Stealth & Iron Sky Oz Producer reunite for zombie western and launch Stealth Australia

CANNES, France - May 20, 2013 - PRLog -- The first film is a $2m zombie western,  “Bullets for the Dead”, slated to shoot in Queensland Australia in July.

“The chain of events has been quite serendipitous,” Overett explained. “Michael rang me not long after our Iron Sky premiere in Berlin last year. His good friend, Spanish director Alberto Sciamma, was on my home turf in Brisbane as Artist in Residence at the Griffith Film School. Alberto had discovered this 3 minute short from a couple of the film students, proposed it to Michael as a feature, and the film school as a partner and now they were in need of a producer. It was a great pitch, so a no-brainer for me.”

“It’s been a very challenging but rewarding experience. The script is great, a lot of fun. We’ve teamed the newbies up with old hands and the budget’s grown so that we can deliver top production values and great cinematic locations. There’s a lot of energy behind the film because of where it’s come from and the possibilities it presents for a new generation of filmmakers. Griffith Film School has been incredibly supportive and is an investor in the film.”

Hot on the heels of Bullets will be “Bite”, a $5m vampire film written and directed by Alberto Sciamma, a UK/Australian co-production slated to shoot downunder in October.

“Stealth has a number of Australian films on our books and we are keen for more,” says Stealth’s Michael Cowan. “Having worked with Cathy across these three films so far it was a natural progression to partner up with her for sales in ANZ.”

Cowan says Stealth Australia is looking to pick up 2-3 films a year out of Australia, over and above those in-house.“We’re looking for quality low budget genre fare, and good fun films with clear audiences and budgets up to $30m,” he said.

The antipodean venture will represent the Stealth back catalogue in the ANZ territory and will be looking to EP films through co-productions, both incoming and outgoing.

“The high Australian dollar’s made production attraction to Australia difficult,” said Overett. “I’ve long been an advocate of co-productions to fill the void left by lack of footloose production. This is a win win situation. We can help finance films through the 40% Australian Producer Tax Offset and at the same time increase production on Australian shores.”

“Bite” will be the first such co-production. Others touted include “The Originals”, about the genesis of the SAS.

“26 Bullets Dead”, the short that inspired “Bullets for the Dead” is screening in Cannes Short Film Corner with other Griffith Film School shorts at 11.30am on Monday 20th May. “Bullets for the Dead” is be handled by Stealth.

SMG HISTORY:
SMG was founded by distribution and sales executive Sean O’Kelly and film entrepreneur Michael L B Cowan of Spice Factory, one of Europe’s most dynamic independent production companies. Collectively the duo have financed, produced, acquired and sold literally hundreds of films, spanning the whole spectrum from library films to pre-sales of new productions.

SMG is a UK distributor and an all rights film and television sales company, which has been growing rapidly over the last years becoming one of Europe’s most dynamic companies, involved in sales, distribution, production and structured film financing.

Stealth launched its US office in November 2010, with Jason Piette as Head of North America and Acquisitions.