Legendary British horror film company Hammer Films will shoot a movie starring Hilary Swank in New Mexico.
“Invasion of Privacy” is a suspense thriller with a second working title of “The Resident.” Hammer is producing the film for its parent company, Exclusive Media Group. A distribution deal is in place with Exclusive Film Distribution.
The production also stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan from “The Watchmen” and “P.S. I Love You.” It will film in and around Albuquerque from May 26 to July 17. The majority of the filming will be done at Albuquerque Studios.
The film plans to hire at least 200 local crew members, plus 14 speaking roles and more than 200 extras. Producers are Simon Oakes, Nigel Sinclair, Guy East and Cary Brokaw. Hammer’s Tobin Armbrust and Alex Brunner will executive-produce, along with Tom Lassally of 3 Arts Entertainment. Hilary Swank will also be an executive producer. Vicki Dee Rock is co-producing.
Antti J. Jokinen is directing the film and co-wrote the script with Robert Orr. Erin Cressida Wilson (who wrote “Secretary”) did the rewrite. Jokinen, originally from Finland, has directed a number of music videos for Will Smith, Eminem, Shania Twain, Missy Elliott, Celine Dion and Korn.
True to Hammer form, the story line is designed to inspire fear and anxiety. This time, it’s geared toward single women who live alone.
A release from Gov. Bill Richardson’s office says the movie is inspired by “the fact that every year, millions of single women in America move into apartments for the first time. They do not know who lived in the apartment before them, they do not know their landlords and they don’t bother to change their locks. This is the story of one such woman.”
Hammer is best known for a slew of horror films in the 1950s and 1960s, including “Dracula,” “The Curse of Frankenstein” and the science fiction picture “The Quartermass Experiment.” In the 1960s it produced “The Plague of the Zombies,” “The Nannies,” and “One Million Years B.C.”
Hammer has not been in production since the 1980s, but Exclusive Media Group has invested in the development and production of film, television and digital content. Its new projects include a remake of last year’s Swedish indie favorite “Let the Right One In.”
Exclusive was formed by Cyrte Investments in May 2008. It’s the parent company of Spitfire Pictures and Hammer, which has a combined shareholder equity and credit facility of more than $100 million, according to Richardson’s office. Cyrte is part of Delta Lloyd Asset Management, a major asset manager in the Netherlands. Delta is owned by Aviva plc, a large insurance company.
Since 2003, when Richardson took office and began pushing the state’s film incentives more aggressively, more than 120 major feature films and television series have shot in the state, bringing $2.5 billion to the economy.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/
