Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Roadside Attractions co-president Howard Cohen has closed a deal to acquire North American rights to Branded. The plan is for a nationwide theatrical release this September. Lionsgate has home entertainment, VOD and other ancillary rights through their output deal. The film’s described as a dark and mind-bending journey into a surreal, dystopian society where corporate brands have unleashed a monstrous global conspiracy to get inside our minds and keep the population disillusioned, dependent and passive. One man’s (Ed Stoppard) passion to unlock the truth behind the conspiracy will lead to an epic battle with the hidden forces that really control our world.

The film was written, produced and directed by Jamie Bradshaw and Alexander Doulerain, two marketing executives. Bradshaw co-founded Ignition Creative, a Hollywood-based creative advertising agency, while Doulerain is chief creative officer of one of Russia’s most popular TV Networks, TNT. The film stars Stoppard, Leelee Sobieski, Jeffrey Tambor, Ingeborga Dabkunaite and Max Von Sydow. ”We’re excited to release Jamie Bradshaw and Alexander Doulerain’s mind-bending, futuristic thriller Branded, which is a kind of film we haven’t done before,” said Cohen.

Bradshaw said the film is informed by his core business. “The most powerful weapon on earth today is not a gun or a disease, nor is it even visible to many,” he said. “It is marketing. Marketing is the power to control your desires and change your mind, and if you look closer there is something about it that is not of this earth.” Alexander says, “I worked for many years in marketing and have to say as fantastical as the plot of our movie might seem it is as real as it gets.”

Cassian Elwes and Dean Cheley for Barbossa Production S.A. rep the filmmakers.