By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

A&E INDIEFILMS INVESTS IN SUNDANCE ENTRY “CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL”

Film has its World Premiere Friday as part of the Park City at Midnight Section of the Sundance Film Festival

New York, NY (January 17, 2011) – Television rights to the upcoming Sundance premiere: CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL have been picked up ahead of its Sundance premiere by A&E INDIEFILMS as part of an investment in the project.  The film marks the directorial debut of Alex Stapleton and chronicles the incredible career and massive Hollywood influence of legendary director and producer, Roger Corman. Corman will be in Park City for the world premiere of the film this Friday, January 21. The film also features bold-faced “Cormanites” such as Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese, and many others. The film was produced and financed by Far Hills Pictures’ Stone Douglass and Taylor Materne.  Stapleton, Izabela Frank, Mickey Barold, and Jeff Frey also served as producers on the project.

The deal for CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL was negotiated by Molly Thompson, Vice President of A&E IndieFilms, with WME Global on behalf of Far Hills Pictures. Of the deal, Bob DeBitetto, President and General Manager of A&E Network and BIO Channel says, “Corman’s World is the preeminent retrospective of the life and career of one of Hollywood’s most prolific and influential filmmakers and we are pleased to partner with Stone Douglass and Taylor Materne to bring Alex Stapleton’s film to audiences around the world.” WME GLOBAL represents the film’s remaining available rights.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL marks the third major film coming out of Douglass and Materne’s Far Hills Pictures.  Company, which formed in August 2009, also produced the Magnolia Pictures release BARRY MUNDAY, and Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed doc  A LETTER TO ELIA.  Of the acquisition Douglass says, “A&E IndieFilms and Molly Thompson have an amazing history of distributing the highest quality documentaries.  They are the ideal partner for a film that celebrates the birth of independent filmmaking and its godfather, Roger.”  Far Hills is repped by WME Global.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL tracks the triumphant rise of the true “godfather” of independent filmmaking, Roger Corman. The single most prolific writer-director-producer, Corman financed hundreds of profitable low-budget films and helped launch the careers of Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and many more. With archival footage of American culture and countercultures from the 1950’s to present day, and dynamic interviews with alumni of Corman’s cutthroat school of filmmaking, Corman’s World takes us back to the days when Corman was King. The film also shows the rise of the recent Corman renaissance featuring Indiewood’s new school of filmmakers – including Quentin Tarantino, Paul W.S. Anderson and Eli Roth. And of course it follows Roger himself as he successfully continues to produce and distribute films outside the studio system the Corman way: fast, cheap and out-of-this-world!

Pic was executive produced by Jared Moshe, Rich Lim, Joshua Ray Levin, Polly Platt and Antonio Von Hildebrand. Executive producers for A&E IndieFIlms are Bob DeBitetto, Robert Sharenow, and Molly Thompson.

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About A&E IndieFilms

A&E IndieFilms is the feature documentary production arm of A&E Network.  A&E IndieFilms is committed to developing the work of outstanding independent filmmakers and helping them reach the broadest possible audiences.  A&E IndieFilms commissions, acquires and provides finishing funds for feature documentaries intended for co-branded theatrical release.  Films include the 2006 and 2007 Academy Award nominees for best Documentary Feature, MURDERBALL and JESUS CAMP; Nanette Burstein’s AMERICAN TEEN, which received the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival; Amir Bar-Lev’s MY KID COULD PAINT THAT; R.J. Cutler’s THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE; Amir Bar-Lev’s 2011 PGA Award nominee THE TILLMAN STORY and Alex Gibney’s 2011 PGA Award and DGA Award nominee CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELLIOT SPITZER.

About Far Hills Pictures

Stone Douglass and Taylor Materne created Far Hills Pictures in August ‘09 as an independent financing, development and production entity.  Stone Douglass formerly ran STICK N STONE Productions where he financed and sold the independent feature, SPIN, which Universal released in the spring of 2010.  Far Hills Pictures’ first feature, BARRY MUNDAY was released by Magnolia Pictures in October of 2010. The film (based on the novel, LIFE IS A STRANGE PLACE by Frank Turner Hollon), stars Patrick Wilson, Chloe Sevigny, Judy Greer, Jean Smart, Malcolm McDowell, Billy Dee Williams, Colin Hanks and Cybil Shepherd.  Stone and Taylor also executive produced and co-financed A LETTER TO ELIA, which was co-written, directed and produced by Martin Scorsese. It aired on PBS ‘AMERICAN MASTERS’ in October 2010.

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2 Responses to “A&E INDIEFILMS INVESTS IN SUNDANCE ENTRY “CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL””

  1. Dewitt T. Wood Jr. says:

    To Whom It May Concern,

    The purpose of this email is to introduce myself and my Reality Show I’ve written. My name is Dewitt T. Wood Jr., and I have been doing a lot of researching, about the television business and how I can get companies to look at my Reality Show.

    Why is it so hard to break into Hollywood, if you do not have the resources others do. I live not to far from the White House. You would think by living in Washington, DC, that you would have an advantage.

    All of these studios only deal with agents and people they have dealt with in the past. But when someone like me comes along, which is once every so decade, you have to go with the flow. A lot of networks have garbage on TV and what I have will not add to it. My show has 5 key elements, wide audience range 18 to 50, which means millions of viewers, provide the need for advertisers to publicize their products, Facebook and Twitter accounts, linked to show, money (high revenues). This will be the highest rated show ever and it will last just like Price is Right, Family Feud and a few more I have not listed.

    I would really appreciate any advice or help you can give me, to help me move my Reality Show forward.

    I’ve attached a peek at what my show will be like in PDF Format, without giving away to much, so I cover myself legally, until I get a face-to-face meeting set-up with a TV Network. Thank you for taking time out to help me.

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    Dewitt T. Wood Jr.
    14101 Valleyfield Dr. Unit #6
    Silver Spring, MD 20906
    (H)301-438-7405 (M)240-876-9976
    Email: dtwj23@aol.com

    Creator/Producer/Co-Host: Dewitt T. Wood Jr. Program Length: 1 hour
    Series , Special or Reality: Reality Show Weekly or Monthly: Weekly

    Reality TV Show Title: To protect my creation, I’ll disclose that information with
    full details of my Reality Show in a face-to-face meeting.

    Target Audience: Ages 18 to 49, with segments that will appeal to all ages, by involving Tweeter and
    Facebook, which both have several million followers. All of who will be tweeting and facebooking,
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  2. jiggly_phew says:

    Check out the movies that made Corman a legend and support him in the making of his next film: http://www.newhorizonspictures.com/b/2521325011

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