By Amanda N’Duka
December 13, 2016
The newly established LA/Beijing-based film finance and production company Cristal Pictures, has set its first self-financed project, Imago (a working title), based on a pitch from writing duo Adam Robitel and Gavin Heffernan, with plans of developing it into a large scale film.
The pic is a science-fiction disaster tale, inspired by scientific research and data, that takes place in the near future when scientific experiments to reverse global warming backfire and portend unimaginable consequences. It will be shot with Western as well as Chinese actors in and around Hong Kong.
Cristal was founded by Beijing and Hong Kong-based media company East Light Film Company, to finance and produce mid-to-high budgeted, English-language films for worldwide theatrical distribution that appeal to the Chinese marketplace. The company most recently co-financed and co-produced Millennium Films’ Hitman’s Bodyguard, an action-comedy starring Ryan Reynolds, Samuel Jackson, Gary Oldman, and Salma Hayek.
Robitel, repped by CAA, is currently in post-production on Blumhouse/Sony’s Insidious: Chapter 4, which he directed. He helmed and co-wrote with Heffernan, the documentary-style horror film The Taking Of Deborah Logan, produced by Bryan Singer. Robitel also recently sold a pitch Liminal to Fox 2000 with Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson producing. Heffernan is with APA and both are managed by Zero Gravity Management and lawyered by attorney Rob Szymanski.