By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP AND CROSS CREEK TO FINANCE GEORGE CLOONEY’S THE IDES OF MARCH

Posted Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 - 2 Comments »
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXCLUSIVE FILMS INTERNATIONAL TO LAUNCH FILM AT AFM

Los Angeles, CA (October  27,  2010) – Guy East and Nigel Sinclair, Co-Chairmen of Exclusive Media Group (“Exclusive”), and Brian Oliver, President of  Cross Creek Pictures, announced today that  that  they will be financing and co-producing The Ides of March with George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smoke House Pictures, along with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions. Clooney will direct and star, along with Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Evan Rachel Wood. Exclusive Films International, under East and Alex Walton, President International Sales and Distribution, will handle international distribution and will launch the film to buyers at this year’s AFM.

Clooney and Heslov (Oscar-nominated for penning Good Night and Good Luck) have adapted the screenplay with playwright Beau Willimon, based on his own award-winning, critically acclaimed play “Farragut North” which debuted on Broadway in 2008. Further casting announcements are anticipated and the film will begin photography in February, 2011 on location in Michigan and Ohio.

With sharp, quick-witted dialogue and set against the spectacle of modern world power and politics, The Ides of March is an intense tale of sex, ambition, loyalty, betrayal and revenge. The film follows a young press spokesman who falls prey to backroom politics, the treacherous manipulations of veteran operatives and the seduction of a young intern. Clooney plays Governor Morris, a candidate running in the presidential primary race for the Democratic Party ticket.  Gosling plays his press spokesman, Giamatti plays a rival campaign manager, Tomei plays a reporter for the New York Times, and Wood plays an intern for the campaign.

The Ides of March will be produced by Smoke House and Appian Way, and jointly financed by Exclusive and Cross Creek Pictures. “We are thrilled to partner with such strong creative talents as George and Grant. This has been a long-gestating passion project of theirs and we are thrilled to help bring it to the fore,” says Oliver. Notes Sinclair: “This is such a powerful project, the marriage of great material with huge talent behind and in front of the camera.  We are thrilled to be partnering with Cross Creek, Smoke House, and Appian Way.”

Continued East: “George Clooney has a proven track record for making and starring in commercial films of the highest quality.  . He and Grant are a world class creative team. We are excited to bring their next film to our distribution partners, and ultimately to audiences around the world.”

CAA, which packaged and raised the financing for the project, is handling the film’s domestic distribution rights on behalf of the filmmakers.

# # #
ABOUT EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP (“EXCLUSIVE”)
Exclusive Media Group is a vertically integrated independent film studio which was founded by strategic investment group, Cyrte Investments, in May 2008 Exclusive comprises:

1. Three development & production labels –
·         Exclusive Films, whose maiden production is Peter Weir’s The Way Back.

·         Hammer Films, the iconic brand which already has Let Me In in release, and The Resident being readied for release.
·         Spitfire Pictures, which has become a specialist documentary film production house.

2.   US theatrical distributor – Newmarket Films.

3.   International Sales & Marketing Operation for in-house and third party product – Exclusive Films International.

4.   Exclusive Films International also monetizes a significant film library of over 550 film titles.

Exclusive is run by Co-Chairmen Nigel Sinclair and Guy East.  Sinclair also serves as Group CEO and President of Newmarket, East as Chairman of Exclusive Films International.  Simon Oakes serves as Vice-Chairman of the Group Board as well as President and CEO of Hammer.  Marc Schipper and Andy Mayson serve on the Executive Board, as COO and Managing Director/CFO respectively, overseeing the operations, finance and strategic development of the worldwide group  Exclusive’s strategy is to build a vertically integrated global film entertainment group which develops and controls its own intellectual property and exploits it on a cross-media basis in the digitally converged era.  Exclusive has an active development slate and produces, finances and markets 3-5 high-quality commercial feature films and documentaries per year under its three production labels

Exclusive actively acquires further feature films for international distribution, through Exclusive Films International, and for US theatrical distribution through Newmarket Films.  The Group also develops and produces projects for television and digital platforms.

Exclusive continues to actively explore strategic expansion through M&A transactions and joint ventures – specific focus is on the acquisition of further high-quality film libraries and local territory distribution.

ABOUT CROSS CREEK PICTURES
Cross Creek Pictures, a film fund formed by Timmy Thompson and Brian Oliver and a consortium of private business investors from Louisiana and Texas, has a mandate of giving ownership back in to the hands of the filmmakers. The company finances its films through equity, tax incentives and international sales. The goal is to finance up to five films a year with ranging budgets. The company is in producing on THE WOMAN IN BLACK, starring Daniel Radcliffe and has over ten projects in various stages of development including the comedy BATHING SUITS, written by Buck Henry, a Steve McQueen biopic written by Jesse Wigutow and the Boston-set Irish mafia tale BLACK MASS.

Cross Creek is currently preparing to release the first Cross Creek production, BLACK SWAN.  The Darren Aronofsky helmed film, stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in a story of dueling ballerinas.  The film opened the Venice Film Festival to great acclaim and will close the upcoming AFI Film Festival and Fox Searchlight will release the film on December 3.

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Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “EXCLUSIVE MEDIA GROUP AND CROSS CREEK TO FINANCE GEORGE CLOONEY’S THE IDES OF MARCH”

  1. Vanessa @ Bathing Ape Shop says:
    October 31, 2010 at 7:42 pm

    Hi there, just doing some research for my Bathing Ape website. Amazing the amount of information on the web. Wasn’t what I was looking for, but cool site. Have a nice day.

  2. Emma@ how to read palms says:
    September 10, 2011 at 5:00 am

    I saw him in person, and he was so handsome. That photo is not taken from a good angle.

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