*Updated with the official press release.* We've been excited for Daily Dead readers to watch MacIntyre's Tragedy Girls since our own Heather Wixson saw it at the SXSW Film Festival, saying that it "brilliantly turns the slasher genre on its head" in her five-star review. Thankfully, it looks like horror fans won't have to wait much longer to see it.
Press Release: LOS ANGELES – JULY 31, 2017 -- Gunpowder & Sky, the global content studio, today announced the acquisition of the teen-slasher-comedy, Tragedy Girls. The film follows two death-obsessed teens played by Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) and Brianna Hildebrand (Deadpool) who use their online show about real-life tragedies to send their small midwestern town into frenzy and cement their legacy as modern horror legends. The acquisition comes just as the film made its Canadian debut at the Fantasia Film Festival.
Tragedy Girls was directed by Tyler MacIntyre, who also co-wrote the script with Chris Lee Hill. Tragedy Girls is MacIntyre’s second feature. His debut pic Patchwork also received critical praise in the genre festival circle, winning Best Picture at Screamfest 2015. The film is produced by The Comeback Kids and New Artist Pictures, in association with Ardor Pictures. Producers include Anthony Holt, Armen Aghaeian, Edward Mokhtarian, Cameron Van Hoy, Tara Ansley and Craig Robinson. It is executively produced by Kerry Rhodes.
“After seeing how well audiences were connecting with the film at South by Southwest, we knew we needed to find a distribution partner that shared our passion for the theatrical experience,” said MacIntyre “We’ve been extremely impressed with Gunpowder & Sky and the team’s innovative approach so we are thrilled to be working with a company that is as excited as we are to finally unleash this movie onto the world.”
“Tragedy Girls is a wild, meta horror comedy with some of the most badass female teens we've seen on the screen,” said Jake Hanly, Gunpowder & Sky’s VP Acquisitions, “Tyler MacIntyre has established himself as a horror director to watch, someone who's steeped in the history of the genre while bringing a fresh and authentic take. We're thrilled to take audiences on this ride.”
The deal was brokered by Hanly and CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.
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ABOUT GUNPOWDER & SKY
Gunpowder & Sky is an award-winning independent global studio, dedicated to creating, marketing and distributing video content unrestricted by form, genre or platform. Gunpowder & Sky collaborates with both emerging and established talent to generate premium video content ranging from 90-second to 90-minute stories on all platforms. With in-house development, production, marketing and distribution capabilities, the company operates as a full 360-studio and oversees a library of over 1500 titles.
Working with numerous creative partners such as Hyde Park, Blumhouse, Caviar, DIGA, Full Fathom Five, Bona Fide Productions, Adaptive Studios and Den of Thieves, with investments and strategic partnerships with leading social video studios Cut and Shareability, Gunpowder & Sky has recently released or launched projects including Spotify’s most viewed series Drawn & Recorded, the Herbalife exposé documentary, Betting on Zero, which debuted as the number one Documentary in the iTunes store, multi-platform sci-fi destination, DUST, and Ben Young’s Hounds of Love which just won the Overlook Film Festival’s Jury and Audience Awards for Best Feature with Emma Booth winning Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival.
Upcoming projects include Jeff Baena’s (I Heart Huckabees) The Little Hours, starring Aubrey Plaza, Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, Jemima Kirke and Nick Offerman, the film adaption of Jeff Hart’s novel Eat, Brains, Love, Sarah Benincasa’s DC Trip, Summer of 84 with award-winning directors RKSS, and the Jackass-style, next generation stunt series, Too Stupid To Die.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in NY and London, Gunpowder & Sky was founded by Van Toffler, Floris Bauer and Otter Media, a joint venture of AT&T and The Chernin Group.
Previously: According to Variety, Gunpowder & Sky have picked up the rights to Tragedy Girls, with a US theatrical release expected to take place sometime this year, although an exact release date has yet to be announced.
Expressing his excitement at the new deal, here's what MacIntyre had to say about the acquisition (via Variety):
“After seeing how well audiences were connecting with the film at South by Southwest, we knew we needed to find a distribution partner that shared our passion for the theatrical experience. We’ve been extremely impressed with Gunpowder & Sky and the team’s innovative approach so we are thrilled to be working with a company that is as excited as we are to finally unleash this movie onto the world.”
Tragedy Girls co-stars Brianna Hildebrand (who was a standout in Deadpool and can be seen in season 2 of The Exorcist) and Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse, Straight Outta Compton) as best friends and online show co-hosts who take their fascination of the macabre one big step further and begin killing people instead of just talking about death.
The cast for Tragedy Girls also includes Josh Hutcherson, Jack Quaid, Nicky Whelan, Kevin Durand, and Craig Robinson. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates on this highly anticipated horror comedy.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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