Anchor Bay Entertainment Acquires Psychological Thriller Abandoned Starring Brittany Murphy in Her Final Role

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Anchor Bay Entertainment announced today the acquisition of the psychological thriller Abandoned for North American distribution through its Anchor Bay Films label. Directed by Michael Feifer (A Christmas Proposal, Soda Springs), the film is written by Peter Sullivan (Eve's Christmas, Termination Point), from a story by Jeffrey Schenck and Peter Sullivan and is the last screen appearance by the late actress Brittany Murphy.

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Produced by Jeffrey Schenck (Boy Next Door, American Bandits, "The Dog Who Saved Christmas") and Barry Barnholtz ("The Dog Who Saved Christmas", Drifter: Henry Lee Lucas) for Hybrid, Abandoned is slated to be released in summer 2010.  

"Anchor Bay established its reputation by releasing some of the most thrilling films on the market, and Abandoned is a movie that delivers," states Kevin Kasha, senior vice president, acquisitions, Anchor Bay Films. "Abandoned has the kind of twists and turns that will have the audience guessing until the end; and keep them talking after."

Producer Barnholtz says, "Anchor Bay understands the horror and thriller genres, the entire team is unbelievably talented, and I think Abandoned fits in perfectly with the company's outstanding catalog."

Abandoned is, sadly, the final film role for the talented actress Brittany Murphy (Sin City, 8 Mile, Girl Interrupted, Clueless), who passed away in December.  Producers Barnholtz and Schenck have released this joint statement: "Brittany will be deeply missed by everyone who worked on Abandoned. The film is a taut thriller which portrays Brittany's character as smart and tough – and that's how we all want to remember her."

Anchor Bay Entertainment President Bill Clark adds, "Releasing this young actress's last film is both an honor and bittersweet. It was important to Anchor Bay that the timing of this release be right, because we're sensitive to such a tragic loss. However, we also recognize that Brittany's fans will want to see her amazing work."

Abandoned follows Mary Walsh (Murphy) as she delivers boyfriend Kevin (Dean Cain, TV's "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman") to a hospital for routine outpatient surgery. But when Mary returns to take him home, he's mysteriously vanished.  An administrator (Mimi Rogers, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, TV's "The X Files") can't find any record of him, and a police search turns up nothing.  Increasingly frantic, Mary is taken to staff psychiatrist Dr. Bensley (Peter Bogdanovich, TV's "The Sopranos," directed Mask, Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show), who pronounces her unstable.  Now she must not only find her missing boyfriend, but prove her own sanity. A stranger informs Mary he knows Kevin's whereabouts, but demands a $10 million ransom, this forces Mary to save herself and the man she loves ... by any means necessary.

Anchor Bay Films is unique in that it offers the creative community a fully integrated distribution capability and an international solution extending beyond the U.S.  Anchor Bay Films, a division of Anchor Bay Entertainment, is on the ground providing quality distribution with operations in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, as well as distribution capabilities in other key territories. The company focuses on a platform release strategy for its films with an eye toward maximizing their potential across all ancillary distribution platforms. Recent releases include Spread starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, The Open Road starring Jeff Bridges and Justin Timberlake, Broken Lizard's The Slammin' Salmon starring Michael Clarke Duncan, and After.Life starring Liam Neeson and Christina Ricci. Its current theatrical release Frozen premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and it will release City Island, starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, in March 2010.

About Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is the home entertainment division of Starz Media, LLC. It includes the Anchor Bay Films and Manga Entertainment brands. It distributes feature films, children's entertainment, fitness, TV series, documentaries, anime and other filmed entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray formats. It is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of the theatrical titles from Overture Films. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Anchor Bay Entertainment has offices in Troy, MI, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com) is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group.

SOURCE Anchor Bay Entertainment