Investor prospectus for the feature film THE CELLIST

Dermot Mulroney in white tie playing cello with an orchestra behind him in a warmly lit concert hall.

A FILM BY ART CAMACHO

DERMOT MULRONEY

is

THECELLIST

THE WORLD KNOWS THE CELLIST.

THE UNDERWORLD KNOWS THE KILLER.

SCROLL
GENRE
ACTION THRILLER
FORMAT
FEATURE / THEATRICAL
LEAD
DERMOT MULRONEY
WRITTEN BY
ART CAMACHO & JASON ABUSTAN

A world-class cellist who moonlights as an elite hitman learns he has terminal cancer

and walks away from the criminal family he's killed for — only to become their next target,

forcing him into a bloody final war against the killers he once called family.

ISYNOPSIS

PATRICK QUINN is a world-class concert cellist with a secret life as an elite assassin. For decades, he has served STAVROS, the powerful crime boss who raised him as a son. But when Quinn is diagnosed with terminal cancer and given months to live, he walks away from the only world he has ever known.

Stavros lets him go. His volatile son NIKOS does not.

Heading toward Mexico to live out his remaining days, Quinn crosses paths with SABRINA, a struggling waitress trying to rebuild her own fractured life. Their unlikely connection gives Quinn something he never expected—a reason to keep living.

But when Nikos abducts Sabrina to lure him back, Quinn is forced into one final war. Their journey leads to The Cathedral, a sprawling industrial nightclub where Quinn must fight through Nikos's men to save her and confront the family he left behind.

What begins as a battle for survival becomes a reckoning between two men raised as brothers—and a father desperately trying to keep his family from destroying itself.

THE CELLIST is a visceral action thriller about mortality, family and redemption—and a man who has spent his life mastering death finally learning what it means to live.

IIABOVE THE LINE

STARRING

Portrait of DERMOT MULRONEY

DERMOT MULRONEY

LEAD / PATRICK QUINN — PRODUCER

A leading man with four decades of studio and independent credits — and a working cellist who has played on major film scores. The role was built around both halves of him.

Mulroney has carried studio romantic drama, prestige ensemble work and hard genre across forty years, from Young Guns and My Best Friend's Wedding to The Grey, Zodiac, August: Osage County and Scream VI. He performs on the scores of Jurassic World, Zootopia and Rogue One as a cellist, which means the instrument in this film is played, not mimed.

IMDb PROFILE

SELECTED WORK

  • YOUNG GUNSWESTERN / ENSEMBLE
  • MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDINGSTUDIO LEAD
  • POINT OF NO RETURNACTION
  • COPYCATTHRILLER
  • ZODIACDIR. FINCHER
  • AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTYPRESTIGE ENSEMBLE
  • THE GREYSURVIVAL ACTION
  • SCREAM VIGENRE FRANCHISE
  • ANYONE BUT YOUSTUDIO COMEDY
  • SECRET INVASIONTELEVISION
  • CHICAGO FIRETELEVISION
  • CELLO — JURASSIC WORLD / ZOOTOPIA / ROGUE ONESCORE PERFORMANCE

ON SCREEN

  • Poster artwork for YOUNG GUNS
    YOUNG GUNS1988
  • Poster artwork for MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING
    MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING1997
  • Poster artwork for ZODIAC
    ZODIAC2007
  • Poster artwork for AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
    AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY2013
  • Poster artwork for THE GREY
    THE GREY2011
  • Poster artwork for SCREAM VI
    SCREAM VI2023

REPRESENTATIVE ARTWORK — HOVER FOR TITLE

IIITHE HOOK

THIS IS NOT A CASTING NOTE. IT IS THE PRODUCTION'S CENTRAL ASSET.

Dermot Mulroney in white tie, grey-haired, playing the cello in profile under a single warm stage light.
  1. 01

    NO DOUBLE, NO CHEAT.

    Dermot Mulroney is a working cellist who has performed on the scores of Jurassic World, Zootopia, Rogue One, and multiple Star Trek and Star Wars films. Every performance sequence can be shot in-camera, on his hands, in a single take.

  2. 02

    THE WEAPON IS THE INSTRUMENT.

    The bow is both the character's art and his method of killing. An audience that believes the playing believes the killing.

IVFOUR SUBJECTS / CLASSIFIED

TAP EACH CARD TO DECLASSIFY

Dossier concept art: a man's side profile traced by a single edge light against darkness.
STATUS: TERMINAL

DERMOT MULRONEY AS PATRICK QUINN

World-renowned cellist. Elitecontract killer. Weapon of choice:a razor-edgedbow. He has a year,maybe less, and no intentionof spendingit the way hespent the last forty.
Dossier portrait slot: an older crime boss seated in a dim study.
STATUS: FATHER

STAVROS

The crimeboss who raised Quinn likea sonand built him into aweapon. Hedoes not forgive beingleft.
Dossier portrait slot: a young man backlit in a red-lit corridor.
STATUS: VOLATILE

NIKOS

Stavros's son. Hewas never Quinn's equaland he has alwaysknown it.He would ratherburn the familydown than let Quinnwalk.
Dossier portrait slot: a waitress silhouetted against a dusty window.
STATUS: COLLATERAL

SABRINA

A waitress runningfrom an abusive boyfriend withher daughter in tow.She is the first personin decades Quinn has chosento protect insteadof remove.
VDIRECTOR

ART CAMACHO

DIRECTOR / WRITER

Action from the inside out. Camacho staged fights for more than fifty films before he directed one, and he writes what he already knows how to shoot.

Camacho came up as a stuntman and fight choreographer before moving to directing, and his pictures are known for clean, legible combat delivered on independent schedules — the exact discipline this script is built around.

IMDb PROFILE

SELECTED WORK

  • DUSTLANDSDIRECTOR — TERRENCE HOWARD, RUBY ROSE
  • THE WRECKERDIRECTOR — TYRESE GIBSON, HARVEY KEITEL
  • RUTHLESSDIRECTOR — DERMOT MULRONEY
  • ASSASSIN XDIRECTOR
  • CONFESSIONS OF A PIT FIGHTERDIRECTOR
  • RECOILDIRECTOR
VIDIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Director Art Camacho, portrait
— ART CAMACHO, DIRECTOR
VIITHE MARKET

Contained, character-led action thrillers with a distinctive hook and a recognizable lead return disproportionately against budget.

  • Poster for THE BEEKEEPER (2024)

    THE BEEKEEPER (2024)

    $40M BUDGET  ·  $162.6M WORLDWIDE
    0.0x
  • Poster for JOHN WICK (2014)

    JOHN WICK (2014)

    ~$20–30M BUDGET  ·  $86.1M WORLDWIDE
    0.0x
  • Poster for NOBODY (2021)

    NOBODY (2021)

    $16M BUDGET  ·  $57.5M WORLDWIDE
    0.0x
  • Poster for SISU (2022)

    SISU (2022)

    ~$6.5M BUDGET  ·  $14.3M WORLDWIDE
    0.0x

$0B+

JOHN WICK FRANCHISE, WORLDWIDE, FOUR FILMS

$0M

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 WORLDWIDE, ON A $100M BUDGET

0x

THE BEEKEEPER RETURN ON PRODUCTION BUDGET

Figures are publicly reported production budgets and worldwide theatrical gross. Comparable titles are indicative of category performance and are not a projection of this film's results. Poster artwork is the property of the respective distributors and is shown for reference only.

VIIITHE INSTRUMENT

ONE PROP. ONE MECHANISM. NO VISUAL EFFECTS REQUIRED.

Four views of the bow blade: the closed bow and the deployed blade extending from the handle end.

THE DESIGN

IXVISUAL TREATMENT

Empty ornate concert hall at night.
50MM / GOLD + DEEP SHADOW
Desert highway at dusk with distant headlights.
40MM / DUST + TUNGSTEN
Dim hotel corridor lit by one lamp.
32MM / PRACTICALS + TEAL
Guarded hillside estate behind iron gates.
85MM / IRON + POOL LIGHT
XPRODUCER

JASON ABUSTAN

PRODUCER / WRITER

A Chicago-born producer who has financed and delivered independent action for over a decade — including Ruthless, the first film he made with Camacho and Mulroney.

Abustan has produced or executive produced ten features, working repeatedly with this same creative team: Ruthless with Dermot Mulroney, The Wrecker with Tyrese Gibson and Harvey Keitel, and Danny Trejo. He co-wrote Dustlands starring Terrence Howard and Ruby Rose.

IMDb PROFILE

SELECTED WORK

  • DUSTLANDSWRITER / PRODUCER
  • THE WRECKEREXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  • DESERT DAWNEXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  • RUTHLESSEXECUTIVE PRODUCER
  • LAST KILLWRITER / PRODUCER
  • ASSASSIN XASSOCIATE PRODUCER
XITHE TRILOGY

Three films, one arc — a dying assassin, the war he cannot walk away from, and the girl who inherits it.

PART ONETHIS FILM

THE CELLIST

One-sheet for THE CELLIST — a suited figure in an empty concert hall holding the bladed cello bow

A world-class concert cellist and elite contract killer is handed a terminal diagnosis and walks away from the crime family that raised him — only to be hunted across Mexico for it, protecting the woman and child who become the first thing he has ever had to lose.

PART TWO

REQUIEM

One-sheet for REQUIEM — a figure on a burning desert road at dusk with the bladed bow

Living anonymously in Mexico while the disease catches up with him, Quinn is pulled into a cartel war by a single act of instinct. One side puts a price on his head; the other offers protection — and quietly uses the world's most accomplished assassin to dismantle its rivals. With Sabrina and Lucy inside the blast radius, Quinn turns both cartels on each other.

PART THREE

CODA

One-sheet for CODA — two figures apart in a cold cathedral with the bladed bow on the floor between them

Quinn is failing — and eighteen-year-old Lucy has been recruited by a clandestine organisation run by someone from his past, who has been waiting to build his successor. Everything he taught her to keep her safe is being turned into a weapon. His last mission is not a target. It is her.

XIITRACK RECORD
Poster artwork for RUTHLESS, starring Dermot Mulroney

THIS TEAM HAS DONE IT ALREADY

RUTHLESS — NO. 1 ON HULU, NO. 2 ON AMAZON PRIME

Dermot Mulroney starred, Art Camacho directed, Jason Abustan executive produced. The same three names on this picture took an independent action title to the top of the charts on both platforms.

That is the whole case for this combination: a proven star, a director who delivers legible action on an independent schedule, and a producer who has financed and delivered it — with a streaming result already on the board together.

  • #1HULU
  • #2AMAZON PRIME
  • 3 / 3SAME TEAM, THIS FILM

PRESS — COLLIDER

“Prime Video’s Forgotten Revenge Thriller Is Now Taking Over Streaming.”

“Art Camacho’s gripping action-thriller Ruthless features Dermot Mulroney as Harry… From the bustling halls of a small-town high school to the shifty streets of Sin City, the film is both truly stirring and unexpectedly thrilling.”

MOLLY DECASTRO, COLLIDER — READ THE ARTICLE
XIIICALL SHEET

FORMAT
Feature film, theatrical
GENRE
Action thriller
COMPARABLES
John Wick, The Beekeeper, Nobody, Sisu
SCRIPT
Complete — 100 pages, current draft
PACKAGE
Lead attached, director attached
X

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