As Filmscope Entertainments feature film Needle passes USD$250,000 in Theatrical earnings from Turkey, the result has brought renewed interest in the West Australian horror film, with distributors snapping up remaining territories. Visey has acquired DVD rights to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, while Entertainment One (E1) has bought all rights for Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
In addition, Filmscope is also pleased to announce that Needle will have a major home entertainment release across North America encompassing DVD, Video-on-Demand and direct Digital Download through Lionsgate on November 29th, 2011.
Producer Deidre Kitcher commented “Lionsgate are the masters of horror film distribution in North America and for a small West Australian film to secure such a release through them is very exciting and a credit to the team and vision of the Director, John V. Soto”.
John V. Soto added “I am confident the film will do well as Americans love a good scare and appreciate fresh, inventive material. I am sure they will get a kick out the supernatural voodoo machine and mythology we created!”
Filmscope’s sale agent, Lightning Entertainment, has now sold the international rights to Needle in over 74 countries, including the key territories Japan (Shochiku), UK (High Fliers), France (SND), Germany (Telepool), and Brazil (Playarte).
NEEDLE also recently won a slew of awards at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (2011) including Best Actor (Michael Dorman) and Best Cinematography (Stephen Windon). The film and its Director (John V. Soto) were also awarded the Special Jury Prize at the festival.
Needle has received many positive reviews from Australian critics with Andrew Urban calling it “an engaging and well executed supernatural thriller”, Simon Foster (SBS) said that “the film delivers in spades all the prerequisites that fans demand”, and Travis Johnson from Xpress Magazine said “The film has no shame in its modest ambitions, and it fulfills its remit with admirable panache. Soto is an excellent visual stylist and he clearly knows a thing or two about pacing and suspense.”
Needle is the first West Australian film to win a Golden Skull award at Screamfest (2010) Los Angeles along with a number of awards at the British Horror Film Festival which included Best Cinematography, Best Special Effects and Best Supporting Actress. Filmed in Perth, Needle features the cream of Australian acting talent including Jessica Marais (Packed to the Rafters), Michael Dorman (Daybreakers, Triangle), Trilby Glover (Righteous Kill), Tahyna Tozzi (Wolverine), Travis Fimmel (The Beast, The Valley), Ben Mendolsohn (Animal Kingdom), Khan Chittenden (West), John Jarratt (Wolf Creek) and Jane Badler (V TV series).
Needle, is about a college student who must unmask a killer who is harnessing the deadly powers of a sinister 18th century machine to target his friends.