Anonymous Content has signed Melbourne-based writer-director Adrian Chiarella for representation, beating out several other companies that had been courting him.
The move comes on the heels of Chiarella’s feature directorial debut, “Leviticus,” a queer horror film that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to strong critical response. The story centers on two teenage boys whose romance turns fatal after a violent conversion therapy ritual, after which they find themselves hunted by a malevolent presence that appears to each of them in the shape of the other.
Reviewing the film for Variety, Carlos Aguilar described “Leviticus” as “a tightly conceived, gripping queer horror that reaches for unassuming brilliance through a supernatural premise that’s as terrifying as it is thematically relevant,” and wrote “this outstanding debut from writer-director Adrian Chiarella organically marries blood-curling fright with incisive social commentary.”
Causeway Films produced “Leviticus,” and Neon picked up the buzzy title in a seven-figure deal. From there it traveled to further festival dates at SXSW and in Sydney before opening theatrically. The cast includes Joe Bird, Stacy Clausen Jeremy Blewitt and Ewen Leslie.
