Lake Mungo gets US release, remake

1/02/2010 11:25:30 AM

The Melbourne thriller/horror film, Lake Mungo, opens in the USA today as part of the After Dark festival. This innovative festival of eight films from around the world is in its fourth year as a travelling feast of horror, gore and supernatural thrills. The mini festival concept was developed by After Dark Films as an alternative distribution strategy and has been highly successful in releasing indie genre films across the US. The festival is partnered by Lionsgate who handles the DVD release of films from the festival.

The producers of Lake Mungo are delighted with this US release of the film which follows hard on the heels of the conclusion of their deal with Paramount Vantage for a US remake of their film by Hollywood producer Roy Lee (the Ring, the Grudge). “It is quite understandable that Roy Lee wants to remake Lake Mungo for a US audience. The Australian dialect is too difficult for a mainstream audience. However, it is fantastic that our original film is also getting the kind of popular festival release in US in cities and cinemas where the language isn’t such a big deal- New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles etc “

The marketing of Lake Mungo in the US is very different from the Australian release. “ They’ve cut an amazing new trailer that I’m sure will sell the film far more satisfactorily than our sedate Australian trailer”, said producer David Rapsey. “The cross platform marketing will also have a big impact on the success of the title. Although Lake Mungo had a national theatrical release and is now available on DVD and will be screened on SBS, the release pattern was impossible to co-ordinate to take advantage of cross promotion. We simply could not get access to cinemas where and when we wanted them.”

The remake by Paramount Vantage is already on the way with David Leslie Johnson (Orphan) writing the screenplay. The Australian producers, David Rapsey and Georgie Neville are executive producers on the remake.

Lake Mungo has just been released on DVD in Australia under the Madman ‘Asylum’ label.

The US trailer is available at: www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=20307 <http://www.joblo.com/arrow/index.php?id=20307> . The official Australian website with Press Kit is at www.lakemungo.com <http://www.lakemungo.com/>

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