LOGLINEAt the top of the world, a broken family encounters a violent force

that feeds on their darkest memories and uses them to kill.

If our deepest secrets and shames were known to everyone, could any human relationship survive?

PYRAMIDEN WAS ONCE THE WORLD’S

NORTHERNMOST TOWNWith tensions rising in the final days of the Cold War, the Soviet Union set its

sights on the far north. Built on the international territory of Svalbard, Pyramiden

had apartments, schools and recreational facilities for hundreds of workers and

their families. A “closed” town, isolated and secretive, it was one of the USSR’s

most coveted postings.

BUT in 1998, Everything Changed

The legends told on Svalbard today about the hasty Russian withdrawal, passed

down by those who were on the island in 1998, are spine-chilling.

The town was evacuated under the cloak of night, with no official reason ever

given. A child, accidentally left behind, vanished. And when the first Norwegian

team arrived to investigate weeks later, they found the coal-fired power plant still

spewing smoke in an empty city...

THESE LEGENDS FUEL THE STORY

Their mission should have been simple. Find out why the

supply runs to the Russian mining town Pyramiden have

stopped. But for Anders Ersdal, senior investigator on the

Arctic territory of Svalbard, nothing is simple anymore.

Putting his life back together after his wife’s murder,

he’s set out with their two grief-struck teenagers

for some better-late-than-never bonding.

Arriving in Pyramiden, the family (with a visiting

documentary team in tow) find a ghost town

abandoned in an instant. But novelty soon

gives way to small but crucial setbacks.

Piercing sounds ring out through the

valley, immobilizing not just the town’s

electronics but their own communications

lines too. Their isolation is absolute. And as

migraines cripple the group, they soon learn

why the town was evacuated.

Svalbard, seven hundred miles from the North Pole.Midnight sun, 1998.

The longer they’re in Pyramiden, the harder they find it

to recollect their own pasts, as a high-frequency signal

from deep in the mountain extracts their darkest shames

and manifests the memories in physical form. With their

secrets literally hunting them, the memories of each victim

flood into the survivors in a sanity-testing onslaught. As

personal demons and betrayals are laid bare, so too are

the connections they all have to the wife’s murder — a

death each believe they were responsible for — but only

one truly was.

With the signal gaining strength and their own senses

dimming, the survivors descend into the mine shaft

underworld. Their plan: to set the coal seam on fire and

knock out the signal. But the signal, having learned from

their memories just as it did the Russians’ before them,

takes a new shape: the form of everyone they ever loved

and left behind, dragging them deeper and deeper down…

THE STORY

Pyramiden introduces a new metaphor into horror

lore: the reconfiguring flesh of vengeful mimicries for

the guilt and regret we carry in our pasts. Rooted in

the real-life science of acoustic levitation and the high

frequency oscillations of memory recall, this force has

become the ultimate exterminator: learn what haunts

us and bring it back to kill us.

But the story is less about the monsters outside than

the monsters inside, your friends and family breaking

under the strain. Can a child’s innocence withstand the

weight of an adult’s past shame, their pain rushing into

us in the intensity it was first experienced? How much

of the violence buried in others’ memory can we handle

before we turn violent ourselves?

THIS is a primal tale of survival

Lykke, our headstrong protagonist, is spending her last summer

on Svalbard before leaving for college. Her little brother’s keeper

after the murder of their mother, she dreads leaving him with

Anders, the father who was once their hero but who now they

barely know.

Vain and proud, Anders has never really moved on from the

“because I said so” stage of parenting. A paranoid shell of

his former self, he is wracked with secrets, and is not above

manipulating his daughter to redirect her suspicions away from

his ultimate shame.

A BROKEN FAMILY

PYRAMIDEN

IS THE

PERFECT BA

CKLOT

Despite its location high above the Arctic

Circle, Pyramiden is remarkably accessible.

The townsite is just two hours by boat

from Longyearbyen, a modern full-service

Norwegian town with daily flights to Oslo.

From April through September, Pyramiden

boasts round-the-clock daylight and

temperatures warmer than the Arctic norm

thanks to the North Atlantic Current.

Its Russian owners Trust Arcticugol are

completing a refurbishment of the town’s

four-storey hotel, sleeping 80, with modern

bedrooms and ensuites renovated to

exacting western standards. With reliable

electricity and plumbing, the hotel will act as

our production base.

The story was crafted with the town’s

geography in mind, and everything required

for shooting exteriors is already there.

WRITER / DIRECTOR TEAM

Pyramiden is the second feature film from Vancouver-based

directing duo Andrew Holmes and Austin Andrews.

Their first feature as co-directors, the media satire Lord Jones is

Dead, was shot in South Africa with an international cast and crew.

Set to premiere on Super Channel in November 2018, it received

rave reviews during a limited run in Canadian cinemas.

Toronto Film Scene acclaimed it as “a catchy film with

quick wit”, while Hollywood North Magazine called it

“the Office Space of print journalism.”

Holmes has made his name producing on films

including the upcoming Distortion (2018), a paranoid

thriller starring John Cusack and Christina Ricci; The

Humanity Bureau (2018), a post-apocalyptic drama

starring Nicolas Cage that opened in cinemas across North America

in the three-screen Barco Escape format; and the sci-fi horror The

Recall (2017), starring Wesley Snipes. Holmes also has a passion

for documentary filmmaking, with producing and photography

credits on feature documentaries including the upcoming Inmate

#1: The Rise of Danny Trejo (2018), Ice Guardians (2016) and The

Culture High (2014).

Andrews is a past recipient of the 20th Warner Roadshow

Studios Queensland New Filmmakers Award and the Tribeca

Film Festival’s Student Visionary Award. His short

films have screened on six continents at festivals

including Sydney, Tribeca and Durban, winning over

fifteen awards. An accomplished editor, Andrews’

latest films include Summer of ’84 (2018), a retro-

set horror film from directing collective RKSS (Turbo

Kid) that debuted at Sundance; and Anthem of a

Teenage Prophet (2018), a teen drama starring

Cameron Monaghan and Juliette Lewis. In addition,

his acclaimed photojournalism and war correspondence has taken

him to stories in forty countries, including Afghanistan and North

Korea, for publications as diverse as TIME, Foreign Policy and BBC

World News.

NORWEGIAN PRODUCING TEAM

74 Entertainment AS is the union of two of Norway ́s most prolific

and ambitious producers; Kjetil Omberg and Jørgen Storm

Rosenberg. Together they account for an eclectic slate of over 30

feature films in the period between 2004-2015, ranging from quality

art house festival favorites to big budget box office hits.

Kjetil Omberg has worked in the Norwegian film industry

since 1994, and has produced, executive produced and

co-produced 19 features and one TV-series, including

Sundance hits Dead Snow (2009) and Dead Snow 2

(2014), local box-office blockbuster Tina & Bettina - The

Movie (2012) and the cult TV series Hellfjord (2012).

Jørgen Storm Rosenberg is one of Norway’s most

successful commercial feature film producers. He has

produced 11 movies, including festival hits like UNO (nominated for

the Discovery Award at the European Film Award and won best actor

at Europa Cinema) and The Bothersome Man, official selection at

the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Five of his films reached the top

ten list of highest grossing films for their respective years.

The announcement of the union between these two efficient and

prolific producers was immediately greeted with high expectations

from the Norwegian and Scandinavian film community. Immediately

following the news of its creation, 74 Entertainment was recognized

as one of the top 10 companies in Norway.

Since its incorporation, the primary focus has been on

project acquisitions and material development, in order

to build a strong foundation for future growth, rather

than prematurely rushing into production. The goal is to

nurture talent and build a creative slate that establishes

production continuity and forges long term international

relationships, and ultimately to deliver films to the market

that transcends domestic boundaries - with Europe as our

primary market focus.

CANADIAN PRODUCING TEAM

Kim Roberts and Tina Pehme formed Sepia Films and Honalee

Entertainment in 2003, with a mandate to make films that would

engage and entertain audiences the world over.

Together they have produced a diverse slate of feature films,

including the upcoming Anthem of a Teenage Prophet (2018),

starring Cameron Monaghan, Peyton List and Juliette Lewis; The

Games Maker (2014), a 3D visual extravaganza

starring Joseph Fiennes and David Mazouz that

debuted at Sundance; In Their Skin (2012), a

suspense thriller starring Selma Blair and James

D’Arcy which premiered at Tribeca; the award-

winning A Shine of Rainbows (2010) starring

Aidan Quinn and Connie Nielson which debuted

at the Toronto International Film Festival;

Partition (2007), an epic romance set in India, starring Kristin Kreuk,

Neve Campbell, Jimi Mistry and Irfan Khan; the political thriller

Civic Duty (2006) which also debuted at Tribeca; and theatrical

documentaries such as Keepers of the Magic (2017), The Boy

From Geita (2016), which screened as a special presentation for

the United Nations, and Hue: A Matter of Colour (2014) produced

in partnership with the NFB. Roberts and Pehme’s films have been

distributed and sold by Walt Disney Pictures, eOne, 20th Century

Fox, Warner Home Video, NBC Universal, Seville Pictures, Sundance

Selects, HBO, Netflix and many more. Pehme and Roberts also run

a robust television division under their Honalee Entertainment

banner.

Specializing in international co-productions,

Pehme and Roberts have built relationships

around the world and screened their films at

dozens of international festivals. They have

produced and shot films in Canada, the United

States, Ireland, England, Italy, Denmark, India,

China, South Africa, Tanzania, Argentina and

Brazil. With an exciting slate of new projects on the horizon,

Pehme and Roberts continue to explore new ways of working with

like-minded partners bringing powerful, thought-provoking and

entertaining stories to screens big and small.

Budget Range

Project Type

Development Stage

Genre

US$2.5m - $3.5m

Theatrical Feature

Packaging

Psychological Horror / Sci-Fi

PROJECTSTATS

GENRE COMPARABLES

The Descent (2007)

Budget: $7m

Box Office: $57m

Oculus (2013)

Budget: $5m

Box Office: $44m

A Quiet Place (2018)

Budget: $15m

Box Office: $332m

Lights Out (2016)

Budget: $5m

Box Office: $149m

PYRAMIDEN

LONGYEARBYEN

OSLO

(2 hours)

(3 hours)

• 24 hour daylight

• satellite internet/cell service

• 80 bed hotel

• container hostels

• global links

• major production centre

• logistics base

• full service hotels

• daily flight links

EXT. BOARDWALK

PYRAMIDEN OUTSKIRTS

78.657414° N

16.332669° E

INT. AQUATIC C

ENTER

PYRAMIDEN TOWN

SITE

78.656316° N

16.309810° E

EXT. TOWN SQUARE

PYRAMIDEN TOWNSITE

78.655659° N

16.310218° E

BRITANNIA BEACH, BC49.622242° N123.204411° W

INT. MINE SHAFTS

TINA PEHME+1 310 266 5488tina@sepiafilms.com

KIM ROBERTS+1 818 324 0476kim@cfalaw.ca