PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 17, 2013

ANCHOR BAY FILMS

PICKS UP THE RAMBLER

AT THE 2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

Starring Dermot Mulroney, The Rambler Set to Premiere at

Sundance’s “Park City at Midnight”

PARK CITY, UT  –  Anchor Bay Films kicks off the 2013 Sundance Film Festival with the pick-up of The Rambler starring Dermot Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Grey).  Written and directed by Calvin Lee Reeder, the film is set to premiere on Monday, January 21st (11:59pm) during Park City at Midnight.   The agreement covers theatrical, home entertainment, television and digital distribution rights in the North America, the U.K. and Australia.  Today’s announcement was made by Anchor Bay Entertainment’s President Bill Clark.  

“Anchor Bay is the perfect partner for Calvin’s film The Rambler,” stated Kevin Kasha, Executive Vice President, Acquisitions and Co-Productions.  “It has all the elements that our fans truly love and we look forward to working with Calvin.” 

XYZ Films’ (“The Raid”) co-founder Nate Bolotin produced alongside Brooklyn Reptyle Films’ Roger M. Mayer and Christo Dimassis.  Clayton Young of Benaroya Pictures is also producing on behalf of AKA Pictures along with James Lesjek.  The film is an AKA Pictures presentation and was financed by Michael Benaroya through his genre label, AKA Pictures.  AKA/Benaroya Pictures head of production Joe Jenckes is also serving as executive producer along with his Bow Street Films partner, David Dickson, under a new partnership between AKA and Bow Street. Nick Spicer and Aram Tertzakian from XYZ are also executive producers.

After being released from prison, a man known as The Rambler (Mulroney) stumbles upon a strange mystery as he attempts a dangerous journey through treacherous back roads and small towns en route to reconnecting with his long lost brother.  The Rambler co-stars Lindsay Pulsipher (“True Blood”, “Hatfields & McCoys”) and Natasha Lyonne (American Pie).

The film is based on Reeder’s critically-acclaimed short of the same name that screened at the Sundance Film Festival and SXSW back in 2008.  Reeder was also named as one of the 25 new faces of independent film in Filmmaker Magazine for 2007.

 “I've always loved Anchor Bay Films.  Repo Man, Holy Mountain and El Topo make my top 10 all timers for sure. I am so excited to be working with the company that revived those legendary midnight movies, it's a real honor,” said Reeder.

The deal was negotiated by Kevin Kasha and Marc Barson for Anchor Bay Films and by Nate Bolotin for XYZ Films. 

Foreign sales will be handled by Celluloid Nightmares, the partnership between XYZ Films and Celluloid Dreams.

About AKA/Bow Street Films and Benaroya Pictures

AKA/Bow Street Films is a new production outfit that allows filmmakers to produce high quality product with great stars for a sensible price.  Currently, AKA/BSF has just completed shooting Brian Horiuchi’s ensemble film PARTS PER BILLION with Rosario Dawson, Josh Hartnett, Teresa Palmer, Penn Badgley and Frank Langella.  Benaroya Pictures, as the parent company, also focuses on producing and financing larger budget films, such as the highly anticipated KILL YOUR DARLINGS, starring Michael C. Hall, Daniel Radcliffe, Jack Huston, Ben Foster and Elizabeth Olsen, which bows in competition at the upcoming Sundance festival.  Other recent titles include the romantic mystery THE WORDS starring Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, Dennis Quaid, and Ben Barnes, which was released by CBS Films earlier this year. Also released recently was the thriller LAWLESS, staring Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska from the Weinstein Company. The company’s financial thriller MARGIN CALL was recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Best First Feature Award at last year’s Independent Spirit Awards.

About XYZ Films

XYZ FILMS is an LA-based film production and sales company founded in 2008 by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Aram Tertzakian. XYZ is a leader in the global film space, with a particular focus on elevated genre films with broad international appeal. A recent example of XYZ's model is Gareth Evans' sub $1M Indonesian action film, THE RAID, for which XYZ acted as Executive Producers and Worldwide Sales Agents. The film is approaching $15M in global box office, after premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (where it won the audience award for TIFF's Midnight Madness section). The film also went on to play at Sundance and SXSW, before enjoying a US release by Sony Pictures Classics. XYZ and Evans' PT Merantau Films are currently in pre-production on a sequel to THE RAID, in development on a remake of THE RAID at Sony Screen Gems, and in development on a heist thriller which Evans will direct for Universal. Other recent XYZ productions include the recently wrapped FRANKENSTEIN’S ARMY, which was directed by Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst and shot in Prague. Since the company's inception, XYZ has grown to include partner Todd Brown, Head of Development Kyle Franke, Director of Sales Sarah Gabriel, and Acquisitions Consultant Simon de Bruyn (based in Melbourne, focused on Australia & New Zealand). 

About Anchor Bay Films

Anchor Bay Films is a division of Anchor Bay Entertainment and provides quality distribution with operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and offers distribution capabilities in other key territories.  Anchor Bay Films uniquely offers the creative community a fully integrated distribution capability on all platforms and an international solution extending beyond the United States.  The company focuses on a platform release strategy for its films with an eye toward maximizing their potential across all ancillary distribution platforms.  Upcoming theatrical releases include Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem starring Sheri Moon Zombie, Bruce Davison and genre favorite Ken Foree, Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car starring Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon and Ray Stevenson and No One Lives with Luke Evans.  Films in its library include the recent theatrical release 10 Years starring Channing Tatum and Rosario Dawson, the critically-acclaimed comedy City Island starring Andy Garcia and Solitary Man starring Michael Douglas as well as Kill the Irishman starring Ray Stevenson, Vincent D’Onofrio, Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken, Toronto Film Festival award-winner Beautiful Boy with Maria Bello and Michael Sheen and Cannes 2011 premiere Corman’s World.  Anchor Bay Entertainment (www.anchorbayentertainment.com) is a Starz (NASDAQ: STRZA, STRZB) business, www.starz.com.

About Brooklyn Reptyle Films

Christo Dimassis and Roger M. Mayer started Brooklyn Reptyle Films in 2001 and serve as the core production team.  Brooklyn Reptyle is a production company specializing in feature-length films, both narrative and documentary, as well as award-winning shorts, music videos, webisodes, and commercials.  Brooklyn Reptyle Films is a multimedia production company with the primary goal of creating compelling content.  Their latest feature film The Rambler, premieres at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, directed by Calvin Lee Reeder and starring Dermot Mulroney, Lindsay Pulsipher, and Natasha Lyonne.  Some of their credits include the feature-length award-winning films The Oregonian (2011 Sundance Film Festival, also directed by Reeder and starring Pulsipher), Big River Man (2009 Sundance Film Festival winner for Best Cinematography - World Documentary),  Inside Irvin (Best Actor and Audience award, SLFF), Boppin’ at the Glue Factory (Best Feature Film, STIFF and Tregor Film Fest, France), Audie and the Wolf (Cinequest Film Festival) and the upcoming Carlos Spills the Beans and The Bang Bang Brokers.

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