NEW YORK, NY, October 31, 2002—Kinetic Arts, a New York-based film production company, is pleased to announce it has entered into a deal to produce the feature film remake of Leonard, an award-winning Scottish short about a lonely middle-aged man with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who re-discovers his long-lost son.

Leonard the short film has screened at some of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, including the pre-eminent festival for short films, Clermont-Ferrand, where it won the 2002 Special Audience Award for best film. 

Leonard is the story of a man with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder who meets the son he has never known–an encounter that changes his orderly life forever. The short film stars acclaimed Scottish actor Denis Lawson, who has appeared in such films as Star Wars and Local Hero. 

“After seeing the short earlier this year at Clermont, we came away feeling this film had strong potential as a feature,” said Alex Twersky, a managing member of Kinetic Arts. “Richard Smith’s script is gripping; it never lets go of you, and very naturally moves the audience to extremes of sadness and then ultimate joy. We’re working very closely with Richard to expand the story’s powerful themes and craft a feature in the tradition of Rain Man and As Good As It Gets,” said Twersky. Twersky added that “Dennis Lawson’s performance as the title character is spot on and quite moving. It would be wonderful for him to reprise the role in the feature.” 

“This was an easy call for us” said Chris Spanos, Kinetic Arts’ other managing member. “Leonard is a perfect representation of our company’s creative vision and development strategy–it’s a highly acclaimed, award-winning foreign short with a talented creative team that is clearly ready, willing and able to take that next step and make a successful American feature film.” Kinetic Arts has been employing this strategy with great success, having recently closed a deal on the rights to remake Feeding Desire, a Danish short that won the 2002 Student Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film, as an English-language feature.

Chris Spanos and Alex Twersky of Kinetic Arts will produce the feature version of Leonard. The feature script is currently in development.

For more information about Leonard please contact Chris Spanos or Alex Twersky at info@kineticarts.tv.



About Kinetic Arts LLC (http://www.kineticarts.tv ) 
Based in New York City, Kinetic Arts is a full service film production company made up of 5 divisions - Commercials, Music Videos, Film & Digital Video, Documentaries, and Broadband. The company is led by a partnership of two individuals, Chris Spanos and Alex Twersky. Spanos is a veteran commercial and animation producer, having produced TV spots for some of the biggest brands in America, such as MCI and Prodigy Internet. Twersky has worked as an independent media and content strategy consultant, film producer, and served in senior posts at Scholastic, a global leader in children's entertainment. Kinetic Arts was founded with the goal of producing groundbreaking content for the small and big screens originating as overseas shorts with high remake potential for the North American market. Kinetic Arts has produced award-winning commercials and films that have made the rounds of some of the world's most prestigious film festivals.