AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, Starring Rooney Mara, Begins Production

Evolution Independent, Lagniappe and Paradox Entertainment announce today that principal photography has begun on the new dramatic thriller AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, which was written and is being directed by David Lowery ("Pioneer") and stars Academy Award-nominees Rooney Mara ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") and Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"), and multiple award-winner Ben Foster ("3:10 To Yuma"). The film tells the story of Bob Muldoon (Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Mara), two young outlaws who are brought down by the law in the hills of Texas.

The financing of the picture was split three ways between Evolution Independent, Paradox Entertainment and Lagniappe, and was executive produced by Mark Burg ("Saw") and Mike Menchel for Evolution Independent, Daniel Wagner ("Broken City") and Fredrik Malmberg ("Let Me In") for Paradox, and Logan Levy ("A Case of You") and Jesse Kennedy ("Brooklyn's Finest") for Lagniappe.

The film began shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana on July 9th and is produced by James Johnston ("St. Nick") and Toby Halbrook ("Pioneer") for Sailor Bear; Jay Van Hoy ("Beginners") and Lars Knudsen ("Beginners") for Parts & Labor; Amy Kaufman ("Sin Nombre") for Primary Productions and Cassian Elwes ("The Words") for Evolution Independent.

Nate Parker ("Red Tails") and Keith Carradine ("Cowboys and Aliens") round out the cast.

Evolution is a full service management and Production Company. The Twisted Pictures ("Saw") and Twisted Television ("Anger Management") brand is now accompanied by Evolution Independent. This division was recently formed by Cassian Elwes and the partnership with Mark Burg and Mike Menchel.

"This is exactly the plan for Evolution Independent; partnerships with other strategic financiers and identifying material and talent for us to self-finance. SAINTS is the first of a few financed films to come over the next 6 months," said Menchel.

Lagniappe, formed by Levy and Kennedy in January of 2012 to finance high quality independent films, is currently financing a number of projects using equity debt or mezzanine financing, depending on what is appropriate for the project.

"We just formed the company in January but this is already our second film and we currently have a number of films in consideration," said Kennedy. "We're excited for the future of Lagniappe and the strong relationships we're developing with Paradox and Evolution."

Lagniappe has recently wrapped principal photography on its first film, A CASE OF YOU, with Justin Long, Evan Rachel Wood, Brendan Fraser and Sienna Miller. The film was completely financed by Lagniappe, and a domestic distributor is yet to be set.

Originally from Sweden, Paradox Entertainment manages and develops its rights library by generating revenue from all forms of entertainment, including motion picture, television, gaming, publishing and toy industries. Their library consists of such well-known brands as Conan the Barbarian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, Mutant Chronicles, and the works of Robert E. Howard. Paradox Entertainment is also expanding and intensifying their co-financing efforts with the Simon West action thriller THUNDER RUN in pre-production, as well as their soon to be released FIRE WITH FIRE to be distributed by Lionsgate.

All international territories for AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS are being handled by The Weinstein Company.

"This is a very unique and engaging story, and we are very excited to work with such a talented cast and group of filmmakers," said David Glasser, COO of The Weinstein Company. "We are looking forward to making AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS an international success."

Lowery is an award-wining filmmaker from Texas. He was accepted to the Sundance Screenwriters Lab for AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS. His debut feature, ST NICK, premiered at the 2009 SXSW Film Festival. His follow-up directorial effort, the short film PIONEER, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW the following March.

Sailor Bear was formed when longtime friends and collaborators, Johnston, Halbrooks and Lowery joined forces to produce the critically acclaimed short film PIONEER which won the Grand Jury Prize at seven film festivals around the world including Festival Internacional de Cortos FIB (Spain) and South by Southwest Film Festival (USA). In 2011 the team was honored to have their newest feature project AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS included in the esteemed Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, Johnston and Halbrooks for the Creative Producing Fellowship and Lowery for the Screenwriting Labs.

Founded in 2004, Parts & Labor is a New York based film Production Company, whose previous film projects include Kelly Reichardt's OLD JOY, Aaron Katz's COLD WEATHER, and Mike Mills' BEGINNERS (which won Christopher Plummer the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2012). The company is currently in post-production on photojournalist Shaul Schwarz's documentary NARCO CULTURA and Andrew Dosunmu's second feature MA' GEORGE. They are also producing DIRTY WHITE BOY, which will star Michael K. Williams as late hip-hop artist Ol' Dirty Bastard, and Robinson Devor's YOU CAN'T WIN, starring Michael Pitt.