Local film scores distribution deal

March 6th, 2012 By Chris Montanini Posted in News Comments 3

After seeing screen time in Berlin, Germany, a locally produced feature film will travel to 17 countries across the globe.

London's Matchbox Pictures announced Wednesday that its horror flick Devil Seed - originally titled The Darkness at a screening at Rainbow Cinemas last September - has secured distribution through Los Angeles based Imagination Worldwide, who took it to the Berlin Film Festival February 9 to 17.

"We're all very excited," said director Greg Sager. "Berlin was the first thing Imagination brought it to. To get this kind of response to it was kind of more than expected."

Currently Devil Seed has distribution with Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, Portugal and 11 others, most of the big markets Sager said he was hoping for. The film will also be shopped at the Cannes Festival in France this May.

"France and Japan, those are what I have my sights on next and hopefully they'll be able to get those at Cannes," he said.

Devil Seed stars Toronto's Michelle Argyris as lead character Alex Frobisher, an innocent, bright-eyed college student whose life is corrupted by an evil demon that possesses her after a psychic reading gone wrong.

The creepy possession flick was quickly shot in London in the summer of 2010 with a roughly $250,000 budget. Along with the title change, Sager said the film has been cut down to "a lean 97 minutes."

"They (Imagination) packaged it up really nice, which was probably the biggest instigator in selling it," he said.

In a release last week, Larry Goebel, president and CEO of Los Angeles based Imagination Worldwide said, "the team at Matchbox Pictures have produced a highly remarkable product. We look forward to its success in Cannes in May."

Formed in 2009, Matchbox Pictures - owned by Sager, Geoff Hart, Gary Elmer and Dwight Coughlan - hopes Devil Seed's success will lead to a larger project the production company originally wanted to tackle two years ago called Kingdom Come.

Sager said funding will be easier to secure now that they've garnered some attention with Devil Seed and that Kingdom Come will also be produced in London.

"We're always trying to play that local angle," he said, adding that Matchbox Pictures is currently searching for local investors for the next film. "We've already got some money, some people on board. We're riding the wave, so to speak."

Tentative plans have been made to begin filming the movie in the fall.

"We can't do this next movie anywhere else for this kind of money," said Sager, a believer in the economic benefits London offers filmmakers. "It's just a matter of dusting it off and getting it back on track. Plan is shooting in the fall of this year. So no rest for the wicked."

Original Article: http://www.thelondoner.ca/2012/03/06/local-film-scores-distribution-deal

Chris.montanini@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @YourLondoner