Chevonne O’Shaughnessy

World Screen Weekly, November 08, 2007

President

American Cinema International

Throughout her career in international distribution, Chevonne O’Shaughnessy has made it a point of always responding to what the market wants—first at PM Entertainment, where she worked with George Shamieh for ten years, and then at American Cinema International (ACI), which Shamieh and O’Shaughnessy founded together in 2000. O’Shaugh�nessy is letting her clients’ needs drive her distribution, and, as she explains, the key to ACI’s success in the competitive world of independent filmmakers has been to create product niches.

In the case of the mini-series The Lost Treasure of Ugarit, “it was one of our clients coming to us saying they wanted something in the action genre,” says O’Shaughnessy. “Originally it was supposed to be a feature film, but it became a mini-series so that the client didn’t have to pay for a full series but could get an action program that they could create an event around. That’s what they needed. They had looked at their schedule within the past five years, and when reality programming started to decline, they saw that action was one of their best performers. And that’s what ACI and PM Entertainment were famous for—action movies.”

The three-part mini-series is a co-production of ACI and Oasis Enter�tainment. It was shot on location in Turkey, Syria and Egypt, and stars Ivan Sergei (The Break-Up, Jack & Jill) as a modern-day treasure hunter who works to uncover the location of the Star of Ugarit, an ancient weapon. It also stars Joanne Kelly (Vanished) and Alaina Huffman (Painkiller Jane), as well as the German star Thure Riefenstein (Dark Blue World).

Another niche that has worked well for ACI has been faith programming, both in the form of animated feature films and live-action ones. The 3-D CGI feature The Ten Commandments is produced by Promenade Pictures and is voiced by Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Alfred Molina and Elliott Gould. “The pendulum always swings from one direction to the other,” says O’Shaughnessy. “First horror movies were very popular, and now the pendulum is moving more toward feel-good movies.” ACI also distributes live-action faith movies, such as The Gospel of John and Matthew. “This product also falls into the feel-good, family-entertainment category.”

ACI recently entered into a multipicture deal with Germany’s Zeitsprung Entertainment. “We will have five pictures from them and we are currently casting The Well,” explains O’Shaughnessy, who points out that action movies shot in Germany in English and starring an American actor have good worldwide appeal. Heading the slate are Perfect Hideout, starring Billy Zane (Titanic), 80 Minutes, starring Gabriel Mann (The Bourne Supremacy), and The Lost Samaritan, starring Ian Somerhalder and Ruta Gedmintas.

—By Anna Carugati