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FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO MOONRISE KINGDOM, NEW WES ANDERSON FEATURE

Posted Monday, May 2nd, 2011 - Comments Off on FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO MOONRISE KINGDOM, NEW WES ANDERSON FEATURE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STARRING BRUCE WILLIS, EDWARD NORTON, BILL MURRAY, FRANCES McDORMAND, TILDA SWINTON, JASON SCHWARTZMAN; PRODUCTION UNDERWAY ON INDIAN PAINTBRUSH PRESENTATION

NEW YORK, May 2, 2011 – Focus Features has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Moonrise Kingdom, the new feature from two-time Academy Award nominee Wes Anderson. Indian Paintbrush is presenting the American Empirical Pictures production, which Mr. Anderson is directing from an original screenplay that he wrote with Roman Coppola. Filming has begun, and Focus Features International (FFI) will commence international sales on the title at this month’s Cannes International Film Festival. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.

Moonrise Kingdom is being produced by Mr. Anderson, Scott Rudin, Indian Paintbrush’s Steven Rales, and American Empirical’s Jeremy Dawson. Previously, Indian Paintbrush executive-produced and co-financed Mr. Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Darjeeling Limited, both also produced by Mr. Rudin.

Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, Moonrise Kingdom follows a young boy and girl falling in love. When they are moved to run away together, various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down – which might not be such a bad thing. Bruce Willis plays the town sheriff; two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton is cast as a camp leader; Academy Award nominee Bill Murray and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents; the cast also includes Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton and Jason Schwartzman. The young boy and girl are played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.

Mr. Schamus commented, “One of the world’s most distinctive filmmakers, Wes crafts witty and emotionally affecting pictures. The stellar cast will bring his and Roman’s fanciful script to life, and audiences will enjoy their trip back in time to this Kingdom. Everyone at Focus is pleased to be working with Wes and partnering with Indian Paintbrush.”

Indian Paintbrush, a film development/production/finance company, is in pre-production on the romantic comedy Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, written and to be directed by Lorene Scafaria with Steve Carell and Keira Knightley starring. Currently in production is the Untitled David Chase Project with James Gandolfini, Brad Garrett, Bella Heathcote, and Jack Huston starring for the writer/director. Indian Paintbrush is in post-production on Jeff Who Lives At Home, written and directed by Jay and Mark Duplass, starring Jason Segel, Susan Sarandon, Ed Helms, and Judy Greer, which will be released by Paramount Pictures. Recently, Indian Paintbrush and Paramount acquired Drake Doremus’ Like Crazy, which took home the Grand Jury Prize for Drama as well as a Special Grand Jury Prize for star Felicity Jones at the Sundance Film Festival; the love story also stars Anton Yelchin and Academy Award nominee Jennifer Lawrence.

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world.

In addition to Moonrise Kingdom, current and upcoming Focus releases include Cary Joji Fukunaga’s acclaimed romantic drama Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender; Joe Wright’s sleeper hit thriller Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, and Cate Blanchett; Mike Mills’ comedy/drama Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor and Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer; John Madden’s espionage thriller The Debt, starring Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, and Jessica Chastain; writer/director Dee Rees’ contemporary drama Pariah, which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; the untitled father/son drama from writer/director Paul Weitz starring two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and Paul Dano; and Lone Scherfig’s romance One Day, based on the bestselling novel, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

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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