Faisal Hashmi Launches Spine Drop Pictures With Three Horror Features
The Dubai-based director will write and direct Off Plan, Cinder and Latching, with the company targeting genre films budgeted below $1 million.
Dubai-based director and writer Faisal Hashmi has launched Spine Drop Pictures, a genre-focused production company, and unveiled its first slate of three horror features: Off Plan, Cinder and Latching. Hashmi wrote all three and will direct them, according to Deadline.
Off Plan is an interconnected horror anthology of six stories set across Dubai over a single night. It is designed around a modular shooting approach, so each segment can be filmed independently.
Cinder is a supernatural thriller set in the remote mountain landscapes of the UAE and expands on Hashmi's 2020 short film Amber. Latching is described as a feminist possession-revenge horror film set over one night in Karachi, Pakistan, where it is being developed for production.
Spine Drop Pictures is aimed at high-concept genre films budgeted below $1 million. The company said it is exploring slate investment, international co-productions, strategic financing and distribution partnerships.
Background
Over a 15-year career, Hashmi has made 10 contained, high-concept genre shorts, including Amber, Wicken and Skipped, which screened at numerous festivals and passed three million combined views on YouTube. Amber, about a barber in a remote UAE highway town facing a kidnapper, won best film at the Al Ain Film Festival in 2020. Hashmi also recently took co-writing credits on Ali F. Mostafa's City of Life Continuum, a sequel to Mostafa's 2009 debut City of Life.
Quick answers
What is Spine Drop Pictures?
A genre-focused production company launched by Dubai-based director and writer Faisal Hashmi, targeting high-concept films budgeted below $1 million.
Which films are on Spine Drop Pictures' first slate?
Three horror features written and to be directed by Hashmi: Off Plan, Cinder and Latching.
What is Cinder about?
A supernatural thriller set in the remote mountain landscapes of the UAE that expands on Hashmi's 2020 short film Amber.