EXCLUSIVE: Priscilla Ross Smith and Kendall Anlian of The Coven are reuniting with Lauren LaVera, the “final girl” in the Terrifier franchise, as they kick off sales in Cannes this week on survival thriller Man Or Bear.
Teresa Sutherland directs. Her debut feature Lovely, Dark And Deep was distributed in the US by XYZ Films and she was a staff writer on Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series Midnight Mass.
Man Or Bear centres on Alex (LaVera), a solo female backpacker who encounters an overly friendly male hiker traveling without gear who insists on tagging along. As his behavior becomes increasingly erratic, Alex is forced to battle her own intuition and a deadly wilderness predator in a desperate fight for survival.
Joanne Rubino of Be Brave Media and David Clark of Mazo Partners are producing. Jaime Saginor wrote the screenplay based on the short film Black Creek Trail which she wrote and produced with ErinRose Widner.
Saginor will play the supporting role of Francine and said, “This project was created after I had a terrifying solo backpacking experience […] At heart, this psychological thriller explores intuition, and why a woman might be so quick to abandon hers, even when her life is at stake.”
Production is scheduled to begin this summer. The project taps into the viral thought experiment that originated on TikTok and asks women whether they would rather be alone in a forest with a man or a bear. Producers Rubino and Clark said, “We’ve spent the last two years meticulously expanding the team and turning this award-winning short into a feature-length psychological powerhouse, and Jaime’s voice has been the compass throughout.”
The Coven handles international sales on the Terrifier films. The most recent third instalment earned $36m from international markets and $53.9m in the US through Cineverse for a $90.3m worldwide tally.
The Cannes sales slate include worldwide rights to Ken Kabatoff’s possession horror Remnant, and international sales on slasher title Blood Wine frm Eric Ivey and Jarod N Wright and Mark O’Brien’s exorcism story The Voices Of Our Mother.
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