range Media Partners and CAA Media Finance jointly represent US rights, and Will Eubank will direct.
Lionsgate International brings the action title Fairytale In New York from Sisu filmmaker Jalmari Helander. Oscar-winner Ke Huy Quan from Everything Everywhere All At Once plays a cab driver on Christmas Eve who gives chase when criminals steal a gift for his estranged son. Also on Lionsgate’s line-up is psychological thriller The Housemaid from Paul Feig, which stars Sydney Sweeney, Amanda Seyfried and Brandon Sklenar. It tells of a struggling woman starting over as a housemaid who uncovers her wealthy clients’ dangerous secrets.
Hyde Park International will launch sales and show first footage on GateHouse Productions’ road-trip comedy Northbound. Bruce Dern plays a maverick octogenarian who escapes his nursing home and travels with his grandson from Arizona to Canada on an unforgettable adventure. William Scoular directs from a screenplay by Ashlin Halfnight. Currently in post.
Voltage Pictures has Under Fire, Steven C Miller’s action comedy starring Dylan Sprouse and Mason Gooding (Aftermath) as undercover agents posing as rival drug dealers who must survive an ambush. Production took place in California and the film is in post. Voltage also has David Moreau’s O.T.H.E.R. starring Olga Kurylenko as a woman who returns to her childhood home after the sudden death of her estranged mother to discover a high-tech surveillance system is tracking her every move, while a dark presence lurks.
Fortitude International will be in town talking up Twilight Of The Dead, which will see Milla Jovovich battling zombies again in the culmination of George A. Romero’s Dead canon from Roundtable Entertainment in collaboration with the Romero estate. Brad Anderson directs and the cast includes Betty Gabriel from Get Out. Production is scheduled for March 2025.
Neon continues talks that started in Toronto on Splitsville, a comedy to star Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin about a divorcing man who looks to his friends for support and discovers they enjoy an open marriage. Neon will also distribute in the US. Chris Rock will direct and star in Misty Green for MACRO Film Studios and Confluential Films. The story centres on a talented actress with a habit of getting in her own way who is offered the role of a lifetime from a director with whom she has history.
Adam Driver, Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway will star for James Gray in the crime drama, which The Veterans is introducing to international buyers, with CAA Media Finance representing US rights. Principal photography is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
A Higher Standard is in town to launch talks on Runner, an action thriller about a courier who must battle a crime syndicate and deliver an organ to a young girl in need of an emergency transplant. Alan Ritchson stars, and Scott Waugh (The Expendables 4) directs. WME Independent co-represents US rights and production has been earmarked for March 2025 in London.
Angel Studios is kicking off talks with international buyers on Bonhoeffer, the true story about German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who joined a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler towards the end of the Second World War. Todd Komarnicki, who co-wrote Sully and The Professor And The Madman, wrote and directed. Jonas Dassler plays the lead alongside Moritz Bleibtreu. The roster includes Neal McDonough as a retired bull-riding champion who must saddle up again to save his family from a crisis in The Last Rodeo.
Concord Studios, the new production, sales and finance company launched by industry veteran Pia Patatian, flies into town with Assassination, Barry Levinson’s JFK conspiracy feature starring Jessica Chastain, Brendan Fraser, Bryan Cranston and Al Pacino. David Mamet co-wrote the screenplay and production is set to begin in early 2025 in Boston.
The Coven, which handled international sales on box-office smash Terrifier 3, will be talking up Dead By Dawn, Dawid Torrone’s horror about a play rehearsal at the home of a clan rumoured to have ties to the occult. Also part of The Coven’s line-up is The Snare from Merlin Camozzi, which follows a high-school student arrested for possession of drugs who must decide whether to become an informant or protect the ones she loves.
Visit Films brings RT Thorne’s Toronto selection 40 Acres starring Danielle Deadwyler, a sci-fi thriller about the last descendants of African American farmers who must defend their homestead from a vicious militia. Visit also has Ed Gass-Donnelly’s Ugly, about an abusive hunter who allows his undead wife to bite him and discovers how much of a monster he used to be.
Concourse Media cracks on with Code 3, Wayfarer Studios’ action comedy starring Rainn Wilson and Lil Rel Howery about a burnt-out paramedic on his final day of work who must train his replacement. Former paramedic Patrick Pianezza co-wrote the screenplay with Christopher Leone, who directed.
Film Mode Entertainment brings Laws Of Man, a completed crime thriller from Phil Blattenberger led by Harvey Keitel and Dermot Mulroney, about two US Marshals who are ambushed in the desert while pursuing a man wanted for murder and stumble onto a sinister plot that threatens the foundations of peace and justice. Action adventure Decade Of The Dead starring Sean Patrick Thomas, Jenna Leigh Green, and Marissa Merrill takes place 10 years after the apocalypse, as a group of bounty hunters finds refuge on a tropical island only to discover the place is ruled by a deranged cult leader with plans to take over the world. Adam Deyoe and Fairai Branscombe Richmond co-directed the completed film.
Red Sea Media will commence worldwide sales talks on human-trafficking action thriller Drive Through Fire starring Michael Jai White. Principal photography on the project from 3CB got underway in Oklahoma in October. Red Sea also has Reckless, the tale of an ex-con on parole who must outrun the police and get his share of an old heist. Scott Adkins and Vinnie Jones star for director Elliott Montello.
From Epic Pictures comes the sci-fi Winter: Battleground in which the last free man in America battles assassins sent by an AI-driven regime. David Christopher Pitt directs the film, which is in post and stars former MMA professional Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone. Also on Epic’s slate is horror thriller The Jester 2, about a teenager forced into an uneasy alliance with a supernatural trickster on Halloween night.
Cinema Management Group (CMG) kicks off discussions on Peruvian horror The Devil’s Teardrop from Tunche Films. Production took place entirely in the Andes on the tale of four young American friends confronted by a terrifying mythological creature. The film will get its market premiere screening before the world premiere at Morbido Film Fest in Mexico. CMG is continuing sales on Charlie The Wonderdog featuring Owen Wilson in the lead voice role.
Toronto-based genre specialists Raven Banner are introducing buyers to Isaac Ezban’s post apocalyptic horror Parvulos, about three young brothers that must work together to survive a zombie apocalypse while trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life. Felix Farid Escalante, Leonardo Cervantes, and Mateo Ortega star.
Pinnacle Peak Pictures will screen The Last Supper, Mauro Borrelli’s drama about tensions and intrigue leading up to the titular Biblical event. Pinnacle Peak also has Between Borders, which tells the true story of an Armenian family forced to flee their home during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mark Freiburger directed the completed film.
Jackrabbit Media will continue talks on Delivery Run from Arctic Renegades, a completed Finnish thriller about a food delivery driver caught in a game of cat-and-mouse with a snowplough truck driver in the Minnesota backcountry. Joey Palmroos directed the recent Grimmfest premiere. Jackrabbit also brings Boiling Point Media’s The Jurassic Games: Extinction from Ryan Bellgardt, which is in post and follows condemned prisoners in a dystopian future whose only chance of survival is to prevail in a life-and-death virtual game against dinosaurs.
Yellow Veil Pictures will kick off talks on psychological horror Lilly Lives Alone starring Shannon Beeby as a grieving woman wrestling with her traumatic past. Dark Sky Films will release Martin Melnick’s feature directing debut in North America.
FilmSharks arrives with Abracadaver, Pancho Rodriguez’s Mexican heist comedy about three magician brothers who reunite to steal a mummy and save their family’s honour. The sales outfit also has Argentinian drama Death Of A Comedian in which a TV actor renowned for playing a hero is diagnosed with a terminal illness and travels to Belgium to discover if he can be brave in real life. Diego Peretti stars and makes his directing debut with fellow director Javier Beltramino.
Premiere Entertainment Group will be talking up zombie film Outbreak starring Billy Burke, about a park ranger searching for his son during a viral outbreak. Vertical Entertainment will distribute in the US. Also from Premiere comes crime comedy BFFs, about two best friends whose fondness for practical jokes gets out of hand. The ensemble includes Adam Rifkin, Constantine Paraskevopoulos, Terrence Howard and Taye Diggs. RZA and Paraskevopoulos produced and CAA Media Finance handles US sales.
Highland Film Group launches talks on Justin Chadwick’s action thriller Sierra Madre, starring Kiefer Sutherland as a military officer who, along with his crew, must fight cartel gangsters at a Mexican wedding. Production has begun in Colombia. The slate includes Fantasia entry Witchbound from Chuck Russell (The Mask), a reimagining of the 1986 horror film.
Palisades Park Pictures is offering Skyline Warpath, Liam O’Donnell’s action sci-fi starring Iko Uwais and Scott Adkins; XYZ Films is the US distributor. Talks will continue on body horror Eyes In The Trees starring Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ashley Greene. The reimagining of the HG Wells novel The Island Of Doctor Moreau has begun production in Thailand.
Bleiberg/Dimbort brings The Perfect Gamble starring David Arquette and Daniella Pick Tarantino (wife of Quentin Tarantino) in the story of an ex-con who begins a relationship with a mysterious woman at an underground casino and falls foul of Russian gangsters. Saban Films will distribute in the US in 2025. The roster also includes Killing Mary Sue, starring Dermot Mulroney as a corrupt politician who arranges for his stepdaughter to be killed, unaware she is a killer herself. Sierra McCormick and Sean Patrick Flanery also star for director James Sunshine.
MPI Media Group will be talking up Chain Reactions, Alexandre O Philippe’s documentary about the cultural impact of Tobe Hooper’s notorious 1974 slasher horror The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Horror icons Takashi Miike and Stephen King are among the talking heads. MPI’s roster also includes Cody Ashford’s horror thriller Drive Back, in which an engaged couple find themselves on a sinister and seemingly endless road.
Myriad Pictures has mystery thriller American Sweatshop, about a woman who gets sucked into the underbelly of the internet. Uta Briesewitz directs a cast led by Lili Reinhart, Daniela Melchior and Joel Fry. Baltimore Pictures produces with Germany’s Elsani & Neary. Myriad also has action sci-fi Dragn in post, which centres on a team-building trip terrorised by a rogue AI-operated drone. Peter Webber (Girl With A Pearl Earring) directs.
VMI Worldwide has the romantic comedy Perfectly Imperfect with Malin Akerman, Dermot Mulroney and Brian Austin Green. The story takes place on a cruise as a single dad competes with his childhood friend for the attention of an old flame. VMI also bring Sex Pistols documentary I Was A Teenage Sex Pistol from Andre Relis and Nick Mead, exploring the rise of the infamous UK punk band, with former members Glen Matlock, Steve Jones and Paul Cook reminiscing alongside Debbie Harry and Billy Idol. Both are in post.
Motion Picture Exchange arrives with Kyle Valle’s cosplay comedy horror ZombieCON Vol. 1 from Big Squid Productions, about a group of cosplayers in a zombie apocalypse. The film stars Erin Áine, Manny Luke, Punkie Johnson, Christian Casillas and Carlo Mendez.
From Diamond Media comes the supernatural horror Home Sweet Home Rebirth, in which a police officer on holiday with his family in Thailand must partner with a novice monk to end a mass demonic possession. Michele Morrone, William Moseley, Urassaya Sperbund and Alexander Lee star.
Luminosity Entertainment brings The Mystery Of Casa Matusita, a Peru-set horror about an aspiring writer commissioned by Time magazine to stay at the notorious haunted house in Lima. Catherine Pirotta directs.
Entertainment Squad offers Blair Moore’s thriller Homeward, in which a road trip becomes a fight for survival when a man is hunted by two deranged criminals. Also in Entertainment Squad’s line-up is Rob Margolies’ romance In Fidelity, about a New York couple who get involved in a love triangle with their rock star neighbour. Chris Parnell, Cara Buono, Dennis Haysbert and Willow Shields star.
Blue Fox International brings Rob Grant’s coming-of-age comedy and imminent Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival premiere This Too Shall Pass, in which a 16-year-old Mormon crosses the border with his friends for a weekend in Canada.
The Exchange arrives with In Vitro, a completed sci-fi thriller from Tom McKeith and Will Howarth starring Talia Zucker, Howarth and Ashley Zukerman that takes place on a remote cattle farm where a woman discovers the unsettling consequences of her husband’s animal-breeding methods. Michael Chiklis stars in sports drama The Senior as a middle-aged man who returns to the gridiron to prove he still has what it takes, decades after he was booted off his college American Football team. Rod Luire directed the completed film.
Lon Haber & Co has comedy drama What If in pre-production. Lea Thompson, Kevin Pollack and Leanne Melissa Bishop star in the tale of a woman in her 40s who learns she is the product of a hospital mix-up at birth and sets out to find her biological family. Lindsay MacKay will direct. Elsewhere, John B Benitz’s documentary Behind The Lines follows historian Andrew Carroll as he researches accounts of war through letters. Annette Bening and Laura Dern are among the talking heads.
Mind The Gap Productions arrives with Milestone Entertainment’s The Anti-Talents, in which a nerdy teenager smuggles arms during the Yugoslav wars to impress girls. Also on its roster is Buffalo Daze, which tells the true-life story of Jim Grinder, the mixed-blood Shuswap First Nations “Indian cowboy” from British Columbia.
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