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By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - 4 Comments »
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Press Release – Focus Features Reminds Us That It Makes Money

FOCUS FEATURES ANNOUNCES 2010 RELEASE SLATE,
PASSES $1 BILLION MARK IN DOMESTIC BOXOFFICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, November 12th, 2009 – Focus Features CEO James Schamus today announced the company’s domestic theatrical release slate for calendar year 2010, with six confirmed movies to date.
Mr. Schamus said, “Next year’s Focus slate follows one of the company’s best years ever – our eighth profitable year in a row since our inception, and the year in which we passed the $1 billion mark in cumulative domestic box office alone.
“Our 2010 lineup is as audacious as any in our history, ranging from American indies like Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story to big international productions like Anton Corbijn’s The American.”


Focus president Andrew Karpen noted, “This month’s tremendous showing at the American Film Market once again proves the resiliency and flexibility of Focus’ global approach to the business. The breadth, depth, and nuance we bring to the international release of each film on our slate – and our ability domestically to manage every kind of release, from specialized platforms to wide openings – is what truly defines Focus’s unique approach.”
Co-chairman of Universal Pictures Donna Langley said, “Focus’ 2010 slate further demonstrates its unique ability to continually develop and deliver some of the best and most compelling specialty films in our industry.”
Opening in select cities on Friday, March 12th will be Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller opposite Greta Gerwig. Noah Baumbach, an Academy Award nominee for his original screenplay of The Squid and the Whale (which he also directed), wrote Greenberg from a story conceived by Jennifer Jason Leigh and himself. Scott Rudin, an Academy Award winner as producer of No Country for Old Men, and Ms. Leigh are producing the movie, to which Focus holds worldwide rights. At a crossroads in his life, Roger Greenberg (played by Mr. Stiller) ends up housesitting at his brother’s home in Los Angeles. There, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his brother’s assistant Florence (Ms. Gerwig), an aspiring singer. Florence and Greenberg’s encounters lead to an uncertain and wonderfully vulnerable courtship.
Babies will open in select cities domestically on Friday, April 16th. Focus also has select international rights to the feature, directed by Thomas Balm

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4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Press Release – Focus Features Reminds Us That It Makes Money”

  1. KamikazeCamelV2.0 says:
    November 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    The American sounds good – Corbijn! – but needs a better title.
    Definitely looking forward to Somewhere. Anything Sofia Coppola does is must-see (at the moment, anyway).

  2. leahnz says:
    November 12, 2009 at 9:32 pm

    ditto re: sophia (‘Marie A’ didn’t really succeed for me, a bit of a colourful mess, but at least she reached for it; at the very least it made me want revel in decadence while i stuff my face with luscious cakes and pastries and wear fantastic shoes and amazingly impractical and beautiful dresses as i whisper and giggle with my girly girls and swish around gloriously lavish palace surrounds to ‘gang of four’)

  3. KamikazeCamelV2.0 says:
    November 12, 2009 at 11:58 pm

    Marie Antoinette worked for me as the movie it was trying to be. It’s just that it failed at so many of the things that people expected it to be. If that makes sense.

  4. leahnz says:
    November 13, 2009 at 2:06 am

    yes, i know what you mean.
    i didn’t expect anything from ‘MA’ in particular, and i admire sophia’s attempt to do something stylish and young and unique and lush with the rather stodgy ‘historical biopic/costume drama’ premise – and i don’t even dislike the movie, for me it just lacks drive, it’s too meandering and weirdly flat at times to really grab me, but it’s beautiful-looking and parts of it are wonderful and compelling and i’m happy to see sophia try her hand at anything, i think she has a great eye.

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