Joe Swanberg Partners With Yale Entertainment’s Jordan Yale Levine & Jordan Beckerman On Five-Film Horror Slate

EXCLUSIVE: Producer Joe Swanberg has partnered with Yale Entertainment‘s Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman to produce a slate of five new horror films, each of which has now wrapped production.

Titles produced under the pact included Helldorado, Kenneled, Yellow Eyes, Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round, and Untitled Jae Matthews Project.

Written and directed by Kansas Bowling (Cuddly Toys), Helldorado watches as Queho, a Native American serial killer with a checkered past, takes out the people of a struggling mining town in the stark deserts of Nevada one by one, with the town Deputy right on his tail.

Written by H.K. Moore and directed by Jay Burleson (The Nobodies), Kenneled follows a destitute dog walker who finds a wealthy client who saves him from financial ruin. But this is no ordinary dog…

Written by Mickey Solis and directed by Jesse Korman, Yellow Eyes watches as a young couple inherits a house containing a mysterious relic that hosts the spirit of a powerful demon, and the wife of the man it possesses must find an exorcist to save him.

Directed by Aidan Leary from his script written with C.R. Thompson, in his feature debut, Monkey’s Magic Merry Go Round watches as a children’s TV show host, ensnared in a case of amnesia, must confront his missing memories as his puppet co-stars turn on him.

In the untitled feature written and directed by Jae Matthews, a young woman will do anything to avoid her ex at a secluded house party. But a supernatural virus passing through the partygoers may take care of him for her.

Swanberg’s slate of horror films with Yale Entertainment was inspired by the producing exploits of Roger Corman, with a workflow similar to a season of television. Specifically, Swanberg is drawing on his experiences producing his Chicago-set Netflix anthology Easy, which he viewed as an efficient and economical model for features. Much of the crew crossed over from project to project, while the writers and directors rotated.

In addition to Levine, Beckerman and Swanberg, producers on the five new films include Will Hirschfeld and Ben Gojer. Exec producers include Edmund Lowell, Declan Morgan, Jason Kringstein, Dajana Gudic, Jeremy Gardner, Matthew Ajayi, Carla Jones, Clay Pecorin, Russell Geyser, Jodie Lazar, Jeffrey Tussi, David Rudnick, Nick Donnermeyer and Madeleine Cella.

In a statement to Deadline, Swanberg, said, “I was very lucky to team with Yale Entertainment, who understood the model and were excited to try the most ambitious version of producing five features back-to-back. Using my resources from 20 years in Chicago, combined with support from the great team at Yale and my co-producer Ben Gojer, we have brought five incredible projects to life, each led by exciting early career filmmakers with huge futures.”

Swanberg went on to note that the projects “feature breakout performances from truly exciting acting discoveries. Having witnessed firsthand the power of community early in my career, collaborating with Greta Gerwig, Ti West, Adam Wingard, Amy Seimetz and David Lowery in combinations of acting, directing, cinematography, editing and crewing, or simply lending each other equipment and resources, I knew the projects would be stronger if the filmmakers teamed up. I am happy that many of the writers and directors worked on each other’s films in different capacities, creating a much stronger group of projects than any would have been individually.”

In a joint statement, Yale’s Levine and Beckerman added, “We’ve been longtime fans of Joe’s work, he’s a veteran ultra-efficient wizard at film production. The team at Yale immediately found a kinship with Joe when it came to making quality films on fast schedules that look large on screen. We are so thrilled to now have the opportunity to produce these projects with him. We hope this is the start of a continued partnership between the company and Joe.”

One of the best-known voices in contemporary independent cinema, known for his ability to cultivate strong performances and visuals at a minimal budget, as a pioneering contributor to the mumblecore movement, the Chicago-based Swanberg has directed over 20 features in total, including Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas, and Nights and Weekends, which he co-directed with Gerwig. In addition to writing and directing all 25 episodes of Netflix’s Easy, he’s directed in TV for HBO, 20th Century Fox, and Netflix. He co-wrote and produced Dave Franco’s directorial debut, The Rental, and has also been seen starring in films by West, Wingard and Josephine Decker.

Levine founded the indie production company Yale Entertainment in 2010, with Beckerman joining as a full-time partner and producer in 2017. As reflected in its partnership with Swanberg, the company looks to produce high-quality, filmmaker-driven features at conservative budgets, maximizing the possibility for creative and commercial success.

In addition to the action thrillers in the Becky series, Yale is known for titles like The Kill Room, reteaming Pulp Fiction‘s Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson; Brittany Snow’s SXSW prize-winning directorial debut Parachute; and the Tribeca-premiering David Duchovny starrer Reverse the Curse, to name just a few.

Upcoming releases from Yale Entertainment include Barron’s Cove starring Garrett Hedlund, Stephen Lang, Hamish Linklater and Brittany Snow; Electra starring Maria Bakalova, Abigail Cowen and Jack Farthing; and longtime collaborator Justin Kelly’s Pretty Thing, starring Alicia Silverstone and Karl Glusman.