EXCLUSIVE: LA’s Nicely Entertainment is branching out beyond its female-driven romance roots and launching a thriller/genre label, Darkly Entertainment.
Officially launching at AFM, Darkly will produce and distribute theatrical theatrical and “darker elevated dramatic” content.
Kicking off its debut slate are holiday crime drama Holiday Hold-Up and disaster-action film Super Icyclone.
Holiday Hold-Up, which is currently in post-production, stars Jeremy Holm (House of Cards, Mr. Robot), John Pirruccello (Barry, Twin Peaks) and Agnes Albright (True Detective), and follows a team of disgruntled restaurant employees who take revenge on their thieving mobster boss.
Four directors — Michael Moreci (Star Wars, Stranger Things), Michele B. McGraw, Robert Patrick Stern and Kyko Claudio — have contributed their visions. Comic book author Moreci also wrote the screenplay. Producers include Sarah Sharp, Jen Shelby and Kevin McGrail and Nicely CEO Vanessa Shapiro and Scott Kirkpatrick, EVP Distribution and Co-Productions, are executive producers.
Super Icyclone, a co-production with Defiant Entertainment Distribution and Good-Soldier Films in Canada, follows climatologist Jill Sanders, who receives weather data indicating the formation of an unimaginably powerful storm system. As tragic storm-related deaths start mounting in real time, she realizes her small town is about to be ground zero for a massively destructive ice-hurling tornado.
Andrew Cymek (Baby Stealer) directs from a screenplay by Jake Helgren and Brigette Kingsley, who also stars alongside Landy Cannon and Cory Lee. Nicely’s Shapiro and Kirkpatrick serve as executive producers.
Alongside the productions, Darkly has acquired international distribution rights to three titles.
Exile is a psychological horror film starring Adam Beach that launched on-demand earlier this month. The film premiered at the Whistler Film Festival, while Lace is a 14-part TV series for AMC Networks’ streaming service AllBlk. It stars Lacey McCullough (Maryam Basir) a successful and highly connected lawyer, whose influence sometimes leads her down a very dark path. Season two launched in June 2023.
How to Rob is a crime film starring Chinaza Uche, Caitlin Zoz, and Eli Powers about two stick-up men who rob criminals from Boston to Cape Cod. Ut was revealed in the U.S. in January.
“Since we launched Nicely Entertainment in 2020, we’ve become recognized as the feel-good movie expert with our popular romantic comedies and holiday movies airing on leading broadcast and streaming outlets around the globe,” said Shapiro, the former President of Worldwide TV Distribution & Co-Productions at Gaumont.
“As our business grows, we want to respond to our clients’ needs for alternative and dramatic content for theatrical and digital distribution — that’s how Darkly was born. Darkly Entertainment will focus on films and series that explore the complexities of human nature, taking viewers on exhilarating and emotionally charged journeys. Launching the banner during AFM is the natural and perfect venue.”