Anthony-Buckner

Source: Subject’s own

Anthony Buckner

Former Icon Entertainment executive Anthony Buckner is launching his own sales firm, Buckstop Films, and has acquired worldwide rights to Benjamin Johns’ supernatural horror Jump Out.

Run solely by Buckner, UK-based Buckstop will handle “one or two films a year to begin with” according to the exec.

.“I am open to all budget sizes, and am in talks with several projects across various genres,” he said. 

Buckner will be participating in virtual meetings during next week’s Cannes Film Festival (July 6-17), and will not be attending the event in person.

Jump Out, is the second feature from UK director Johns and is co-written by Johns and Austin Rowlands. It tells the story of a group of UK university students celebrating the end of their degree with a celebratory cliff jump in the Canary Islands. The jump leads to a nightmare injury and fight for survival.

Jump Out is scheduled to shoot on Fuerteventura in Spain’s Canary Islands from September to October 2021, produced by Johns through Eye Cue Films International and Djonny Chen of Silent D Pictures. Spanish production service firm Sur-Film will assist with the Canary Islands shoot. Financing is coming through a mixture of pre-sales, private equity and the 45% Canary Islands tax credit.

The cast is led by Lucien Laviscount, whose TV credits include Netflix’s Emily In Paris and Fox’s Scream Queens. Alongside Laviscount are Hannah Arterton, Eugene Simon, Alice Hewkin, Aaron Cobham, Pevita Pearce and Brian Milligan.

Johns’ debut feature Traveller, a drama starring David Essex, was released in 2013, by Metrodome in the UK and Ireland.

Buckstop marks a return to the sales sector for Buckner, who has been working for the NHS on the Covid-19 vaccination programme in southwest London for the past year. After 15 years at Icon Entertainment where he rose to head of international sales, he subsequently worked as a sales consultant for Magnolia Pictures; as director of sales at Kaleidoscope Film Distribution for four years; and as sales director for GFM Films until April 2019.