Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (‘American HorrorSstory’) to direct and Carlos Coto (‘24’) to write immigration parable set on the U.S./Mexico border
Edward R. Pressman, producer of such classic films as Wall Street, American Psycho, The Crow, Bad Lieutenant, and Das Boot, announced today that he has optioned the feature film rights for Archaia Entertainment’s acclaimed graphic novel Feeding Ground. Created by Swifty Lang, Michael Lapinski, and Chris Mangun, Feeding Ground was the first full-length graphic novel to be published in hardcover simultaneously in English and Spanish. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is set to direct and screenwriter Carlos Coto will adapt for the screen.
Feeding Ground tells the story of a “coyote,” a trafficker of illegal immigrants, forced to smuggle his family into America by crossing the most forbidding part of the Arizona/Mexico border, a searing no-man’s-land known as “The Devil’s Highway.” Along the way, he and his family clash with U.S. Border Patrol agents, only to realize that the entire party is being hunted by the real monsters that roam the countryside—werewolves.
“Feeding Ground is an intense and terrifying thriller with a subtle but pointed commentary on immigration in modern America,” said Pressman. “The graphic novel is so cinematic in nature—as soon as I read it, I knew we could make a film that would resonate with a wide audience. Alfonso and Carlos are the perfect talents to bring this vision to the big screen.”
Born and raised in Laredo, Texas on the US/Mexico border, Alfonso began his career as personal assistant to Martin Scorsese, Nora Ephron, Robert De Niro and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu. He became a sought-after 2nd Unit director (Babel, State of Play, The Eagle, Eat Pray Love, Argo) before directing critically acclaimed episodes of Glee (“Asian F”) and American Horror Story (“Birth”), as well as numerous national commercials. He also conceived and wrote Chanel’s worldwide “Bleu de Chanel” campaign directed by Scorsese. Carlos Coto is currently a writer and co-executive producer of Nikita. He has previously written and produced for 24, Heroes, Journeyman, The Dead Zone, NCIS, and was a consultant on the Emmy-winning HBO film, For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story.
Pressman is currently in development of a reinvention of the 1994 hit film The Crow to be written by Jesse Wigutow (The Osterman Weekend) and directed by Javier Gutiérrez (Before the Fall) with Relativity, a reinvention of the iconic action film Bloodsport written by Robert Kamen (Taken) and to be directed by Phillip Noyce (Salt), and The Monkey Wrench Gang to be written and directed by Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman (Catfish, Paranormal Activity 3). The latest feature from Pressman, The Moth Diaries, written and directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho) was recently released by IFC Films and is available in theaters and through VOD.
Pressman Film COO Jon Katz and Archaia’s Stephen Christy and PJ Bickett will serve as Executive Producers along with Jason Carpenter, a former Pressman staffer, who brought the property to Pressman. Stephen Cavaliero is a Co-Producer.
Katz negotiated the deals on behalf of Pressman Film. CAA and Aaron Baumel of Stone, Meyer, Genow, Smelkinson & Binder LLP represented Archaia. CAA and Corinne Farley of Morris, Yorn, Barnes, Levine, Krintzman, Rubenstein & Kohner represented Coto. WME and Christine S. Cuddy of Kleinberg, Lange, Cuddy & Klein LLP represented Gomez-Rejon.