By Dominic Patten
January 22, 2018
EXCLUSIVE: Just hours before the Sundance Film Festival world premiere of Monster today, director Anthony Mandler has already lined up his second feature.
Joining up with Bron Studios again, the Rihanna video collaborator and commercial helmer will step behind the camera for Man of Cloth, I’ve learned. From a screenplay by Gambit scribe Joshua Zetumer, the thriller is set in the 1788 penal colony of Australia as a man of the faith finds himself caught up in a violent mystery.
Monster producers Bron will finance and produce the pic with filming set to start Down Under this summer.
“Anthony is a distinctive talent, with an incredible voice that needs to be heard, and we are thrilled to continue our relationship by committing to produce and finance his next film,” said Bron’s Aaron Gilbert. The exec is also a producer on the U.S Dramatic Competition contender Monster, which is based on Walter Dean Myers’ 1999 YA novel about a young black man trapped in the machine of the New York criminal justice system.
Gilbert and Mandler will produce Man of Cloth along with Guymon Casady and Darin Friedman of Entertainment 360, the production arm of Management 360, and Zetumer.
“From the moment I read Man of Cloth I was immediately attracted to the world and the challenging story Josh crafted,” said Mandler to Deadline Monday at SFF. “I couldn’t think of better partners than Bron Studios and Entertainment 360.”
Of course, Mandler has some more immediate business to attend to in Park City.
tarring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Jeffrey Wright, Jennifer Hudson and A$AP Rocky, the John Legend EP’d Monster has four additional screenings beside the one at 3:30 PM MT today. The Tonya Lewis Lee and Nikki Silver produced pic is one of four films that Roman J. Israel Esq producers Bron has in this year’s festival along with Jason Reitman’s Tully, Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation and, Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace.
Having just come off the opening weekend, Sundance continues until January 28
Mandler is repped by UTA, Management 360 and attorney Michael Schenkman of Bloom Hertgott Diemer Rosenthal Laviolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman.
Zetumer is repped by UTA, Management 360 and attorney Robert Szymanski of Eclipse Law Corporation.