DISTANT HORIZON PREMIERES TWO MOVIES AT THE AFM

President of Distant Horizon, Anant Singh announced today that the company will premiere two films at the American Film Market this year – Prey and Shoot The Messenger.

Prey is the latest film from helmer, Darrell James Roodt (director of the Academy Award Nominated Yesterday) and is written by Roodt with co-writers of Cry Wolf, Beau Bauman and Jeff Wadlow. Prey is an intense thriller, inspired by true events that see an American family’s dream holiday become an African nightmare when they get lost, and find themselves desperately out of their depth in the remote bush, while being stalked by a pride of persistent and ruthless lions. The cast includes Bridget Moynahan (I Robot, Lord of War) as American, Amy Newman, Peter Weller (24, RoboCop, Naked Lunch) as her husband Tom Newman, and Carly Schroeder (Firewall, Mean Creek) as their 14 year old daughter. Prey has been acquired for North American distribution by The Weinstein Company, while international sales are being handled by Odyssey Entertainment. The film will be premiered at the AFM on Friday, 3 November at 11.00am at AMC 3 and will screen again on Saturday, 4 November at 09.00am at AMC 4.

The powerful British film, Shoot The Messenger, which received widespread critical acclaim at the Tribeca and Edinburgh Film Festivals this year, was acquired for worldwide distribution by Distant Horizon. The film, directed by Ngozi Onwurah (Body Beautiful, Coffee Coloured Children) and which stars David Oyelowo (American Blend, As You Like It), Nikki Amuka-Bird (The Omen, The Line Of Beauty) and Charles Mnene (The Great Ecstacy Of Robert Carmichael, Holby City) follows one man's painful journey towards self-discovery. On the way he finds both his own attitudes and the expectations of his community challenged. Critics were unanimous in their praise for the film with Variety declaring, “it has the visual audacity of a Sam Fuller or Spike Lee,” while The Daily Telegraph said, “a drama with bold and almost brutal directness,” and The Guardian called the film, “bold and brave, the best thing I have seen for a while.” The AFM premiere screening times are: Friday, 3 November at 1.00pm at Le Merigot 2 and on Sunday, 5 November at 09.00am at Le Merigot 2. Shoot The Messenger will also be featured at the AFI Festival where it will be screened on Sunday, 5 November at 9.30pm at Arclight 13 and on Monday, 6 November at Arclight 12 at 1.15pm.

“We are thrilled to be having two premieres for our film at the AFM,” said Distant Horizon’s Anant Singh. “Prey is a really powerful suspense thriller set in the African bush, while Shoot The Messenger is a hard-hitting drama that follows one man's painful journey towards self-discovery. Both the films are engaging and captivate audiences,” continued Singh.

Currently in post-production from Distant Horizon is the Arab-American drama American East and the sci-fi supernatural thriller Spoon. American East stars Tony Shalhoub (the Emmy-winning star of the hit television series Monk), Kais Nashef (the Oscar-nominated Palestinian film, Paradise Now) and Egyptian-American actor Sayed Badreya. Badreya co-wrote the script with director Hesham Issawi. Spoon, shot on location in South Africa stars Darren Boyd, Rutger Hauer and Gerard Carey and is written and directed by Sharlto Copley and Simon Hansen.