LOS ANGELES, Aug. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RLJE Films, a
brand of RLJ Entertainment (NASDAQ: RLJE), has acquired all North
American rights to the highly anticipated film BRAWL IN CELL
BLOCK 99. After the successful collaboration on the critically
acclaimed western Bone Tomahawk, RLJE Films, writer/director
S. Craig Zahler, producers
Jack Heller from ASSEMBLE Media and
Dallas Sonnier from Cinestate, unite
with IMG Films, on this action-packed film. Los Angeles-based XYZ Films will handle
foreign sales and serve as executive producers on the project.
BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 stars Vince Vaughn (Hacksaw Ridge, "True
Detective"), Jennifer
Carpenter ("Dexter"), Marc
Blucas ("Underground"), Udo
Kier (Blade), and Don
Johnson (Django Unchained). The film will make
its World Premiere at the 2017 Venice International Film Festival
and will continue on to screen at the 2017 Toronto International
Film Festival and Fantastic Fest.
RLJE Films plans to release BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 in
theaters on Oct. 6,
2017.
"With the announced Venice,
Toronto and Fantastic Fest
premieres, the verdict is in. S. Craig
Zahler has done it again," said Mark
Ward, RLJE Film's chief acquisitions
officer. "Considering the success of Bone Tomahawk and
the stellar performance by Vince
Vaughn, we couldn't be more thrilled to reunite and bring
BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 to audiences."
In BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, a former boxer named Bradley
(Vince Vaughn) loses his job as an
auto mechanic, and his troubled marriage is about to end. At
this crossroads in his life, he feels that he has no better
option than to work for an old buddy as a drug
courier. This improves his situation until the terrible day
that he finds himself in a gunfight between a group of police
officers and his own ruthless allies. When the smoke
clears, Bradley is badly hurt and thrown in prison, where his
enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the
place into a savage battleground.
Ward and Jess De Leo from RLJE
negotiated the deal with Sonnier, Heller, and WME on behalf of the
filmmakers.
Writer/director S. Craig Zahler
is an award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist,
cinematographer and musician. Zahler's newest novel Hug
Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child is set for
publication this fall.
RLJE Films' new and upcoming features include Once
Upon a Time in Venice starring
Bruce Willis, Bushwick
with Dave Bautista and
Brittany Snow, and
Pilgrimage with Tom
Holland, Jon Bernthal and
Richard Armitage.
www.us.rljentertainment.com.
ABOUT RLJ ENTERTAINMENT
RLJ Entertainment, Inc.
(NASDAQ: RLJE) is a premium digital channel company serving
distinct audiences primarily through its popular OTT branded
channels, Acorn TV (British TV) and UMC (Urban Movie Channel),
which have rapidly grown through development, acquisition, and
distribution of its exclusive rights to a large library of
international and British dramas, independent feature films and
urban content. RLJE's titles are also distributed in multiple
formats including broadcast and pay television, theatrical and
non-theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray, and a variety of digital distribution
models (including EST, VOD, SVOD and AVOD) in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Additionally, through Acorn Media
Enterprises, its UK development arm, RLJE co-produces and develops
new programs and owns 64% of Agatha Christie Limited.
For more information, please visit RLJEntertainment.com,
Acorn.tv, and UMC.tv.
ABOUT ASSEMBLE MEDIA
Assemble Media is a
multi-platform production company founded by Jack Heller that specializes in independently
spirited and commercially minded content. The company develops and
produces its own unique work as well as the work of likeminded
filmmakers. Upcoming projects for Assemble Media include
S. Craig Zahler's action-thriller
DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE starring Mel
Gibson, Jennifer Carpenter,
and Vince Vaughn, as well as
Zahler's soon-to-be-released BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 premiering
at Venice International Film
Festival and starring Vaughn, Carpenter, and Don Johnson. Previously Heller was a
founding member of the production company Caliber Media, where he
produced over 20 feature films and TV shows
including critically-acclaimed BONE TOMAHAWK starring
Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew
Fox & Richard Jenkins.
Heller's directorial debut, "Enter Nowhere," launched the careers
of Katherine Waterston and
Scott Eastwood, and his follow up
"Dark was the Night" screened at film festivals including the
NYFF horror lineup at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
About CINESTATE
Cinestate is a Dallas-based
entertainment company founded by film producer Dallas Sonnier (BONE TOMAHAWK, SOME KIND OF
HATE) and publisher Will Evans (Deep
Vellum Publishing) that seeks to improve upon the status quo in
three key ways: cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with
visionary creators who want to see their projects made faithfully
and distributed widely; eliminating the arbitrary separation
between the mediums of books and film; and minimizing unnecessary
production costs while fiercely protecting our creators' work.
In its first year, Cinestate produced three feature films
(BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH, and
DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE), introduced the world to an ear movie
experience known as an Audiostate with the first title THE NARROW
CAVES, and is set to publish the latest novel from S. Craig Zahler entitled Hug
Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child.
ABOUT IMG FILMS
IMG's original content group's recent
projects include Gonzaga: The
March to Madness and UConn Huskies: The March to
Madness for HBO Sports; "Gleason," an award-winning
documentary charting former New Orleans Saint Steve Gleason's
battle with ALS; Showtime at the Apollo on
FOX; NFL Honors for CBS; and The Tony
Kornheiser Podcast. IMG is a global leader in sports,
fashion, events and media, operating in more than 30 countries. The
company represents and manages some of the world's greatest sports
figures and fashion icons; stages hundreds of live events and
branded entertainment experiences annually; and is a leading
independent producer and distributor of sports and entertainment
media. IMG also specializes in sports training; league development;
and marketing, media and licensing for brands, sports organizations
and collegiate institutions.
ABOUT XYZ FILMS
XYZ Films is an integrated
content company whose mission is to empower visionary storytellers
from every corner of the planet. As an independent production
company and worldwide sales agency, the company is uniquely suited
to identify talented filmmakers and bring their stories to
life. XYZ was founded in 2008 by Nate
Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and
Aram Tertzakian. Their current
slate of projects includes APOSTLE, directed by Gareth Evans and starring Dan Stevens, Academy Award winner Anders Walters' feature debut I KILL GIANTS,
which stars Zoe Saldana,
Imogen Poots, and Madison Wolfe, as well as S.Craig Zahler's BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99, which
stars Vince Vaughn and Don Johnson. XYZ recently won the BAFTA
Award for Outstanding Debut for UNDER THE SHADOW and the 2017
Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Macon Blair's I DON'T FEEL AT HOME IN
THIS WORLD ANYMORE.
Media Inquiries:
Katrina Wan / (323) 240-9996 /
katrina@katrinawanpr.com
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SOURCE RLJ Entertainment, Inc.