M8 Entertainment, Inc. (TSX: MEE.A and MEE.B), a leading film entertainment company, announced today that it will co-produce, finance, and distribute the feature film project Reaper. M8 will co-produce the film along with Circle of Confusion LLC. Written by Gary Whitta, the film is a stylish thriller/neo-noir in the vein of Blade Runner and Seven. The producers have begun actively considering top level directors for the film, which is slated to commence production in February 2005.
Reaper tells the story of Virgil, a private investigator who finds himself recruited by the darkly beautiful and mysterious Delia. As he begins to work for Delia, Virgil finds himself suddenly immersed in a surreal underworld, one where the boundaries of life and death – as well as right and wrong –are completely blurred. This unlikely journey also reveals the harrowing answers to the fate of Virgil's own daughter.
M8 Entertainment's Sammy Lee will produce Reaper with Circle of Confusion partners David Alpert and Lawrence Mattis. M8's Stewart Hall will executive produce, along with Circle of Confusion's David Engel and Jason Lust. The script marks the feature film writing debut for Gary Whitta, who is represented by Circle of Confusion, UTA and Behr Abramson Kaller.
“We've been very eager to make a feature film like this, but have been waiting for the right script to come along,” stated Sammy Lee, Vice Chairman of the Board for M8 Entertainment. “With Reaper, we've finally found the perfect project, one that combines strong action and horror elements, with a classically compelling neo-noir storyline. We expect Reaper to be a darkly thrilling, visually dynamic film with very strong theatrical commercial appeal,” further added Lee.
"Reaper is exactly the type of movie that Circle of Confusion was founded to find and produce, as it is inspired by many genres but wholly original unto itself," said Alpert. "Reaper is smart, edgy, and provocative with smart characters and true emotion."
Negotiations were handled by Jenna Piccolo, Esq. and Randy Dannenberg for M8 Entertainment, and by Chris Husband of Behr Abrahamson Kaller and David Alpert for Circle of Confusion and Whitta.
Following the success of its Academy Award winning film Monster, M8 Entertainment is actively pursuing its strategy of producing, financing and distributing six films a year. Production is nearing completion on M8's Running Scared, a big budget action/drama starring Paul Walker, which is writer-director Wayne Kramer's follow up to his critically acclaimed film The Cooler. Production has also recently finished on M8's Lovewrecked, a charming teen comedy starring Amanda Bynes (What a Girl Wants), Chris Carmack (Fox's “The O.C.”), Jamie-Lynn DiScala (“The Sopranos”), and Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls), and directed by Randal Kleiser (Grease and Honey I Blew Up the Kid).
M8 Entertainment's upcoming slate of releases includes the Mike Binder-directed The Upside of Anger, a bittersweet comedy slated to be released in the US in December through New Line Cinema, and stars three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen, two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Costner, Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Russell, and Alicia Witt. Also upcoming is Santa's Slay, an action infused horror-comedy that casts everyone's favorite holiday figure, Santa, in an entirely new , and comedically sinister light. M8 is co-producing Santa's Slay with Brett Ratner (director of mega-box office hits Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, and Red Dragon), and the film features WWE wrestling star Goldberg as the devilish Santa Claus. Also forthcoming is Havoc, Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan's (Traffic) searing story of teen culture as it clashes with the real world of urban Latino gangsters, directed by two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple, and starring leading young star Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries 2, Ella Enchanted) and Bijou Phillips (Door in the Floor, Bully). |
