By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES U.S. RIGHTS TO CANNES CRITICS’ WEEK OPENER DECLARATION OF WAR

Posted Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 - Comments Off on SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES U.S. RIGHTS TO CANNES CRITICS’ WEEK OPENER DECLARATION OF WAR
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New York, NY (May 25, 2011) – Sundance Selects announced today, on the heels of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, that the company is acquiring all U.S. rights to Valérie Donzelli’s DECLARATION OF WAR from Wild Bunch. Produced by Edouard Weil (Demonlover, Frontier of Dawn), the film was written by Donzelli and Jérémie Elkaïm, who both star in the film, which is based on their own real-life experiences.  The film made its world premiere at last week’s Cannes Film Festival as the Critics’ Week Opening Night film.

A great love story, DECLARATION OF WAR follows a couple named Romeo and Juliette, a child named Adam, his illness, and their battle.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects, said: “Our entire company fell in love with DECLARATION OF WAR. Valérie Donzelli, along with her collaborator Jérémie Elkaïm, won us over with their completely heartfelt, life affirming film that announces them as major new talents.  We are confident that this is a film that will inspire ardent love once we begin to screen it for American audiences.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions, and Betsy Rodgers, Senior Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs for Sundance Selects with Carole Baraton of Wild Bunch on behalf of the filmmakers.

Sundance Selects is a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by Rainbow Media.

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About SUNDANCE SELECTS:

Established in 2009 and based in New York City, Sundance Selects is a leading U.S. distributor of prestige films focusing on American independents, documentaries and world cinema.  Its unique distribution model makes independent prestige films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Some of the company’s successes include Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY starring Academy Award-winner Juliette Bincohe, and Werner Herzog’s 3D documentary CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS.  Upcoming Sundance Selects releases include master director Errol Morris’ documentary TABLOID; the 2011 Sundance Audience Award winner BUCK directed by Cindy Meehl; 2011  SXSW Audience Award winner WEEKEND directed by Andrew Haigh; Cannes 2011 Grand Prix Winner THE KID WITH A BIKE from the Dardennes Brothers; and the Cannes Prix du Jury Winner POLISS directed by Maiwenn. Sundance Selects is a sister division to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by Rainbow Media.

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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