IFC Midnight Picks Up Ruth Paxton’s Directorial Debut ‘A Banquet’
EXCLUSIVE: IFC Midnight has acquired the North American distribution rights A Banquet. The indie horror hails from first-time feature director Ruth Paxton and is set to be released sometime next year.
Starring Sienna Guillory (Resident Evil film series), Jessica Alexander (Get Even), Ruby Stokes (Rocks), and, Lindsay Duncan (Made in Italy), the pic follows a widowed mother Holly (Guillory) who is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey (Alexander) experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs.
Leonora Darby, Mark Lane, and James Harris of Tea Shop Productions (47 Meters Down) produced the pic with Nik Bower for Riverstone Pictures (At Eternity’s Gate) and Laure Vaysse (Billie) for REP Productions 8, which also funded the production.
Exec producers are Riverstone’s co-founder Deepak Nayar, Jeremy Baxter, Creativity Capital’s Patrick Fischer and Richard Kondal as well as screenwriter Justin Bull. The rights deal was negotiated by Aijah Keith and Adam Koehler for IFC Films with Hanway Films on behalf of the filmmakers.
“We’ve had an outstanding year breaking out new voices in the horror genre, and we’ve never been more primed to bring Ruth Paxton and her brilliant and provocative feature debut to audiences across the country,” said Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films.
“I’m thrilled to be partnering with such an established champion of independent cinema in IFC Films,” Paxton commented. “It is daunting to be introducing my first feature with them considering they’ve previously supported many of my cinematic heroes; from Von Trier and Audiard to McQueen, Kent and Kurzel, but I’m incredibly excited and I can’t wait to launch A Banquet with them!”
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