‘The Faceless Man.’
With cinemas closed or operating at limited capacity in many markets, James Di Martino’s debut feature The Faceless Man is set to reach millions of people where they live – on multiple streaming platforms.
The writer-director’s horror movie inspired by harrowing personal experience will premiere on August 28 in English-speaking territories on Amazon Prime, Vimeo On Demand, Gumroad and Reelhouse.
In other deals negotiated by New York-based international sales agent Hewes Pictures, the movie starring Sophie Thurling, Lorin Kauffeld, Roger Ward and Andy McPhee will be released on digital platforms in the US by Freedom Cinema, followed by DVD.
Several months after the VOD premieres, it will screen on Tubi, the free, advertising-supported streaming platform owned by Fox Entertainment which operates in the US, the UK and Australia.
That means a long tail for the film which premiered last October at Monster Fest and had a limited release on eight screens, self-distributed by the producers.
Given the low budget, Di Martino tells IF he expects there will be a positive return for investors by the end of this year.
The film was inspired by the filmmaker’s experience of being diagnosed with Lymphoma when he was 18. Thurling plays the protagonist Emily, who is haunted by a faceless creature in her subconscious three years after surviving cancer.
Her best friend Nina (Kauffeld) organises a weekend away with a bunch of male friends to a holiday house in an outback town, where they are terrorised by the faceless creature and harassed by the locals, cops and Russian monsters.
Ward plays the leader of the town’s bikies gang with McPhee as the intimidating owner of the holiday house. The cast includes Lucas Pittaway, Dani Facciolo, Sunny S Walia, Martin Astifo, Albert Goikhman and David Beamish.
He’s developing a raft of projects including a dark comedy about filmmaking with a coming-of-age aspect; a non-linear crime film that focuses on how lives are impacted by a powerful Mafia-like syndicate; and a dystopian George Orwell-like sci-fi thriller set in 50 years time.
Also he has embarked on a four year PHD course at Victoria University on sustainability and materialism. “I may look at making a documentary, similar to the way Damon Gameau made 2040, for my research,” he adds.