Defiant Empire Corp. is a Canadian Distribution company that focuses on independent feature films and television projects. The company started in 2005 as the production company behind the “Dark Rising” brand with business partners Andrew Cymek and Brigitte Kingsley. Their first feature film
“Dark Rising” was produced in 2006 in collaboration with Black Walk Corp, and was released through Universal Vivendi October 30th 2007. The project was nominated for 6 Canadian Comedy Awards and later released internationally through Entertainment One. With its growing popularity, Super Channel commissioned the Dark Rising television series entitled “The Savage Tales of Summer Vale” in 2009.
In 2008, Brigitte Kingsley became president of its production partner Black Walk Corp. The two corporations built a powerful alliance and continued to collaborate on several projects including “Medium Raw” (2010) starring John Rhys Davies, William B. Davis and Mercedes McNab, “Dark Rising 2: Summer Strikes Back!” (2011) starring Michael Ironside and their latest television series “Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds” (2013).
Their distribution partners include Entertainment One, Anchor Bay, Vivendi, MarVista and Cinemavault and their projects have been distributed in numerous territories around the world. Brigitte Kingsley returned to Defiant Empire in 2012 to restructure it as a producer friendly distribution company to cater to independent films. The company now releases films and television projects in Canada and digitally throughout the world. They continue to partner with larger distribution companies to release their projects in the United States and other major markets. Their latest acquisitions include psychological thriller Night Cries starring Colin Mochrie (Whose Line is it Anyway?) and the Country Musical “Country Crush” starring Sophie Tweed-Simmons (of KISS fame), Jana Kramer (One Tree Hill) and Canadian country star Madeline Merlo. Both slated for limited theatrical releases in 2016.