Director Scott Mann’s AI Startup Helps ‘Fall’ Nab PG-13 Rating, $2.5M Open – Specialty Box Office
15.08.2022 - 03:29
/ deadline.com
Lionsgate thriller Fall will make an estimated $2.5+ million this weekend at 1,548 locations for a PSA of about $1,618. The audience (54% male and 61% over 25, according to PostTrak) was broader than it might have been after a company founded by director Scott Mann swapped dozens of f-words, moving Fall from an R to a PG-13 rating.
The firm, called Flawless, launched last year to specialize in foreign-language “vubbing,” for visual dubbing, which uses artificial intelligence to subtly shift lip and facial movements to match words spoken. But in Fall, its first project, the urgency was around English-language expletives by English-language actors during a stressful high-altitude shoot in the middle of Covid. Costly reshoots weren’t an option, nor really were cuts.
Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner play best friends and expert climbers stranded 2,000 feet up atop a rickety, abandoned TV tower. Mann shot Fall independently. “We ended up with a film we were very excited about, way better than we thought. When we screened it for Lionsgate, they said, ‘We love it. We love the tension and the suspense. But when they counted them up, it was going to be about 35 f-words.”
Most weren’t scripted, they “just came out” during the shoot, he told Deadline in an interview Sunday. “There was nothing really to cut to and we didn’t want to ruin the movie trying to get rid of the language, which was often at the height of an emotional performance.” The actors, at Flawless’ studios, redid the lines with different words (think ‘fricking’ for one) and the firm synched their mouth movements.
Mann said Flawless, which he co-founded with Nick Lynes, is working on three feature film projects.
Fall’s estimated weekend breakdown: $925k Friday