Megan Elison Headshot - P 2013
Getty ImagesAnnapurna Pictures and VICE are teaming up to produce The Bad Batch.
The film is written by and will be directed by Gotham Awards Breakthrough Director Ana Lily Amirpour, whose debut feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, became a Sundance breakout last year. That film, a genre-bending Iranian vampire fairy tale, received critical and audience acclaim at the festival.
Bad Batch is described as a dystopian love story set in a Texas wasteland, though plot details are being kept under wraps.
Annapurna’s Megan Ellison will produce alongside VICE’s Danny Gabai and Sina Sayyah. Annapurna’s Sammy Scher will be the executive overseeing the day-to-day development and production of the project while VICE’s Shane Smith and Eddy Moretti will executive produce. Justine Baddeley and Kim Davis-Wagner are currently casting the project.
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VICE says it will support The Bad Batch by leveraging its global youth audience and in-house film marketing capabilities in the U.S. and select international territories.
The film marks another collaboration between Annapurna and VICE that began when Annapurna presented A24’s Spring Breakers, and VICE came in to support with online video and editorial marketing. They continued their relationship, with VICE helping with the marketing of additional Annapurna titles like The Master and Her.
The Bad Batch marks their first foray into production together for VICE and Annapurna.
VICE has been making significant inroads in Hollywood in recent months. The youth-oriented media company and content creator recently inked a deal with Fox to create a film label for the studio focused on low-budget movies. Bad Batch is separate from the Fox deal.
“Ana Lily is a force of cinematic nature,” Moretti said. “She inhabits that special place where the pop sensibility of the movies meets the deep sensuality of film art. It’s a tricky thing to pull off — creating this kind of wildly entertaining visionary cinema — but Ana Lily is powerful, so she can pull it off.”
