| Cinestate | |
| Logo Alt: | A letter C inside three circles, two creating a top-and-bottom Venn diagram and the third surrounding them. |
| Type: | Private |
| Founder: | Dallas Sonnier |
| Defunct: | June 2020 |
| Fate: | Shut down |
| Successor: | Bonfire Legend |
| Location City: | Dallas, Texas |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Industry: | Motion pictures |
| Owner: | Dallas Sonnier |
Cinestate was a Dallas-based movie studio founded in 2016 by Dallas Sonnier.[1] The company produced ten films under a variety of production labels, in addition to retroactively claiming the 2014 film Bone Tomahawk, produced independently by Sonnier, as a Cinestate movie.[2] In 2017, the company acquired Fangoria magazine, relaunching it in 2018 as a print-only collectible under the editorial oversight of Phil Nobile Jr.[3] In 2019, the company announced the launch of Rebeller Media, an action label that would have encompassed a production company and lifestyle website to be managed by Washington Free Beacon journalist Sonny Bunch. In 2020, following the arrest of producer Adam Donaghey for sexual assault and a Daily Beast article alleging misconduct on Cinestate sets,[4] Rebeller was shut down[5] and Fangoria sold,[6] [7] all Cinestate social media and websites went dormant, the company was closed and its entire staff laid off.
Two films produced by Cinestate under the "Fangoria Presents" and "Rebeller" labels, The Seventh Day and South of Heaven, respectively, were sold to distributors and released following the company's closure under the ad hoc label "Swiss Avenue Productions," named for the street where the company headquarters were once located.[8] [9]
A successor company,[10] Bonfire Legend, was launched by Sonnier in early 2021 to carry on the company mission of the Rebeller Media label,[11] in partnership with the Daily Wire.[12]
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Dallas Sonnier moved from Dallas, TX to California, attending USC and graduating with dual degrees in business and film.[13] He launched Caliber Media[14] and started managing writer and aspiring director, S. Craig Zahler. After acquiring the script for Bone Tomahawk from Zahler, Sonnier premiered the film through Caliber Media.[15] In 2016, Sonnier moved back to Dallas where he partnered with Will Evans, owner of Deep Vellum Publishing, to form Cinestate.[16]
| Movie | Director | Production Label | Release Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bone Tomahawk | S. Craig Zahler | Caliber Media (retroactively Cinestate) | September 25, 2015 | |
| Brawl in Cell Block 99 | S. Craig Zahler | Cinestate | October 6, 2017 | |
| Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund | Fangoria Presents | August 17, 2018 | ||
| The Standoff at Sparrow Creek | Henry Dunham | Cinestate | January 18, 2019 | |
| Satanic Panic | Chelsea Stardust | Fangoria Presents | May 31, 2019 | |
| Dragged Across Concrete | S. Craig Zahler | Cinestate | March 22, 2019 | |
| VFW | Joe Begos | Fangoria Presents | February 14, 2020 | |
| Castle Freak | Tate Steinsiek | Fangoria Presents | December 4, 2020 | |
| Run Hide Fight | Kyle Rankin | Bonfire Legend (originally Rebeller) | January 14, 2021 | |
| The Seventh Day | Justin P. Lang | Swiss Avenue Pictures (originally Fangoria Presents) | March 26, 2021 | |
| South of Heaven | Aharon Keshales | Swiss Avenue Pictures (originally Rebeller) | October 8, 2021 |
In 2018, Cinestate acquired Fangoria magazine from the Brooklyn Company for an undisclosed price, with plans to re-launch the publication as a quarterly edition and additionally develop Fangoria into a brand for producing movies, books and podcasts. As part of the deal, Cinestate controlled all material from over 300 issues of Fangoria magazine over 39 years.[17]
Following the 2020 Daily Beast article about misconduct on Cinestate sets, the staff of Fangoria staged a walkout in protest, resulting in the brand being sold.
Cinestate released its first book, S. Craig Zahler's , alongside the announcement that Zahler would work with the Jim Henson Company to bring the title protagonist to life in an upcoming feature film.[18] Additionally, Cinestate published The Megarothke, the debut novel from Robert Ashcroft. Its most recent novel released under the Cinestate label was Headcheese by Jess Hagemann.[19] In 2020, a new Rebeller literary imprint was launched; a single title, Natasha Tynes' They Called Me Wyatt, was released shortly before the company shut down.