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The heat is on in this LA-set neo noir. It burns through the high colour palette of the cinematography by Gemma Doll-Grossman, from its hot LA days to neon-lit nights. It also smoulders through the central performance of Sofia Yepes - who co-wrote the script with director Francisco Ordoñez - so that you never quite know when her emotions are going to combust.

Yepes plays Raquel, an ex-marine with strong belief in karma. An aspiring hip hop producer, she spends her off-hours hustling her demos round studios with her mate Efraim (Rene Rosado) but their main source of income comes from working for local drug lord Uly (Eddie Martinez). Raquel is not just in deep with Uly’s organisation as she helps launder cash from his business, she’s also dating his sister Giselle (Ser Anzoategui).

Ordoñez keeps us with Raquel from the start, adding kinetic energy by occasionally inserting quick jump cuts.

Qed International has acquired global sales rights to Latinx and LGBTQ+ thriller The Low End Theory featuring Sidney Flanigan, the award-winning star of acclaimed independent drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

Francisco Ordoñez’s film stars Sofia Yepes as a military veteran and aspiring hip-hop producer who launders money for a dangerous drug dealer and falls for a singer portrayed by Flanigan, who won the New York Film Critics Circle best actress and National Board of Review breakthrough performance awards in 2021.

Ser Anzoategui, Rene Rosado, Eddie Martinez, Scotty Tovar, and Ricky Russert also star in the English- and Spanish-language film, which...

Atomic Features, the production company co-founded by Daniel Ragussis (“Imperium”) and Dennis Lee (“Fireflies in the Garden”), has launched a new development fund, having secured financing from a consortium of investors led by Cxm Enterprises, Davis & Associates, and Pine Valley Investments.

Atomic’s development fund will employ the formal methodology devised by Ragussis as the founder of Notes for Execs, the industry’s first workshop to help executives give better notes to screenwriters.

Notes for Execs launched in 2019 and has included participants from Warner Brothers, Universal, Fox and Disney, as well as multiple management companies and agencies. Ragussis was also formerly Head of Development for Lucas Foster’s Anvl Entertainment.

The fund utilizes this approach to development, but applies it to director-driven projects, offering a new model to bring films to market. Each project from Atomic will start with bringing on board a director, offering Atomic’s portfolio of writers...

Seaglass Talent Management, the new venture founded recently by Heather Henderson, has acquired the Actors Talent Management Division of Kontakto, a boutique company focused primarily on Latinx talent, led by Isabel Echeverry. Henderson most recently served as Head of Talent Management at Kontakto, before launching Seaglass earlier this month.

Seaglass Talent is expanding its roster with several actors that Henderson originally signed under Kontakto, including Brent David Fraser (David Lynch’s Wild at Heart), Justin Berti (Samuel Goldwyn’s Divorce Bait), Robyn Cruze (Endemol’s Big Sky), and Amber Pickens (Netflix’s Passing).

Under the acquisition, Kontakto’s roster of talent now represented by SeaGlass includes Marc Clotet (The Sleeping Voice on Prime), Kiley Opsal (A Race Against Time), Jessica Caban (Jane the Virgin), Nicole Santamaria (Netflix’s Griselda), Eddie Martinez (Blumhouse’s NightSwim), Adriana Martinez (Max’s Duster), Liana Mendoza (Mothers & Daughters), Rocio Ibarra, Doreen Calderon (Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction), among others.

Seaglass Talent and Kontakto also have teamed as Executive Producers on features The Low End Theory, a Latinx Lgbtqa film noir in post starring Sidney Flanagan, Ricky Russet, Eddie Martinez, Scotty Tovar, Sofia Yepes and Rene Rosado, as well as two Groucho Marx features with Jade Marx in development.

Echeverry will continue to concentrate exclusively on representing global directors in the advertising industry as well as develop and produce a distinctive slate of film and television projects most notably, Bella thriller, The Black List 2022, with producing partners The Hayes Brothers.

Exclusive: Sidney Flanigan (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) has signed on to star opposite Sofia Yepes in The Low End Theory, an indie thriller based on Yepes’ story, which she co-wrote with director Francisco Ordoñez.

Others new to the pic announced early last year, which has now wrapped production, include Ser Anzoategui (Vida), Jackie Quinones (Miles Away), J.R. Villareal (Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion) and Da’Vone McDonald (Forgetting Sarah Marshall). Previously announced cast includes Rene Rosado (The Connors), Eddie Martinez (The Sinner), Ricky Russert, and Scotty Tovar (Empire). Also starring is rapper and cannabis mogul Berner, creator of the billion-dollar Cookies brand, who will additionally compose the film’s original soundtrack.

Billed as a film noir set in the Latinx and LGBTQ+ world of Los Angeles, The Low End Theory centers on Raquel (Yepes), an aspiring beats producer in the low-budget hip-hop world moonlighting as a drug money launderer,...

Rapper and weed entrepreneur Berner has joined the cast of the upcoming indie thriller “The Low End Theory.”

Directed by Francisco Ordoñez, who co-wrote the script with lead actor Sofia Yepes, “The Low End Theory” is a neo-noir thriller about an aspiring hip hop producer who begins laundering money for a drug dealer. Berner will play a supporting role in the cast, in addition to executive producing and composing the soundtrack for the film.

“When I read this script it got me super excited. The music business, drug trafficking and money laundering, these are worlds I’ve often depicted in my music, and it all feels really authentic here,” Berner said in a statement. “Ultimately, seeing Latinos empowered is super dope to me. I think that’s something we need more of in the entertainment space for sure. We’re kind of always put in a box or categorized. It...

Exclusive: Rene Rosado, Eddie Martinez, Ricky Russert, and actor/rapper Scotty Tovar have joined the cast of the indie thriller The Low End Theory from Atomic Features Production.

They join previously announced lead Sofia Yepes who is also a co-writer and producer on the film. The Low End Theory—based on a story by Yepes—centers around Raquel (Yepes), an aspiring beats producer in the low-budget hip-hop world moonlighting as a drug money launderer, who ends up stealing from her crime-lord boss to pay off debts owed by the woman with whom she is having an obsessive affair.

The project reunites Yepes with Francisco Ordoñez, who wrote the screenplay for The Low End Theory and will also serve as the films’ director in his debut. Yepes’ first on-screen role was in Ordoñez’s short film st. paul, winner of the Imagen Foundation award.