Neon Buys TIFF Environmental Thriller ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’

Neon has acquired the North American rights to the thriller “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it world premiered in the auteur-driven Platform section.

Based on Andreas Malm’s manifesto tackling the climate crisis, the film is directed by Daniel Goldhaber (“CAM”); produced, co-written and stars Ariela Barer (“Runaways”, “Atypical”); co-written by Jordan Sjol and edited by Daniel Garber (“CAM,” “Some Kind of Heaven”).

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“How to Blow Up a Pipeline” follows a group of young environmental activists who set out to sabotage an oil pipeline in a timely thriller that’s described as “part high-stakes heist, part radical exploration of direct action as climate activism.”

The film features an all-star ensemble cast including Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, Jake Weary, Irene Bedard and Olive Jane Lorraine.

Neon is planning a theatrical release.

The deal is one of the first out of Toronto, where the market has moved at glacial pace. Magnolia Pictures on Monday acquired British period pic “Blue Jean,” but that film premiered in Venice. The main deal so far has been Focus Features’ $30 million worldwide deal for Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”

In a joint statement, Goldhaber, Barer, Sjol and Garber said: “When we started working on this movie, Neon was a dream distribution partner. They’ve done such incredible work supporting movies that are on the cutting edge of cinema and are constantly thinking of new, out-of-the-box ways to connect audiences and films. We are so lucky to have found a partner that has so passionately engaged with this project, and we could not be more thrilled to be collaborating with them to bring ‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ to theaters across America.”

“How to Blow Up a Pipeline” was written, cast, financed and prepped in just seven months with Lyrical Media and Spacemaker financing.

The film was produced by Isa Mazzei, Daniel Goldhaber, Ariela Barer, David Grove Churchill Viste and Adam Wyatt Tate with production company Chrono. Alex Black and Alex Hughes also serve as producers and Danielle Mandel as co-producer. Jon Rosenberg, Riccardo Maddalosso, Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, Jordan Sjol, Natalie Sellers, Eugene Kotlyarenko serve as executive producers.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman and Mason Speta for Neon with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.

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