The Tunnel producer Enzo Tedeschi is launching a global online distribution platform for genre movies and series.
Monikered Deadhouse Films, the site will offer content to rent or download-to-own, starting with the 3-part sci-fi web series Airlock produced by Tedeschi’s Distracted Media.
The producer tells IF he is in final negotiations to handle two third-party titles. He aims to tap into Distracted Media’s sizable database of genre fans built from The Tunnel and the web series Event Zero.
Funded by Screen Australia and Distracted Media and directed by Marc Furmie, Airlock stars Dan Mor, Mark Coles Smith, Zoe Carides, Dwaine Stevenson, Brendan Clearkin, Dean Kyrwood and Branden Christine.
The plot follows a derelict space ship which docks with the remote Dakota space station. Lieutenant Jonah Ashbrook (Coles Smith) is charged with leading an investigation into the mysterious deaths of the crew. The discovery of a group of hidden refugees aboard the ship forces Jonah to choose between duty and compassion, questioning his own origins, and the motives of those he serves.
The Deadhouse Films web site will launch just before Airlock debuts, the timing depending on conversations Tedeschi is having with other platforms for the sci-fi series.
Airlock may also be distributed via BitTorrent Bundle, the paid streaming service which provides content to watch or download-to-own, he said.
"With the aim to provide independent filmmakers with a production and distribution avenue, Deadhouse Films’ scope will be to connect the many great Australian genre films out there with a dedicated and established audience," he said.
He is considering making a special edition of Event Zero available on the site but not The Tunnel due to the various rights-holders. Tedeschi and his then producing partner Julian Harvey used crowd-funding to raise money for the horror movie, which has been viewed by more than 12 million people across multiple platforms.
Tedeschi is executive producing two shorts, actor turned writer/director Leslie Simpson’s Halfway House, an innovative 15-minute take on the suburban home invasion genre; and Sammy, Dana-Lee Mierowsky’s film about an orphaned ten-year-old girl as she struggles to protect her young brother, set in post-apocalyptic Australia where war has forced millions to live as refugees.