Producers and distributors heading to Las Vegas for this year’s American Film Market, which runs Nov. 5-10, are betting big that indie action is primed for a comeback.
The AFM was built on action movies — the leading independent film bazaar launched in 1981 at the start of a decade defined by the cinematic stylings of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steven Segal, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. But in recent markets, with the headline-grabbing success of breakouts like Neon’s Longlegs and Cineverse’s Terrifier 3, action has taken a backseat to horror.
There will be scares-a-plenty at AFM 2024, but many of the market’s buzziest projects sit squarely in the action space. Even a few that don’t star Liam Neeson, Gerard Butler, Jason Statham or Nic Cage. How buyers respond to this new generation of would-be action stars — Daisy Ridley, Amber Midthunder, Alan Ritchson — will determine who will be toting the guns on the AFM posters of the future.
But the AFM isn’t just about genre movies. The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual hot list of the most interesting sales titles on offer features a little something for everyone, from art-house dramas with Zendaya, Robert Pattinson and Jessica Chastain, to an adult animated musical featuring singing sperm.
Kraken
DIRECTOR: Pål Øie
BUZZ: Norway, as shown in Netflix hit Troll, knows its way around a creature feature. This new monster movie, from Dark Water director Pål Øie, is targeting the midnight madness crowd and ancillary markets with its combo of Scandinavian folklore and modern ecological concerns in a story of a marine biologist who uncovers a dark secret deep beneath the surface of a fjord.
SALES: TrustNordisk
And many more – read the full article here.