SONY Acquires Thriller RATTER starring Ashley Benson

Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) has acquired worldwide rights to first-time feature filmmaker Branden Kramer’s cyber-suspense thriller RATTER, starring Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars).

RATTER debuted in competition at the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival and will have its Los Angeles Premiere on Sunday, June 14 at 9:40pm PST in the Nightfall section of this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival.

Cyber-thriller starring Ashley Benson premiered at Slamdance and will have its Los Angeles debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival this week.

Written and directed by Kramer, RATTER is based on the short film Webcam, which has been viewed more than six million times on Vimeo. Benson stars as Emma, a graduate student living alone in New York City. She is being watched by a “Ratter” who stalks her by hacking into all of her personal technology–laptop, cell phone, and other web connected devices–to record her most intimate moments. Eventually the video feeds aren’t enough and the stalker moves from the virtual to the physical – with disturbing consequences.

The film also stars Matt McGorry (Orange is the New Black) and Rebecca Naomi Jones (The Switch).

Financed by Start Media, the film is produced by David Bausch, Jamie Zelermyer and Ben Browning. Executive Producers are Michael Maher, Sarah Shepard, Matt Levin, Evelynda Rivera, Stefan Haverkamp, Jan Jaworski and Thomas Kropp.

Zac Bright and Marc Bortz of Preferred Content, along with Mette-Marie Katz and Nate Bolotin of XYZ Films and Bethany Haynes of Sloss Eckhouse LawCo brokered the deal on behalf of the filmmakers with SPWA.