Hit the break to check out the full press release regarding the acquisition.
Los Angeles, CA (September 27, 2013) – Image Entertainment announced today that they have acquired all US rights to ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE, the high school-set comedy horror- thriller written and directed by Lucky McKee (“May,” “The Woman”) and Chris Sivertson (“The Lost,” “I Know Who Killed Me”) that premiered this year as the opening night film in the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was produced by Andrew van den Houten (‘’Funeral Kings,” “The Woman”) and Robert Tonino (‘’The Woman,” “In the Family”) from Modernciné and stars Caitlin Stasey (“Reign,” “Tomorrow When the War Began”), Sianoa Smit-McPhee (“Hung”), and introduces Tom Williamson. Executive producing is Arrien Schiltkamp. The film is scheduled for a theatrical release in spring 2014.
When tragedy rocks Blackfoot High, rebellious outsider Mäddy Killian shocks the student body by joining the cheerleading squad. This decision drives a rift between Mäddy and her ex-girlfriend Leena Miller – a loner who claims to practice the dark arts. After a confrontation with the football team, Mäddy and her new cheerleader friends are sent on a supernatural roller coaster ride which leaves a path of destruction none of them may be able to escape.
The deal was brokered by Mark Ward, Jess De Leo and Bill Bromiley from Image Entertainment and Ben Weiss from Paradigm and Andrew van den Houten from Modern Distributors on behalf of the financiers of the picture.
“Working with Modernciné, Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson on ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE is going to be a blast. We are huge fans of the film and think both of these filmmakers have distinct voices and see the franchise potential for this wonderfully colorful collaboration,” said Ward from Image Entertainment.
“Working in conjunction with Ben Weiss from Paradigm to secure and negotiate distribution for ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE has been a pleasure. Image Entertainment, with the keen eye of Mark Ward, has been a home for our films in the past. They especially know how to market and sell genre. Now that they have acquired our largest and most commercial project to date, we are incredibly confident they will hit it out of the park,” said Andrew van den Houten, producer and co-rep on the film.
Recent projects for Modernciné include JUG FACE, the critically-acclaimed Slamdance favorite written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle which was released theatrically by Modern Distributors in August. Previous to that, they produced the audience favorite FUNERAL KINGS, which debuted as an official selection at last year’s SXSW Film Festival.
