The Toronto International Film Festival is underway and while screenings are running, deals are being made in the process. Writer and debut director Henry Dunham’s new film, The Standoff At Sparrow Creek is just one of them, now following its Midnight Madness premiere and with XYZ Films repping international sales.
The word on Tuesday by way of a press announcement out of Toronto is that negotiations have unfolded in favor of RLJE Films in its acquisition of North American distribution rights. Release dates pending, the company is currently plotting to release the film nationally in theaters, as well as on VOD and Digital HD in early 2019.
In The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, after a shooting at a police funeral, reclusive ex-cop Gannon (Dale) finds himself unwittingly forced out of retirement when he realizes that the killer belongs to the same militia he joined after quitting the force. Understanding that the shooting could set off a chain reaction of copycat violence across the country, Gannon quarantines his fellow militiamen in the remote lumber mill they call their headquarters. There, he sets about a series of grueling interrogations, intent on ferreting out the killer and turning him over to the authorities to prevent further bloodshed.
Rounding out the cast are James Badge Dale (13 Hours), Chris Mulkey (Captain Phillips), Brian Geraghty (NBC’s “Chicago P.D”.), Robert Aramayo (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), Patrick Fischler (Showtime’s “Twin Peaks”), Happy Anderson (Cinemax’s “The Knick”) and Gene Jones (The Hateful Eight).
“This is our seventh collaboration with Dallas Sonnier, the producer of Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99,” said Chief Acquisitions Officer Mark Ward for RLJE Films. “With a Black List script by Henry Dunham and a talented cast led by James Badge Dale, we are confident we will not disappoint genre enthusiasts at this year’s Midnight Madness at TIFF.”
The film was produced by Dallas Sonnier (Brawl in Cell Block 99) and Amanda Presmyk (Dragged Across Concrete) for Texas-based CINESTATE alongside Sefton Fincham (What They Had), Johnathan Brownlee (Three Days in August) and Adam Donaghey (A Ghost Story). Exec producing are XYZ Films’ Nate Bolotin (Mandy) and Todd Brown (The Raid) executive produce, as well as Danielle Cox, Steve Gossett, Jr., Preston Poulter and Michael Shader.
Ward and Jess De Leo from RLJE Films negotiated the deal with Sonnier and United Talent Agency on behalf of CINESTATE and the filmmakers.
RLJE Films’ past films include – but aren’t limited to – I Kill Giants, Pilgrimage, and S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Bone Tomahawk starring Kurt Russell. Next on the company’s slate is Panos Cosmatos’ 2018 Sundance Film Festival hit, Mandy, starring Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough and Linus Roache which opens this Friday.
