Lily Sullivan in ‘I Met a Girl.’
Gravitas Ventures will launch Luke Eve’s romantic drama I Met a Girl in the US as a Premium VOD release on September 11, followed a month later by VOD on a dozen digital platforms.
The original plan was a cinema release for the film starring Brenton Thwaites, Lily Sullivan, Joel Jackson, Peter Rowsthorn and Zahra Newman.
But in light of widespread cinema closures, producer Adam Dolman tells IF: “Gravitas wanted to release the film as soon as possible to take advantage of the growth in the VOD business.”
Scripted by Adam’s brother Glen Dolman (Bloom), the plot follows Thwaites’ Devon, a 20-something aspiring musician with schizophrenia, who relies on his older brother Nick (Jackson) to get by. On a downward spiral, Devon is saved by Sullivan’s Lucy – a mysterious girl who is just as impulsive and romantic as he is.
When she vanishes, leaving him with a note to ‘meet me in Sydney,’ he sets out on a cross-country journey to find the girl of his dreams… who may just be in his head.
Co-produced by Melissa Kelly and Ryan Hodgson, the film wrapped last year but the international and Australian launches have been delayed due to the shutdown of festivals.
Label Distribution’s Tait Brady says: “We’ve decided to delay the Australian release until well into next year to allow the backlog to clear and to give the film a shot in the complex theatrical environment.”
Adam observes: “The film is beautifully uplifting, surprising and funny. Even though it takes you inside the head of someone dealing with a mental illness, it’s still a very relatable story about growing up that’s equally a celebration of brotherhood as it is a romantic quest.”
It’s the feature directing debut of Eve, whose credits include the webseries Low Life and High Life (written by Glen Dolman) and Cancelled, a 10-part online series shot on his iPhone while in lockdown in Valencia, Spain, after his wedding was cancelled and he was confined to an apartment with his Spanish fiancé and his mother for five months.
Screen Australia co-funded I Met a Girl with Screenwest, Screen NSW, Soundfirm, Label Distribution and private investors. The international sales agent Alliance Media Partners has signed deals with Russia, Korea and other territories to be announced.
Thwaites plays Robin/Nightwing in the DC series Titans, which airs on HBO Max in the US and on Netflix internationally. Recently he starred in writer-director Eric Bress’ thriller Ghosts of War.
Sullivan’s recent credits including National Geographic’s historical, fictional drama series Barkskins, Daniel Askill’s debut feature, a currently untitled psychological thriller, and Stan’s The Other Guy.