Patrick Ewald Announces Epic Pictures Group acquires Parkour Skills

Patrick Ewald, There is nothing quite like this film in the market. When I saw the trailer for this film, I knew that this was a really special movie. End Quote

Epic Pictures Group has just closed an acquisition of the Swedish parkour action film, SKILLS!

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) June 17, 2010 - Epic Pictures Group has just closed an acquisition of the Swedish parkour action film, SKILLS, directed by Johannes Pinter. Deal was negotiated directly between the producer of Timelock films, Tomas Amlov, and Epic Pictures Group CEO, Patrick Ewald.

SKILLS is a teen-action-drama that focuses on a various action sports such as parkour, skateboard, street dance and martial arts. The target audiences are teenagers and adults who like action films in general and action sports in particular.

According to Wikipedia: Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK), also parcours, or l'art du déplacement (1) (English: the art of displacement) is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the environment.(2) It is a non-competitive, physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible. Skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves are employed. The object of parkour is to get from one place to another using only the human body and the objects in the environment. The obstacles can be anything in one's environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of the many suitable public structures available such as buildings and rails. The term freerunning is sometimes used interchangeably with parkour.

Many people recognize the parkour style from the opening chase scene from James Bond's Casino Royale.

Currently shooting, film will be completed after Cannes. Epic Pictures will be showing buyers a trailer cut from the rough footage.

"There is nothing quite like this film in the market. When I saw the trailer for this film, I knew that this was a really special movie. I am a huge fan of parkour and I find it one of the most exciting and thrilling urban sports. It is like looking a tightrope walker at 100 times the speed." says Patrick Ewald, CEO of Epic Pictures Group.

The movie stars one of the world's leading parkour-artists, Swedish Marcus Gustafsson, as well as one of Sweden's greatest female skateboarders, My Magnusson. Martial artist Tim Man, seen in ONG BAK 2 and STREETFIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LI, is also included in the cast. Director Johannes Pinter has previously directed the horror film SLEEPWALKER.

Timelock Film AB is a small Swedish production company focusing on development and production of feature films, in the comedy-, drama- and action genre, targeting the young audience. We also provide post production and script consultant services for TV- and feature film production. The company was founded in 2001 and has a background as vast background in producing shorts. The short/novella-film "THE OTHER SIDE" won the Swedish Filminstitute Award 2003, and participated in competition in Locarno.

Skills synopsis: Kelvin is an average teenager struggling with his loyalty to his friends, conflicts with his father, and practicing his main interest in life - parkour. After his father is shot and ends up in a coma during a police case, Kelvin starts his own search for the perpetrator. Kelvin soon finds an underground world of sub cultures with their own rules. Kelvin is forced into a violent battle of skills in an urban gladiator game. A game that not only forces him to stretch his parkour talents, but also questions his moral boundaries - how far is he willing to go for family and friends?

Writer/Director - Johannes Pinter: Debuted with the dark thriller "Sleepwalker" in 2000. The feature won the New Blood Award in the French thriller film festival in Cognac, and was nominated for Best Movie in the Sitges International Film festival in Spain. Oscar winning producer Mark Johnson ("Rain man", "Narnia") picked up the American remake rights for "Sleepwalker". As a writer, he penned two versions (uncredited) for the American actioner "Pathfinder" directed by Marcus Nispel. His latest writing job was the adaptation of the Swedish bestselling novel "Odjuret" ("The Beast") by authors Roslund and Hellstrom ("Box 21"). Pinter is also an editor, with several features under his belt from countries like Norway, Ireland, Bulgaria and of course Sweden. He is one of Scandinavia's most renowned trailer producers. Among the titles with trailers signed Pinter is Swedish "Let the right one in", "Arn - the knights templar" and several "Wallander" movies, as well as Danish "Flame and Citron", Russian action-thriller "Newsmakers", Norwegian blockbusters "Max Manus" and "Kautokeino", and horror franchise "Fritt vilt" ("Cold prey"). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0750259

Producer - Tomas Amlöv - 35 years old computer-geek retrained as a movie-producer. Among the films I produced is THE OTHER SIDE that highlighted the Swedish immigration policy and won the Swedish Film Institute, short-/novellofilm award in 2003 as well as participated in competition in Locarno international film festival.

DoP, Ola Magnestam: Constantly engaged cinematographer of TV- and short films. The images for the 2009 student-Oscar winner ELKLAND are one of many strong feats. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1327520/

Cast:
Marcus Gustafsson (KELVIN): Considered one of the best parkour/freerunning artists in the world. Got a gold medal in the "style" event at the world championship in parkour in Hamburg 2008. Done a lot of commercial gigs for the likes of RED BULL, PEAK PERFORMANCE, SVT and TV4 among others.

My Magnusson (LINDA): Plays Kelvin's love interest Linda. One of Sweden's most skillful female skateboarders. Has toured Sweden with the No Limit Tour: the greatest female skateboarders in the country together on one ramp.

Tim Man (MONK): Plays Kelvin's mentor Monk. Actor and stunt coordinator with focus on martial arts movies. Been working as an actor and stunt double in Swedish features FROSTBITE and GÖTA KANAL 2, and the international successes ONG BAK 2 and STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LI. Has great insight and experience in movie action.

Sean Banan (STRETCH): Sina "Sean Banan" big breakthrough was the dance-docu-show FLOOR FILLER where he reached the final. But he became a national celebrity after participation in the tv-show "circus Möller". His popularity comes both from great dancing skills and his way of always making people laugh.

About Epic Pictures Group

Headquartered in Beverly Hills, California, Epic Pictures Group is a worldwide film, television and home video/VOD/digital sales organization specializing in the financing, production, and distribution of unique, award winning and innovative feature films from independent filmmakers from around the world.

Under the guidance of CEO Patrick Ewald and COO Shaked Berenson, Epic Pictures Group represents worldwide sales for both its own slate of films and third party content. Epic Pictures Group releases 10 to 20 films annually.

The company was established by CEO Patrick Ewald and COO Shaked Berenson in the fall of 2007 by with the official launch of the company at The American Film Market in Santa Monica, California.

Epic Picture Group's foreign sales team seeks out relationships with creative and exceptional producers and talent in order to secure A-level, quality projects. Epic Pictures Group actively develops a full range of new relationships and strategic alliances with financiers, independent production companies, producers and studios.

Epic Pictures Group is committed to establishing a rising presence in the domestic and international film community through the worldwide release of high profile and diverse films.

Epic Pictures Group has a recognized presence at all major motion picture and television festivals and markets including Cannes, The American Film Market (AFM), Berlin, The Hong Kong Filmart, The Sundance Film Festival, The Toronto Film Festival, as well as MIPCOM and MIP-TV.

Most recently, Patrick Ewald, Shaked Berenson and the Epic Pictures Group has executive produced or produced SPACE DOGS in 3D, LUSTER starring TWILGIHT'S BILLY BURKE and Andrew Howard, and THE POSSESSION OF DAVID O'REILLY. Patrick Ewald, Shaked Berenson and Epic Pictures Group has also just acquired the sales licensing rights to DEADLINE starring the late Brittany Murphy, THE MALAY CHRONICLES: BLOODLINES, GENGHIS KHAN, HOUSEBROKEN starring Danny Devito, and FINDING AMANDA starring Matthew Broderick and Brittany Murphy.

For More Information Contact:

Greg Commons
Manager, Corporate Affairs
Epic Pictures Group
9107 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 450
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Phone: 310-461-1941
Email: greg ( @ ) epic-pictures dot com
http://www.epic-pictures.com

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