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TRUDIE STYLER & CELINE RATTRAY LAUNCH MAVEN PICTURES

Posted Thursday, May 12th, 2011 - Comments Off on TRUDIE STYLER & CELINE RATTRAY LAUNCH MAVEN PICTURES
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Company Will Develop, Produce and Finance Films

New York, NY (May 12, 2011) – Oscar-nominated producer and veteran film executive Celine Rattray and BAFTA-nominated producer, filmmaker and activist Trudie Styler today announced the launch of Maven Pictures, a New York-based film development, production and financing company.  The company aims to produce three to five films per year for distribution across all platforms.  Maven will additionally finance development as well as provide equity for films across a wide range of budgets.  Styler and Rattray will serve as Co-Founders and Partners at Maven.

Maven has also brought on Hardy Justice as Senior Vice President of Production and Development, Jenny Halper as a key Development Executive, and Nic Marshall as Director of Operations.

“I love the thrill of discovering an amazing script, a phenomenally talented new filmmaker or a project that screams out that it must be made,” says Styler.  “Maven was the natural next step for me, and Celine brings to our partnership an impeccable reputation as a savvy businesswoman and producer who will move mountains if she has to for the sake of a film. We love the idea of a company that allows just the two of us to greenlight projects, and make the impossible happen together with our team.”

“There is a great opportunity in today’s marketplace to produce filmmaker driven movies. Trudie and I want Maven to build a slate that combines smart commercial titles intended for wide release with prestige projects that can play to both the arthouse filmgoer and the movie lover who frequents the local multiplex,” says Rattray.  “Trudie is the perfect partner because she shares my passion for filmmaking. I have enormous respect for her exquisite taste, and I’m so proud of this dynamic new chapter for both of us.”

Styler will also continue to make films via her Xingu Films label in the UK, and those upcoming projects include American Reaper, an adaptation of the upcoming graphic novel created by Pat Mills and Clint Langley; a UK/Canadian/Jamaican co-production remake of The Harder They Come; and a film adaptation of Gil Adamson’s adventure tale, The Outlander. Also in development is Steve Zaillian’s adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Rattray, who most recently served as President of Mandalay Vision, Mandalay Entertainment’s independent film financing division, recently won a Golden Globe and received an Oscar nomination as a producer on Lisa Choldenko’s 2010 Oscar-nominated hit film The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. Additionally, Rattray is a producer on several upcoming films including Larysa Kondracki’s political thriller The Whistleblower, starring Rachel Weisz, Vanessa Redgrave and David Strathairn; George Ratliff’s Salvation Boulevard, starring Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear and Marisa Tomei; Another Happy Day, starring Ellen Barkin, Kate Bosworth, and Demi Moore; and Richard Linklater’s Bernie, starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey. With over twenty-five independent films under her belt as a producer, including twelve Sundance Film Festival selections, four Toronto Film Festival selections and one Berlin International Film Festival selection, Rattray’s filmography also includes James C. Strouse’s Grace is Gone, Steve Buscemi’s Lonesome Jim, James Mottern’s Trucker, and Justin Theroux’s Dedication. Rattray also executive produced the film anthology New York, I Love You and Dan Rush’s Everything Must Go, starring Will Ferrell. Prior to joining Mandalay, Rattray served as one of the key partners at New York-based Plum Pictures and before that was the Director of Marketing and Business Development for HBO.

Styler is an award-winning and prolific film producer, director, environmentalist, human rights activist and UNICEF Ambassador. Styler’s film credits include the documentaries Boys from Brazil, Moving the Mountain, The Sweatbox (which she co-directed), and A Kind of Childhood. Styler was integral in discovering Guy Ritchie and executive produced his first two films — Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. Her other producing credits include Greenfingers, Cheeky, Alpha Male, and A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints. Most recently, Styler again showed her skill for recognizing new talent, by producing Duncan Jones’s feature film debut, MOON, starring Sam Rockwell. Widely acclaimed critically as well as a commercial success, MOON earned a BAFTA Award for Duncan Jones and a BAFTA nomination for Styler.

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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?

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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.

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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

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~ David Simon