Gunpowder & Sky Teams With Indigenous Media To Make “Social-First” Movies

Gunpowder & Sky has inked a deal with Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia and Jake Avnet’s digital studio Indigenous Media to co-develop, co-produce and co-distribute four films designed to be first distributed on social platforms. Gunpowder & Sky Distribution will handle marketing and distribution for the movies created in the pact.

The deal comes as Indigenous saw success with Sickhouse, the first scripted Snapchat feature film, which has had more than 110 million real-time views. The idea is to further test the waters of the social-first film market, which would lead to other digital platforms and even theatrical plays. The focus at first will primarily be the thriller genre. CAA brokered the deal.

“With over 110 million real-time views, the Snapchat release of Sickhouse is a testament to Jon Avnet, Rodrigo Garcia and Jake Avnet’s ability to successfully experiment with storytelling and the way content is distributed,” said Van Toffler, Gunpowder & Sky CEO.

Added Gunpowder & Sky president Floris Bauer: “We’re always looking for ways to take risks with new formats and new models for how to release and market content — whether it’s via social media, theaters, and/or through TVOD/SVOD services, so we are very excited to be partnering with Indigenous.”

Indigenous’ Ben Fast and Kip Pastor will produce the films.

Said Indigenous COO Jake Avnet: “We are thrilled to work with Gunpowder & Sky because it allows us to take the innovative social-first film concept we developed with Sickhouse and introduce it to an even larger audience. Millennials are clamoring for new types of native, digital content, and we can’t wait to deliver it.”

Gunpowder & Sky is prepping the June 30 release of The Little Hours, its Sundance pickup that will mark its biggest theatrical play to date. In addition to Sickhouse, Indigenous also is behind 60 Second Docs, a series of short documentaries that average more than 48 million views a month.