By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

“Fubar: Balls to the Wall” Acquired by Screen Media Films Prior to SXSW Premiere

Company to release film on April 19 following U.S. premiere at SXSW in March

New York, February 10, 2011 – Screen Media Films has acquired North American rights to FUBAR: BALLS TO THE WALL, Michael Dowse’s hilarious look into the lives of headbangers Dean and Terry that stars Paul J. Spence and David Lawrence, prior to its U.S. premiere at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.  The deal was announced by the company’s President, Robert Baruc, who plans to release the film on VOD and home video on April 19, 2011.

Headbanger relics, Terry (Dave Lawrence) and Dean (Paul J. Spence), are tired of trying to give’r while barely scraping by, so when their old buddy, Tron (Andrew Sparacino), hooks them up with jobs they head up North to make sweet cash working on the pipelines during the holidays.  Flush with money and confidence, Terry starts dating Trish (Terra Hazelton), a local waitress, and things get serious in a hurry. Meanwhile, Dean is playing up the part of ‘cancer survivor,’ and upon hearing about the glories of Worker’s Compensation, purposely injures himself in an attempt to qualify.  When Terry then moves in with Trish, Dean does his best to save his buddy from swapping the banger life for domestic captivity, but his own life starts to spiral out of control when the Workers’ Compensation Board denies his claim and his doctor shows up out of the blue with some fateful news.  Completely broken by his own self-destruction, Dean must rise to take control and fight for the things that mean the most: his family, his friends, and Christmas.

“We were immediately drawn to the fun nature of the film and think Dave and Paul have created indelible characters that appeal to the headbanger in all of us,” says Screen Media president Robert Baruc.  “SXSW is the perfect festival for the film as it embodies everything ‘Dean’ and ‘Terry’ stand for – good times, good beer, and good friends.”

Adds director Michael Dowse, “I am thrilled to be slapping FUBAR’s ball to American walls this spring, a partridge will be shotgunning beers in a pear tree.  We couldn’t have a better partner than Screen Media to bring FUBAR: BALLS TO THE WALL out to American audiences with.”

FUBAR: BALLS TO THE WALL is directed by Michael Dowse, written by Michael Dowse, David Lawrence, and Paul J. Spence, produced by George Baptist, Shirley Vercruysse, Jennifer Wilson, Michael Dowse, David Lawrence, and Paul J. Spence, with cinematography by Bobby Shore, and editing by Reginald Harkema.  The film stars David Lawrence, Paul J. Spence, Andy Sparacino, and Terra Hezelton.

The deal was negotiated by Robert Baruc and Suzanne Blech from Screen Media Films, and Bec Smith at UTA on behalf of the filmmakers

For more information about FUBAR: BALLS TO THE WALL:
– Official website: www.fubar-themovie.com
– Official Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fubar-Balls-to-the-Wall/161083973942819
– Dean Murdoch’s Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/dean_murdoch
– Terry Cahill’s Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/terry_cahill

About Screen Media Films

Screen Media Films acquires the rights to high quality, independent feature films for the U.S. and Canada. Screen Media’s theatrical releases include “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” starring Robin Wright and Keanu Reeves; “La Mission” starring Benjamin Bratt; and Merchant Ivory’s “City of Your Final Destination” starring Anthony Hopkins, Laura Linney. Since 2001, Screen Media has released more than 150 titles including “Lymelife,” “Sherrybaby,” “Noel,” and “Bustin Down the Door.” Screen Media Films is a wholly owned division of Screen Media Ventures, LLC.  With a library of over 1000 motion pictures, Screen Media Ventures is one of the largest independent suppliers of high quality motion pictures to U.S. and international broadcast markets, cable networks, home video outlets and new media venues. For more information, go here.

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

One Response to ““Fubar: Balls to the Wall” Acquired by Screen Media Films Prior to SXSW Premiere”

  1. Jennae Davison says:

    I had the opportunity to see Balls to the Wall at the Toronto Film Festival, and loved it – it’s HILARIOUS, from beginning to end! There are so many quotable one-liners, and the destruction is phenomenal. I’m stoked to watch it again at SXSW. If you’re into chaos, and absolute hilarity, you don’t want to miss this one.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon