IN ASSOCIATION WITH BLINDER FILMS presents in coproduction with UMEDIA in association with FÍS ÉIREANN / SCREEN IRELAND, INEVITABLE PICTURES and EPIC PICTURES GROUP THE HAUNTINGS BEGIN IN THEATERS MARCH, 2020 Written and Directed by MIKE AHERN & ENDA LOUGHMAN Starring Maeve Higgins, Barry Ward, Risteárd Cooper, Jamie Beamish, Terri Chandler With Will Forte And Claudia O’Doherty 93 min. – Ireland / Belgium – MPAA Rating: R WEBSITE: www.CrankedUpFilms.com/ExtraOrdinary / http://rosesdrivingschool.com/ SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram HASHTAG: #ExtraOrdinary #ChristianWinterComeback #CosmicWoman #EverydayHauntings STILLS/NOTES: Link TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1TvL5ZL6Sc For additional information please contact: New York: Leigh Wolfson: [email protected]: 212.373.6149 Nina Baron: [email protected] – 212.272.6150 Los Angeles: Margaret Gordon: [email protected] – 310.854.4726 Emily Maroon – [email protected] – 310.854.3289 Field: Sara Blue - [email protected] - 303-955-8854 1 LOGLINE Rose, a mostly sweet & mostly lonely Irish small-town driving instructor, must use her supernatural talents to save the daughter of Martin (also mostly sweet & lonely) from a washed-up rock star who is using her in a Satanic pact to reignite his fame. SHORT SYNOPSIS Rose, a sweet, lonely driving instructor in rural Ireland, is gifted with supernatural abilities. Rose has a love/hate relationship with her ‘talents’ & tries to ignore the constant spirit related requests from locals - to exorcise possessed rubbish bins or haunted gravel. But! Christian Winter, a washed up, one-hit-wonder rock star, has made a pact with the devil for a return to greatness! He puts a spell on a local teenager- making her levitate. Her terrified father, Martin Martin, asks Rose to help save his daughter. Rose has to overcome the fear of her supernatural gift & work with Martin to save the girl, get the guy and be home in time for a light snack...maybe a yogurt or something... LONG SYNOPSIS Rose is a sweet, lonely driving instructor in Ireland with supernatural abilities called “The Talents” that allow her to communicate with spirits (inherited from her father Vincent, who made a living peddling videos about the supernatural.) Rose has a love/hate relationship with her gifts, (blaming herself for her father’s death), and ignores the community’s requests to investigate ghouls in the cupboard or headless horsemen scaring cows. So when widower Martin, haunted by his nagging ex- wife Bonnie, contacts her for help at the behest of his teen daughter Sarah, Rose brushes him off. But she can’t shake Martin from her mind, and her sister Sailor encourages her to at least consider the job. Meanwhile, local aging rock star Christian Winter has a sinister plan for success – virgin sacrifice. He casts a spell on Sarah leaving her levitating and catatonic. Martin begs Rose’s help, and she agrees. From Vincent’s notes, Rose learns that to save her they must exorcise ghosts for a counter-spell…and fast. They’ve two days before Sarah’s dragged into a fiery pit of hell. Martin and Rose set about the exorcisms, while Sailor minds Sarah. Despite the weird situations - haunted wheelie bins, rude oil painting, possessed toilet roll - they work well together. And there’s budding attraction between them - though neither act on it. 2 But when Christian learns of their plan, he blocks Rose's talents, in doing so trapping Bonnie’s ghost inside Martin's body. Martin and Bonnie fight for control, and in the chaos Christian summons Sarah to his castle…. Rose, Martin (still struggling with Bonnie) and Sailor hightail it after Sarah, arriving to discover Christian has managed to open a gateway to hell. To save Sarah they’ll have to to close the portal in the most awkward way possible… QUOTES FROM WRITER/DIRECTORS MIKE AHERN AND ENDA LOUGHMAN Regarding Shoot & Casting - "We are delighted we have somehow convinced an incredible group of actors and funny people we really admire, along with an amazing crew and some random folk that we just wanted to meet, to join our fever dream and make this mysterious romantic oddball ghost story love comedy adventure film. The timely script obviously hit home as it shines a light on important, serious issues like that of haunted rubbish bins in rural Ireland. The fact that International super talent Will Forte has come on board suggests the topic of tiny hauntings is a universal problem that needs to be highlighted and addressed. See you at the Oscars! " Regarding SXSW Premiere - “We couldn’t imagine a more fitting festival to show EXTRA ORDINARY for its world premiere. Just like in our film, the SXSW line-up will no doubt feature a few creepy rock stars, as well as some weird but lovable folk with supernatural powers. It’s the perfect fit. We are very excited and honoured!” SOME NOTES ON THE FILM FROM WRITER/DIRECTORS MIKE AHERN AND ENDA LOUGHMAN Background & Tone EXTRA ORDINARY is a character based romantic comedy with supernatural elements. The initial idea that we felt focused a lot of other funnywas inspired ideas we by were two characters having re: veryIreland's briefly rural mentioned spirit-world. in this We article liked this description: 'We contacted husband-and-wife ghost-hunters Ray and Beryl Herne from Central Parade to send the poltergeist packing. Spirit medium Ray, a 52-year-old lorry driver, says he can draw the gross ghost into him while Beryl, 59, will envelope it in a "vortex of light" and send it to the "other side." Beryl said: "Sometimes spirits need to be here. There is usually a reason. Sometimes it's family. Sometimes we have to alleviate some stress." While the article was silly, these sentences grabbed our attention as an initial basis for some great very local yet very universal characters. Describing Ray: Ray, 'a 52-year-old lorry driver'. This made 3 meet? What ourare herminds gifts? flip. How How does does she 'enveloping counsel the spirits' ghosts? become A world a normal of ideas thing started to do? to How emerge. did they Theare titlevery EXTRA ordinary ORDINARY people, informs'extra, theordinary' tone we in created fact, andwith inthis many film, ininstances that from the the outsidesupernatural these occurrences are almost banal. Wedemons have that very tear deliberately people apart flipped and the ravage Horror bloody movie revenge idea that on allthe hauntings living. We are want these the big opposite powerful of that. Hauntings can’t be seen because ghosts are small and a bit crap. They bit like humans, stuck in Rosea situation, our hero, they isdon't inhabiting like with a world low energy that is and quite can’t banal figure to her a way. It’s out. extra ordinary because she knows what’s out there but chooses not to look. In fact, when we meet her she has rejected her gifts - it’s the arc of her accepting them, and the story that unfolds is 'extraordinary' to her and especially the viewer. Themes A - we think there are other s well as the themes of overcoming loss, of ‘being stuck’, and finding love way, our underlying tones and themes across the film such as livingndscape in a with small close town. observations In a broader of the quiet film’stedium tone and captures comedically the tropes morbid of nature a culturally of small specific-town la Ireland. Your mother ringing you and telling you who has died. The paradox of myth and religion. 'It's fairy magic, god help us’. It’s somewhere in between loneliness and tradition. We both love Irish folklore, superstition and storiesway. We and have we addedfeel this a filmlot oftreats our andown examines character them and incharacter’s an inventive, we knowunique from and fondlythis rural comedic Irish landscape to the story, albeit at times heightened versions. We wanted to stay true to these people and ideas, by tonally holding back from being a cartoon version of rural Ireland, our characters and scenarios are funny but we take them seriously. Vincent & The Talents series. The Talents is a colloquial 'general' name for the supernatural gifts that Rose possesses. Although fictional,folklore practices. we are basing We also the wereideas inspiredwithin it, by on Charles Irish beliefs, Fort's from strange faith studies healers and to superstitionswritings on a and host old of 4 extraordinary phenomena which bridge the borderlands between science and fantasy. Again, a universal idea, we are just focused on the local. Rose's father Vincent is an exper introduce the idea that he is obsessedt in The with Talents, documenting and pops the Talentsup as a andguide has throughout created a rudimentarythe film. We guide to the supernatural gift. It is presented like a series of lo- ing the Extraordinary’ instructional videos, sometimes quite detailed,fi allcirca surrounding 1990's ‘Investigat supernatural phenomena in Ireland, what they are, and how to deal with them. Visually we treated these segments as realistically as possible, while still divining the comedy from a well-placed Voice Over and unexpected image. They mimic the naive style of simple home edit and using graphics and titling that you would find on Instructional Videos of this nature and time period. If Ghosts exist why don't we see them every day? As we wrote and directed the film we had a quite clear ‘manifesto’ of self-imposed rules throughout thewould process. like to Thissee on guide screen. governs Our hauntings how much, are or all in invisible, the case our of thisghosts film, never how seen, little just visual suggested effects and we ingested. Our ghosts are characters instead of effects.