Slamdance Winner ‘Dave Made a Maze’ Lands at Gravitas (EXCLUSIVE)

Gravitas Ventures has bought all North American rights to offbeat Slamdance Winner “Dave Made a Maze” in the wake of the film winning an Audience Award for Best Narrative at the Slamdance Film Festival.

Starring Nick Thune, the movie merges fantasy with reality from the confines of a living room chock-full of cut-up cardboard boxes. Meera Rohit Kumbhani, James Urbaniak (“Difficult People”), Stephanie Allynne (“In a World”) and Kirsten Vangsness (“Criminal Minds”) also star.

Dave is portrayed by Thune as an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career. He builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation. His girlfriend Annie leads a band of oddball explorers on a rescue mission — but find themselves trapped in an ever-changing supernatural world, threatened by booby traps and pursued by a bloodthirsty Minotaur.

“We wanted to re-imagine classic 80s adventure films with a comedic edge and a higher body count,” said director Bill Waterson. “To reignite that tactile sense of wonder triggered by those films, we played in the sandbox of old-school practical effects – puppetry, miniatures, stop motion animation, and in-camera optical illusions.”

The deal for “Dave Made a Maze” was negotiated by Nolan Gallagher on behalf of Gravitas and by Matt Burke of Submarine on behalf of the filmmakers.

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