Pinewood backs thriller Take Down

Pinewood Pictures has boarded finance on thriller Take Down, directed by Jim Gillespie (I Know What You Did Last Summer).

Pinewood, which has access to the Isle of Man’s $38m Media Development Fund, will lead finance on the project, cash-flowing pre-sales and the UK tax credit and providing corner-stone equity.

Currently in talks with cast, the $10-$15m budgeted-project has been garnering strong interest for Mimi Steinbauer’s sales outfit Radiant.

Shoot is scheduled to get underway in September at Pinewood Studios, the Isle of Man, and New York on Ransom writer Alexander Ignon’s script about students at a tough-love school in the remote wilderness who take matters into their own hands when their school is taken over by kidnappers.

The backing marks Pinewood’s first US production commitment.

Steve Christian of Pinewood Pictures told Screen: “We want to embrace new and established filmmakers but most of all we want to embrace commercial product. The initial coverage we got on Take Down was very strong. It ticked every box when we read it. It’s a very fresh and commercial project.”

Producers are Ed Elbert, Sarah Ryan Black, former Imagenation Abu Dhabi COO Stefan Brunner, Alex Tate, Jamie Brown and Alex Brown, and Pinewood.

Ignon is already working on a sequel.

On the eve of the market, Pinewood also closed a deal to back ambitious UK sci-fi Our Robot Overlords, set to star Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley.