By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

NEWMARKET FILMS TO RELEASE PETER WEIR’S THE WAY BACK

Posted Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 - 1 Comment »
Be Sociable, Share!

NEWMARKET FILMS TO RELEASE PETER WEIR’S THE WAY BACK IN JANUARY 2011
WORLD PREMIERE OF THE WAY BACK AT 2010 TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL
IN CONJUNCTION WITH WEIR TRIBUTE

Los Angeles, CA (September 2nd, 2010) – Nigel Sinclair, CEO and Co-Chairman of Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”) , and Chris Ball, Co-Chairman of Exclusive and President and Co-Founder of Newmarket Films (“Newmarket”), jointly announced today that Newmarket will release six-time Academy Award® nominee Peter Weir’s The Way Back starring Ed Harris (Pollack, Gone Baby Gone), Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, The Other Boleyn Girl), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Kick Ass) and Colin Farrell (In Bruges, Crazy Heart) on January 21st 2011 in the US.  The Way Back is the first film produced under the Exclusive Films label to be distributed through Exclusive’s subsidiary, Newmarket Films.  National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi co-produced the film as part of their joint production agreement.  Director Peter Weir will be honoured with a Tribute at the Telluride Film Festival tomorrow where the film will have its World Premiere.

The Way Back is inspired by Slavomir Rawicz’s acclaimed novel The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom, as well as by other real life accounts.  The film chronicles the escape of a small group of multi-national prisoners from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and their epic journey over thousands of miles across five hostile countries.

Notes Nigel Sinclair, “We brought Newmarket into the Exclusive Media Group fold to give our company access to a well respected and established distribution entity.  Chris and I, and our partners at National Geographic are extremely proud to be able to bring Peter Weir’s story to US audiences.”

Chris Ball added, “The Way Back is one of the great real-life escape stories of our time.  Slavomir Rawicz’ book, which the film is inspired by, has been translated into 25 languages and really captures the triumph of the human spirit.  It’s a story of man’s struggle to survive at any cost, and the strength to push on when all hope seems lost. Newmarket has a history of working with exciting directors like Christopher Nolan and Niki Caro and we are very pleased to now be working with Peter Weir.”

“Peter Weir is one of cinema’s great storytellers, which is fundamentally so important to National Geographic.  We are very proud of our association with Peter Weir and the rest of the film-makers who have produced this epic adventure movie. Along with our production partners (Imagenation Abu Dhabi, and Exclusive Media) National Geographic is delighted that Newmarket shares our vision for the film and we look forward to supporting their release,”   said Daniel Battsek, President, National Geographic Films.

“It’s great that Newmarket will be distributing The Way Back in the U. S.,” said Peter Weir.  “We know we are in good hands.”

Producers are Joni Levin, Peter Weir, Duncan Henderson and Nigel Sinclair.  Keith Clarke, John Ptak, Guy East, Simon Oakes, Tobin Armbrust, Jake Eberts, Edward Borgerding, Mohamed Khalaf, Adam Leipzig, Scott Rudin and Jonathan Schwartz are Executive Producers.

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 1 Comment »

One Response to “NEWMARKET FILMS TO RELEASE PETER WEIR’S THE WAY BACK”

  1. News Headlines Today says:
    April 23, 2011 at 2:25 am

    I precisely desired to thank you so much yet again. I’m not certain what I might have done in the absence of the ideas documented by you regarding such theme. It truly was a hard crisis in my position, nevertheless coming across this expert manner you managed that made me to cry over delight. I am happy for this service and hope that you realize what a great job that you are providing educating some other people all through your web blog. Most likely you’ve never come across all of us.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon