Nightshift

#IrishFilm: Archstone Distribution to sell Irish indie horror Nightshift at AFM

Greenflash Pictures has announced that Archstone Distribution has acquired the worldwide sales rights to their debut feature film, Nightshift, and will shop the film to prospective buyers at the American Film Market.

Nightshift is a pyschological horror that follows a girl on her first shift as a night receptionist in a hotel with a murderous past. Trapped in a cycle, she begins to witness the terrifying events that once took place inside the hotel while trying to save the residents from a flesh obsessed murderer.

The film, which is written and directed by Steve Hall, stars Dublin-based Ashleigh Dorrell (All Honey, Animalia – Best Performer Award Nominee, Dublin Fringe Festival), Matthew O’Brien (Ripper Street, The Lobster), Angel Hannigan (Smock Alley’s Lady Macbeth, Klink), Nigel Mercier (Love/Hate, Jack Taylor), and David Collins who recently received a position to attend the famous American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan.

Nightshift is produced by Hall and Paul Thompstone for Greenflash, with Merlin Merton (Ten Thousand Saints, Wild Oats, Wasp, Butterfly Kisses) of Blue Shadows Films and Mike Jones (The Golden Compass, Butterfly Kisses) of Grump Films. The latter two are UK production companies based in London.

The deal for the sales rights was done in May during the Marché at the Cannes Film Festival. LA based distributor Archstone Distribution are best known for The Rum Diary, Hacker, The Shadow Effect, and American Violence, and are also owners of Tombstone Distribution, who released Awaken The Shadowman, and the Human Centipede trilogy.

Following the completion of principal photography last March/April, Steve [Hall] and I travelled over to the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival with a short teaser trailer in hand along with a select number of clips as the film was still in the very early stages of the editing process.

Our aim was to attend the market and shop the film around to almost any sales company that would have been willing to take it. However, Steve and I, being ourselves, decided to chance one of the largest sales companies in attendance this year, Archstone Distribution. After a lengthy meeting at their booth we were left thinking that it was unlikely anything might come of it. At around lunchtime that afternoon we received a phone call from Archstone requesting a second meeting the following day where we were presented with a Deal Memo to acquire the Worldwide Sales.

Both Steve and I would like to thank our incredible cast and crew for making this film a reality.
Paul Thompstone, Producer

Nightshift completed post-production earlier this week, and is targetting a Q1 2018 release.