John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In one of the big deals announced out of Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival, XYZ Films has boarded North American sales rights to “New Life,” John Rosman’s feature directorial debut which is hailed by Fantasia itself as “one of the major discoveries of Fantasia 2023.” “New Life” stars Sonya Walger (“For All Mankind,” “Lost”) and Hayley Erin (“Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” “General Hospital”) and Tony Amendola (“Annabelle,” “Curse of Llorona”).
XYZ Films has also dropped the film’s first teaser, shared in exclusivity with Variety, ahead of “New Life’s” world premiere on Aug.
8 at Fantasia, North America’s biggest genre festival. “New Life” is also written by Rosman and produced by T. Justin Ross, producer on Shudder’s record-breaking hit “The Mortuary Collection” and the Judy Greer-led “Aporia,” also premiering at Fantasia, and Mike Marchlewski.
The film is executive produced by David Lawson Jr., producer of the Independent Spirit Award-nominated Sundance darling “Something in the Dirt” and the critically acclaimed sci-fi horror “The Endless,” among others. “With ‘New Life,’ John has created a tense, gripping thriller that blurs its genre roots in ways that completely upended our expectations,” said XYZ Films’ Senior Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions Pip Ngo. “We can’t wait for audiences to experience the same sense of surprise and delight (and horror) that we felt watching it the first time.” “New Life” indeed works on multiple levels: as a woman-hunt thriller rising to the sudden horror of potential global apocalypse, both of which drive the story of two women discovering a new life that, however harrowing, represents some new kind of freedom.
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