Lionsgate Finds Its ‘NEXT’ Great Horror Film

Company Acquires Adam Wingard’s YOU’RE NEXT

SANTA MONICA, CA (September 21, 2011) – LIONSGATE today announced that it has acquired U.S. and Canadian distribution rights to YOU’RE NEXT, following its screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival. The announcement was made jointly by Joe Drake, Lionsgate’s co-COO and Motion Picture Group President, and Jason Constantine, President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions.

Directed by Adam Wingard from a script penned by Simon Barrett, YOU’RE NEXT is a petrifying horror story starring Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, A.J. Bowen, Nicholas Tucci and Barbara Crampton. Snoot Entertainment’s Keith Calder and Jessica Wu produced the project with Simon Barrett and Kim Sherman. The film reunites the principal cast from Wingard and Barrett’s shocking serial-killer thriller A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE, which screened at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

In YOU’RE NEXT, during a family reunion getaway, the Davison family comes under a sadistic attack. When Crispian Davison (Bowen) brings his new girlfriend (Vinson) along to celebrate the wedding anniversary of his parents (Moran and Crampton), the family’s evening together is shattered when a gang of mysterious killers begin to hunt the family down with brutal precision. Unfortunately for the killers however, one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Jason Constantine negotiated the deal on behalf of Lionsgate with Eda Kowan, SVP of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, and Wendy Jaffe, the Acquisitions and Co-Production team’s EVP of Business & Legal Affairs. Snoot Entertainment is represented by CAA, who negotiated the sale on their behalf with Erik Hyman of Loeb & Loeb.

“This project represents everything that we look for in a horror film,” explains Constantine of the company’s decision to acquire the film. “It is a celebration of its genre, featuring top notch performances from a sophisticated script, brilliantly directed, that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats – when they’re not jumping out of them.” Added Drake, “Lionsgate has had much success in the horror space, particularly with truly creative, daring genre films such as this one that we are uniquely suited to market equally boldly. This film is a perfect example of Lionsgate sticking to our roots and continuing to speak to an audience of horror fans that we know and love.”

“We are blown away by the passion the Lionsgate team has for our film, and are honored to be working with the finest horror franchise marketers and distributors in the world,”  added producer Keith Calder.

ABOUT SNOOT ENTERTAINMENT

Snoot Entertainment is a motion picture production company founded by Keith Calder in February 2004 to develop, finance and produce entertaining independent films across all genres. The production company most recently produced the Morgan Spurlock documentary, THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, which was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Over the past year the company has also premiered the award-winning audience favorite documentary THUNDER SOUL, the martial-arts action film BUNRAKU at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival and the intense political horror film UNDOCUMENTED at the 2010 Fantastic Fest in Austin. Snoot’s first release was the animated science-fiction film BATTLE FOR TERRA. In addition, Calder has produced ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, THE WACKNESS and PEEP WORLD through Occupant Films which he co-founded in 2005.

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and new channel platforms. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming through Debmar-Mercury and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as “Mad Men”, “Weeds” and “Nurse Jackie” along with the comedy “Blue Mountain State, ” the upcoming drama “Boss” and the syndication successes “Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne”, its spinoff “Meet The Browns”, the upcoming “For Better or Worse,” “The Wendy Williams Show” and “Are We There Yet?”.

Its feature film business has generated more than half a billion dollars at the North American box office in the past year, fueled by such successes as THE LINCOLN LAWYER, TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY, THE EXPENDABLES, which was #1 at the North American box office for two weeks, THE LAST EXORCISM, TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?, KICK ASS and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS, which won two Academy Awards®. The Company’s home entertainment business has grown to more than 8% market share and is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 13,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand remains synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.