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WREKIN HILL ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES U.S. RIGHTS TO BRITISH SMASH HIT THE INBETWEENERS

Posted Thursday, January 12th, 2012 - Comments Off on WREKIN HILL ENTERTAINMENT ACQUIRES U.S. RIGHTS TO BRITISH SMASH HIT THE INBETWEENERS
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Los Angeles, CA (January 12, 2012)— Chris Ball, President and CEO of LA-based film production and distribution company Wrekin Hill Entertainment, announced today that the company is acquiring U.S. rights to director Ben Palmer’s UK box office phenomenon THE INBETWEENERS. Iain Morris and Damon Beesley penned the script for the film, which is based on the award-winning British TV series of the same name. The film stars James Buckley, Blake Harrison, and Joe Thomas, with Christopher Young serving as the producer. Shane Allen, Head of Comedy at Channel 4, executive produced the picture with Beesley and Morris. Wrekin Hill plans to release theatrically in the U.S. in the late Spring of 2012.

THE INBETWEENERS was fully financed by UK’s Channel 4 Television through its Film4 and 4DVD divisions.  The film has seen great success in the UK, having grossed nearly $70 million at the British box office to date since it opened in British theatres in August 2011. Additionally, it has grossed over $10 million in Australia and New Zealand. MTV is also currently shooting an American version of the television series. The original television series was commissioned for Channel 4’s digital entertainment channel E4.

The UK’s answer to AMERICAN PIE, THE INBETWEENERS is a raunchy teen comedy about four loser friends navigating their way through life armed only with their hormones. Step into a world of humiliation and awkward moments as Will, Jay, Simon and Neil go on their first vacation to Greece in search of high times and wild sex – with no parents, no teachers, no money, and little to no chance with the ladies.

Noted Ball: “With the tremendous response that THE INBETWEENERS has received from audiences overseas, we are exceptionally excited to be bringing this film to the U.S.”

Commented Young: “We are all very excited at the prospect of THE INBETWEENERS reaching a new audience in the United States following its huge success with British audiences.”

The deal for THE INBETWEENERS was negotiated by Ball and Rene Cogan for Wrekin Hill with Stuart Ford and Jonathan Deckter of IM Global on behalf of Channel Four and the filmmakers.

About Wrekin Hill Entertainment

WREKIN HILL ENTERTAINMENT is a Los Angeles-based production and distribution company, founded by the former Newmarket Films team of Chris Ball and Rene Cogan. Ball and Cogan built a reputation at Newmarket for producing and distributing such indie classics as MEMENTO, DONNIE DARKO, WHALE RIDER, MONSTER, and THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST.  Wrekin Hill has a multi-year US home entertainment distribution deal with Lionsgate, and a three-year multi-platform output deal with Canadian distributor eOne. The company aims to distribute four to five quality theatrical releases each year, in addition to its ancillary driven output,with a focus on the same kind of director-driven specialty films on which the team has built its reputation. During 2011, Wrekin Hill has theatrically released such films as Peter Weir’s THE WAY BACK, and Spencer Susser’s HESHER starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman.  In early 2012, the company will release award-winning Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s (House of Flying Daggers, Hero) and producer Zhang Weiping’s THE FLOWERS OF WAR starring Academy Award® winning actor Christian Bale in major markets; the film, which has been nominated for a Golden Globe, also had a highly successful one-week awards qualifying run in late 2011.

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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

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~ David Simon