Ken Kao’s Waypoint Entertainment Launches Genre Label Cweature Features

EXCLUSIVE: Amid the theatrical release of their horror pic Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, Waypoint Entertainment has announced the launch of new genre label Cweature Features.

Helmed by industry veterans Ken Kao and Josh Rosenbaum, the label will offer a collaborative sanctuary for filmmakers to create horrifying auteur content, supported by the expertise of its seasoned team. The name Cweature Features (pronounced “Kwee-Cha Fee-Chas”) was inspired by the tendency of Kao’s young children to mispronounce creature as “cweature,” with their teeth still coming in. He and his wife came to realize that the little ones resembled little “cweatures” themselves, and the moment evoked nostalgia for Kao, for the period in his childhood when his early love for all things scary began. Cweature Features will embrace the idea that horror is an experience that transcends age, blending fear with fun and not taking itself too seriously.

News of the new genre label comes following Waypoint’s March signing of a new slate deal with Neon, which came about after collaborating with the studio on Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo. The first film to emerge from that deal is Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs, which has broken ground as the studio’s highest-grossing film, with over $90M at the worldwide box office to date. The film, starring Maika Monroe-Nicolas Cage, has surpassed all expectations as a commercial breakout, also over the last month becoming the top-grossing R-rated horror film of 2024 and the highest-grossing indie horror film of the last 10 years.

Ken Kao, who’s Founder and President of both Cweature Features and Waypoint Entertainment, told Deadline in a statement on the launch of his new label, “I am thrilled to finally announce Waypoint’s new evil sister company Cweature Features. We hope this new division will shake up the genre with daring and innovative projects that push the boundaries of what horror can be.”

Stated Rosenbaum, who serves as Partner and Producer at Cweature Features and Waypoint Entertainment, “The dark allure and possibilities within the horror genre have always been captivating, and now through the lens of CUCKOO, our passion has been reinvigorated for all things spooky. Our excitement led to Waypoint’s desire to include NEON’s acquisition of LONGLEGS as part of our slate deal. We’re haunted by the idea of pushing the genre forward, aiming for an even crazier future of horror.”

Launched in 2010, Waypoint Entertainment is a full service production company that provides creative and financial services to its projects through all stages of development and production. The company’s genre-bender Cuckoo hit theaters this past weekend after world premiering in Berlin.

Other notable credits for Waypoint include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar and BAFTA-winning The Favourite; Shane Black’s detective thriller The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe; Destin Daniel Cretton’s Lionsgate pic The Glass Castle; Scott Cooper’s Hostiles, starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike; Martin Scorsese’s Silence; and Song to Song and Knight of Cups from filmmaker Terrence Malick.

Among Waypoint’s upcoming projects is Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man for Universal, with Blumhouse Productions.