EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has acquired a pair of starry indies — Alice Englert’s dark comedy Bad Behaviour, starring Jennifer Connelly, and Christian Ditter’s family comedy The Present, starring Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear. Bad Behaviour opens in limited theaters and on digital and VOD in the U.S. and Canada on June 14, with The Present to hit digital and cable VOD in the U.S. on June 18.
World premiering at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Englert’s debut feature Bad Behaviour watches as a former child actress seeking enlightenment at a retreat navigates the close but turbulent relationship with her daughter. Also starring Ben Whishaw, Englert, and Ana Scotney, among others, the film is produced by Desray Armstrong and Molly Hallam. Exec producers included Stephen Braun of Bee-Hive Productions, Connelly, Whishaw and Englert. The film was made with finance from the New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Rebate, Fulcrum Media Finance and Bee-Hive Productions, with additional support from AHI Films and Images&Sound.
Isla Fisher and Greg Kinnear in The Present
Gravitas Ventures
An AGC Studios and CatchLight Studios production with financing from AGC Studios, MACPAC Entertainment and Sherbourne Media Capital, The Present watches as a brilliant boy discovers that he can manipulate time using a family heirloom. He soon team up his siblings in returning to the time of their parents’ separation, in hopes of changing the outcome.
Easton Rocket Sweda, Shay Rudolph, Mason Shea Joyce, and Ryan Guzman also star in the pic, scripted by Jay Martel. Stuart Ford, Linda McDonough, Marcei A. Brown, and Jessica Malanaphy produced alongside EPs Miguel A. Palos, Jr., Zach Garrett, Martel, Jason Clark, Maurice Fadida, Jan McAdoo, Alastair Burlingham, and Danny Chan.
Gravitas Ventures’ VP of Acquisitions Bill Guentzler negotiated the deal for Bad Behaviour with CAA Media Finance and Verve Ventures on behalf of the filmmakers. Gravitas VP of Acquisitions and International Sales Danielle Gasher negotiated the deal for The Present with AGC Studios SVP of Legal and Business Affairs Anant Tamirisa.