Screen Media has acquired the North American rights to modern-day mobster drama The Birthday Cake, according to Variety. The film marks the feature-length directorial debut of Jimmy Giannopoulos, well known for his short film and music video work. In a deal brokered by Seth Needle, Screen Media’s SVP of global acquisitions and co-productions, and Endeavor Content, on behalf of the Giannopoulos and crew, the sale’s number remains undisclosed.
Giannopoulos, who has worked with the likes of Miley Cyrus and A$AP Rocky, co-wrote the script with Diomedes Raul Bermudez and Shiloh Fernandez, one of the film’s stars. Along with Fernandez, the cast includes: Ewan McGregor, Val Kilmer, William Fichtner, Ashley Benson, Luis Guzman, Aldis Hodge, Penn Badgley, Emory Cohen, and Jeremy Allen White.
Also featured are some mob drama veterans like Lorraine Bracco, Vincent Pastore and Paul Sorvino.
The Birthday Cake centers around Gio (Fernandez), the son of a murdered Brooklyn mob member and nephew to its current boss Angelo (Kilmer). Taking place on one special night–the anniversary of his father’s death–Gio goes to his uncle’s house to mark the occasion, bringing along a cake baked by his mother (Bracco). During the get-together, Gio discovers the truth about his father and the mob family he was born into.
Director Giannopoulos shares that what makes his mobster story different is the modern-day setting. He says, “Dealing with gentrification, weakening power, rival gangs, the realities of the Feds knocking them off. But we wanted to combine their traditional world with modern day Brooklyn. A very different world from their glory days. We experience the ride all through the eyes of the son of a gangster who has avoided their world his entire life. But his past comes back to haunt him, and we join him for a night of chaos.”
The Birthday Cake is produced by screenwriter Bermudez for Purpose Films, Shiloh Fernandez, Artemis Pictures’ Siena Oberman, Carlos Cuscó of Foton Pictures, and Oceana Studios’ Danny Sawaf. Executive producing are Tucci & Co.’s Damiano Tucci, Shaun Sanghani of SSS Entertainment and Capital, Andrew Davies Gans, Jamin O’Brien, Fernando Ferro, Kyle Stroud, Luke Daniels, Paola Paulin, Craig Butta, Sergio Rizzuto and Greg Lauritano.
Screen Media, a subdivision of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, will release The Birthday Cake in theaters and on-demand sometime in June 2021.
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