Read full article: https://deadline.com/2025/11/hunting-matthew-nichols-wide-theatrical-release-us-attend-1236605498/

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EXCLUSIVE: Not many low-budget indie debuts without name cast get a wide theatrical release. That’s the plan for supernatural thriller Hunting Matthew Nichols, we’re told.

According to producers, Markian Tarasiuk’s debut feature will be released in March next year on 1,500 screens after producers Dropshock Pictures and Moon7 Films teamed with former National Association of Theater Owners President John Fithian and his fledgling platform Attend, which helps connect filmmakers and exhibitors.

This past summer, the filmmakers embarked on a cross-country tour, meeting with executives at major theater chains to screen the film and outline their marketing and self-distribution strategy.

Set in 2001 in the small town of Port Rupert on Vancouver Island, the movie follows two teenage boys, Matthew Nichols and Jordan Reimer, who, inspired by The Blair Witch Project, set out with a VHS camcorder to investigate a local legend about Roy Mackenzie, a 19th century Scottish trapper who founded a cult-like commune near Port Rupert, British Columbia.

When the teenagers disappear, the mystery remains unsolved for two decades until Matthew’s sister, Tara Nichols (played by Miranda MacDougall), begins documenting her search for answers. Guided by her brother’s old tapes and the help of her friend and documentary filmmaker Markian Tarasiuk, Tara ventures into the fog-covered forests of Vancouver Island to uncover what happened to her missing brother.

Alliance Media Partners will be screening the film — which debuted at the 2024 Newport Beach Film Festival — at this year’s American Film Market.

Producer Sean Harris Oliver explained: “Over the summer, myself at Dropshock, Moon7 and the Fithian Group flew across the U.S. meeting with the heads of the major exhibitors. We screened Hunting Matthew Nichols for them, spent a few hours discussing our marketing strategy, and talked about ways we could authentically partner to bring the film to theaters. All of the exhibitors really loved the movie and its commercial potential, and that’s how they ended up committing to support a wide release in March 2026. The exhibitors actually suggested more screens than we had initially hoped for.”  

He added: “It does feel like a somewhat unprecedented model for an indie feature, but I think it speaks to the current moment in the industry. A moment where independent filmmakers are experimenting with new theatrical pathways and working directly with the exhibitors to get smaller films back into theaters.”

Said Fithian: “Early partnership and collaboration directly between exhibitors and filmmakers and using data and innovative marketing ideas are all key to growing the number and kinds of films in the market. Taking the Hunting Matthew Nichols and its filmmakers personally to top exhibitors drove important decisions and ideas that couldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Attend set sail last year, with fellow indie You, Me and Her was among the first movies to launch via the platform.

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