Manga/Anime Themed Feature Film "Black Hat" Set to Tackle Teen Bullying

MANGA/ANIME-THEMED FEATURE FILM “BLACK HAT” SET TO TACKLE TEEN BULLYING AS THEY HEAD TO SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL TO RAISE AWARENESS AND FUNDING WITH SEED & SPARK, THE CROWD FUNDING AND DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM FOR INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS

January 15, 2014 (Park City, UT) - The national fundraising campaign for Black HAT soared in the first few days to raise almost 30K for their ambitious campaign to combat the effects of bulling in school and individuality as well as promote the passion of the anime, manga and cosplay community with writer/director/actor Robbie Bryan (iMurders, The Stand-In).
The launching pad is with Seed & Spark, a truly independent filmmaking community where filmmakers and audiences come together for crowd funding, production, and streaming distribution. (http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/black-hat)
Inspired to tell a story about the magical art form of anime and manga, Robbie Bryan wrote about a 16-year-old American girl who is determined to travel to an anime convention halfway across the country to pitch her manga book to Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop/Animatrix/Macross Plus). Watanabe had discussions with Bryan expressing interest in the film.
Black HAT is a narrative feature and taps on the themes of bullying, regret over life's choices and their consequences, while underscoring the need to be yourself and find your own way in the world.
Jodelle Ferland (Twilight: Eclipse, Tall Man, Silent Hill) is committed to star as lead character ”Dandi.” The film will include an eleven minute anime segment producer and co-founder of Madhouse Studios, Masao Maruyama has expressed interest in participating in, pending scheduling; cosplay star Jesse Pridemore “Ruffle Butt” and Scream Queen Brooke Lewis, who also council's teens about bullying, help round out some of the cast. As Dandi is into death metal, the film will have the musical likeness of Slipknot.
Committed to the production are casting director, Judy Henderson, who recently won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series for Homeland; Emmy award winning make up artist Joshua Turi (Saturday Night Live /Men in Black 3); producer Sibyl Santiago (Sam, starring Stacy Keach); and composer Andrew Hollander (Waitress starring Keri Russell), a recipient of The Hollywood Reporter's Composers On The Verge of the A-List.
Black HAT has already gained a huge international fan-base with currently 224,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook and is #148 highest-ranking Facebook movie fan page on fanpagelist.com; it just surpassed Julia Roberts' Mirror Mirror and Apollo 18.
Because of the huge following on Facebook and original subject matter, WME has already expressed interest in representing the film domestically.
Robbie Bryan states, “If we raise enough money through our Seed & Spark campaign to prove to the Hollywood investors that the anime community is chomping at the bit to support a movie that properly represents them and what they are about, they will finance the rest.”
With Seed & Spark, every time an audience member supports the making of a moving picture project (funding, following, sharing) they earn “Sparks” which can be redeemed to watch movies on the streaming platform. Support Black HAT.