Katharine O’Brien and Frankie Ingrassia have found homes for their respective feature directorial debuts, “Lost Transmissions” and “Vampire Dad.” The former is a drama based on a true story and the latter is a horror-comedy. Deadline broke the news about the deals.
Acquired by Gravitas Ventures, “Lost Transmissions” tells the story of an established Los Angeles music producer and his friend, a shy aspiring songwriter. Hannah (Juno Temple, “Dirty John”) discovers that Theo (Simon Pegg, “The Boys”) “has lapsed on his medication for schizophrenia. In an effort to get Theo the help he needs, Hannah and their group of friends, chase him as he outruns his colorful delusions through the glamour and grit of Los Angeles’ music scene,” the source summarizes.
O’Brien penned the script.
Shorts “Breaking News,” “Illusive Fields,” and “The Park” are among O’Brien’s previous credits.
“Before you do it, it just seems so massive,” O’Brien said of tackling her first feature. “I tried to prepare myself mentally and to get on a routine, like making yourself into Rocky going into these things, but I really just found it’s just taking one step at a time and putting one foot in front of the other. There’s a billion things that have to get done and you just get go down the checklist and get them done. Once you get to the other side, you’re like, ‘Oh, films are doable. They’re a lot, but there’s a method and and you can get it done.’ That was a big take away, feeling how possible films are to make.”
“Lost Transmissions” made its premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. The film will get a day-and-date release in theaters and on demand March 13.
Random Media snagged rights to “Vampire Dad.” Written by Ingrassia and Kathryn M. Moseley, the indie pic centers on a psychologist (Jackson Hurst, “Sharp Objects”) “who is turned into a vampire in order to provide therapy to creatures of the underworld. He battles his new beastly nature while struggling to keep his family life from being torn apart,” Deadline details.
Ingrassia’s credits include episodes of “Female Friendly” and “Hey You, It’s Me.” Also an actress, she’s appeared in “Goliath,” “Bones,” and “Election,” among other projects.
“I spent several years following ‘Election’ shadowing directors,” Ingrassia has revealed. “My first directing job was the pilot ‘Hey You, It’s Me’ which has since gone on to win over 15 festivals including the LA film awards and was picked up and turned to series on Seed and Spark’s web platform.” She added that she was one of the first females to direct the PR footage for Coachella music festival.
“I make a concerted effort on every project to hire women on my team,” Ingrassia explained. “Vampire Dad” featured a 70 percent female crew. “I am constantly reading scripts on behalf of other directors and producers as well as myself looking for strong female stories and characters. I think it’s very important to tell new stories featuring women, strong empowering women,” she observed. “There is a shift occurring now in the hiring practices, we are finally fighting to bring in more diversity, but the boat is big, and the turn is slow so everyone needs to work to make the change happen.
“Vampire Dad” will hit theaters and VOD on Father’s Day, June 16.
