American distributor Grindstone Entertainment Group acquired the rights to Let It Snow, a horror thriller by Ukrainian director Stanislav Kapralov, from Arclight Films. The film will be released in the USA on September 22, 2020, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Let It Snow is a film directed by Stanislav Kapralov, created in partnership with Spain and the United States. The film is produced by Sergey Lavrenyuk (Solar Media), starring Ivanna Sakhno (The Spy Who Dumped Me, Pacific Rim: Uprising). Let It Snow is a thriller about Mia, a snowboarder, forced to survive a bloodthirsty snowmobile rider in the mountains.
About the film shooting
As the director told AIN.UA, the idea of the film appeared a little less than two years ago:
“I told the producer the idea and immediately got the green light for its implementation. We wrote the script together with Hollywood writer Omri Rose. I was also the co-producer of the film, assembled a team, and came up with a form in which to make a quality film in our circumstances,” he says.
According to him, first, they wanted to shoot in the Carpathian Mountains. But then the shooting period was postponed until the spring, and the group did not risk shooting in the Carpathians because of problems with snow (as the film tells the story of snowboarders). So, the place of shooting was changed to the Georgian mountains Gudauri.
The shooting took place last spring and lasted for around 20 days.
“The conditions were very challenging; all those days we worked in wild mountains, waist-deep in snow. The leading actress, Ivanna Sakhno, had to run in the snow, dive into an icy river, and walk the cliff edges”, the director recalls.
How it was sold to Lionsgate
Grindstone Entertainment is a division of Mandate Pictures, which was acquired in 2007 by the distribution company Lionsgate, known for producing such films as Requiem for a Dream, The Hunger Games, Saw, The Transporter, and American Psycho.
Let It Snow is being sold by the Hollywood sales agent Arclight Films. According to Kapralov, the film is already on sale in many countries across the globe, but it is not yet officially permitted to disclose the information about them.
Last summer the sales agent organized a private screening for Lionsgate representatives. According to the director, they offered to buy the film right away. The whole time since then has been spent on negotiations and the signing of the contract.
Before the quarantine, the film was planned to be released in American movie theaters, but they will be closed for a long time. Therefore, the film will be released on one of the video platforms. More precise information will be available in September.
