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New co-venture to produce The Pack

Horror/thriller The Pack is the first film from Breakout Movies, a new genre movie production partnership between VFX and post house Kojo and Prodigy Movies.

Scripted by Evan Randall Green and touted as Straw Dogs meets The Grey, the film is due to start shooting in South Australia next month, backed by the South Australian Film Corp.

It will be the feature directing debut of TV and commercials director Nick Robertson. The producers are Kojo’s Kent Smith and Prodigy’s Michael Robertson.

The plot centres on a farming family on a remote sheep station who are attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Casting is underway for the lead roles of the farming couple and their teenage daughter. International sales agent Lightning Entertainment will pitch the project at the Cannes Film Market.

“Breakout Movies is developing quality action, horror and thriller titles as part of a broader slate of genre-style films aimed at world audiences,” Smith said. “We’re delighted to see our first project under this new partnership attract such strong support from the SAFC and our international partners Lightning Entertainment.”

Smith  tells IF the plan is to produce two or three films a year.  He said, "Michael and I have been talking for quite some time. There was always potentially a good fit between our companies."

The Pack is funded by the SAFC, Kojo, Lightning's sales guarantee and the producer offset. Michael Robertson said, “This new partnership provides a unique opportunity to produce these films at affordable budget levels and work with new and exciting writers and directors."

Kojo did the post and VFX for both editions of Greg Mclean's Wolf Creek, The Lucky One and The Babadook. Prodigy's credits include Black Water, Road Train and The Reef. Kojo will also handle Mclean's first US film, 6 Miranda Drive, which is now shooting and stars Kevin Bacon, Ming-Na Wen, Lucy Fry and Radha Mitchell.

Lightning’s sales and acquisitions consultant Richard S. Guardian said, “Following the success of The Reef, Michael and I have been looking for an appropriate project in which to continue our relationship, and The Pack will be the first of several commercial properties on which we will collaborate. It is a very strong project, packed with suspense, tension and lots of chills and spills."

Evan Randall Green also wrote The Fall, a horror/supernatural thriller set during the Second Gulf War about a Marine Sergeant who leads a small combat engineering team on a mission to construct security bunkers for a new Green Zone, which Nick Robertson is to direct. Smith says that project may come through Breakout Movies.