Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Acquires The Worldwide Rights To “48 Meters Down” From The Fyzz Facility

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Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures (ESMP), the theatrical distribution division of Byron Allen's global media company Entertainment Studios, is proud to announce it has acquired the worldwide distribution rights to the suspense thriller 48 Meters Down from The Fyzz Facility.  

48 Meters Down is the official sequel to 2017's highest-grossing independent movie, the Mandy Moore/Claire Holt shark thriller 48 Meters Down, which has grossed over $58 million worldwide to date. 48 Meters Down is slated for worldwide theatrical release on June 28, 2019.

Following in the footsteps of the original, 48 Meters Down is a deep-sea horror/thriller, directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters DownThe Other Side of the Door), from a script he is co-writing with his 47 Meters Down co-writer, Ernest Riera.


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James Harris, Mark Lane, Wayne Marc Godfrey and Robert Jones of The Fyzz Facility are producing 48 Meters Down. Altitude Film Sales, the sales agent on 47 Meters Down and instrumental in realising the project will be executive producers on the sequel. Roberts recently wrapped production on Strangers: Prey at Night, a follow-up to the original 2008 suspense thriller starring Christina Hendricks, Bailee Madison and Lewis Pullman, which The Fyzz Facility produced and financed.

48 Meters Down takes place in the backpacking mecca of Brazil, against the backdrop of the country's vibrant culture, party atmosphere and beautiful beaches. A group of five girls from different backgrounds and countries are united by their lust for life and adventure in the coastal metropolis of Recife. Looking to get off the well-worn tourist trail, they hear about a hidden underwater ruin from a local guide and seize the opportunity to discover their own Atlantis beneath the turquoise waves. Unbeknownst to them, the caves where the forgotten city lies are not completely uninhabited, and as they swim deeper into the submerged labyrinth of caves they enter the territory of the deadliest shark species in the ocean.

ESMP currently has a multi-year output deal with Netflix. Other movie titles recently acquired by ESMP include the Rob Cohen-helmed action/thriller The Hurricane Heist, the Keanu Reeves sci-fi action/thriller Replicas, the thriller Chappaquiddick, and the critically-acclaimed Christian Bale feature Hostiles. ESMP's acquisition of Chappaquiddick and Replicas was announced last month at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

"Byron Allen had the balls to take 47 Meters Down on and put everything on the line to deliver such an outstanding result.  We just couldn't consider going anywhere else for our underwater sequel," said The Fyzz Facility's Wayne Marc Godfrey. "Johannes deftly shapes these narratives with twists that heighten the suspense and excitement, we know this sequel will again be an extraordinary ride that will take filmgoers around the world deeper into the sharks Ocean playground."

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We are very excited to bring the 47 Meters Down filmmaking team back together again," said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios. "The sequel 48 Meters Down is well-positioned to be a big summer event movie. The shark-filled psychological horror/thriller will once again have moviegoers overwhelmed and on the edge of their seats being terrorized by the world's greatest predators!!!"

The deal for 48 Meters Down was brokered by The Fyzz Facility's Wayne Marc Godfrey and Entertainment Studios.


About Entertainment Studios
Chairman and CEO Byron Allen founded Entertainment Studios in 1993. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it has offices in New York, Chicago, Denver, and Raleigh. 

The company also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 41 television programs, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations. With a library of over 5,000 hours of owned content across multiple genres, Entertainment Studios provides video content to broadcast television stations, cable television networks, mobile devices, multimedia platforms, and the World Wide Web.  Our mission is to provide excellent programming to our viewers, online users, and Fortune 500 advertising partners.  

In 2015, Entertainment Studios purchased Freestyle Releasing, now called Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, a full-service, theatrical motion picture distribution company that specializes in representing independent companies, major studios, and mini-major studios for the purpose of exhibiting their films as first-class theatrical releases. ESMP released 2017's highest-grossing independent movie, the shark thriller 47 Meters Down, which has grossed over $44.3 million to date. The digital distribution unit of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, Freestyle Digital Media, supplies quality commercial film and TV content directly to all US VOD/SVOD rental DVD/Kiosks and theaters using the latest cloud-based technologies to automate digital workflow. Freestyle Digital Media provides our content audience a positive digital viewing experience on every device everywhere. 

In 2016, Entertainment Studios purchased TheGrio, a digital video-centric news community platform devoted to providing African-Americans with compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets. TheGrio features aggregated and original video packages, news articles, and blogs on topics that include breaking news, politics, health, business, and entertainment. Originally launched in 2009, the platform was then purchased by NBC News in 2010. In 2014, TheGrio founders purchased their company back from NBC News and has since tripled its traffic rate. The digital platform remains focused on curating exciting digital content and currently has more than 20 million annual visitors.

About The Fyzz Facility

The Fyzz Facility is a prolific film production and financing company specializing in commercially viable projects. Based in London, with offices in Los Angeles, The Fyzz Facility creates bespoke financing strategies which provide a sharp and individualized approach to each project. 

With an aggregate production spend in excess of $1.8 billion, and having invested over $280m into over 200 feature films over the last six years, company credits include: Taylor Sheridan's Wind  River starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen; Martin Scorsese's Silence starring Liam Neeson; Rob Reiner's Shock and Awe starring Woody Harrelson; Stephen Fingleton's BAFTA nominated The Survivalist; and Martin Campbell's The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, which just reached $120m at the global box office. 

Upcoming projects which the company financed and produced include: Three Seconds starring Rosamund Pike, Joel Kinnaman and Clive Owen;Strangers: Prey at NightFinal Score starring Dave Bautista; and Matthew Holness' darkly twisted debut feature Possum starring Sean Harris.