By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

MAGNOLIA TAKES U. S. RIGHTS TO FERNANDO MEIRELLES’ 360

Posted Monday, October 24th, 2011 - Comments Off on MAGNOLIA TAKES U. S. RIGHTS TO FERNANDO MEIRELLES’ 360
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New York, NY – October 24, 2011 – The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures announced today they have acquired US rights to 360, the sweeping new film from two acclaimed artists: director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener) and writer Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon). With a stellar international cast that includes Rachel Weisz, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Ben Foster, Jamel Debbouze and Moritz Bleibtreu, 360 is a moving and exciting dramatic thriller that dazzlingly weaves together the stories of an array of people from disparate social backgrounds through their intersecting relationships.

360 was produced by Andrew Eaton and David Linde with Chris Hanley, Danny Krausz and Emanuel Michael. The European premiere for the film took place earlier this month when it received the prestigious honor of being chosen as the Opening Night Gala Film at the BFI 55th London Film Festival.

A truly international film, 360 was shot on location in Vienna, Paris, London, Bratislava and Rio de Janeiro. Jude Law plays a traveling businessman who is contemplating a liaison with a prostitute;  Rachel Weisz, a married woman who is breaking off a relationship with a younger man; Anthony Hopkins, a man searching for his missing daughter; Ben Foster, a sex offender recently released from prison.

“Fernando Meirelles and Peter Morgan are two exceptional talents that have crafted a unique and truly special picture,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “360 is a stunningly well-made film, and a fantastic showcase for some of the most talented actors from around the world.”

Said producers Andrew Eaton and David Linde: “From the beginning, Eamonn and his team expressed an immense amount of commitment, both creative and financial, to the film. We’re thrilled that this truly global film has found its American home at Magnolia.”

Magnolia plans a theatrical release in 2012 in all major U. S. markets, bolstered by a prominent film festival presence leading up to release. 360 will be distributed through Magnolia’s successful Ultra VOD program.

The deal was negotiated for Magnolia by SVP of Acquisitions Dori Begley and Head of Legal and Business Affairs Chris Matson, with UTA Independent Film Group for the filmmakers.

About Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the Landmark Theatres chain, and the high definition cable network HDNet. Recent releases include Page One: Inside the New York Times, French thriller Point Blank, Blackthorn, starring Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy, Andrew Jarecki’s All Good Things, and Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love. Magnolia’s upcoming releases include Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, Tim & Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You, The Hunter, starring Willem Dafoe, David Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, The Good Doctor with Orlando Bloom, and many more.

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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