Cinestate Holdings LLC

Trade name	CINESTATE
Company type	Private
Industry	Motion pictures
Founded	March 21, 2016; 9 years ago (March 21, 2016)
Founder	Dallas Sonnier
Defunct	December 2020[1]
Fate	Shut down[1]
Successor	Bonfire Legend[1]
Headquarters	Dallas,Texas , United States
Services	Movie production Magazine publishing Book publishing
Owner	Dallas Sonnier
Divisions	Fangoria (2018–2020) Rebeller (2019–2020)
Website	cinestate.comcinestate.com at theWayback Machine (archived December 9, 2020)

Bonfire Legend, owned by Cinestate Holdings LLC, is an Americanfilm production brand began in 2021 byDallas Sonnier.^[2] It was launched following the closure in 2020 of theCINESTATE film production brand that Sonnier started in 2016.^[3] Best known for the 2020 filmRun Hide Fight and the 2022 filmTerror on the Prairie, they hold adistribution agreement withNashville-basedThe Daily Wire.^[2]

Dallas Sonnier moved fromDallas, Texas toCalifornia, attendingUSC and graduating with dual degrees in business and film.^[4] In 2008 he launched Caliber Media Company^[5] and started managing writer and aspiring director,S. Craig Zahler. After acquiring the script forBone Tomahawk from Zahler, Sonnier premiered the film through Caliber Media.^[6] In 2016, Sonnier moved back to Dallas where he partnered with Will Evans, owner of Deep Vellum Publishing, to form Cinestate.^[7]

The company produced ten films under a variety of production labels, in addition to retroactively claiming the 2015 filmBone Tomahawk, produced independently by Sonnier, as a Cinestate movie.^[8] In 2017, the company acquiredFangoria magazine, relaunching it in 2018 as a print-only collectible under the editorial oversight ofPhil Nobile Jr.^[9] In 2019, the company announced the launch of Rebeller Media, an action label that would have encompassed a production company and lifestyle website to be managed byWashington Free Beacon journalist Sonny Bunch. In 2020, following the arrest of producer Adam Donaghey for sexual assault and aDaily Beast article alleging misconduct on Cinestate sets,^[10] Rebeller was shut down^[11] andFangoria sold,^[12][13] all Cinestate social media and websites went dormant, and all staff were laid off.^{[citation needed]}

Two films produced by Cinestate under the "Fangoria Presents" and "Rebeller" labels,The Seventh Day andSouth of Heaven, respectively, were sold to distributors and released following the company's closure under thead hoc label "Swiss Avenue Productions," named for the street where the company headquarters were once located.^[14][15]

In 2018, Cinestate acquiredFangoria magazine from the Brooklyn Company for an undisclosed price, with plans to re-launch the publication as a quarterly edition and additionally developFangoria into a brand for producing movies, books and podcasts. As part of the deal, Cinestate controlled all material from over 300 issues ofFangoria magazine over 39 years.^[16]

Following the 2020 Daily Beast article about misconduct on Cinestate sets, the staff ofFangoria staged awalkout in protest, resulting in the brand being sold.

Cinestate released its first book,S. Craig Zahler'sHug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child, alongside the announcement that Zahler would work with theJim Henson Company to bring the title protagonist to life in an upcoming feature film.^[17] Additionally, Cinestate publishedThe Megarothke, the debut novel from Robert Ashcroft. Its most recent novel released under the Cinestate label wasHeadcheese by Jess Hagemann.^[18] In 2020, a newRebeller literary imprint was launched; a single title,Natasha Tynes'They Called Me Wyatt, was released shortly before the brand shut down.

A successor imprint,^[1] Bonfire Legend, was launched by Sonnier in early 2021 to carry on the mission of the Rebeller Media label,^[19] in partnership withThe Daily Wire.^[20]

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