EXCLUSIVE: Shout! Studio has acquired North American rights to Justin Kelly’s sexually charged thriller Pretty Thing, co-starring Alicia Silverstone and Karl Glusman.
Silverstone (Clueless, The Killing of a Sacred Deer) co-stars as a successful executive opposite Glusman (Civil War, The Bikeriders), a younger lover, who reveals a deadly obsessive streak.
Originally announced by Deadline as The Bird And The Bee, the movie reunites Kelly with Silverstone, who had a supporting role in his 2016 gay porn world thriller King Cobra.
In between times, Kelly made murder-mystery Welcome the Stranger, co-starring Abbey Lee, Caleb Landry Jones and Riley Keough, and J.T. Leroy with Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern.
Pretty Thing is produced by Yale Entertainment and Great Escape and is directed from a debut feature screenplay by Jack Donnelly.
Leads Silverstone and Glusman are joined on screen by also features of Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things, Saturday Night), Britne Oldford (The Umbrella Academy, Dead Ringers), and Tammy Blanchard (Into the Woods, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows).
Shout! Studios has secured exclusive distribution rights to Pretty Thing in the U.S. and Canada, including theatrical, home entertainment rights (digital, video-on-demand, broadcast, and physical media) and ancillary rights for cross-platform releases.
Shout! plans a strategic launch of this movie in theaters and across all major entertainment platforms later this year.
“There is a perennial and voracious demand for high quality, sexy thrillers in the marketplace, and Justin has served up a pretty delicious one. With Alicia Silverstone leading the cast, this was a no-brainer for us,” said Shout’s SVP of Acquisitions and Originals, Jordan Fields.
“It was an honor working with the iconic Alicia Silverstone for the second time (after King Cobra) as well as the uber-talented Karl Glusman— their on-screen chemistry is electric. A big thank you to Yale Productions for our third collaboration together, and to my incredible cast and crew. I cannot wait to share this film with the world,” Kelly said.
Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman of Yale Productions produced with Lexi Tannenholtz, Scott Levenson, and Jesse Korman.
“Shout has been a terrific distribution partner and we’re very excited to solidify our continued relationship with their talented team,” Levine and Beckerman said in a joint statement.
Michael Day and Joy Kim-Crilley serve as co-producers. Executive producers include John Wollman, Paul Wedgwood, Nicholas Donnermeyer, Julie Foss, Gigi Lacks, Andy Rich, David Nazar, Jeremy Rothstein, Lauren Rothstein, Jodie Lazar, Robert Levine, Will Hirschfeld, John McMullen, Eric Broughton, Brian S. Unger, Michael J. Rothstein, Matthew Ajayi, Dajana Gudic, Driss Ouazaani, Amber Martin, Ben Walter, Inna Ivanova Walter, Jeffrey Tussi, Coleman Lannum, Kurt Fethke, Kyle Fethke, John S. Phillips, Leslie A. Phillips, Jason Kringstein, and Cavallino Entertainment. Co-executive producers are Jill Bussanich, Paul Tietz, Joseph Huguenot, Amy E. Newman, Matthew W. Newman, Michael Dibiasio-Ornelas, Eric Goren, Michael Burkert, and Maximus Seale.
