New York, NY (June 8, 2010) – IFC Films, the leading American distributor of independent and foreign films, announced today that the company has acquired North American rights to WAKE, a psychological thriller directed by Chad Feehan. Feehan, who makes his directorial debut on the film, also wrote the screenplay and produced the film, along with Amanda Micallef and Lea-Beth Shapiro. The film, which stars Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone and Afemo Omilami, made its world premiere this year at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival. IFC will release the film via its IFC Midnight on demand platform which brings critically-acclaimed independent movies to on-demand viewers across the country.
WAKE follows Paul (Stewart) and Adrienne (Sigler) as they travel to a wedding in Los Angeles through the Mojave Desert. Road-weary, they decide to stop for the night at lonely Roy’s Motel and Cafe. This roadside artifact proves to be a strange and surreal place with an unsettling mix of travelers, including a sketchy front-desk manager and his promiscuous wife. Ultimately, these ill-fated lovers lead Paul and Adrienne down a path of tense and emotionally charged experiences that reveals a horrifying secret hidden between them.
President of IFC Entertainment Jonathan Sehring said: "Chad’s film is a really good scare and great fun, and a reminder to all of us that we shouldn’t stop at shady motels in deserts. We are proud to be working with Chad at the start of what we know will be a long and successful career."
Next up for Feehan and The Fort is BEYOND THE PALE, a film that Feehan will direct and is currently adapting from William Gay’s critical darling, TWILIGHT.
The deal for WAKE was negotiated by Lizzie Nastro for IFC Films and Ben Weiss of Paradigm Motion Picture Finance Group on behalf of the filmmakers.
About the Filmmaker
From Fort Worth, TX, Chad Feehan holds a B.A. in English High Honors from the University of San Diego and a M.F.A. in producing from the American Film Institute. In March 2005, Chad formed Catch Fire Films, a production company based in Los Angeles. His first project, ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, which he developed as his Master’s Thesis at AFI, was financed by Occupant Films and entered production in October 2005. On ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, Chad served as producer, overseeing all elements of pre-production, production and post. The film premiered in the Midnight Madness Program of the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. Immediately thereafter, The Weinstein Company acquired worldwide rights. To date, ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE has been released in over 26 countries and called, "the best modern slasher since SCREAM." In 2006, Chad joined forces with Amanda Micallef and launched their mutual banner, The Fort. Together, they optioned the best-selling memoir, "One Ranger" by H. Joaquin Jackson and David Marion Wilkinson, and developed the book into a taut, Texas-Mexico border thriller titled, DEVIL’S SWING. On the project, Chad and Amanda partnered to produce with 2929 Productions and State Street Pictures. In addition to DEVIL’S SWING, Chad and Amanda recently acquired the rights to William Gay’s southerngothic novel, "Twilight," which Stephen King named #1 on his Top Books of 2007 in Entertainment Weekly. The Fort is also co-publishing the graphic novel, "Hell House: The Awakening," with Viper Comics, which was penned by Chad and long-time collaborator, Ryan Dixon. It is set to launch at Comic Con 2010. Finally, in April of 2009, Chad completed principal photography on WAKE. Film critic Christopher Kelly named Chad one of the top four emerging filmmakers of 2010 in Texas Monthly. Outside of production and development, Chad devotes his free time as an adjunct
professor at West Los Angeles College, teaching cinema studies to aspiring artists.
About IFC Entertainment
A leader in the independent film industry, IFC Entertainment consists of multiple brands that are devoted to bringing the best of specialty films to the largest possible audience: IFC Films, Festival Direct, IFC Productions, and the IFC Center. IFC Films is a leading distributor of independent film. Its unique day and date distribution model, ’IFC In Theaters,’ makes independent films available to a national audience by releasing them simultaneously in theaters as well as on cable’s On Demand platform and through Pay-Per-View, reaching 50 million homes. ’IFC Festival Direct’ features a wide selection of titles acquired from major international film festivals and offers them exclusively through Video on Demand. IFC Center is a five screen, state-of-the-art cinema with luxurious seating and HD digital and 35mm projection that shows art-house films in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. IFC Entertainment’s companies are subsidiaries of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC.