(openPR) Los Angeles/Bonn 07. November 2011 The first of the three of Magnet Media Productions in collaboration with the UK VFX house Prime Focus, with whom Magnet had inked a three picture deal in Cannes this year, has been selected.: O2 is the first of three visual effect packed thrillers to be produced by Magnet’s recently launched German production arm Magnet Media Productions, GmbH, Cologne. O2 is also the first film Michele Ohayon will produce with Magnet CEO Jeanette Buerling. Director/Producer Ohayon is Magnet Media Group’s newest addition to the team. Ohayon was nominated for an Academy Award for her feature documentary Colors Straight Up, and is a multiple IDA, DGA, WGA and IFP nominee for her body of work. The critically acclaimed filmmaker (Steal A Pencil For Me, S.O.S./ State of Security, 2011), joined Magnet in May of this year as President of Production.
Buerling: “Michele is natural in her ability to detect great material, attract high caliber filmmakers, and bring deals to fast closures. And, she is an Ex-Israeli soldier, which makes my life a lot easier: “Ohayon “As a writer/director I often wondered what happens on the other side, the producers’ and financiers’ side of the table. Being with Magnet gives me first hand access to producing high budget films, and at the same time, allows me to bring my own content-sensitive taste to the table and choose powerful and solid material. My goal in partnering with Jeanette is to make Magnet a home for producers and filmmakers of all calibers, where they can realize their dreams while fulfilling Magnet’s commercial targets”. It’s inspiring and rewarding to see a film like O2 come together so smoothly.” This fast paced VFX packed action thriller is written by Ronnie Christensen (Passengers).
Buerling found the script earlier this year and developed it with Christensen, who also the Magnet financed thriller Dark Tide, starring Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez, which is the film Buerling recently finished producing . Buerling “O2 is one of the few high concept action stories I find intriguing. I get a lot of those, but they often resemble what was already see. Characters are usually flat and weak in those stories. This script paints a multifaceted, authentic, innovative, smart, yet warm and sensible female character with a hero story that is nail biting”. O2 is written as an action packed VFX Sci-Fi thriller story about a young scientist in the year 2150. Earth’s surface became uninhabitable and humans live in cities build in oceans. When her father dies mysteriously, she hires a smuggler with a dark past to find the truth. She must overcome her own fears, stepping out of her safe life in the lab, and face the hostile world on the surface, were she fights to survive vicious scavengers, deadly sandstorms, and the her father’s killers, who are out to stop her at all costs to protect a secret that could change the live of humanity. Buerling “It’s not a story for soft nerves and that is what excites me about it”.
The team Buerling and Ohayon attached Joe Dante (Gremlins) to direct O2. Director Joe Dante is known for VFX heavy productions with commercial success. Michele Ohayon: “When I sent Joe Dante the script, I was hoping he would see all the elements we see in this story. Both the physical action thrill the characters take us to and the timely set up of our earth suffocating as we deplete it. Joe got it, and responded within 48 hours. He told me he would be very interested in making this film. His notes were minimal, we made a deal within a week and we are now out to cast”. (David Gersh brokered the deal on Dante’s behalf.)
Joe Dante: "It's rare, at least for me, that you see a blockbuster-size sci fi projects with a grown-up script. When Michele sent it to me I sparked to it immediately. There's plenty of eye candy and excitement, but the characters are credibly grounded in reality, which is the key to making these things work. The fx may be terrific, but it's the characters' reaction to them that sends the audience out satisfied".
O2 is estimated to cost about $50 million and will be fully financed through Magnet. Buerling “This is the first of 6 films we have in our production slate at present, and I’m looking forward to be starting our new production slate with a such a promising commercial script, directed by one of our industries most experienced and talented directors, Joe Dante”.
The female lead is currently being cast and the team is looking to have an A-level star to lead the film into box office heaven hopefully. It will shoot in the fall of 2012 in Germany and the United Kingdom.
