By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS ACQUIRES ALL U.S. RIGHTS TO DANE COOK STARRER ANSWERS TO NOTHING FROM AMBUSH ENTERTAINMENT

Posted Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 - Comments Off on ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS ACQUIRES ALL U.S. RIGHTS TO DANE COOK STARRER ANSWERS TO NOTHING FROM AMBUSH ENTERTAINMENT
Be Sociable, Share!

** Film set for a December 2, 2011 release **

(Los Angeles, August 9, 2011) – Roadside Attractions announced today that is has acquired all U.S. rights to ANSWERS TO NOTHING, directed by Matthew Leutwyler (THE RIVER WHY) and starring Dane Cook, and will release the film nationwide on December 2, 2011.  ANSWERS TO NOTHING is a gritty drama of interweaving stories set in Los Angeles against the backdrop of a child kidnapping case.

Along with Cook, the film also features Elizabeth Mitchell (LOST, V), Julie Benz (DEXTER, RAMBO), Academy-Award Nominee Barbara Hershey (PORTRAIT OF A LADY), Zach Gilford (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, DARE), Kali Hawk (COUPLES RETREAT), Erik Palladino (ER), Mark Kelly (MAD MEN), Aja Volkman (lead singer of the band Nico Vega), and Miranda Bailey (THE OH IN OHIO).

ANSWERS TO NOTHING is based on an original story by Matthew Leutwyler, who also wrote the screenplay with Gillian Vigman.  The film was produced by Amanda Marshall of LA-based production company, Ambush Entertainment (SUPER) and Sim Sarna.  Ambush’s financing arm, Cold Iron Pictures, financed the film.  The director of photography is David Jones, the production designer is Joe Lemmon, the editor is Matthew Leutwyler, and the costume designer is Keri Smith.

The domestic deal was announced by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, Co-Presidents of Roadside Attractions.

“This is the most personal film I have ever made so getting it in the hands of a company like Roadside is a dream come true.  They have an amazing track record with thought provoking independent movies and I am thrilled that they believe in our film as much as we do,” said Leutwyler.

“It’s great to see Dane in an unexpected dramatic role, and he hits it out of the park in this strong film,” said Cohen. Howard Cohen negotiated on behalf of Roadside Attractions and Greg Bernstein on behalf of Ambush.

ABOUT ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

Roadside Attractions is a film distribution company committed to championing independent films with a willingness to entertain. The company’s 2009 release, THE COVE, captured the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, and in 2010,  its 6 Oscar nominations—four, including Best Picture, for Debra Granik’s WINTER’S BONE, and two, including Best Foreign Language Film, for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s BIUTIFUL—solidified its major position on the distributor landscape.  The company recently released Robert Redford’s THE CONSPIRATOR starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright and, in partnership with Lionsgate, Dan Rush’s EVERYTHING MUST GO starring Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall.  Other films on its 2011 slate include Oscar-winning filmmaker James Marsh’s PROJECT NIM; Miranda July’s THE FUTURE; J.C. Chandor’s MARGIN CALL starring Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany and Jeremy Irons; Maryam Keshavarz’s CIRCUMSTANCE; and THUNDER SOUL, directed by Mark Landsman and executive produced by Jamie Foxx.

ABOUT AMBUSH ENTERTAINMENT

Ambush Entertainment is a Los Angeles based independent film development and production company that is dedicated to producing original, provocative, and diverse commercial feature films.  Ambush Entertainment’s financing arm, Cold Iron Pictures, has enabled the company to produce a varied slate of films which include: the upcoming film adaptation of the novel Bitch Posse that Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) is attached to direct; the James Gunn action comedy, Super, starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler and Kevin Bacon, which IFC Films acquired after its World Premiere at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival; Every Day, written and directed by Richard Levine (Nip/Tuck) that Image Entertainment released in early 2011; the romantic drama, Wonderful World, featuring Matthew Broderick and Sanaa Lathan, which Magnolia released; the drama, Against the Current, with Joseph Fiennes, Mary Tyler Moore and Justin Kirk, which was released via IFC Festival Direct, IFC Films’ movies-on-demand platform, in early 2010; and the adaptation of novel The River Why, starring William Hurt.

Previous Ambush Entertainment features include 2005’s award-winning critically acclaimed The Squid and the Whale, written and directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels and the 2006 comedy The OH in Ohio, featuring Danny DeVito, Parker Posey and Paul Rudd; the comedy Lower Learning, with Eva Longoria Parker, Rob Corddry, and Jason Biggs; and the thriller Hindsight starring Jeffrey Donovan (Changeling) that Echo Bridge released. Ambush Entertainment was co-founded in 2000 by actor/producer Miranda Bailey and writer/director Matt Leutwyler.

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS ACQUIRES ALL U.S. RIGHTS TO DANE COOK STARRER ANSWERS TO NOTHING FROM AMBUSH ENTERTAINMENT

Comments are closed.

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