Anchor Bay Entertainment Relaunched, Announces First Projects

Anchor Bay Entertainment, a film and home video studio and distributor that closed down in 2017, is set for a comeback -- kind of. Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz have acquired the Anchor Bay Entertainment brand from Lionsgate, and plan to revive the label as a home for "new release genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics, and remastered catalog releases." The first two such releases have already been revealed, and Zambeck and Katz are traveling to the Berlin International Film Festival to hunt for more acquisitions. 

While the current iteration of Anchor Bay has no direct financial ties to the original company, there is a personal tie: Katz, who has worked for companies including Starz, Sony, and Post Haste Digital, began his career more than 15 years ago at Anchor Bay.

"We had an opportunity to take the name of a beloved genre film brand, one we feel a personal connection to, for our new company," Zambeck told Deadline. "This is a new venture, unaffiliated with any previous incarnations. We aim to honor the history and spirit of the past as we look for interesting films that break the mold, and will be discovered by new generations for years to come."

The first two films on the new company's docket are Evan Marlowe's Abruptio, a horror movie done with realistic puppets, and the documentary Dinner With Leatherface, which centers on Gunnar Hansen, the actor who played the famous horor role in 1974's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

In Abruptio, which stars James Marsters alongside Christopher McDonald, Jordan Peele, Robert Englund, and others, Les Hackel (James Marsters) is a guy down on his luck who wakes to find an explosive device has been implanted in his neck. He must carry out heinous crimes in order to stay alive while trying to identify the mastermind manipulating the now twisted and strange world around him. Kerry Marlowe executive produces along with Evan Marlowe, Barry Finlayson (Horror House), Sue Finlayson (Blood Rush) and Martin Lee White (A Right Fool).

In My Dinner With Leatherface, "friends, colleagues, filmmakers, and fellow actors share personal stories and discuss the dichotomy between the maniacal chainsaw-wielding character Hansen played on-screen and the very intelligent, creative, soft-spoken man he actually was in real life." The documentary features interviews with Bruce Campbnell, Barbara Crampton, Brian O'Halloran, Kane Hodder, and more. 

Earlier today, news emerged that the studio had also acquired Crust, a horror comedy about a washed-up child actor who lives in a laundromat and befriends a monster made of socks and animated by the main character's "tears of anguish" (and, apparently, other bodily fluids).