Cross Creek Pictures And Exclusive’s Hammer Films To Co-Produce Adaptation Of Cherie Priest Novel BONESHAKER

Brian Oliver, President of Cross Creek Pictures, Simon Oakes, Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group and President & CEO of Hammer Films and Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, Co-Chairmen of Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”) announced today that Hammer has acquired the rights to the novel “Boneshaker” by Cherie Priest for adaptation to the big screen. Project will be co-produced by Hammer and Cross Creek Pictures and co-financed by Exclusive and Cross Creek Pictures.

John Hilary Shepherd, a 2010 WGA Award nominee for his work on the first season of the Showtime series, “Nurse Jackie,” is writing the screenplay. Tobin Armbrust, Head of Production is overseeing the project’s development for Hammer Films.

An example of “steampunk” science-fiction, which incorporates futuristic innovations into a Victorian setting, Priest’s novel is set in an alternate version of 1880s Seattle, where the city has been walled in and a toxic gas has turned many of its remaining residents into “Rotters,” more commonly known as zombies. A young widow hunts for her teen son in the Seattle underworld, while dealing with airship pirates, a criminal overlord and heavily armed refugees. “Boneshaker” was nominated for a 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and won the 2010 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.

The novel, published in 2009 by Tor Books, is the first in a series set in the same Civil War-period, alternate-world Priest has dubbed “The Clockwork Century.” The series’ second novel “Dreadnought” was published in 2010 and the third novel titled “Ganymede” was recently released online and in bookstores on September 27th.

Tor Books is releasing the fourth novel in the series in 2012 titled “Inexplicables,” and last week announced a deal with Cherie Priest for her to write a fifth novel in “The Clockwork Century” series. The fifth book will be called “Fiddlehead.”

“First and foremost this is a great story. Bringing a steampunk style novel to life on the big screen is going to be very cool, very unique,” said Tobin Armbrust.

“Boneshaker is a classic zombie movie with a modern twist which is quintessentially Hammer so it’s a perfect fit for us,” said Simon Oakes. “Cherie Priest’s steampunk series are fantastic with a distinct, unique style and we’re really looking forward to bringing her ‘Rotters’ to the big screen.”

“It’s like Jules Verne meets ‘Resident Evil,’ and we’re thrilled to have such a fun, commercial potential franchise in Boneshaker,” says Oliver. He continues: “John’s an exciting screenwriter and we see this being a real crowd pleaser.”

This is the latest in a number of projects Cross Creek Pictures and Exclusive have teamed on, including George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” which opened nationwide on October 7th through Sony Pictures, the upcoming “The Woman in Black” starring Daniel Radcliffe, which CBS Films has set to release February 3rd, 2012 and Ron Howard’s Formula 1 film “Rush” starring Daniel Brühl and Chris Hemsworth with production partners Imagine, Revolution Films and Working Title.

Cherie Priest was represented in the deal by Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency and John Hilary Shepherd was repped by attorney Joan Vento-Hall.

ABOUT CROSS CREEK PICTURES

Cross Creek Pictures, formed by Timmy Thompson and Brian Oliver, is an independent film production and finance company that has a mandate of developing and strengthening the collaborative relationship between filmmakers and financiers. The firm recently inked a deal with Universal Pictures for a three-year distribution deal that will cover a minimum of six pictures produced and financed by Cross Creek Pictures. The company fully finances its films through its private equity fund, tax incentives and international sales. The goal is to finance up to five films a year with ranging budgets. The company currently has over ten projects in various stages of development, including “Black Mass,” which Russell Gerwitz (“Inside Man”) is adapting from a book of the same title and tells the true story of an unholy alliance between the FBI and the Boston Irish mob led by James “Whitey” Bulger, the comedy “Bathing Suits,” written by Buck Henry, “McQueen,” a Steve McQueen biopic written by James Gray and starring Jeremy Renner, the crime drama “Delivering Gen”, written by Kurt Sutter, and the untitled Colin Firth and Emily Blunt project. Cross Creek’s first production, Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” grossed approximately $330 million worldwide. The company most recently opened George Clooney’s “The Ides of March,” which premiered to great acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, released in October, 2011 by Sony Pictures, and “The Woman in Black” starring Daniel Radcliffe, set for a 2012 release by CBS Films. The company is currently readying the production of the Ron Howard’s “Rush” for Universal Pictures. The biopic stars Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl as the F1 rivals Niki Lauda and James Hunt in the 1970s.

ABOUT HAMMER FILMS

Hammer is the legendary British film brand, which was originally launched in 1934 and delivered a hugely successful run of films in the 1950s including Gothic classics “Dracula” and “The Curse of Frankenstein” and Sci-Fi picture “The Quatermass Xperiment.” Hammer’s reputation became branded worldwide as ‘Hammer House of Horror’. In the 1960s Hammer struck distribution deals with Universal, Warner Brothers, Fox and Columbia. Hammer went on to produce a huge volume of films which included such titles as “The Plague of Zombie,” “The Nanny,” “Quatermass and the Pit,” “The Devil Rides Out” and “One Million Years B.C.” Not in production since the 1980s, the company’s brand has new investment in the development and production of film, television and digital-platform content by Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”). Hammer’s return to horror was heralded by interactive web serial “Beyond the Rave,” which was broadcast by MySpace in 12 territories in 2008. Today, Hammer has an active development slate across diverse genres sourced out of both Europe and the United States. Hammer recently released “The Resident,” which stars two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Boys Don’t Cry”) and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (“Watchmen”) and is directed by Antti Jokinen, “Let Me In”, an adaptation of the highly acclaimed Swedish Film, “Lat den Ratte Komma In,” a.k.a. “Let the Right One In”, written and directed by Matt Reeves (“Cloverfield”). Hammer Films is currently in postproduction on “The Woman in Black.”

ABOUT EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP (“EXCLUSIVE”)

Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”) is a vertically integrated global filmed entertainment company, founded in May 2008 with the backing of the strategic investment group Cyrte Investments. Exclusive develops, finances, produces, markets and distributes prestige and talent driven commercial and documentary feature films on a global basis. Exclusive is run by a five member Executive Board with Nigel Sinclair as Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Guy East as Co-Chairman, Simon Oakes as Vice Chairman and President of Hammer Films, Marc Schipper as Chief Operating Officer, and Randy Hermann as Chief Financial Officer. Supporting the Executive Board in both the operational management and strategic expansion of the business is a strong team of highly skilled professionals who have a broad range of complementary experience. Exclusive’s development and production activities operate through three specialist labels: UK based Hammer Films for genre titles, Spitfire Pictures for documentary features and the flagship label Exclusive Media for all other feature film production. Exclusive’s international sales & distribution division maintains a strong marketing presence and represents the group’s in-house productions plus its growing library of over 550 titles, as well as actively acquiring third party feature films to further strengthen its international distribution slate.