By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

IFC FILMS TAKES U.S. RIGHTS TO SAMUEL L. JACKSON’S THE SAMARITAN

Posted Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 - Comments Off on IFC FILMS TAKES U.S. RIGHTS TO SAMUEL L. JACKSON’S THE SAMARITAN
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New York, NY (November 30, 2011) – IFC Films announced today that the company is acquiring U.S. rights to THE SAMARITAN, starring Academy Award® nominated Samuel L. Jackson, produced by Andras Hamori and directed by David Weaver from a screenplay by Weaver and Elan Mastai.  THE SAMARITAN also stars Luke Kirby (TAKE THIS WALTZ), Ruth Negga (LOVE/HATE) and Oscar nominated Tom Wilkinson (MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL).

After twenty-five years in prison, Foley (Jackson) is finished with the grifter’s life. When he meets an elusive young woman named Iris (Negga), the possibility of a new start looks real. But his past is proving to be a stubborn companion: Ethan (Kirby), the son of his former partner, has an ingenious plan and he wants Foley in. The harder Foley tries to escape his past, the tighter he is ensnared in Ethan’s web of secrets, until it becomes all too clear to Foley that some wrongs can never be made right.

THE SAMARITAN was produced with the participation of Telefim Canada, OMDC and the Harold Greenberg Fund.  Producers are Hamori and Weaver with Suzanne Cheriton and Tony Wosk, Executive producers are Mark Musselman with Lacia Kornylo, Mark Horowitz, Jackson, Eli Selden, Geoffrey Brant, James Atherton and Jan Pace.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “We’re very excited to be working with Samuel L. Jackson and director David Weaver on this neo-noir, high-stakes thriller with a twist no one will see coming. We’re sure it will electrify audiences everywhere.”

“We are looking forward to our collaboration with IFC Films on THE SAMARITAN.  IFC is known for edgy, independent yet commercial movies: the ideal home for our film,” commented Weaver and Hamori.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, SVP of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Maren Olson and Doug Stone at Traction Media and Mark Horowitz on behalf of H2O Motion Pictures and Quickfire Fims.

H2O Motion Pictures sells foreign rights to the movie, which has so far sold to eOne in Canada, ARD/Degeto in Germany, Nordisk in Scandinavia, Ascot Elite in Switzerland, Video Vision in South Africa, Pris in Portugal, Frontrow in the Middle East, Audiovisual in Greece and Prorom in Romania.

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About IFC Films

Established in 2000 and based in New York City, IFC Films is a leading U.S. distributor of quality talent-driven independent film.  Its unique distribution model makes independent 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 over the years have included My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Touching the Void, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Gomorrah, Che, Summer Hours, Antichrist, In the Loop, Antichrist, Wordplay, Cairo Time, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Tiny Furniture and Carlos.  Over the years, IFC Films has worked with established and breakout auteurs, including Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Miranda July, Lars Von Trier, Gaspar Noe, Todd Solondz, Cristian Mungiu, Susanne Bier, Olivier Assayas, Jim McKay, Larry Fessenden, Gregg Araki, Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol, as well as more recent breakouts such as Andrea Arnold, Mia Hansen Love, Corneliu Porombiou, Joe Swanberg, Barry Jenkins, Lena Dunham, Aaron Katz, Daryl Wein and Abdellatif Kechiche. IFC Films is a sister division to Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks, Inc.

About H2O Motion Pictures

H2O Motion Pictures World Sales is the foreign sales division of  H2O Motion Pictures, a international independent  production company with offices in London, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York.  H2O’s recent titles include ‘The Waiting City’, starring Radha Mitchell, which premiered as a Special Presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival,and ‘Bibliotheque Pascal’, an official selection at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival.

About Quickfire Films

Quickfire Films is a sales and acquisition company run by James Atherton and Jan Pace that sources and buys international sales rights.  Quickfire has recently completed work on Mateo Gil’s critically acclaimed Blackthorn, adding to a strong 2010-2011 slate which included the acquisition of the comedies A Few Best Men, by Stephen Elliott and John Landis’ Burke and Hare, and UK thriller Retreat with Jamie Bell and Cillian Murphy. Its most recent acquisition has been Welcome to the Punch, a film by Eran Creevy starring James McAvoy and Mark Strong.

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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