Gunpowder & Sky Pacts With Indigenous Media To Make 4 ‘Social-First’ Thriller Films

Digital-first, millennial-leaning content studio Gunpowder & Sky is doubling down on its thriller movie quota thanks to a new deal with fellow production studio Indigenous Media — which is perhaps best known for releasing the first-ever scripted Snapchat feature Sickhouse.

As part of the deal, Gunpowder and Indigenous will co-develop, co-produce, and co-distribute four “social-first films” in the vein of Sickhouse (for which a sequel is in the works), according to a release. Gunpowder, which operates both marketing and distribution divisions following the acquisition of Supergravity Pictures and FilmBuff, respectively, will handle marketing and distribution for each of the films. [Full disclosure: Supergravity co-founder Marc Hustvedt is also a co-founder of Tubefilter].

The two companies will focus on thrillers, though expect to explore other genres as well. Indigenous’ Ben Fast, who serves as EVP of development, and Kip Pastor, who serves as EVP of production, will produce the forthcoming films. CAA

brokered the deal between the two companies.

“With over 110 million real-time views, the Snapchat release of Sickhouse is a testament to [Indigenous co-founders] Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia, and Jake Avnet’s ability to successfully experiment with storytelling and the way content is distributed,” said Gunpowder CEO Van Toffler. In addition to its partnership with Indigenous, Gunpowder last week announced a pact with Mandalay Sports Media (MSM) to produce a series ‘sporror’ films that will merge the sports and horror genres.

Adds Indigenous COO Jake Avnet, “Millennials are clamoring for new types of native, digital content, and we can’t wait to deliver it.”

In addition to Sickhouse, Indigenous partnered with the actor Josh Hutcherson on an incubator project, and it also unveiled last year 60 Second Docs — a series of one-minute documentaries designed for social media distribution.