Sentient Entertainment Launches Foreign Sales, Finance & Production Banner; Boyd Holbrook & Pierre Morel Projects On First Slate – EFM

Sentient Entertainment founder and CEO Renee Tab and producer Christopher Tuffin are launching a new foreign sales, finance and production outfit dubbed Sentient Pictures International (SPI), which they will oversee alongside former Relativity COO Andrew Marcus and Taken helmer Pierre Morel.

The first projects on the company’s sales slate include drama Last Meals, from director Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje and Morel’s sci-fi thriller D.O.A.

Last Meals stars Delroy Lindo and Boyd Holbrook and follows a disgraced and misunderstood White House chef who finds himself many years later working in a maximum security prison cooking last meals for inmates on death row. There, he forms an unlikely bond with an inmate who launches a hunger strike as his day of execution quickly approaches.

Justin Piasecki writes the script, which is based on his Nicholls Award-winning screenplay Death Of An Ortolan. Shooting is expected to begin in January 2023. It’s produced by Revelations Entertainment’s Lori McCreary, Gary Luccesi, Morgan Freeman and Michael Kay alongside Sentient’s Tab and Tuffin. UTA Independent Film Group will be co-repping domestic rights with SPI.

D.O.A., which is written by Ben Magid and directed by Morel, follows John Porter, who has dedicated his life to hunting down ghosts after the death of his family. When he crosses paths with an energeic runaway Jenny, who holds the truth behind the mysterious appearance of ghosts, he is forced to overcome his own prejudices and stop a war before it is too late.

Management and production outfit Sentient Entertainment and SPI will function as separately owned and operated entities. SPI’s central focus will be the development, production, sales and finance of content driven for the international marketplace, as well as domestic studios and streamers.

“After spending two decades representing filmmakers, I am thrilled to be launching a company that can put their creative ambitions front and center and even develop their ideas from the ground up,” said Tab. “Marrying their artistic vision with the needs of the marketplace, and those of our partners, makes for a really exciting collaboration on all sides.”

In addition to continuing its relationship with Italia in the Middle East, Turkey and India, SPI has inked a series of first look deals with international distributors such as Leonine in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Volga in Russia and CIS, Empire in South Africa and Vertical Distribution in Eastern Europe.

“Our ambition is to align ourselves with partners who came to this business to entertain and move audiences of all walks of life,” added Tuffin.

Lindo is repped by APA. Holbrook is repped by WME and Range Media Partners. Akinnuoye Agbaje is repped by UTA, APA, Fourward and Accelerate Management. Piasecki is repped by Paradign and Zero Gravity.