Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
Please find attached, and following, the synopsis, screening times and press announcements for our much anticipated world premiere horror thriller WOLF CREEK, which we recently sold for the US to Dimension who have committed to a substantial release this year of at least $7M P&A.
Other territories sold include Latin America, Spain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Benelux, Italy and UK.
We look forward to seeing you at Sundance, and hope 2005 brings peace and happiness,
With best wishes from Arclight films
IN SUNDANCE: Gary Hamilton cell: (917) 826 2113 Nicolas Chartier cell: (310) 890 4199
SCREENING TIMES: Monday Jan 24, 9:00pm, Egyptian Tuesday Jan 25, 10:00am, Holiday IV Wednesday Jan 26, 12:30pm, Egyptian Friday Jan 28, 7:30pm, Broadway 6
PRESS AND INDUSTRY SCREENING: Tuesday Jan 25, 4:30pm Holiday 1
SYNOPSIS: Based on real life events, twenty-something British backpackers Liz and Kristy set off with Australian Ben on a road trip through remote Western Australia. The first day is tedious: road kill, car overheating, singing, ³getting to know you² conversations and map monitoring. Out of petrol the next day, the three stop at a roadhouse for fuel, then drive on through a landscape of burned out car shells and bullet-riddled road signs to arrive at Wolf Creek¹ National Park.
Ready to leave at dusk, they find their watches stopped; and so has the car. There is a rush of panic, then Liz spots some lights travelling toward them and the grunt of a truck signals a rescuer. An affable brute of a man, Mick inspects their vehicle and promises to replace a faulty part at his camp. It takes hours to reach his place: an abandoned mining site complete with defunct tunnels and huts. The travellers cook food in exchange for repairs and fresh water. Mick recalls his life as a professional vermin shooter, and then works on the car as his guests fall asleep.
Liz wakes from a drugged sleep late the next day. She¹s tied up, mouth gagged, inside one of the miner¹s huts. She frees herself using smashed glass. Outside, she creeps towards the station wagon and its stripped parts, then discovers Ben¹s bloodied sleeping bag. Loud music and screams emanate from a central hut and a terrified Liz peers inside to see Kristy, almost naked and strung up, swaying in front of Mick¹s loaded gun. Liz uses mentholated spirits to explode some gas lanterns, and while Mick deals with this, sneaks in to free Kristy. She hides beneath a bench and when Mick resumes torturing Kristy, Liz manages to shoot him. By the time Mick comes to, the women are escaping in the truck. Headlights in the rear vision mirror panic Liz who finds they¹re caught between fast approaching Mick and a cliff. They push the truck over the cliff, faking a fatal crash. Fooled, Mick leaves. Liz decides their only hope is to return to Mick¹s mining site home to steal a car and search for Ben.
At the mining site, Liz leaves an exhausted Kristy while goes in search of a vehicle. Inside a vast, gloomy shed she discovers a chilling car graveyard. Looking further she discovers a box of video cameras and watches footage of other people falling victim to Mick¹s ³rescue² tactics. From Ben¹s video camera footage she sees Mick¹s truck was present at the roadhouse. Terrified, she races to one of the cars and manages to start the vehicle - when suddenly Mick appears. They struggle and she is killed.
Kristy, now following road tracks on the flat desert plains, is petrified by a vehicle looming on the horizon. An elderly man pulls up and offers her assistance. As Kristy collapses into the car, the would be rescuer is felled by a bullet from Mick¹s rifle. Kristy wrests the keys from his corpse and a car chase ensues. When she succeeds in running Mick¹s Valiant off the road, Mick shoots out her tyres, and then coldly executes her. He puts her exhausted body in the car boot and sets it alight. Meanwhile, Ben finally regains consciousness to find himself crucified and trapped down a mining tunnel. Other crucified corpses with their lower extremities eaten away hang close by and the sight of two starving dogs in a nearby cage hint at his future. Steeling himself he pulls his wrists from the wire constraints and painfully frees himself. He leaves the mining site and wanders for several days through the desert, finally collapsing just outside a small township. We cut to Ben: months later, being led away by Police. He has been blamed for the missing girls murders. We fade to black.
Titles inform us that Ben remains the only suspect in the disappearance and presumed murder of the two British backpackers, since no evidence of the existence of Mick Taylor can be verified. No one believes Ben¹s far-fetched story of a lone killer, wandering the vastness of the Outback.
The end.
Aussie thriller hits paydirt before debut A new Australian film reportedly inspired by the stories of Ivan Milat and Peter Falconio has picked up a distribution deal worth about $5 million even before its planned world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. The film, Wolf Creek, follows three travellers threatened by a seemingly harmless local in the Australian outback and has been billed as Australia's answer to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Written and directed by rookie film-maker Greg McLean, Wolf Creek was reportedly inspired by the stories of backpacker murderer Milat and the death of English tourist Mr Falconio in the Northern Territory outback. Made for less than $2 million, the film will make its global debut in Sundance's world cinema competition.
The Sundance website says Wolf Creek "is sure to do for Australian horror films what The Texas Chain Saw Massacre did for the American genre". Although Sundance does not begin until January 20, Dimension Films has snapped up the rights to the thriller. Dimension, the genre arm of Miramax Films, paid about $5 million to distribute the film in North America, Latin America (excluding Brazil), Spain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Benelux.
The firm handling domestic rights to the film, William Morris Independent, was happy with the terms. "We were intending to sell the film at the festival and like bidding wars but I'm really pleased for Gary and the filmmakers," said Rena Ronson, co-head of William Morris.
-ABC/Reuters/Hollywood Reporter January 4, 2005 This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1276389.htm
Dimension up a scary 'Creek'
Studio adopts 'Wolf' pre-preem
By CATHY DUNKLEY, DANA HARRIS January 3, 2005 In a move straight out of Miramax Films' old playbook, Dimension Films paid $3.5 million to buy Greg McLean's horror pic, "Wolf Creek," a month before its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
International sales agent Arclight Films notified the pic's North American reps at William Morris Independent about Dimension's offer on Dec. 22. The deal closed Christmas Eve. The purchase includes North America, Latin America (excluding Brazil), Spain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Benelux.
With a scary plot ostensibly based on true events, "Wolf Creek" shares the fiscally appealing genre occupied by "Blair Witch" and last year's "Open Water." It's the tale of three backpackers who head into the Australian outback and experience a terrifying journey after meeting a seemingly friendly stranger.
The film will bow Jan. 24 in Sundance's world dramatic competition. Fest runs Jan. 20-30 in Park City, Utah. Although big-ticket preemptive buys weren't unusual in the go-go days of indie film, cooler heads have prevailed in the past decade. The deal is even more unusual in the face of an uncertain future for Miramax Films and Dimension as Disney continues to negotiate the contracts of Harvey and Bob Weinstein.
Arclight/Darclight Films and Mushroom Pictures distribute "Wolf Creek" in Australia. The Australian Film Finance Corp. financed the film.
Read the full article at: http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&a=VR1117915676&c=13 http://www.variety.com/story.asp?l=story&a=VR1117915676&c=13
