The Avalanche

Every love story is a ghost story...

Project type: Fiction Feature
Project status: Pre-Production
Writer/Director/Editor: Johnny Coffeen
Production Designer: John Frame
Actors: Alex Essoe, Lou Taylor Pucci

Website: linktr.ee/johnnycoffeen
Instagram: @theavalanchefilm
 
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Logline

Connection turns deception when a treacherous avalanche traps two former lovers in a mysterious cabin where buried secrets and sinister apparitions lurk in the shadows.

Synopsis

After a decade apart, Benny and Zoey wake up trapped in a mysterious snowed-in cabin. As they encounter strange happenings and mysterious apparitions, they become convinced they are dead. In an effort to escape, they confront deep secrets, causing their confessions to manifest themselves in the shadows of the house. Will they ever escape or are they doomed to repeat this endless nightmare forever?
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Johnny Coffeen — Writer/Director/Editor
Johnny Coffeen is a Cuban-American filmmaker who began as the Assistant Editor of SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winner Short Term 12. His master’s thesis film The Swan Girl premiered at David Lynch’s Festival Of Disruption and received a Student Academy Award in 2016. Coffeen soon directed The Circle Game and The False Mirror along with serving as a trophy presenter at the 2017 Oscars. The Sleeper’s Twin premiered in 2021 as part of his ongoing collaboration with stop-motion animator John Frame. Coffeen is now in pre-production on his debut feature The Avalanche.

John Frame — Production Designer
John Frame is an American sculptor, photographer, composer and filmmaker. He has been given grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has participated in group exhibitions around the world and has had major solo exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Long Beach Museum of Art. After five years of preparation, Part One of The Tale of the Crippled Boy, a sweeping project incorporating sculpture, photography, installation, music and stop-motion animation, premiered at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California in March 2011. In 2018, Frame served as the Production Designer for the Chicago Lyric Opera production of Faust.

Alex Essoe — Actor
Alexandra Essoe landed her first lead role in the 2014 cult classic film Starry Eyes. She has collaborated several times with director Mike Flanagan, playing Wendy Torrance in Doctor Sleep, the 2019 sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. She played a supporting role in the popular Netflix series Midnight Mass in 2021. She most recently co-starred with Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist, which grossed $77 million worldwide. She is currently in development on her feature film directorial debut.

Lou Taylor Pucci — Actor
Lou Taylor Pucci emerged as one of the most promising actors of his generation when Mike Mills’ Thumbsucker premiered at Sundance Film Festival. For his performance as Justin Cobb, a compulsive 17-year-old, Pucci received both a Sundance Special Jury Prize for acting and the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Pucci made his feature film debut as a young hitchhiker in Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity, which earned the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film. His motion picture credits also include the Mike Mills film Beginners and Richard Linklater’s Fast Food Nation, among many others. He most recently co-starred in the Apple TV hit dramedy Physical along with the upcoming Marvel series Daredevil: Born Again.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.