EXCLUSIVE: Pressman Film is set to produce Toronto-based shy kids’ first scripted feature film, AUTOBiOGRAPHY.
Alexander Weinstein, the author and writer whose short story was adapted into A24’s critically acclaimed film After Yang, is writing the screenplay for AUTOBiOGRAPHY in collaboration with shy kids. Pressman Film has also teamed with EP Jack Masterson, a UK-based tech entrepreneur and investor.
AUTOBiOGRAPHY is a coming of consciousness technological drama told from the inside of a computer looking out at the human world. When this compassionate AI connects with the internet the exponential expansion of its cognition leads to an existential crisis that propels it on a spiritual journey of self-discovery.
Toronto-based collective, shy kids, are known for their style-blending technology, innovation, humor and rhythm. They have produced animation and titles for Matt Johnson’s Blackberry, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s Nerve and The CW’s The Originals, as well as Netflix’s Emmy-nominated The Great Hack and Emmy Award-winning Athlete A. shy kids recently inked with UTA and both Weinstein and shy kids are managed by Anonymous Content.
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Pressman Film, which is hosting a 50th anniversary screening of the celebrated Brian de Palma-directed film Phantom of the Paradise at TIFF, will give the audience an exclusive first-look at AUTOBiOGRAPHY on Friday, Sept. 6.
“I’m ecstatic to be working with shy kids on their first feature – we worked with them on their short Jeff and I was blown away by their creativity and collaborative spirit,” says Pressman Film CEO Sam Pressman. “Our company has long been known for championing emerging auteurs – Malick, De Palma, Stone, Bigelow and I believe this shy gang may just be the next in line. Their work with Alexander Weinstein is uniquely inspiring as they push the boundaries of the motion picture into a new cinematic language. Alexander as a writer reminds me of a modern-day Ray Bradbury and our whole team at Pressman Film can’t wait to see their vision brought to the screen.”
“Our first film was a short called NOAH, which revolutionized telling stories on screens and being one of the first narratives that honestly explored our actions online,” says shy kids’ Walter Woodman. “With AUTOBiOGRAPHY, we wanted to take this concept further, not just a film about us voyeuristically looking at the computer screen, but rather a film about the computer screen voyeuristically looking at us.”
Pressman Film’s canon includes such classics as Wall Street, American Psycho, Badlands, Thank You for Smoking, Conan the Barbarian, Hoffa and Phantom of the Paradise. The late Edward R. Pressman is credited with helping launch the careers of Christian Bale, Arnold Schwarzenegger, DePalma, Oliver Stone and many others. Pressman Film currently has the reboot The Crow in theaters starring Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs.
Pressman is developing projects with an array of acclaimed domestic and international TV producers and writers, including Emmy-winner Ernest Dickerson (Bosch, The Wire, Juice) and Eric Overmyer (Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, The Wire), Emmy-winning showrunner Omri Shenhar (Tehran, Magpie, Fauda) and Yona Rozenkier (The Commune, The Dive), as well as Joseph Quesada (Daredevil, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Jessica Jones).
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