Kat Candler Signs Joins Josh Hutcherson for Ron Howard's PROJECT IMAGINATION: THE TRAILER

Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging, announced today that Kat Candler, a decorated filmmaker best known for "Hellion" and "Black Metal", has signed on to Canon's Project Imagination: The Trailer, a consumer contest helmed by Ron Howard. Howard and actor Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games") will choose one winning trailer to inspire a Hollywood short film starring Hutcherson and written and directed by Candler. Ron Howard and Josh Hutcherson hand selected Candler for the project who's film "Hellion" was in the 2014 U.S. Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to receive Honorable Mention for the Gamechanger Award at the 2014 SXSW Film Festival.

"I'm so excited to work with Kat Candler and after watching 'Hellion', it was clear that she is extremely intuitive and can bring thought-provoking work to the screen," said Josh Hutcherson. "The best part about the project is that I have no idea how the script will unfold with Kat or what type of part I'll play - it's totally up for interpretation!"

"Kat's films are cinematic and she has a very real approach to capturing life experiences in a way that viewers can relate to," said Ron Howard. "With EVERYDAY moments at the crux of this creative experiment, Kat's technique and skill will lend themselves in the most authentic ways possible."

"It is an honor to work with Canon, Ron Howard and Josh Hutcherson on this project," said Kat Candler. "I'm a firm believer that there are many great stories living within each of us and the Project Imagination platform is the perfect opportunity to share and inspire others."

Project Imagination: The Trailer contest launched in February 2015 and is open for submissions through April 29th. Based on the concept that anything in life can be a movie, and every movie starts with a trailer, even those who have never picked up a camera before can easily turn EVERYDAY photo and video footage into a creative movie trailer, with titles, Hollywood style voice-overs and epic soundtracks. Consumers of all skill levels can create and submit trailers of their EVERYDAY moments using Canon's Trailer Editor tool at imagination.usa.canon.com.

For the third iteration of Project Imagination, Francesca Silvestri and Kevin Chinoy of Freestyle Picture Company are once again producing the film, this time with Josh Hutcherson.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean (excluding Mexico) markets. With approximately $31 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), ranked third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2014† and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2014. In 2014, Canon U.S.A. received the PCMag.com Readers' Choice Award for Service and Reliability in the digital camera and printer categories for the 11th consecutive year. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA.

ABOUT RON HOWARD

Ronald William "Ron" Howard (born March 1, 1954) is an American actor, director and producer. He came to prominence as a child actor, playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later as the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom "Happy Days" for six years. He made film appearances such as in "American Graffiti" in 1973 and while starring in "Happy Days" he also made "The Shootist" in 1976, as well as making his directorial debut with the 1977 comedy film "Grand Theft Auto." He left "Happy Days" in 1980 to FOCUS on directing, and has since GONE on to direct several films, including the Oscar winning "Cocoon," "Apollo 13," "Frost/Nixon," and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Ron won the Academy Award for "A Beautiful Mind" as the Director and also producer of the film. In 2003, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

ABOUT JOSH HUTCHERSON

Josh Hutcherson has quickly become one of Hollywood's most accomplished young actors. He has received many accolades including the 2012 Cinema Con award for "Breakthrough Actor," MTV Movie Award for "Best Male Performance," the Teen Choice Award for "Best Actor: Sci-Fi/Fantasy" and Logo's New Now Next Award for the "Next Mega Star." Josh is best known for his portrayal of Peeta Mellark in the highly successful franchise, "The Hunger Games", alongside Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth. Josh reprises his role in "Mockingjay Part 2" in November, 2015. In addition, Josh stars opposite Benicio Del Toro in "Paradise Lost", a drama about the notorious kingpin, Pablo Escobar. In 2010, Josh co-starred alongside Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in Lisa Cholodenko's Academy Award nominated feature film "The Kids are All Right". Additional film credits include the animated film "Epic", "Red Dawn", a remake of the 1984 classic, "Journey 2: Mysterious Island", the independent feature film "Detention", in which Hutcherson also served as Executive Producer, an omnibus film entitled "Seven Days in Havana", which features seven shorts directed by seven different directors, "Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D", the first ever high definition 3-D live performance feature, "Bridge To Terabithia", "Zathura", "Kicking and Screaming", "Howl's Moving Castle" and "The Polar Express". Josh won Young Artist Awards for "Leading Young Actor" for his roles in "Zathura" and "Bridge to Terebithia". In addition to acting, Josh is extremely involved with his charity organization, Straight But Not Narrow (SBNN). SBNN is an ally organization that prepares and trains young adults on how to become allies of their LGBTQ peer. In 2012, he was honored with GLAAD's "Vanguard Award" for his work with the LGBT community.

ABOUT KAT CANDLER

Kat Candler's award winning short films "Hellion" and "Black Metal" have screened at Sundance, SXSW, Los Angeles Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival and more. Her feature film, "Hellion" starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis, premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. "Hellion" was a Sundance Creative Producing Lab participant and San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant recipient. "Hellion" was released in theaters through IFC Films. Candler was a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant for her upcoming feature "Untitled Metal Project". Candler is a 2014 Sundance Institute Women's Initiative Fellow.

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† Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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