MPI Media Group has acquired U.S. and international sales rights, outside the U.K. and Latin America, to award-winning sci-fi thriller “Minor Premise,” making its market debut at this year’s Cannes Marché du Film. MPI has already closed sales in three key territories: France to Koba Films, the Middle East to Phoenicia Pictures Intl. and in Taiwan with Moviecloud.
MPI VP of sales and acquisitions Nicola Goelzhaeuser handles sales of the company’s catalog, including “Minor Premise.”
“Minor Premise” is the debut directorial feature of exciting up-and-coming filmmaker Eric Schultz, which impressed at Spain’s prestigious Sitges Festival for genre films and finished 2020 as the year’s second best-reviewed film on Rotten Tomatoes.
Starring Dana Ashbrook, a genre cult icon for his work as Bobby Briggs in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” and featuring a critically acclaimed performance by emerging actor Sathya Sridharan (“Bikini Moon”), “Minor Premise” is the story of reclusive neuroscientist Ethan, who uses himself as a guinea pig for a precarious experiment.
After splitting ten parts of his own consciousness and pitting them against one another, Ethan locks himself inside his home with his ex-girlfriend Allie, played by Paton Ashbrook (“Shameless”), where the two work through the traumas, ambitions and mistakes of the past. Unplanned, the film’s conceit is instantly relatable in a post-COVID-lockdown world.
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Quickly, Ethan and Allie realize that there is more at stake than their relationship or Ethan’s professional reputation. He quickly loses control of the situation inside his own head and is forced to confront the darker sides of his own psyche.
“For decades, MPI has been synonymous with high quality, boundary pushing genre films,” said Schultz in a release. “We’re grateful for the experience and passion Nicola, Greg, and the whole MPI team bring to our film, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have ‘Minor Premise’ as part of their incredible slate.”
“Eric Schultz’s mind-bending film raises the bar in modern sci-fi, but it will entrance all fans of smart, tense thrillers,” added MPI’s Goelzhaeuser.
In addition to directing, Schultz co-wrote the screenplay for “Minor Premise” with Thomas Torrey, and neuroscientist Justin Moretto.
Schultz is also a producer, having worked on films such as Sundance, Locarno and Spirit Award-winner “James White,” Toronto Discovery player “Katie Says Goodbye” and SXSW standout and jury award-winner “The Strange Ones.” His co-writer Torrey is participating at this year’s Frontieres Proof of Concept platform where he is pitching an original thriller, “All the Names We Buried.”