News Release

Deviant Films Acquires 'Small Apartments'

Los Angeles  (04/06/2005)  “Small Apartments” the dark and delightfully absurd novel by Chris Millis, has been optioned by Deviant Films of Los Angeles for a feature film, Deviant has announced.

"Small Apartments" is the winner of the 23rd International 3-Day Novel-Writing Contest sponsored by Anvil Press of Vancouver. It's an offbeat, darkly comic tale of profound underachievement set in Buffalo's working-class west side. Franklin and his neighbors search for happiness and meaning amidst murder, mental illness, drugs, sex, voyeurism and arson -- with a dash of pop psychology, and an occasional therapeutic blast from an alp horn. What they discover is that, more than anything, they just want to be left alone.

Chris Millis is an award-winning writer and cartoonist. He lives in Saratoga Springs, NY with his wife, Lisa, and dog, Jameson. He is currently working on his second novel.

Producers Tim Peternel (Deviant Films), David Hillary (Deviant Films) and Ash Shah (Silver Nitrate Entertainment) have helped produce and develop some of the seminal independent movies of the last 10 years. They include: "Buffalo 66" (with Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci), "The Virgin Suicides" (Sofia Coppola's directing debut), "American Psycho" (with Batman's Christian Bale) with Muse Productions; "Spun" (starring John Leguizamo, Mena Suvari, Brittany Murphy & Mickey Rourke) and "Love Liza" (with Philip Seymour Hoffman & Kathy Bates). They've also just completed production on Dirty with Cuba Gooding Jr. and principal shooting on London with Jessica Biel and Chris Evans.

“We couldn’t be more excited to work with Deviant. Their love of the book and for Chris' 'deviant' take on the world made it a natural connection," said Bridget McMeel of AMUSE, Universal Press Syndicate’s division for bringing its talent to Hollywood. McMeel and John Glynn of AMUSE will co-produce “Small Apartments” with Hillary, Peternel and Shah.

Universal Press Syndicate is the world's largest independent newspaper syndicate and is responsible for the syndication of some of the world's most influential comics of the past four decades: Doonesbury, Ziggy, Cathy, For Better or For Worse, The Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, FoxTrot, Boondocks and many more.

Creator(s):

Contact(s): Kathie Kerr

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