'Dermaphoria' Adaptation Lands Director, Finds Financing

Ross Clarke has closed a deal to direct Dermaphoria, an adaptation of a cult Craig Clevenger novel being made by Motion Picture Capital.

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Clarke, who also wrote the script for the adaptation, is producing with his Keep the Car Running partner Teryn Fogel along with Motion Picture Capital’s Leon Clarance. Aperture Entertainment’s Adam Goldworm will executive produce. 

Described as Memento meets Breaking Bad, the story centers on a brilliant chemist who wakes up in jail after a drug lab explosion and is suffering from amnesia. Trapped between cops who want to arrest him and heavies who will stop at nothing to get the formula buried deep inside his head, the man needs to piece together memories fragmented by a powerful new drug and find his missing girlfriend.

The movie just secured its financing and is looking to shoot this summer.

Clevenger may be best known for his book The Contortionist’s Handbook, which was at one point being developed by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and in another incarnation had Channing Tatum attached to star.

Clarke is a documentary filmmaker making his feature narrative debut. He directed Skid Row, a movie that chronicled rapper Pras Michel's nine-day experiment living homeless in downtown Los Angeles.

Keep the Car Running is also partnered with Motion Picture Capital on their adaptation of U.K. cult author Derek Raymond’s Factory series as a British miniseries in the vein of the Red Riding trilogy. 

Clarke and Keep the Car Running are repped by Original and Aperture Entertainment. Clevenger is repped by Jeff Aghassi Management.