[press release from Well Above]
Omnilab Media, Australia/NZ’s largest, privately owned, vertically integrated content development and media service business, today announced that Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment Group and Platinum Studios Inc. have commenced production on “DEAD OF NIGHT”.
The film, which will be a presentation of Omnilab Media, is based on the best-selling Italian comic book series, ‘Dylan Dog’, created by Tiziano Sclavi and published by Italy’s Sergio Bonelli Editore. The comic book series has sold more than 56 million units worldwide and has been translated into 17 languages since its debut in 1986. Principal photography is taking place in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Omnilab Media who completed the co-financing on the movie with Hong Kong-based Standard Chartered Bank, recently played a key role in providing production financing, as well as securing and overseeing North American distribution for, “The Bank Job,” “W,” and “The Messenger.”
Omnilab Media Managing Director Christopher Mapp said, “Omnilab Media’s investment in Dead of Night is similar to the one we made in ‘W’. We will be supporting a release in North America and will be announcing the distribution partner we’ve chosen shortly. Our Melbourne based creative house Iloura will be doing visual effects on the movie.”
In Dead of Night Brandon Routh, (‘Superman Returns’), stars as ‘Dylan’ – a reluctant private investigator who is drawn into the world of the vampires, werewolves and the undead — and the film is being directed by Kevin Munroe, whose 2007 re-imagining of ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ resurrected the billion dollar franchise.
Munroe brings a fresh take to the vampire/zombie/werewolf genre by focusing less on the transformation from human to non-human and more on the seamless interaction between and among the living and the undead. Writers Joshua Oppenheimer and Thomas Dean Donnelly (‘Sahara’ and ‘Conan The Barbarian’) have taken the world of Dylan Dog out of a European setting and given it a New Orleans flavor with its rich bayou and marshland backdrop.
Platinum Studios, which controls an international library of comic book characters which it adapts, produces and licenses for all forms of media, and the Hyde Park Group, an entertainment mini-major that develops, produces, finances and distributes mainstream motion pictures globally, are joined in the production with Producer Gilbert Adler who is no stranger to comic book adaptations, having produced “Superman Returns” and “Constantine” for Warner Brothers.
The film reteams Adler with star Brandon Routh, who played Clark Kent. Adler has worked for many years in the thriller/horror genre as a writer, producer and director for numerous “Tales from the Crypt” television episodes and feature films. He has also produced “House on Haunted Hill”, “Thirteen Ghosts” and “Ghost Ship” among many others. Most recently he completed production on the World War II-based “Valkyrie”, his second stint with director Bryan Singer.
Harvey Lowry and Academy Award-winning DRAC Studios are handling make-up effects. DRAC Studios has been nominated eleven times for Best Achievement in Makeup by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, most recently won for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and won twice before for “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Mrs. Doubtfire”.
Platinum Studios chairman and CEO Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, who brought the billon dollar “Men In Black” franchise to Sony, and Amritraj are producing with Adler.
Executive Producers are Omnilab Media’s Christopher Mapp, Matthew Street and David Whealy, Cinemarket’s Peter Graves, The Greenberg Group’s Randy Greenberg, who brought all of the parties together, Hyde Park’s Patrick Aiello, Kevin Munroe, SAF Comics’ Ervin Rustemagic, Lars Sylvest and Film Production Capital LLC’s Will French and Stephen Roberts. Platinum Studios’ Brian Altounian and Rich Marincic are co-producing along with Hyde Park’s Manu Gargi.