SANTA MONICA, CA (June 10, 2015) – Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a premier next generation global content leader, announced that principal photography has begun today on “THE SHACK” in Vancouver, Canada.  The film will be released by Lionsgate’s Summit Entertainment label.

The film stars Sam Worthington (Avatar, Wrath of the Titans, Clash of the Titans), Academy Award^®-winner Octavia Spencer (Best Supporting Actress, 2012 –The Help; The Divergent Series  film franchise), Grammy Award^® Winner Tim McGraw (The Blind Side), Radha Mitchell (Olympus Has Fallen), Alice Braga (Queen of the South, Elysium), Aviv Alush (The Gordin Cell) and Graham Greene (Longmire).The screenplay by John Fusco is based on the best-selling faith-based book, “The Shack,” by William Paul Young in collaboration with Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings. Stuart Hazeldine (Exam) directs the film, which is produced by the Oscar-nominated Gil Netter (Life of Pi, The Blind Side, Marley & Me) and Brad Cummings.

Based on the New York Times best-selling novel with over 22 million copies in print worldwide, “THE SHACK” takes us on a father’s life-transforming journey that will show him the ultimate truth about love, loss and forgiveness.

MACKENZIE “MACK” ALLEN PHILLIPS (Worthington) enjoys a blissful life with his wife and their three children, until the unthinkable happens and his youngest daughter MISSY is abducted from their vacation campsite. Evidence indicates Missy has been murdered, but her body is never recovered.  The tragedy sends Mack spiraling into “the great sadness” that isolates him from family and friends, causing him to question his innermost fundamental beliefs.  Teetering on the edge of self-destruction, he receives a mysterious letter, apparently from God, urging him back to the scene of the crime—an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. 

Despite his doubts and fears, Mack journeys to the wintry mountain woods to revisit the most agonizing moments of his life and encounters an enigmatic trio of strangers led by a woman named PAPA (Spencer), at the shack.  Through them, Mack will find important truths that will transform his understanding of Missy’s tragedy and change his life forever.

ABOUT LIONSGATE

Lionsgate is a premier next generation global content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms, video games and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show, the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New Black and the breakout series The Royals.

Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first three installments of The Hunger Games franchise, the first two installments of the Divergent franchise, Age of Adaline, CBS/Lionsgate’s The DUFF, John Wick, Now You See Me, Roadside Attractions’ A Most Wanted Man, Lionsgate/Codeblack Films’ Addicted and Pantelion Films’ Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.

Lionsgate’s home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rates. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world. www.lionsgate.com 

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