Producer Christopher Renteria, composer and songwriter Morgan Dorr, actor Kelly Lynn Reiter and creative executive Andre Abrahamians have launched cross-media production company 4 Little Monsters with Venice-premiering The Testament Of Ann Lee as a first project. See Deadline’s just published review of the film by Mona Fastvold starring Amanda Seyfried as the 18th century religious leader and founder of the Shaker movement.
Fastvold wrote the musical film with Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) with an original score by Oscar-winning composer Daniel Blumberg. EP Renteria (Wish You Were Here, In Flight) was introduced to the project as 4 Little Monsters began to take shape, making an early investment in production. It plays TIFF on Friday and will screen at the BFI London Film Festival.
“My goal is to focus on female forward films, and lift up underserved communities, who otherwise have a quieter voice than they should. We are overjoyed for the world to see Mona’s vision come to life,” Renteria said.
4 Little Monsters’ slate includes historical drama The Leader by Michael Gallagher about the largest mass suicide ever on U.S. soil by thirty-nine members of the American cult known as Heaven’s Gate in 1997. It stars Vera Farmiga, Tim Blake Nelson, Jim Parsons, Simon Rex, Grace Caroline Currey and Reiter.
The company is represented by Octagon agency, where it has a handful of music biopics and music and sports-themed unscripted series in development. Other projects from film to unscripted to podcasts across music and sports are in development with CAA, UTA, Range Media and iHeart Radio.
It calls itself an amalgamation of independent producers with a “plethora of connections, partnerships, and skills” among its four founders, who will focus on impactful stories with financing, packaging, distribution and music services.
“Launching 4 Little Monsters felt inevitable given our shared passion for storytelling and unique skill sets,” says Dorr, who was a member of the band Boys Like Girls, a founder of Echobend Pictures, a founding partner at creative agency Gaslight Studios and has been a composer and producer with Sony Music Publishing since 2015.
Reiter is a producer actress, writer and founding member of White Lightening Studios, the rebranded Ascent Studios production campus in North Carolina’s Triangle Region.
Abrahamians, who began his career in Silicon Valley, currently works in business development and technology integration at law firm Wilson Sonsini. His film credits include Spotlight, The Motel Life and Butcher’s Crossing with production and creative development experience at PBS, Polsky Films, Rocklin/Faust and FilmEngine.
