By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

monterey media Acquires Monte Hellman’s Road to Nowhere From Entertainment One

Posted Friday, January 14th, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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January 12, 2011 – Los Angeles – monterey media is proud to announce the acquisition of all U.S. rights to legendary film director Monte Hellman’s “Road to Nowhere,” the acclaimed director’s first feature film in more than two decades. “Road to Nowhere” premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival where Hellman was presented the prestigious Jury Award Special Lion for Career Achievement.

Written by Steven Gaydos, produced by Hellman, Gaydos and Melissa Hellman and starring Shannyn Sossamon (“A Knight’s Tale,” “The Rules of Attraction”), Dominique Swain (“Lolita,” “Alpha Dog”), Waylon Payne (“Walk the Line”), Cliff de Young, John Diehl, and Tygh Runyan, “Road to Nowhere” was shot in world-wide locales including Los Angeles and the Smoky Mountains in the United States; Lago di Garda, Verona and Rome, Italy; and London, England.

After its successful Venice Festival premiere, “Road to Nowhere” has played to rhapsodic reviews and been embraced by adventurous audiences at festivals in Vienna, La Roche Sur-Yon, Brisbane, Whistler, Estoril, and Palm Springs, where Hellman was also the subject of a career retrospective.

A late spring release in multiple cities will follow the completion of the film’s festival run.

Featured prominently on the film’s soundtrack is music by Tom Russell, the renowned American alt-country singer-songwriter whose songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Nancy Griffith, kd Lang, Suzy Bogguss, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and other great artists.

Entertainment One holds the worldwide sales rights for the film. Negotiating on behalf of the filmmakers was sales agent Charlotte Mickie of Entertainment One International and world-wide producer’s rep Jonathan Dana.

“We are so very excited to bring this extraordinary film to audiences”, stated Scott Mansfield, President of monterey media, “In story, style and artistry, it so embodies everything we love about Independent film.”

“All through the production and sales process,” noted Hellman, “we’ve been immeasurably aided by passionate and knowledgeable professionals. Now we have a dedicated and truly independent distributor in monterey and we can’t wait to share this continuing ‘Road’ trip with their sensational team.”

About Monte Hellman

“Monte Hellman is a great cinema artist and minimalistic poet. His work has inspired this jury and it’s our honour to honor him.” – Venice Film Festival Jury

The internationally-acclaimed director of “Two Lane Blacktop,” which the New York Times called “a masterpiece…the ultimate road movie….one of the great American films,” Hellman’s prestigious career also includes cult hits such as “Cockfighter” and “Iguana,” as well as his four-film collaboration with actor-writer-producer Jack Nicholson; “Back Door to Hell,” “Flight to Fury” and the now legendary Westerns, “The Shooting” and “Ride in the Whirlwind.”

Hellman is also known as “the man who discovered Quentin Tarantino,” having executive produced Tarantino’s dynamic first film, “Reservoir Dogs.”

Hellman has been honored with no less than four career achievement awards just in the last few months. The recognition that the world’s top critics and film fans have felt was due for him for decades, seems to finally be arriving with a vengeance worthy of his edgy, loner-driven films. The renewed interest in America is more than matched in Europe, where Capricci Films will premiere “Road to Nowhere” at the prestigious Centre Pompidou on February 11 before releasing in France, Spain and Belgium.

About “Road to Nowhere”

In the words of one critic, “With ‘Road to Nowhere,’ Hellman and Gaydos have created a new genre: arthouse pulp. The film’s story focuses on cult film director Mitchell Haven, who has found the material to make his next movie. It’s a true crime story based in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, involving a beautiful young woman, Velma Duran, and her older politico lover, Rafe Taschen. Just as their so-called “true crime” goes awry, so does Haven’s obsessed attempt to make art out of their passions and misfortunes.

“Monte Hellman’s first feature film in 21 years is one of his finest and deepest, a twin peak to his 1971 masterpiece ‘Two Lane Blacktop.’“ – Variety

“A certifiable masterpiece…. sculpted with light and movement, bodies and sounds, Hellman goes for the essence: hurt and doubt.” – Film Comment

“Hellman’s first feature film in two decades is a triumphant return for one of cinema’s masters.”

– Sight and Sound

“’Road to Nowhere’ may also be as significant to the indie feature as ‘Avatar’ is to the popcorn movie.”

–The New York Times

About monterey media

monterey media inc., incorporated in 1979, is a privately owned entertainment industry company specializing in the acquisition, distribution and sale of motion pictures and other programming and is actively engaged in all areas of domestic media, including theatrical distribution, film festivals and other distinctive venues, iTunes, television including all major Pay-Per-View and Video-on-Demand providers, Showtime, Starz, Lifetime, PBS, Super Channel, home entertainment markets and a variety of others.

The monterey video division is the 2nd oldest independent video manufacturer and distributor in the United States and incorporates all digital markets. monterey is well known for its broad marketing and its direct relationships with key retail, mail-order and internet sites, schools and libraries, and specialty markets.

About Entertainment One

Entertainment One (LSE:ETO) is a leading international entertainment company that specializes in the acquisition, production and distribution of film and television content.  The company’s comprehensive network extends around the globe including Canada, the U.S., the UK, Ireland, Benelux, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  Through established Entertainment and Distribution divisions, the company provides extensive expertise in film distribution, television and music production, kids programming and merchandising and licensing. Its current rights library is exploited across all media formats and includes more than 20,000 film and television titles, 2,400 hours of television programming and 45,000 music tracks.

For more information, please visit: www.montereymedia.com

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

One Response to “monterey media Acquires Monte Hellman’s Road to Nowhere From Entertainment One”

  1. Janette Parr says:
    February 20, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    Greetings

    I would very much like to know if there is a plan to release Monte Hellman’s “Road to Nowhere” in Australia in the near future.

    Regards

    Janette Parr

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