After announcing earlier this week that NEON will launch Spaceship Earth on May 8 on digital platforms, the indie distributor is teaming with Charades for an innovative strategy to handle the worldwide sales of three of its upcoming films including Spaceship Earth, The Painter and the Thief and She Dies Tomorrow.
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The studio plans to implement an innovative strategy including utilizing drive-ins and safe pop-up city-scape projections (safely accessible by quarantined city dwellers), with theaters and affected businesses also able to screen the film on their websites.
All recent Sundance and SXSW winners, the three films address current issues from fresh and diverse perspectives and are available immediately for delivery. Charades and NEON will provide distributors with a marketing package and an inventive, replicable model to adapt on their own markets. Non Stop Entertainment for Scandinavia and Madman in Australia have already jumped in and additional territories are already in discussion.
“We are thrilled to be on board of this fresh and engaging initiative to take those topical films to audiences in such a particular context,” Carole Baraton, co-associate of Charades, said in a statement. “We look forward to working hand in hand with our talented friends at Neon and local distributors to replicate this very timely cinematic model.”
“NEON couldn’t be more excited to have found a partner in Charades,” Tom Quinn, NEON CEO, said in a statement. “They are helping to bring NEON films to worldwide audiences alongside partners that share our vision. We look forward to working with the amazing teams at Charades, Non-Stop and Madman to create and develop release strategies and initiatives that will carry us through a global shutdown and in to 2021.”
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Impact Partners’, RadicalMedia and Stacey Reiss Productions Spaceship Earth, directed by Matt Wolf, debuted at Sundance to rave reviews with critics hailing it as “out of this world.” Spaceship Earth is the true, stranger-than-fiction, adventure of eight visionaries who in1991 spent two years quarantined inside of a self-engineered replica of Earth’s ecosystem called BIOSPHERE 2. The experiment was a worldwide phenomenon, chronicling daily existence in the face of life threatening ecological disaster and a growing criticism that it was nothing more than a cult. The bizarre story is both a cautionary tale and a hopeful lesson of how a small group of dreamers can potentially reimagine a new world. It’s an eerily prescient and telling film for the world of today.
The Painter and the Thief, directed by Benjamin Ree, also premiered in Sundance Documentary Competition this year. Two paintings from Czech painter, Barbora Kysilkova are stolen from an Oslo art gallery. The two thieves are quickly identified and arrested. Hoping to learn what happened, Barbora approaches one of them, Karl-Bertil Nordland, at his criminal hearing. She asks if she can paint his portrait. Surprisingly, he agrees. What will follow, over a series of portraits and many years, is an extraordinary story of human connection, to reflect on in times of social distancing. The film has already received a warm welcome with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
She Dies Tomorrow, by Amy Seimetz, was to have its World premiere in SXSW 2020 Narrative Feature Competition. Starring Kate Lyn Sheil (You’re Next, Brigsby Bear) and Jane Adams (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Happiness), the film could not be more topical, as it depicts a contagious pandemic spreading through Los Angeles.
