Production starts Nov. 11 on Somnia, the Mike Flanagan helmed psycho-thriller the director co-wrote with Jeff Howard, who also partnered with Flanagan to write the horror-thriller Oculus. Jacob Tremblay (The Smurfs 2) stars as an orphaned child whose dreams and nightmares manifest into reality while he sleeps. Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush, Superman Returns) and Thomas Jane (Hung, The Punisher) play his parents.
The industry is regaining its balance after the news at the American Film Market that Focus Features International is being shuttered. Focus Features International (located in London) is a well-respected art house specialty division of NBC/Universal responsible for the distribution of such films as Woody Allen’s To Rome With Love and the Wachalskis’ Cloud Atlas, with their last hit being The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The reason for the shuttering is – the bottom line. The New York offices are also closing with the consolidation of all operations moving to LA.
Focus was selling both Somnia and Oculus at the Toronto International Film Festival, and they will continue to sell all existing titles. Oculus, starring Katee Sackhoff, was acquired by Jason Blum of Blumhouse at TIFF, and is being slated for a 2014 release. It’s a psychological thriller about brother and sister orphans who try to prove that their parents were killed by a supernatural mirror that was placed in their home. Originally Sackhoff had also been attached to the Somnia project, but has since dropped out.
Intrepid’s Trevor Macy is producing Somnia with William D. Johnson and Sam Englebardt of Demarest Films and well as MICA Entertainment.
Kate Bosworth can be seen in the upcoming Homefront, set to be released November 27, 2014. Homefront is based on the Chuck Logan novel of the same name, with a screenplay adaptation by Sylvester Stallone. It also stars Jason Statham, James Franco and Wynona Ryder.
Thomas Jane is starring with John Cusack in Drive Hard, about a former race car driver who is kidnapped and forced to be the wheel man for a robbery. The project is due out in early 2014.
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