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Sandy Springs

A Film By Joshua A. GrossbergContact:

Two Cousins Entertainment(646) 729-7862

joshg@twocousinsentertainment.com

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In the vein of such classic films as Crash and Taxi Driver, Sandy Springs is a coming of age drama and thriller that tells the intertwining tale of a pair of fathers and sons, one black and the other white, and the transformation of the latter son into a vigilante that culminates in a fateful encounter.

2016. Atlanta, Georgia. Anthony Foster is a bright 16-year-old African-American boy who, aside from being mathematically and musically gifted, hails from a broken home and moves from Charlotte to Atlanta to live with his estranged father in a predominantly white suburban condo community. Anthony’s father, Isaac Foster, is haunted by the fact he abandoned Anthony years earlier to pursue his ambition to be a successful attorney. James LeRoy, a 33-year-old Caucasian juvenile guidance counselor who lives in the same community, dreams of being a police officer. But an arrest for sexual battery when he was 18 has precluded the possibility. James’ father, Martin, a retired judge, offers to pull strings for his son and get him into law school given his interest in criminal justice, but James doesn’t get along with Martin because his father’s a racist. Whether the pair of fathers and sons recon-cile their relationships is an open question - one complicated by Anthony’s experiences with racial profiling and James’ dramatic descent into vigilantism after a string of robberies in the neighborhood that eventually bring the two together with explosive consequences.

Through the relationships of a pair of fathers and sons, one black and the other white, at the heart of Sandy Springs is a family drama exploring the values children inherit from their parents and how those values shape their destinies. The dramatic thriller also delves into the controversial issue of racial profiling that is galvanizing a new civil rights movement among African-Americans. Misconceptions kill. And the racist attitudes Sandy Springs’ main antagonist, James, internalizes from his father, Martin, plays a key role in why he wrongly assumes Anthony Foster as the burglar terrorizing their mostly white neighborhood. Anthony’s inability to fully absorb the lesson his father, Isaac Foster, tries to impart on him about keeping his volatile teenage emotions in check leads to a fateful confrontation with James. In this story however, there is no black and white—only shades of grey reflecting the complicated, often contradictory and flawed personalities that make us human.

Actor Courtney B. Vance is attached to star as Isaac Foster. Our wish list, pending offers, include such esteemed names as Josh Hartnett for the role of James, William Hurt for the role of Martin, and fast-rising British star Osy Ikhile for the role of Anthony.

Budgeted at $1.9 million, Sandy Springs is slated to commence shooting in spring, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia with Molly Mayeux on board as lead producer and 120db Films serving as executive producer.

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CREATIVE TEAM

Joshua A. Grossberg, Director, Writer, Producer – New York-based filmmaker and mem-ber of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), Grossberg’s most recent production is the award-winning feature-length documentary, A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home, which he wrote, produced and directed. The film, which follows a Good Samaritan who rescues seven evacuees after Hurricane Katrina, won the Neapolitan Award at the Naples Interna-tional Film Festival, the Spirit of the Independent Awards at the Ft. Lauderdale Internation-al Film Festival, and the Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival . A Bridge Life premiered on television on the fifth anniversary of the disaster and is currently available on DVD and online via iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon among other digital outlets. Prior to that, Grossberg wrote, produced and directed the groundbreaking short, Betrayed,

the first narrative film to shoot on the now ubiquitous Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera. The film stars Seth Gil-liam (The Walking Dead, The Wire), Cara Buono (Mad Men, The Sopranos) and PJ Sosko (Person of Interest, The Good Wife) and premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Other notable credits include Looking For Harrison starring John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark), Life Is Elsewhere and his college thesis film, Nowhere Town, which won the Steven Spielberg Award for Best Student Production at Worldfest Charleston International Film Festival. His supernatural thriller, The Ascendance, was a semifinalist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Nicholl Fellowship and a finalist for the New Century Writer Awards. Grossberg is a graduate of Northwestern University’s film and cre-ative writing program and studied under legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog as a member of the latter’s invita-tion-only Rogue Film School seminar. Grossberg sits on the PGA’s Documentary and Mentorship Committee.

Molly Mayeux, Producer – Since 1996, Molly Mayeux has produced over 20 motion pictures as well as countless media projects including web series, branded content, com-mercials and music videos. Her films have screened at the most prestigious film festivals around the world including Sundance, Toronto, Rotterdam and Cannes.Through has production banner, Dahlia Street Motion Pictures, Molly’s first producer credit was Sav-ior, which starred Dennis Quaid and was executive produced by Oliver Stone. Savior was released by Columbia Pictures in 1998. Other credits include The Hi Line starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Dandelion starring Vincent Cartheiser, Rain (TIFF), starring Nicki Micheaux, and Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Recent titles include Ava Duvernay’s first narrative feature, I Will Follow, Chasing Ghosts starring SNL’s Tim Meadows, which is in

world wide release by Millennium Films and the upcoming Waiting for the Miracle to Come, directed by Lian Lunson, which stars Willie Nelson and Charlotte Rampling. Waiting for the Miracle to Come is executive pro-duced by Bono and Wim Wenders. Molly Mayeux is also an active member of the Producer’s Guild of America.

George Paaswell, Line Producer – George Paaswell is a long-time member of the Inde-pendent Film community, having been a part of the producers’ team on over 20 feature films. Getting credit as Executive Producer, Co-Producer or Line Producer, nine of his films have premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in the past 10 years, including Silent House, Jack Goes Boating, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men, The Music Never Stopped and Phoebe in Wonderland. Another film he co-produced, Notorious, for Fox Searchlight, broke a studio record for biggest opening weekend.

Paaswell is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of Amer-ica. A native New Yorker, he recently moved to Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

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Nancy Schreiber, Cinematographer – Nancy Schreiber is an award winning cinematogra-pher based in both New York and Los Angeles. She came up through the ranks as an elec-trician and gaffer, working in commercials, features and documentaries for such directors and producers as Martha Coolidge, Michael Hausman, and Richard Pearce. Schreiber was voted into membership into the prestigious American Society Of Cinematographers over a decade ago, the fourth female in the organization’s history. Well regarded in the industry, Schreiber was chosen as the director of photography on Visions Of Light, a stunning docu-mentary on the art of cinematography, an early Hi-Definition Film.

Schreiber was honored with the Best Dramatic Cinematography Award at Sundance, with the film November, starring Courteney Cox. Schreiber shared the Best Cinematography Award at Sundance for My America...Or Honk If You Love Buddah. She also garnered an Emmy nomination for Best Cinematography on the acclaimed Celluloid Closet for HBO. In addition, Schreiber was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Chain of Desire, and was recognized in 2000 by Variety as one of “10 DPs to Watch”. Schreiber has filmed nu-merous features which premiered at Sundance, including The Nines, with Ryan Reynolds and Melissa McCarthy; Motherhood with Uma Thurman and Minnie Driver; and Loverboy, directed by Kevin Bacon, starring Kyra Sedg-wick, Sandra Bullock and Matt Dillon. Other credits include Your Friends and Neighbors, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Paradise Lost 2 and 3, Serious Moonlight with Meg Ryan and American Gun with Forrest Whitaker.

Bill Pankow, Editor – With more than 32 film credits dating from 1982, Pankow’s best known for his nine collaborations with virtuoso director Brian DePalma, editing some of the latter’s most celebrated classics, among them 1984’s Body Double, 1986’s The Untouch-ables, and 1993’s Carlito’s Way. Pankow also won the Seattle Film Critics Award for Best Editing in 2002 for his work on DePalma’s Femme Fatale.

Other movie credits include Money Train, The Tic Code, Assault on Precinct 13, Mr. 3000, Letters to Juliet, Trespass, Greetings from Tim Buckley, The East and Let’s Be Cops as well as episodes of such acclaimed TV series as The Equalizer, Tales from the Darkside, and Treme.

Kevin Wilson, Co-Producer, Post-Production Supervisor, Sound Designer – Wilson co-produced A Bridge Life with Joshua A. Grossberg and heads the audio department at Prime Focus New York where he’s worked with such filmmakers as Albert Maysles, Bar-bara Kopple, Amos Koleck and Adam Rapp. Wilson has over 20 years of post-production experience on film projects. Through his company, Portmanteau Films, Wilson is also in development on a horror film he wrote entitled Dark Jungle, which received a terrific review in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science’s prestigious Nicholl Fellowship competition (top 10% out of 7200). The script was also a semifinalist at the 2013 Scream-fest!LA.

Stephen Hays, Executive Producer – Stephen Hays is executive producer and managing member of 120db Films, a film finance company. He was co-founder and General Partner of Seneca Capital, a New York-based hedge fund specializing in special situations, arbi-trage and distressed securities (1996-2003), where he remains a partner and advisor. Prior to that, he was a Managing Director at Furman Selz, a New York-based investment bank where his focus was proprietary risk arbitrage and event-driven investing (1987-1995). Stephen’s first position on Wall Street was at Laterman and Co., an arbitrage-focused hedge fund (1985-87). Stephen is a board member at the Green Chimneys School and the Wood-stock Film Festival and is an active supporter of numerous charitable and non-profits in-cluding OxFam, Save the Children and The Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals. Stephen

was also co-writer and executive producer of the reggae/racing film, Rocksteady featuring Steel Pulse.

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James Casey, Composer – An acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist, Casey is a member of the Trey Anastasio Band (TAB), trading solos with the legendary singer, song-writer and guitarist for the rock band Phish. A former sideman of the Brooklyn-based funk juggernaut Lettuce and Soulive Royal Family, Casey is a breakout star having played with some of the most iconic musicians of the Jam Band scene in clubs, concert halls, theaters and festivals across the country. When he’s not leading his own funk-electronic band, An-imus Rexx, or playing with TAB, Casey can be seen jamming with frequent collaborators Jennifer Hartswick (the Jennifer Hartswick Band) and singer, songwriter and jazz Trom-bonist Natalie Cressman. He also performed with Shawn Mendes on The Late Show With David Letterman and composed the score for choreographer Danielle Smith Guillermo’s

ballet at the Pennsylvania Regional Ballet. Casey is a graduate of Boston’s Berkelee College of Music.

Janelle Scuderi, Casting Director (L.A.) – Janelle Scuderi is a member of The Casting Society of America and has been working in casting for over a decade. After attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in casting. She started her career working on the critically acclaimed & award winning Fox television series House, MD. While doing the series she also worked on many television pilots and feature films most notably, 9 Lives directed by Rodrigo Garcia, Saw II, & The Moment. In 2012 she partnered up with Dominika Posseren and together they have cast over 15 films. Scuderi’s most recent feature credits include American Heist, Bravetown, The Green Ghost, The Barber and 90 Minutes in Heaven.

Dominika Posseren, Casting Director (L.A.) – Posseren’s many feature credits include Eli Roth’s The Green Inferno, Bravetown, The Barber and 90 Minutes in Heaven. Growing up in Stockholm, Sweden, Posseren costarred in the Swedish feature film Kaninmannen. In the late ‘90s she came to Los Angeles and after a stint in script and story development at Para-mount and Dreamworks began her first foray in casting, working with Mali Finn (Titanic, Terminator 2) on the feature film 8 Mile, which was Eminem’s feature film debut. Other credits includeThe Eye with Jessica Alba, the Crank series with Jason Statham, The Devil’s Rejects and The Devil Inside, a low budget thriller that has been one of the most successful movie releases in Hollywood over the past couples of years in that genre.

Rhavynn Drummer, Casting Director (Atlanta) – Among her notable casting projects are films like The Single Mom’s Club, Tyler Perry’s Medea’s Family Christmas, and such tele-vision series as The Haves and Have Nots and For Better or Worse. She also provided addi-tional casting for such films as The Family That Preys, Why did I Get Married Too? and The Marriage Counselor as well as the TV shows House of Payne and Meet the Browns and Love Thy Neighbor. Drummer has had the privilege of working in casting for the past 6 years and began her career in casting working as a casting assistant at Tyler Perry Studios. While working at the studio she has participated in the casting of 12 feature films, 5 television se-ries, and 4 theatrical productions. In June of 2011 Drummer was promoted to the position of in-house freelance Casting Director. Drummer is a 2007 graduate from the University

of Virginia with a double major in Theater and American Studies. During her time at UVA she also started the Paul Robeson Players, a theater company focused on producing African-American stories and experiences.