Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Indie Features!!

What with animation being a hot a commodity, it's not hard to see why a distributor would scoop up two CG comedy features when the opportunity arose.

Smith Global Media ... has acquired distribution rights to the animated family features Charming and Gnome Alone. Both hail from Shrek producer John H. Williams and are financed and produced by 3QU Media. ...

Smith Global Media plans a late 2017 theatrical bow for Gnome Alone and a Q2 2018 release for Charming. Smith said the dual acquisition “enhances our company’s position in the marketplace and illustrates our desire to be the home for the most acclaimed independent films worldwide.” ...

I guess we'll see how acclaimed these two pups are, after they get released.

Gnome Alone (not to be confused with the horror movie of the same name) and Charming are two of four features set up by 3QU Media, set up by Shrek producer John Williams back in '14. One is in the can and the other near completion. No idea what the status of the other two might be.

These two pictures are produced by 3QU Media and created at Cinesite in Montreal, where the Free Money tumbles down like flakes of December snow. Both features have budgets of under $20 million, but that's probably after the government kickbacks. (At this price range, the pictures should be in profits quickly if they get any kind of commercial traction at all. There are a lot of markets outside the U.S. where lower budget CG features play well).

Gnome Alone is described as an action comedy. As for Charming, writer-director Ross Venokur, who's been in the animated features biz a while, describes it thusly:

... I have spent years and years reading [my three daughters] bedtime stories. Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that, “Hey, Cinderella marries Prince Charming, and Sleeping Beauty marries Prince Charming, and Snow White marries Prince Charming… It’s the same dude!” And the story grew out of there. ...

So that's the story. Now, if the production values for Charming and Gnome Alone aren't too awful,there could be coin to be made.

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