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Exclusive: Blu Del Barrio joins the cast of Carol Brandt’s upcoming feature, Pink Moon, in a lead role. Meredith Johnston penned the script, and also stars along actor Zeke Goodman.

The story follows Mira (Johnston) and K (Del Barrio), a queer couple with their relationship on the rocks, living out of their van in the Chicago area. As a last ditch effort to escape their desolate life, they plan a bank heist in the small town of Worden, Kansas. However, executing a bank heist amidst a crumbling relationship yields tougher than they thought. As Mira and K adjust to small town living, they realize they must confront the failings of their relationship or lose everything they’ve got left.

“Only a quarter of the way into reading this script I was heartbroken at the possibility of not getting to play K. It is one of those projects you cling onto immediately,...

Exclusive: Martin Kaszubowski’s feature film Earlybird has been acquired by Good Deed Entertainment for worldwide rights.

Shot in Milwaukee, the live theater-themed comedy stars Joshua Koopman, Chloe Skoczen, Mark Fearon (Chicago Fire), Meredith Johnston and a breakout performance from stage actor Julie Pope. The film played to sold-out audiences at both IFFBoston and the Milwaukee Film Festival.

In Earlybird, a desperate artistic director aims to revive his struggling theater with off-the-wall stage productions, all the while losing sight of why he chose this life in the first place.

“We’re thrilled to include Earlybird as a part of Good Deed’s growing slate of worldwide releases,” said Erik Donley, EVP of Acquisitions and Distribution at Gde. “Director and writer Martin Kaszubowski did a fantastic job executing this film and we cannot wait to...

Exclusive: Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television have cast the new group of teenagers (and a couple of adults) at the center of the I Know What You Did Last Summer series reboot.

Madison Iseman (Jumanji: The Next Level), Brianne Tju (Light as a Feather), Ezekiel Goodman, Ashley Moore (Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping), Sebastian Amoruso (Solve), Fiona Rene (Stumptown), Cassie Beck (Connecting), Brooke Bloom (Homecoming) and Bill Heck (I’m Your Woman) are set to star in the YA horror series, a modern take on the hit 1997 slasher film. Production will begin this month in Hawaii.

Written by Sara Goodman (Preacher) based on the 1973 novel by Lois Duncan, the I Know What You Did Last Summer series has the same premise as the movie adaptation: In a town full of secrets, a group of teenagers are stalked by a mysterious killer a year after a fatal accident on their graduation night.

Opening with a whimsical shot of Leigh (lead actress and screenwriter Meredith Johnston) wandering around an empty small-town landscape past a carnival winding down for the evening, Pet Names, directed by Carol Brandt, is a minor triumph of self-discovery even if it falls prey to a few of the usual tropes. The quirk of its lead masks a deeper pain and the film effectively delivers nuanced emotional blows between laughs and a story about the fine art of hanging out with an old friend. In her best life, Leigh, upon first glance, may be the strong-willed manic pixie dream girl, offering quirky observations like “guacamole isn’t a condiment,” finding joy in her ex-boyfriend’s pug after which they collaborate on the worst love song possible. These moments pass in a film that offers a profound depth under the usual banter and tension.

Johnson is a captivating presence with a natural charm,...

You can't go home again, but sometimes you have to. For Leigh, the would-be grad student at the center of the lovely and sardonically unsentimental Pet Names, returning home means stepping into the role of caretaker for her ailing mother and, more unexpectedly, facing unhealed wounds between her and her ex-boyfriend.

Set over a few days of leafy Midwestern summer, the concise drama is sensitively directed by Carol Brandt from a sharp screenplay by Meredith Johnston. With its lyrical sense of place and terrific lead duo of Johnston and Rene Cruz, it's a strong example of low-budget regional filmmaking. In...

In her first two feature films, director Carol Brandt has already ably explored the intricacies of being a modern young woman and what that means for fraught interpersonal relationships. Her first film, “Things Found on the Ground,” was about letting go of expectations, while her “Dear Coward on the Moon” centered on an unearthed family secret. For her next film, set to debut at SXSW later this month, Brandt is turning her eye to a different kind of relationship. (With the added bonus of a cute pug.)

Per the film’s official synopsis, “Grad-school-dropout Leigh spends seemingly endless days caring for her ill mother in her childhood home. A chance encounter with her ex, Cam, leads Leigh to make a last-minute decision to invite him on her solo camping trip. Falling into old patterns of familiarity is easy for the duo; what’s hard is facing deep-seated wounds between them that never healed.