MarVista Launches Production Label Tideline Entertainment; First Project For Sale Is Dylan O’Brien & River Gallo Sex-Worker Mob Tale ‘Ponyboi’ – Sundance

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read

EXCLUSIVE: Fox Entertainment and its in-house studio division MarVista Entertainment are launching Tideline Entertainment, a production label that will focus on creating impactful and meaningful content with unique perspectives from differentiated storytellers, voices and creators worldwide.

Under the leadership of Hannah Pillemer, MarVista’s EVP and Head of Creative & Production, Tideline projects will range from movies and indie films to limited series, made-for-platform content and other cross-genre formats based on what best supports each creative vision.

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The first project under Tideline is the Esteban Arango-directed Ponyboi, which is being produced and sold by Mark Ankner in partnership with 30Kft out of Sundance; the pic premieres Saturday in the fest’s U.S. Dramatic Competition section. The movie, written by River Gallo and starring Teen Wolf‘s Dylan O’Brien, follows a young intersex sex worker forced to confront their past while running from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways.

“The tideline is the mark left by the tide when it reaches its highest point. We envision the Tideline banner to be synonymous with the most impactful genre storytelling and the home for creators to be their authentic selves as they share their stories with the world,” said Pillemer. “Under this vision, Tideline is already supporting exciting and important projects, starting with Esteban Arango’s tremendous film Ponyboi.”

“I have always believed that we must continue to build and evolve as a studio and storytellers, and now, as we celebrate MarVista’s 20th anniversary and our second year as a part of the Fox Entertainment family, our growth story continues,” said Fernando Szew, CEO of MarVista Entertainment and Fox Entertainment Global. “Today we are proud to establish Tideline as our new in-house production unit, allowing us to emphatically broaden the stories we will bring to the world.”

In addition to Ponyboi, first titles to bear the Tideline label include 2023’s comedy First Time Female Director, which made its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival and was directed, written and stars Chelsea Peretti (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, New Girl) in her actual directorial debut and produced by Amy Poehler’s Paper Kite Productions. First Time Female Director was acquired by Roku Originals out of Tribeca. Also on the roster are three upcoming films from first-time female directors: satirical thriller Slanted by Amy Wang (From Scratch, Crazy Rich Asians 2) , the action comedy The BM from director Rachel Goldberg (Resident Evil, American Gods), and the coming-of-age story Hurricane Summer directed by Lacey Duke (Queen Sugar).

First Time Female Director is about a woman who must fill the shoes of her problematic predecessor to avoid putting her play in jeopardy, while upcoming Slanted is about an Asian American high schooler so desperate to be prom queen that she undergoes radical treatment to change her racial identity, The BM follows a young woman whose desperate search for a bathroom gets her inadvertently caught up in a bizarre heist across Los Angeles. Hurricane Summer, adapted from the bestselling book, tells the story of Tilla, a Jamaican-Canadian woman who experiences growth and devastation the summer she turns 18.

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