News

ARMORY FILMS CONTINUES TO WORK ITS MAGIC WITH UNIKORN,
TAPS DEBBIE BERMAN TO MAKE DIRECTORIAL DEBUT

Armory to Produce with Motor Content

 
Los Angeles – Rising independent production company Armory Films is gearing up to produce Unikorn, a feature adaptation of Don Handfield & Joshua Malkin’s original graphic novel which Armory developed and financed with Handfield and that Scout Comics is publishing in early 2021. 
 
The film will mark celebrated, in-demand editor Debbie Berman’s (Black Panther, Spider Man: Homecoming, Captain Marvel) first effort behind the camera.
 
“Unikorn has heart, humor and ultimately leaves you feeling inspired and hopeful, story elements which define some of our favorite films like The Goonies, ET and The Black Stallion, and feelings we are all desperately seeking more now than ever,“ said Armory Films co-founders Chris Lemole & Tim Zajaros.  “With Debbie Berman at the helm, this film is destined to be a magical feel-good adventure that will be remembered for decades to come,“ they added. 
 
In Unikorn, Maeve “Mae” Everhart inherits Percy, an old horse with a strange nub in the center of his forehead that makes her believe it’s a unikorn - a unicorn with a broken horn. Mae soon discovers the horn was removed for a reason - to keep Percy safe from those would exploit or harm him. Mae must find the unicorn’s broken horn and prove to her skeptical father that her horse really is magical before everything she cares about is lost forever.

Unikorn is based on the graphic novel by Handfield and Joshua Malkin, which they have adapted for the screen, and will be produced by Armory’s Lemole and Zajaros, and Handfield.

Debbie Berman is most well known for her work as an Editor on Black Panther, which is the first super hero film ever to be nominated for several Academy Awards® (including Best Picture), and winner of 3.

Debbie is one of the very few females working on big budget features, and has had a meteoric career rise over the last couple of years.  This began with her first foray into Marvel Studios editing Spider-man: Homecoming.  This film was critically and commercially acclaimed, and reinvigorated the franchise to become 2017’s top grossing superhero film.  

She then worked on Black Panther, which is nothing less than a cultural and film phenomenon.  It received a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (Marvel Studio’s highest scoring film), made $1.2 billion worldwide, and is one of the top grossing films of all time. Using her unique life experience of being born and raised in Africa, Debbie was able to help ensure the authenticity of Marvel’s first film set on the continent.  One of her major contributions was to guide the narrative and the performances in a way that accentuated a multitude of powerful, interesting and inspiring female characters.  

Debbie's third film in a row at Marvel Studios was Captain Marvel.  It is the first female led film in their cinematic universe.  It grossed over a billion dollars within its first month of release, had the biggest worldwide opening weekend for a female led film, set the worldwide opening weekend record for a solo superhero film, and is the highest grossing female superhero film of all time.  

Debbie was selected as one of Variety's 'Artisans Elite' in 2018, and is now in high demand as one of the most exciting new talents in Hollywood. 
 
Don Handfield is the co-creator of the History Channel drama series Knightfall. This is the fourth comic series he has sold or optioned to television. His first comic series THE RIFT was picked up by Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment, and lensed as the season finale of the recent Amazing Stories anthology reboot on Apple +, for which he also co-wrote the teleplay. Handfield has several other properties in active development at various companies including the upcoming YA graphic novel Loot, The Mall also from Scout Comics and The Dark Age published by Red 5 comics.

"Unikorn was born when we both found ourselves dealing with the loss of a parent and wanted to create a story that could not only address our own pain, but also help our children process and deal with the subject in a manner that was full of hope, heart and wonder. We wanted Unikorn to have the magic of an Amblin film, the heart of Disney classic, and the action-packed fun of a mini-Marvel movie, and can’t think of a better director to bring that vision to life than Debbie, who was such an integral part of three of the biggest franchises of all time,” said Handfield & Malkin in a joint statement.

Handfield developed and produced The Founder starring Michael Keaton and Kill the Messenger starring two-time Academy Award® nominated actor Jeremy Renner, with whom Handfield co-founded their production company The Combine.

Joshua Malkin (Cabin Fever 2) has written feature projects for Sony, Fox, Cross Creek, Warner Brothers and Universal Pictures and is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment.  Together, Malkin & Handfield co-wrote the top-selling comic series The Source, also for Scout Comics.

Scout Comics is launching SCOOT!, their new Kids & Teens division with the publication of Unikorn. 
 
"The Unikorn graphic novel reminded us of the books we looked forward to getting from the Scholastic Book Fair as kids, perennial classics like Charlotte's Web, Watership Down and Black Beauty. These were more than just great books for children, they were hopeful and heartbreaking stories that, like Unikorn, tackled deep and meaningful themes adults could also relate to. We can't think of a better story to launch our new imprint, and can understand why it's already fast-tracked for film and television." said Scout's President James Haick III.
 
Scout has had epic growth in just the past two years, optioning properties to Amazon and Freeform among others and quadrupling their sales and market share. 
 

About Armory Films

Founded in 2013 by Christopher Lemole and Tim Zajaros, Armory Films is a film finance and production company that creates, develops, produces, and finances high concept and commercially viable content. With the ability to finance projects from initial creative inception through production and release, Armory has amassed an impressive slate spanning numerous genres and styles, nurturing distinctive stories into groundbreaking films.
 
Armory produced the award-winning hit The Peanut Butter Falcon, starring Shia LaBeouf, Dakota Johnson, John Hawkes, Jon Bernthal, Bruce Dern, and newcomer Zack Gottsagen. The Peanut Butter Falcon received rave reviews and the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award out of its SXSW premiere. The film was acquired by Roadside Attractions, has a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes and made over $20 million at the box-office, making it one of the biggest indie releases of 2019. Armory will also be teaming with Don Handfield on the sci-fi comic book series The Dark Age.
 
Armory also produced Joe Penna’s Arctic, starring Mads Mikkelsen which made its world premiere at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival where it was acquired by Bleecker Street for North American distribution and released in the US on February 1, 2019, and Dee Rees’ lauded feature Mudbound, which Armory produced and financed, starring Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund and Academy Award®-nominee Mary J. Blige. The film rose to critical success following its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, and after being acquired by Netflix, went on to receive a record breaking four Academy Award® nominations, making the film a milestone in Netflix’s history in the awards race.
 
Additional recent productions include Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair’s horror/thriller Mom and Dad, which premiered in the Midnight Madness section at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
 

About Motor Content
 

Motor is a content engine focused on film, television and original IP.  Motor is currently producing Switched On, the critically-acclaimed book from John Elder Robison at Focus Features with Marc Platt and the US remake of top-grossing Vietnamese horror film, Housemaid, with CJ Entertainment (Snowpiercer, Parasite) that was adapted by Academy Award®-winning writer Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious).
 

About Scout Comics

Scout Comics & Entertainment is one of the fastest growing indie comic labels in publishing. The label has had several breakout hits recently, including White Ash, The Mall, Grit and It Eats What Feeds It.  They have properties in development with Amazon Studios, Freeform/Disney, among others. 

 DIAMOND ORDER CODE: SEP201414

LOGLINE:

Frank returns home from WW1 to his family’s farm to find them missing sending him on a physical and psychological journey that tears apart his mind, body and soul.

Meet The Team:

 Written by Jordan Thomas with art by Clark Bint

Summary:

Frank At Home On The Farm is a period, body-horror, mystery that tells the story of a man returning from the First World War to find his family mysteriously missing from their farm. This sets in motion a series of events that claw and tear at Frank's mind, body, and soul.

Tormented by nightmares of the front line, the mysterious voices that plague him and disturbed by the townsfolk's lack of knowledge or interest in his family's whereabouts, Frank becomes more and more isolated on the farm as he tries to uncover where his parents have vanished to... all under the watchful eye of the farm's animals.

 From Writer/Creator Jordan Thomas:

"I'm incredibly excited to be working with all the great people at Scout. The series they have been releasing recently are all unique and outstanding and I'm thrilled that Frank At Home On The Farm is going to be joining them."

Frank returns from the trenches of World War I expecting to be greeted by his loving family on their farm. What he finds instead is a dark mystery, his family missing, and only the animals there waiting for him. This sets in motion a terrifying and horrific turn of events as Frank begins his desperate search for his missing kin in a tale that is equal parts The Shining and Twin Peaks.

Dramatic life changes force a mouse and an elephant, both inhabitants of the African savannah, to rethink how they have understood their worlds, causing them to form an unusual bond of friendship.

Created, Written, and Illustrated by Guiseppe Falco.

The Story…

The African savannah, a windswept expanse of tall grass, a few all-too-rare trees, overwhelming heat... and more than a few hungry predators.

Sengi, the little mouse, finds himself alone after the death of his mother and must learn to survive. Tembo, the old elephant, feels that his life is coming to an end. So he decides to leave his herd to try to reach the “Land without beginning,” a mythical place accessible by a secret passage to the west.  

For a few days, these two disparate lives, that of the pragmatic mouse and the even-tempered elephant, will collide and join paths. Their futures will be changed forever

From Creator/Artist Guiseppe Falco:

Entrusting a creation to a Publisher always creates a little fear and tension in me. How will they treat it? Will they take care of it? How will they present it to the world?  When Scout Comics decided to be the Publisher of Sengi and Tembo, I was very happy about and I was certain that they would take great care of it.

Sengi and Tembo tells my point of view on life. An important theme dressed, though, with fun outfits. I hope that the final result, thanks to the work of all of us, will also appeal to you readers.

Logline:

The celebrated Super 7 toy and bootleg sensation, Phantom Starkiller, is brought to life in this origin tale. 

Meet the Team...

Creator/Writer/Colorist: Peter Goral - Killer Bootlegs

Artist: Joseph Schmalke - The Electric Black, Murder Hobo, Cherry Blackbird

Letterer: Joel Rodriguez - (Rise, Dusk County Chonicles, Red Shift) 

The Story…

From Scout's new Black Caravan imprint. For uncounted millennia, the Cryptocrystalline Stone remained lost to the blackness of space, hidden amongst the stars. As time passed, the galaxy slipped into greater peril. Thousands of systems fell and worlds crumbled. Dark and ominous beings conspire from the shadows to possess its unlimited power and ability to resurrect a legion of deathless warriors. From the vastness of the unknown regions, whispers of his return paralyzed all in fear: Phantom Starkiller, The Cosmic Ghoul Warrior must now unleash his inner darkness to carry out his master's wishes, all while plotting his revenge; for he cannot stop his interstellar rampage until The Curse of The Cryptocrystalline Stone has been broken!
 

From writer Peter Goral: 

"I'm so excited for fans around the globe to FINALLY have the chance to explore the world of Phantom Starkiller! For over a decade, I have been fleshing out this universe through action figures, toys, and other merchandise, all the while, hinting at a much larger world through the stories printed on the backside of their packaging. Now thanks to the team at Scout Comics and Black Caravan, (especially to my partner on this project and long time collaborator, Joseph Schmalke) I am able to dive deep into my psychedelic, sci-fi/horror fantasy in the way that I have always envisioned. I can't wait for everyone to check out this book.  No matter what you think you know about the COSMIC GHOUL WARRIOR, you're going to be in for one hell of a wild ride!!
 

From artist Joseph Schmalke: 

"A few years ago, I started working with creator Peter Goral (Killer Bootlegs) illustrating card art for his unique creations. Phantom Starkiller is easily one of the coolest eye-catching toys ever produced, and once I saw him, I had to know more about him. Peter gladly shared the rich backstory he had created for the cosmic ghoul warrior and I knew it would make an amazing comic book. When Scout gave me the opportunity to co-publish Black Caravan, I saw a home for Phantom Starkiller and the other characters from Peter’s Curse of the Cryptocrystalline stone."

TAGLINE:

Dancing past midnight, surviving until dawn.

STORY SUMMARY:

A group of friends drive from Los Angeles to attend an ultra-trendy music festival in the Coachella Valley desert. They soon face a bloody night of terror when a reclusive pop star making her big return after years in hiding recruits her most fanatical devotees to assist in a massive human sacrifice ritual.

– WRITER - Mario Candelaria (ASHES, Corktown, Epilogue, The Good Fight Anthology)

– ILLUSTRATOR - Serg Acuña (BOOM Studio’s WWE, Undertaker)

– COLOR ARTIST - Katherine Lobo (Go Go Power Rangers, The Love She Offered)

– LETTERER - Matt Krotzer (Lab Raider, Mine Anthology, Strayed)

– STORY EDITOR - James Ferguson (Reviewer at HorrorDNA.com, Senior Editor at Comicon.com)

Logline:

A rebellious, teenage foster kid goes searching for her roots, only to discover that she’s something more than human and possibly a harbinger of the apocalypse. 

Meet the Team: 

Jenna Lyn Wright: Writer (AMBITION, feature film / THE HELLION SAGA, novels)

Karl Slominski: Artist (TEETER TOPPLE, EVERMORE FALLS)

Taylor Esposito: Letterer (BABYTEETH, BETTY PAGE UNBOUND, ELVIRA: MISTRESS

OF THE DARK)

The Story…

Tossed out by her foster family after one-too-many rides home in the back of a cop car, Hunter packs up her meager belongings and sets out on a mission: stop drifting and find out who she is.

That journey turns out to be more like a trip down the rabbit hole, as she’s introduced to a covert world of magic and danger running parallel to our own, complete with undead rock stars, a pair of sorcerer brothers with questionable morals, and a prophecy that puts her at the top of an ancient vampire coven’s hit list.

Hunter came looking for answers. What will become of her once she gets them?

From writer Jenna Lyn Wright:

Cult of Ikarus is my love letter to spooky kids who wish the monsters they read about were real. Scout is the perfect place to tell a badass genre story with some teeth, and I couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with them on this!

From artist Karl Slominski:

Scout is putting out some of the industry’s most dynamic and engaging stories from creators that are actively levelling-up the quality of sequential art in the modern comics landscape. It’s an absolute THRILL to have Ikarus joining their roster.

 LOGLINE:

THE SQAUD:

Sheldon Allen, writer – Spider-Man Unlimited, Crucified

Karl Mostert, artist – Dceased: Unkillables, The Man Who F#%&ed Up Time

Matt Bowers, letters – MEMPHIS, The High Priest of Rhythmic Noise

Warnia Sahadewa, colors – Wayfinder, Dry Foot

THE RUNDOWN:

When a rogue telepath begins hijacking unsuspecting minds and bodies to commit vicious crimes, crooked Detective Annie Brunson is charged with cracking the case with her new straight laced telepathic partner, Faith Jones. Set among a backdrop of urban decay, exotic aliens, robots, and genetic mutations, Concrete Jungle is a science fiction police tale like no other, vividly brought to life by writer Sheldon Allen, burgeoning superstar artist Karl Mostert, letterer Matt Bowers, and colorist Warnia Sahadewa. 

FROM WRITER SHELDON ALLEN:

“Concrete Jungle is a love letter to my hometown of Miami and the city’s unique 1980’s setting. Given that special meaning, it was a no brainer to once again partner with Scout Comics in delivering my baby to the masses.

As proud as I am of the story, my greatest joy comes from highlighting the art team who helped create this crazy world you’ll be experiencing over an initial course of four issues. Rookie of the year Karl Mostert’s pencils are a revelation. Colorist Warnia Sahadewa might be comics best kept secret. And Matt Bowers’ letters make him the unsung hero of the series.

I simply cannot wait for audiences to delve into the madness we’ve cooked up and get to know Annie. Trust me when I tell you: you’ve never met anyone like her.”

Logline:

Elodie means to kill every unicorn in Solothus, but to destroy them all she must reluctantly partner with two of their kind, and defeat four sorcerers who are abducting mystical creatures.
.

Meet the Team:

Writer: Markisan Naso (VORACIOUS, The Comics Journal)
 
Artist and Letterer: Jason Muhr (VORACIOUS, Red Agent)
 
Color Artist: Andrei Tabacaru (VORACIOUS, Ice Heart)

The Story…

Elodie hates unicorns. For nearly a year, she’s been hell-bent on tracking down and killing all the elusive horned creatures responsible for trampling her husband, Shintaro. Now, exiled from her farming village of Wayfarer for selfishly neglecting her duties, Elodie and her half wolf/half deer steed, Sajen, search the continent of Solothus for clues to the whereabouts of unicorns.
 
When Elodie discovers that four ancient wind wizards are abducting unicorns and other mystical creatures so they can extract their magic, she means to go through them at any cost to exact her revenge. But she’ll need to rely on an increasingly reluctant Sajen, a floating-eyeball guide named Evelyn, and two unicorn prisoners – Zoso and Rigby – who grant her the ability to rip off their horns and combine them to form wizard-slaying weapons. Will she use their gifts to save the captured unicorns, or destroy them all?

From the Creators:

Markisan: “I’m so happy BY THE HORNS found a home at a vibrant, burgeoning publisher like SCOUT. It’s been phenomenal to watch the company grow over the last few years, and release such a diverse line of amazing books. We’re excited that our oddball, fantasy revenge story gets to be a part of that.”
 
Jason: “We can’t wait to show you all the awesome things we have planned for BY THE HORNS. I’ve wanted to draw a fantasy/action/adventure book for as long as I can remember, and being able to work with the amazing people at SCOUT to bring it to life has been terrific.”

Logline:

Elodie means to kill every unicorn in Solothus, but to destroy them all she must reluctantly partner with two of their kind, and defeat four sorcerers who are abducting mystical creatures.
.

Meet the Team:

Writer: Markisan Naso (VORACIOUS, The Comics Journal)
 
Artist and Letterer: Jason Muhr (VORACIOUS, Red Agent)
 
Color Artist: Andrei Tabacaru (VORACIOUS, Ice Heart)

The Story…

Elodie hates unicorns. For nearly a year, she’s been hell-bent on tracking down and killing all the elusive horned creatures responsible for trampling her husband, Shintaro. Now, exiled from her farming village of Wayfarer for selfishly neglecting her duties, Elodie and her half wolf/half deer steed, Sajen, search the continent of Solothus for clues to the whereabouts of unicorns.
 
When Elodie discovers that four ancient wind wizards are abducting unicorns and other mystical creatures so they can extract their magic, she means to go through them at any cost to exact her revenge. But she’ll need to rely on an increasingly reluctant Sajen, a floating-eyeball guide named Evelyn, and two unicorn prisoners – Zoso and Rigby – who grant her the ability to rip off their horns and combine them to form wizard-slaying weapons. Will she use their gifts to save the captured unicorns, or destroy them all?

From the Creators:

Markisan: “I’m so happy BY THE HORNS found a home at a vibrant, burgeoning publisher like SCOUT. It’s been phenomenal to watch the company grow over the last few years, and release such a diverse line of amazing books. We’re excited that our oddball, fantasy revenge story gets to be a part of that.”
 
Jason: “We can’t wait to show you all the awesome things we have planned for BY THE HORNS. I’ve wanted to draw a fantasy/action/adventure book for as long as I can remember, and being able to work with the amazing people at SCOUT to bring it to life has been terrific.”