Xander Berkeley Pic ‘The Maestro’ Scores Freestyle Deal; Giant Pictures Acquires Feminist Thriller ‘The Bellwether’

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired domestic rights to Adam Cushman’s The Maestro, a biopic about composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco tarring The Walking Dead‘s Xander Berkeley. It will get a theatrical release beginning February 15 in New York and Los Angeles, with VOD coming February 19. The pic, penned by C.V. Herst and produced by David J. Phillips, centers on the letters of Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who composed scores for more than 200 Hollywood films in the 1940s and 1950s and mentored the likes of John Williams, Randy Newman, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and Andre Previn. Leo Marks, Sarah Clarke, Mackenzie Astin, Bobby Campo, Alex Essoe and in his last film Jon Polito co-star. The deal was negotiated by Freestyle Ira Goldklang and Rachel Koehler and Sean Pope and Tiffany Boyle from Ramo Law for the filmmakers.

Giant Pictures, the digital film distribution division of Giant Interactive, has acquired North American digital rights for The Bellwether, a feminist thriller from writer-director Christopher Morrison. Alex Reid (The Descent, the BBC’s Misfits) stars in the pic, which will bow February 12 on digital and theatrically February 15 in Los Angeles at Arena Cinelounge Sunset. The movie was shot in an ancient church in Brussels and producers say it’s the world’s first English-language one-woman feature film. It centers on a bookstore owner (Reid) kidnapped by The Conspiracy, who consider her dangerous. They lock her in a 13th century chapel, where they attempt to break her as she communicates with her “operator” only through text and images shown on a television. Morrison produced with partner and executive producer Ioana Matei under their Reality+ in association with Juri Koll of Art/World Productions and producers Lien Callens, Jeff Daldorf, David Roberson, Pilar Stillwater and Carlon Tanner.

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