Torfoot Entertainment Group (TEG) is an award-winning film, television, and digital content production company founded by filmmaker Johnathan Brownlee (Three Days in August, Puppetmaster, The Standoff at Sparrow Creek, Decoding Annie Parker), along with Emmy award-winning producer/casting director Ross Meyerson (“Damages”, “Nurse Jackie”, “Rescue Me”, and currently working on “Dexter: Resurrection”). With footprints in LA, NYC, Dallas, and Toronto, it is set to launch a vast film slate this fall, with their first film being the horror film The Yeti, starring Jim Cummings (Thunder Road, Last Stop in Yuma County). The horror film is set to go into production this winter in New York, with Radiant Films handling international sales and a North American release announcement expected later this year. Tackling the most elite of monsters, indie giant Torfoot Entertainment Group is venturing into the world of epic creatures, akin to Kong and Godzilla, following in the creative footsteps of pioneers like Toho Studios.
This is one of the first projects for the newly formed Torfoot Entertainment Group, a privately financed production company whose model is based on culturing quality content and bringing together creators and financiers, smartly accessing local filming incentives and putting local production teams to work.
Co-written and co-directed by Emmy award winner Gene Gallerano (The First Wave, American Symphony, National Geographic’s Photographer), and William Pisciotta (Thunder Road, Beast Beast), and drawing inspiration from classic creature features, The Yeti sees indie giant Torfoot Entertainment Group tackling the most elite of monsters in this pure genre film.
Delivering thrilling action with copious amounts of blood and gore whilst harnessing the environmental ruggedness of the Arctic and the bloody carnage of a giant monster, the story centers on oil tycoon Merriell Sunday Sr. and renowned adventurer Hollis Bannister, who have mysteriously vanished without a trace in northern Alaska. Merriell’s son, Merriell Jr., and Hollis’s daughter, Ellie, embark on a rescue mission to uncover the truth behind their fathers’ disappearance. As the search party ventures deeper into the arctic tundra, they realize a prehistoric predator – namely a Yeti – has taken an sinister interest in their trespassing expedition.
Creature Design is spearhead by the innovative team of industry titans Wayne Anderson (The Predator, “Stranger Things”, Ghostbusters, IT, Avatar: The Way of Water) and Ali Gordon (Hellraiser (2022), Castle Freak, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich), with an exclusive first look at character design of the yeti shown below.
TEG‘s team produced the recently released I’ll Be Right There (starring Edie Falco (“The Sopranos”, “Nurse Jackie”), Bradley Whitford (Get Out, “The West Wing”), and Michael Rappaport (True Romance, Beautiful Girls); Navigating Christmas (Hallmark); is currently in production on Things We Shouldn’t Talk About. Their next film slated to go into production will be Eyes of Jefferson which is currently in pre-production and scheduled to film in early 2025 and in development on Flagrant (Michael Rapaport ), Juliet (Jen Richards), My Name is Kira, Montserrat, The Will Roger’s Story, and several other feature films and episodic series.
Commenting on The Yeti, producer Johnathan Brownlee said, “We love the classic horror films Frankenstein and Dracula as well as recent films like Nope and Barbarian. Like these films, the creature is the star of the film. The vast majority of our creature moments and action sequences are practical “in-camera,” leaning on our talented award winning SFX and stunt teams.”
The rest of the cast are yet to be announced, as is a release date but, until then, we’ll leave you with an Animatic First Look Video: