SHUDDER AND RLJE FILMS ADOPT SUPERNATURAL HORROR ‘SON’

Starring HALLOWEEN’s Andi Matichak and INTO THE WILD’s Emile Hirsch, Written and Directed by THE CANAL’s Ivan Kavanagh

February 20, 2020 — Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thriller and the supernatural, and RLJE Films, a business unit of AMC Networks, have teamed up to acquire writer/director Ivan Kavanagh’s highly anticipated supernatural horror, ​Son. Currently in production, the film stars Andi Matichak (​Halloween, Halloween Kills), Emile Hirsch (​The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Never Grow Old) and Luke David Blumm (​The Sinner). Shudder has picked up all rights in North America, the UK and Ireland, with RLJE Films taking North American theatrical, VOD, Digital and Home Video rights.

Having escaped from a cult as a child, a mother (Matichak) must face her past when its sinister members break into her home and attempt to steal her eight-year-old son (Blumm). Now the two are on the run pursued by a detective (Hirsch) committed to saving them both—only the boy has fallen ill to a mysterious illness. Something has changed in him since his aborted kidnapping.

“With his first horror feature, ​The Canal, it was obvious Ivan Kavanagh was an important new voice in genre cinema, with a special talent for plumbing the depths of terror within the bond between parent and child. We are thrilled to be working with Ivan on ​Son, and look forward to bringing his chilling vision to Shudder members,” said Emily Gotto, Shudder’s Director of Global Acquisitions & Co-Production.

Son is being produced by AnneMarie Naughton for Park Films (​The Canal), Louis Tisné for Elastic Film (​Border) and René Bastian for Belladonna Productions (​Cold In July), with funding from Golden Ratio Films, Quickfire Films, Three Point Capital, with the support of the Irish Film Tax Credit incentive, and with Altitude Film Sales acting as Sales Agent.

Golden Ratio Films, a Vistas Media Capital subsidiary based out of Singapore and a significant production and distribution entity in Bollywood and in the Indian Content Space, is making its first foray in Hollywood as a co-producer on ​Son, co-funding the film with established UK-based company Quickfire Films.

Matichak is represented by Innovative Artists, Hirsch by UTA, Blumm by People Store and Kavanagh by Paradigm. The deal was negotiated by Louis Tisné on behalf of the producers with Mike Runagall for Altitude, Emily Gotto on behalf of Shudder and Mark Ward on behalf of RLJE Films.

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ABOUT SHUDDER

AMC Networks’ Shudder is a premium streaming video service, super-serving members with the best selection in genre entertainment, covering horror, thrillers and the supernatural. Shudder’s expanding library of film, TV series, and originals is available on most streaming devices in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland and Germany. To experience Shudder commitment-free for 7 days, visit ​​www.shudder.com​​.

ABOUT RLJE FILMS

RLJE Films’ recent features include the critically acclaimed hit ​Mandy from writer/director Panos Cosmatos and starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache; ​The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then The Bigfoot written and directed by Robert Krzykowski and starring Academy Award nominee Sam Elliott, Aidan Turner and Ron Livingston; the 2019 Toronto Film Festival hit ​Color Out of Space, based on the classic H.P. Lovecraft story, starring Nicolas Cage and Joely Richardson and written and directed by Richard Stanley; and the festival favorite VFW from director Joe Begos and starring Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Martin Kove and Fred Williamson. ​​us.rljentertainment.com

ABOUT GOLDEN RATIO FILMS

Golden Ratio Films, the production and distribution arm of Singapore based Vistas Media Capital, has produced, distributed and invested into a slate of films spread across Bollywood, Indian Regional content and Hollywood. It has a portfolio of films and web/TV series content at different stages of production across different languages, genres and scale.

ABOUT QUICKFIRE

Quickfire is a film sales company in that it acquires sales agency rights. Quickfire then works with a number of sales agents both in the UK and worldwide to exploit its films. Quickfire’s management has acquired rights to over 30 films, winning a number of awards worldwide, including an Oscar, an Oscar nomination, 126 further awards and 167 further award nominations. Recently, Quickfire has been involved in Sir Trevor Nunn’s ​Red Joan starring Dame Judi Dench, as well as forthcoming ​Summerland​ by Jessica Swale and ​Days of the Bagnold Summer, Simon Bird’s debut feature based on the celebrated graphic novel.

ABOUT ALTITUDE MEDIA GROUP

Altitude Media Group is the independent vertically integrated studio comprising of Altitude Film Production led by Will Clarke chairman and joint-CEO with Andy Mayson; Altitude Film Sales with Managing Director Mike Runagall; and Altitude Film Distribution with Managing Director Hamish Moseley.

Altitude Film Sales’ slate includes: ​Son, Ivan Kavanagh’s horror starting Andi Matichak and Emile Hirsch; ​Beards, directed by David Freyne and starring Fionn O’Shea, Lola Petticrew, Barry Ward and Sharon Horgan; ​The Power by BAFTA-nominated writer-director Corinna Faith and starring Rose Williams; ​Black Water Abyss directed by Andrew Traucki; ​Guns Akimbo directed by Jason Lei Howden and starring Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving which had its World premiere at Toronto; ​Billie directed by award-winning filmmaker James Erskine and produced by Victoria Gregory and Barry Clark-Ewers; ​SAS: RED NOTICE directed by Magnus Marten and starring Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose, Andy Serkis, Hannah John-Kamen, Tom Hopper, Noel Clarke and Tom Wilkinson; ​Rocks directed by Sarah Gavron which received its World Premiere as the opening gala for Toronto’s director driven Platform selection;​ Calm With Horses directed by Nick Rowland and starring Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Ned Dennehy and Niamh Algar; Simon Bird’s directorial debut ​Days of the Bagnold Summer starring Monica Dolan, Earl Cave, Rob Brydon, Alice Lowe and Tamsin Greig; ​Sulphur and White directed by BAFTA-nominated Julian Jarrold and starring Mark Stanley, Emily Beecham, Anna Friel and Dougray Scott; ​Chasing Chaplin from BAFTA and Sundance nominated filmmakers Peter Middleton and James Spinney; and ​Great White directed by Martin Wilson.

ABOUT PARK FILMS

Dublin based Park Films was founded in 2007 with a view to creating thrilling and daring new content. Along with Company partners Ana Habajec and Ivan Kavanagh, Park Films are developing a number of Film & TV projects including the Crime / Mystery drama series THE VANISHING TRIANGLE with MGM.

ABOUT ELASTIC FILM

Elastic is the London and Berlin-based production company founded by Louis Tisné in 2015 to develop and produce international director-driven films and TV. Focusing on production that provoke and delight the audience in equal measure such as the Cannes winning and Oscar nominated BORDER by Ali Abbasi and the Venice awarded HUNGRY HEARTS, Elastic is currently in development on films with Ali Abbasi, Saverio Costanzo, Jonas Govaerts, Felix Van Groeningen and Corinna McFarlane.

ABOUT BELLADONNA PRODUCTIONS

Belladonna Productions is an award-winning feature film and TV production-company with a particular focus on international co-productions. Belladonna’s films have won awards at the Sundance, Berlin, Venice and Toronto film festivals and have garnered Golden Globe, SAG, Grammy and Academy Award nominations. Most recently Belladonna produced three seasons of the six-part mini-series Hap & Leonard based on the books by Joe Lansdale for the Sundance Channel/AMC and In the Shadow of the Moon for Netflix.