A Modernciné Production a Mckee/Sivertson Film
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A Modernciné Production A Mc K ee/Sivertson Film Publicity Contacts: E rik Bright Jason K asperski Prodigy PR Prodigy PR [email protected] [email protected] 310-902-1355 323-369-7866 T O D O WN L O A D M A T E RI A LS: ftp://corp.prodigypublicrelations.com (username ± prodigyftp / password ± prodpr) All Cheerleaders Die pg. 1 of 26 A M O D E RN C IN É PRO DU C T I O N A M C K E E/SI V E R TSO N F I L M A L L C H E E R L E A D E RS DI E Cast CAITLIN STASEY as Mäddy Killian SIANOA SMIT-MCPHEE as Leena Miller BROOKE BUTLER as Tracy Bingham introducing TOM WILLIAMSON as Terry Stankus AMANDA GRACE COOPER as Hanna Popkin REANIN JOHANNINK as Martha Popkin NICHOLAS S. MORRISON as Ben Fector CHRIS PETROVSKI as George Shank /(,*+3$5.(5DV0DQFKHVWHU³0DQQ\´0DQNLHZLWz JORDAN WILSON as Vik De Palma FELISHA COOPER as Alexis Alexander and MICHAEL BOWEN as Larry W ritten and Directed by LUCKY MCKEE / CHRIS SIVERTSON %DVHGRQWKHLU2ULJLQDO)LOPµ$OO&KHHUOHDGHUV'LH¶ Producer ANDREW VAN DEN HOUTEN Producer ROBERT TONINO Executive Producer ARRIEN SCHILTKAMP Co-Executive Producer RUSSEL DINSTEIN LOREN SEMMENS All Cheerleaders Die pg. 2 of 26 Associate Producer GIUSEPPE CATALDO Casting by LINDSAY CHAG C.S.A. Director of Photography GREG EPHRAIM Production Design by KRISTA GALL Edited by BEN LA MARCA ZACH PASSERO Special Make-Up Effects Produced by ROBERT KURTZMAN K ey Make-Up by BEKI INGRAM DAVID H. GREATHOUSE Visual Effects by ROGER NALL Music by MADS HELDTBERG Costume Design by ONEITA PARKER Sound Design by ANDREW SMETEK Unit Production Manager JONATHAN WAGNER First Assistant Director CASSANDRA LAYMON Second Assistant Director MATTHEW BAKER All Cheerleaders Die pg. 3 of 26 SY N OPSIS When tragedy rocks Blackfoot High, rebellious outsider Mäddy Killian shocks the student body by joining the cheerleading squad. This decision drives a rift between Mäddy and her ex- girlfriend Leena Miller - a loner who claims to practice the dark arts. After a confrontation with the football team, Mäddy and her new cheerleader friends are sent on a supernatural roller coaster ride which leaves a path of destruction none of them may be able to escape. All Cheerleaders Die pg. 4 of 26 ',5(&725¶667$7(0(17 ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE is a rip-roaring rocket ride of a film. In this re-imagining of our first low-budget feature film, we chose to dive deeper into character and expand the scale and detail of the high school world depicted. ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE is a cross pollination of teen horror, sex comedies, action, non-ironic romance and straight up fantasy. We feel this PL[WXUHRIWRQHVDQGHPRWLRQVHQFDSVXODWHVZKDWLW¶V like to be a teenager in the modern world what with the barrage of media, information, and an overload of instant communication. The ILOPLVGHVLJQHGWRNHHS\RXUDVVLQWKHVHDWDQGPXQFKLQJWKDWSRSFRUQ,W¶VGHVLJQHGWRPDNH you laugh, cringe, scream, and cry. Sometimes all at once. Our desire is to leave the audience wanting more, more, more. And, let us tell you brothers and sisters, this is just the start. All Cheerleaders Die pg. 5 of 26 A B O U T T H E PR O DU C T I O N REIMAGINING ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE Before there was The Woman, and before The Lost, directors Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson made a backyard high school zombie movie in 2001 called All Cheerleaders Die, a post-USC film school project that was shot on video and never received a wide, national release. Now, more than 10 years later, the duo is set to reimagine the story through their more-experienced eyes and turn it into a relentlessly thrilling and highly ambitious production. Produced by Andrew van den Houten and Robert Tonino for Modernciné, this is Chris SiYHUWVRQ¶VILUVW SURMHFWZLWKWKHFRPSDQ\DQG/XFN\0F.HH¶VVHFRQGILOPZLWKWKHWHDPWKHILUVWEHLQJODVW \HDU¶VWKULOOHU The Woman. This reimagining will have a similar plot to the original Cheerleaders film but, as you will soon read, the stakes have been raised along with the production budget. When tragedy rocks Blackfoot High, rebellious outsider Mäddy Killian (played by Australian Caitlin Stasey) shocks the student body by joining the cheerleading squad. This decision drives a rift between Mäddy and her ex-girlfriend Leena Miller (fellow Aussie Sianoa Smit-McPhee) - a loner who claims to practice the dark arts. After a confrontation with the football team, Mäddy and her new cheerleader friends are sent on a supernatural roller coaster ride which leaves a path of destruction none of them may be able to escape. Shot from a completely new script that was written in 2012, ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE features stunning turns from a sizzling young ensemble that includes Caitlin Stasey (&:¶V Reign, Tomorrow When the War Began) as the offbeat heroine Mäddy Killian, Sianoa Smit- 0F3KHH +%2¶VHung DV/HHQD0LOOHU0lGG\¶VFKLOGKRRGIULHQGZKRLVQRZDVRUFHUHVVDQG the cheerleaders Brooke Butler as Tracy Bingham, Amanda Grace Cooper as Hanna Popkin, Reanin Johannink as Martha Popkin and Felisha Cooper as Alexis Andersen. Rounded out by a supporting cast that includes newcomer Tom Williamson as Terry Stankus, the alpha-male on the football squad, Chris Petrovski as his friend George Shank, Leigh Parker as Manchester "Manny" Mankiewitz, Jordan Wilson as Vik De Palma and Nicholas S. Morrison as Ben, ALL All Cheerleaders Die pg. 6 of 26 CHEERLEADERS DIE delivers a scary supernatural thrill ride that also offers some dark and twisted laughs along the way. THE ORIGINS OF THE STORY On the most basic level, ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE is about resurrection and getting a second chance, which is fitting as this new film is not the first version of this story that was shot. Originally, a little-seen video version of the story was crafted and shot by McKee and Sivertson back in 2001 about a year after they had just graduated from USC film school. The original genesis of the project came when the pair, who had met as freshmen when they both lived on the ³&LQHPD)ORRU´LQWKH86&GRUPLWRU\ZDVZDONLQJGRZQ+ROO\ZRRG%lvd. one afternoon having just picked up some movie magazines. One of the magazines was called Alternative Cinema and inside it detailed a number of low budget movies that people were starting to make with Mini-DV cameras. At that point Chris suggested to /XFN\µ+H\ZK\GRQ WZHPDNHRQH of these?" A year later they had their first finished feature ± All Cheerleaders Die. The film, however, never had a wide release and the pair went off in separate directions to begin their respected solo filmmaking careers. Since completing the original Cheerleaders with Sivertson, Lucky McKee continued on to direct May (2002), The Woods (2007), and The Woman (2011). He has written two novels with Jack Ketchum, The Woman, and ,¶P1RW6DP -- the latter of which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award and a Shirley Jackson Award for best long fiction. After joining forces with McKee for the original Cheerleaders6LYHUWVRQ¶VVRORGLUHFWRULDOGHEXW ZDVWKHDGDSWDWLRQRI-DFN.HWFKXP¶VSRZHUIXOQRYHOThe Lost (2006). The Lost was the first film to be made based on a book by this renowned American author. Sivertson also directed I Know Who Killed Me (2007) for Tri Star Pictures and the independent fight drama Brawler (2011). The update for CHEERLEADERS was facilitated courtesy of producer Andrew van den Houten and his company Modernciné, which had been responsible for producing numerous titles in the independent world since 2002. The company had just worked with Lucky McKee in 2010 on All Cheerleaders Die pg. 7 of 26 The Woman, and van den Houten was interested in finding another project to do with the director. That was when McKee brought up the idea of resurrecting his old project with his college friend Sivertson. Van den Houten notes that he was immediately intrigued to hear the idea for this new film: ³,W was an interesting opportunity in that Lucky and I had worked on The Woman together and had VXFKDJUHDWH[SHULHQFHVR,EDVLFDOO\VDLGµOHWPHNQRZZKDW\RXZDQWWRGRQH[WDQGOHW V PDNHLWKDSSHQ¶DQGKHWROGPHWKDWKHKDGWKLVUHPDNHWKDWKHZanted to do of a film he had GRQHULJKWRXWRI86&ZLWKKLVEXGG\&KULV6LYHUWVRQ$QG,VDLGµVXUHOHW VGRLW:KDWLVLW"¶ $QG/XFN\UHSOLHGµLW VDFKHHUOHDGLQJ]RPELHILOP¶´ Van den Houten had never worked with Sivertson previously, but was impressed by his work on films such as The Lost and had been looking for a project to do with him for years. Having this pair teaming up to write, direct and shoot a high-octane cheerleading zombie film seemed like a SHUIHFWRSSRUWXQLW\WKDWFRXOGQ¶WEHSDVVHG up. Furthermore, though the project had a lot of crossbred elements from a number of different genres ± horror, supernatural, action, coming-of- age ± what made the project even more attractive was that McKee and Sivertson wanted to infuse some humor into the screenplay. Van den Houten knew there was going to be something interesting and fun about this script and WKDWDFHUWDLQµEUDQG¶RIKXPRUZRXOGILQGVLWVZD\LQWRWKHVWRU\OLQHZKLFKKHDSSUHFLDWHG ³,IHHODORWRIWKHILOPV,GRGRQ WKDYHDVPXch humor as I would like, and so it's nice to be doing something like that. There's a Coen Brother-esque quality to the humor in this film, I have WRVD\EXWLW VDFURVVWKHERDUG7KHKXPRULVQ WQHFHVVDULO\GDUNLW VDPL[WXUH´KHVWDWHV For years McKee and Sivertson had discussed making a sequel to the original film, but with so much time passing since its completion, it seemed a better idea to re-envision the original idea with all they had learned throughout their professional careers up to that point. Neither had co- directed another project with anyone else throughout the years, but they felt confident in working WRJHWKHUDJDLQVLQFHFROODERUDWLRQLVHVVHQWLDOO\WKH³HSLFHQWHURIILOPPDNLQJ´DVWKH\KDYH stated. All Cheerleaders Die pg. 8 of 26 Van den Houten insists that he wanted to give McKee and Sivertson as much creative freedom as SRVVLEOHZKLOHWKH\ZHUHKDPPHULQJRXWWKHVFUHHQSOD\³:HUHDOO\DOORZRXUGLUHFWRUVWRGLUHFW the movies that they want to direct; we allow our writers to write what they want to write and we don't sit there and tell them - ,W VIXQQ\RULW¶VQRWIXQQ\6XUHZHJLYHQRWHVEXWJHQHUDOO\, OLNHWRIRFXVRQILQGLQJDZULWHURUGLUHFWRUWKDWKDVDFOHDUYLVLRQIURPWKHEHJLQQLQJ´ For the actual scripting process, McKee and Sivertson would talk out some general ideas and then one of them would go off and write some pages.