Back in May, before the summer rollercoaster that MoviePass subscribers currently find themselves on, the service's parent company, Helios & Matheson Analytics, launched its MoviePass Films subsidiary and purchased Emmett Furla Oasis Films. The new venture would see MoviePass producing films that could then be marketed and pushed through the subscription service. Now, amidst the turmoil surrounding MoviePass' financial state and ever-changing offering, we are seeing the first fruits of that venture. In the first production since the purchase of EFO Films, MoviePass Films has set Bruce Willis to star in 10 Minutes Gone.
The film will reunite Bruce Willis with director Brian A. Miller. The two previously worked together on The Prince, Vice and the upcoming Reprisal. Brian A. Miller will direct Willis, based on a script by Kelvin Mao and Jeff Jingle. According to Deadline, 10 Minutes Gone tells the story of a man hit by a stray bullet during a bank robbery gone wrong. He loses 10 minutes of his memory, and it's this gap in time that he must fill in in order to find out what happened, who sabotaged the job and most importantly, where the money is. While trying to put the pieces of his memory back together, the man is being pursued by a crime boss, played by Bruce Willis, who wants to recover the score. Joining Bruce Willis onscreen in the film are Meadow Williams, Swan Temmel, Sergio Rizzuto and Tyler Jon Olsen.
10 Minutes Gone will be the third project for MoviePass Films, following The Row and Gotti, but the first since the EFO Films acquisition. With Bruce Willis attached this is arguably the company's biggest film yet. Reading the description of the story, it would have been easy to presume that Bruce Willis would be playing the man trying to fill in those missing 10 minutes, as he's played the everyman and the hero countless action flicks. So it is especially interesting to see that he'll be playing a bit against type as the villain in this film. The premise is a solid one, even if it's not completely different from things we've seen before. The key here will be execution and a fun Bruce Willis villain could be an easy sell.
As far as the MoviePass of it all is concerned, the service has long sought to diversify its revenue streams, and part of that involves producing its own films. With 3 million subscribers, MoviePass has a huge amount of visibility, and can easily push certain films within its app. Showcasing this leverage and ability to influence the marketplace and attendance with its own films would ideally lead to the service striking deals, with various partners to promote their films for a share of the revenue. Whether that will actually happen at this point is anyone's guess. The marketing around Gotti was full of controversy, so perhaps 10 Minutes Gone will have a better showing.
10 Minutes Gone starts shooting in September and a release date has yet to be announced. Check out our release schedule for all of the biggest films hitting theaters this year and for all the latest in movies, MoviePass and MoviePass movies, stay tuned to CinemaBlend.
