GIANT PICTURES ACQUIRES AWARD-WINNING SUPERNATURAL COMEDY
'GHOST LIGHT'
FOR RELEASE ON ALL DIGITAL HD PLATFORMS, CABLE, AND DVD NATIONWIDE ON JUNE 18
THE FILM WILL BE PRESENTED IN 4K HDR WHERE AVAILABLE
STARRING
CARY ELWES, TOM RILEY, ROGER BART, CAROL KANE, SHANNYN SOSSAMON, DANIELLE CAMPBELL, SCOTT ADSIT, AND STEVE TOM
Shoreline Entertainment Represents the Film for Foreign Sales
Los Angeles, CA - (June 6, 2019) - Giant Pictures, the digital film distribution division of Giant Interactive, has acquired North American digital rights for Ghost Light, a supernatural comedy with a horrifying twist. Directed by John Stimpson and conceived, written, and produced by Stimpson (The Legend of Lucy Keyes, A Christmas Kiss, The Wrong Car) and Geoffrey Taylor (Tempest, Moscow on the Hudson, Down and Out in Beverly Hills), under Stimpson's H9 production banner. Ghost Light is the tale of a disgruntled actor who disregards the superstition surrounding Shakespeare's Macbeth and unwittingly unleashes the play's legendary curse on the troupe, with tragic consequences.
Giant Pictures will release Ghost Light on June 18, 2019 on all digital platforms including iTunes, Amazon, Movies on Demand through local cable providers, plus DVD nationwide. The film will be presented in 4k HDR where available. Pre-orders are available on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/ghost-light/id1462841145
The filmmakers will attend the Washington D.C. premiere of the film at the historic Folger Theatre in the Folger Shakespeare Library located on Capitol Hill on June 17, and will participate in a Q&A following the screening. For event information: www.folger.edu/talks
"Delivering fun and scares in equal measure, Ghost Light introduces the myth of the 'Scottish Play' to a whole new generation. We look forward to bringing this delightfully horrifying comedy to audiences everywhere, in magnificent 4K HDR," said Sarah Dawson of Giant Pictures.
Direct trailer link: https://vimeo.com/246136768
The award-winning ensemblecast of Ghost Light stars Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in Tights), Tom Riley (Da Vinci's Demons, The Collection, Starfish, Dark Heart), Roger Bart (Episodes, Revenge, The Producers, American Gangster), Carol Kane (The Princess Bride, Annie Hall, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Shannyn Sossamon (Sleepy Hollow, Wayward Pines, A Knight's Tale, Wristcutters: A Love Story, The Rules of Attraction), Danielle Campbell (Tell Me a Story, The Originals, Runaways, Being Frank), Scott Adsit (Big Hero 6, 30 Rock, Moral Orel, The Terminal),and Steve Tom (Major Crimes, Dumb and Dumber To, Funny or Die Presents...).
Rounding out the ensemble cast are: Alex Portenko (Proud Mary), Shelon Best (The Good Wife, Manifest, Person of Interest), Caroline Portu (The Society, American Odyssey),Nolan Gerard Funk (Counterpart, Awkward, Glee, The Canyons), Lilian Klein (Men in Black 3, Super Troopers 2),Zele Avradopoulos (Paul Blart: Mall Cop), Ken Cheeseman (Leaves of Grass, The Invention of Lying, Mystic River), Mary Callanan Maureen Keiller (Fever Pitch, Spotlight),and Jason Mulcahy (Castle Rock, Chappaquiddick, Grown Ups 2).
"The idea for Ghost Light came from my years in the theatre and particularly the Hasty Pudding at Harvard. I get such a kick out of the ridiculous but very seriously regarded superstitions that actors believe in. It called out for a comedic approach, but there are necessarily horrific moments. We're dealing with the tragedy of Macbeth after all!", said Stimpson.
In the movie a band of rag-tag summer stock actors in a traveling Shakespeare company prepare to perform The Tragedy of Macbeth at the rustic Riverside Resort and Theater in the mountains of Western Massachusetts. The troupe includes Alex (Elwes), an inept former soap star with deep pockets; Thomas (Riley), a disgraced former New York theater star; Henry (Bart), the director; and Madeline, played by (Kane), a fading grand dame of the stage, among others. When they arrive at the desolate theater, Thomas and his lover, Liz Beth (Sossamon), wantonly disregard the superstition of "The Scottish Play" and unwittingly trigger its curse when they arrogantly shout the name "Macbeth" on stage. Needless to say, things begin to go awry. In due course, two dotty French Canadian caretakers arrive, followed by a wandering, young Appalachian Trail hiker named Juliet (Campbell), whose seductive charm prompts the cast to invite her to play one of the witches in the production. The terrifying sorcery of the ancient curse that has followed performances of Macbeth for centuries strikes yet again. All's well that ends well... but not for everyone.
Taylor noted that "Our movie weaves together light-hearted comic fun with a splash of spooky supernatural edge. That was what John and I set out to do and we couldn't be happier with the result. Actors performing Shakespeare badly are the perfect foils for unspooling the curse of Macbeth and audiences have been loving the result at festivals all over. No knowledge about or even taste for Shakespeare is required to enjoy Ghost Light... just sit back and laugh and (occasionally) jump during the wild ride. We had a blast making it and audiences watching it are doing the same."
Ghost Light has been an official selection in several prestigious national and international film festivals, including the Austin Film Festival, LA Film Festival, Portland Film Festival, Sedona International Film Festival, and the Monadnock International Film Festival, and won several awards, including: Oxford Film Festival, The Lisa Blount Memorial Acting Award for Roger Bart, and the Audience Award for Best Feature; the Austin Film Festival, Jury Award - Dark Matters Best Feature Film; and the Woodstock Film Festival, Special Jury Prize - Best Ensemble Cast.
Ghost Light was produced by Taylor and Stimpson, who was also the film's Editor, along with Executive Producers Jennifer Chisolm and William Earon, Co-Producer Michael O'neil, and Line Producer Luke Ramsey. The filmmaking team included: Director of Photography Terrence Hayes, Production Designer Chad Detwiller, Costume Designer Joanna Murphy, Composer Ed Grenga, and Casting Director Rick Montgomery.
John Nugent and his team at Sandbox VFX in the Berkshires created over 100 special effects shots in the film. Nugent was a VFX supervisor on Lord of the Rings.
The film is represented for North America by CAA, and by Shoreline Entertainment for non-US sales.
Ghost Light ONLINE
iTunes pre-orders https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/ghost-light/id1462841145
https://www.ghostlightmovie.com
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6215446/
https://www.instagram.com/ghostlightmovie/
https://www.facebook.com/GhostLightMov/
https://twitter.com/ghostlightmovie
About GIANT PICTURES
Giant Pictures is a boutique digital distributor based in NYC and Los Angeles, which is dedicated to elevating the digital experience. Working directly with filmmakers and rights owners, Giant distributes movies and TV shows to VOD & OTT platforms in North America and worldwide. Giant is a division of Giant Interactive, an award-winning digital media and technology services company, and is an iTunes Preferred aggregator and encoding house. Recent movie and documentary releases include: '306 Hollywood' (Dir. Elan & Jonathan Bogarin, Sundance 2018), 'Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.' (Dir. Steve Loveridge, Sundance 2018), 'Newness' (Dir. Drake Doremus, starring Nicholas Hoult, Laia Costa, Sundance 2017). Visit us at: www.giant.pictures.com
About the Ghost Light filmmakers
John Stimpson is a producer, writer, director and editor. Having worked extensively in episodic, documentary style television on programs for Discovery, Animal Planet, HGTV and Outdoor Life, Stimpson turned his focus on scripted, narrative content in the early 2000's. Over the last fifteen years he has directed many independent films including The Legend of Lucy Keyes, A Christmas Kiss, Sexting In Suburbia and The Wrong Car among others. His interest in film and television began at Harvard where he majored in Visual and Environmental Studies and was President of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. He then spent five years as a professional actor in Los Angeles before returning to the East Coast and refocusing his talent on the other side of the lens. Stimpson has directed more than ten features and worked on many others as a writer, editor, producer or consultant.
Geoffrey Taylor is a long-time feature film producer and writer who worked with famed director Paul Mazursky for many years. His films include Tempest, Moscow on the Hudson, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Moon Over Parador, Enemies a Love Story, Faithful and Taking Care of Business. He has produced music by Little Richard and Billy Preston, designed national ad campaigns for his films and produced and directed a documentary for PBS. Over the years he has worked with almost every major studio and a few minor ones. Starting with running his film society at Yale, Taylor earned a law degree from Georgetown and left a career as an LA music lawyer after winning a contest as a comedy writer at Fox Television. In the last decade Taylor has concentrated on his first love, writing, and has written or co-written half a dozen screenplays.
About The Folger Theatre and The Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library, opened in 1932, featured the first replica in North America of an Elizabethan theater, a 250-seat space designed to suggest the inn-yard playing spaces. Founders Henry and Emily Folger envisioned it as a place for the performance of plays in Shakespeare's style, and the first nationally televised broadcast of a Shakespeare play in the U.S. was Julius Caesar from the Folger stage in 1949. Director of Public Programs Janet Alexander Griffin established Folger Theatre in 1991 and has since, as Artistic Producer, produced more than twenty-five seasons of Shakespeare, other plays from the period, and new works, including commissions, inspired by the period. Folger Theatre premiered the original Shakespeare for My Father, Lynn Redgrave's reminiscence of her theatrical family, as well as Roger Rees' What You Will ; co-produced Teller and Aaron Posner's magical Macbeth, released on video; was the first Washington venue to present a production from Shakespeare's Globe from London; and has collaborated with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Guthrie, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Third Rail Projects, Bedlam, and other theater companies across the country.
Since1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 30 awards and 148 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production-including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2007 for Measure for Measure, 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger's theatrical productions were nominated in that category), 2013 for The Taming of the Shrew, and most recently, for the 2016 staging of Sense and Sensibility (which garnered four Helen Hayes Awards).
Folger Shakespeare Library is a renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500-1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library which offers advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs -theatre, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger, Folger Shakespeare Library-located one block east of the U.S. Capitol-opened in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more at www.folger.edu.
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