Movies
Raven Banner’s ‘Meza’ Gains Dark Superhuman Abilities
Toronto genre specialist Raven Banner touches down at the AFM with worldwide sales rights to James Mark’s sci-fi action title Meza, ScreenDaily reports.
The film screens in the market on Saturday and tells of a troubled high school student who discovers the truth behind his forgotten past. Once he does so, the youngster gains access to a dark world of superhuman abilities.
Martial arts exponent and stuntman Chris Mark, who has worked on The Hunger Games and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, stars with Mark’s martial arts group Team 2X.
Producer Byron Kent Wong of Iron Bay Films / ZERO11ZERO brokered the deal with Raven Banner managing partners Michael Paszt and James Fler.
Theo James Krekis‘ short film Jealous People are Ugly People premiered earlier this year at SXSW and has since inspired a massive bidding war for its feature film expansion.
New Line Cinema has emerged victorious in the latest feeding frenzy over next-generation digital horror IP and its creators, Deadline reports.
Krekis will adapt Jealous People are Ugly People, directing from his own script.
In the short film, “Vasilly has become painfully jealous of his best friend, Luke. But things aren’t going so well for Luke. Every time he shares some good news, he starts to suffer from strange and violent repercussions. Disturbed by the uncanny timing, Vasilly recalls his Yiayia’s warnings about the Greek superstition of the evil eye – and starts to believe his own envy might be to blame for Luke’s bad luck.”
SXSW described the short film as ” a darkly comic psychological thriller about male jealousy, inherited superstition, and the corrosive power of repressed ambition.”
Jennifer Monks and Michelle Stein will produce the feature take alongside Isaac Klausner, John Fischer, Ben Levine and Ethan Cappello. Josh Mack and Lauren Botchan are overseeing for New Line.
Jealous People are Ugly People joins New Line’s upcoming horror slate that also includes Santiago Menghini’s The Revenge of La Llorona on February 26, 2027, and The Conjuring: First Communion on September 10, 2027.