Film and television sales company Odin's Eye Entertaiment has acquired Macario De Souza's Fighting Fear from Garage Entertainment.
The action documentary is De Souza's first feature since 2007's Bra Boys – which holds the record for the highest grossing local (non-IMAX) documentary in Australia.
The film follows the friendship and exploits of professional surfer, Mark Matthews and mixed martial arts cage fighter, Richie 'Vas' Vaculik and was shot over three years.
“It’s The King’s Speech with action sports,” says executive producer, Michael Lawrence. “It’s about two guys who just got each other.”
The film will be released across more than 40 screens from November 10 and hopes to rely on a word-of-mouth strategy.
"The film wasn’t made for an arthouse audience, it’s made for the fans," says Lawrence. "It’s made for young guys to have a film about friendship."
"It’s just a case of getting them to come into the cinema and watch it," adds De Souza. "If they give it a chance, I think it will appeal to an international audience."
Having known Matthews and Vaculik since childhood, De Souza says shooting the boys' lives required a lot of trust.
"It was just a case of 'Let me shoot and let me show you what we can put together'," he says. "There’s no way in the world they would have let anyone else tell their story in this manner."
While he admits to feeling pressure to live up to the success of Bra Boys – the film about the notorious surfing gang of the same name grossed almost $1.7 million – De Souza says he is driven by the challenge.
"This is such a small story compared to Bra Boys," he says. "This time we really had to dig a story out of something that was quite simple."
Odin's Eye Entertainment will show the film to buyers at MIPCOM next week, in the lead up to screenings at the American Film Market in November.
Macario DeSouza shooting Fighting Fear