By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL…, DIRECTED BY JAMIE TRAVIS AND STARRING ARI GRAYNOR AND LAUREN ANNE MILLER

Posted Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 - Comments Off on FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL…, DIRECTED BY JAMIE TRAVIS AND STARRING ARI GRAYNOR AND LAUREN ANNE MILLER
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FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES WORLDWIDE RIGHTS TO FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL…, DIRECTED BY JAMIE TRAVIS AND STARRING ARI GRAYNOR AND LAUREN ANNE MILLER

COMEDY WORLD-PREMIERED AT THIS YEAR’S SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

NEW YORK, January 24, 2012 – Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to AdScott Pictures’ contemporary comedy For a Good Time, Call…, the debut feature from director Jamie Travis. For a Good Time, Call…, written by Lauren Anne Miller & Katie Anne Naylon, world-premiered this week at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Focus CEO James Schamus and president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today.

Two young women, short on the funds needed to live in New York City, agree to room together. But they’re an at-odds couple; Lauren (played by Ms. Miller) is reserved, while Katie (Ari Graynor of The Sitter) is irrepressible. These roommates have nothing in common – until Lauren discovers that Katie is working as a phone-sex operator, and recognizes a good business opportunity. As the money begins to roll in, the two realize the value of not just their booming partnership but their growing friendship.

Ms. Miller and Ms. Naylon produced the movie with Josh Kesselman, Jenny Hinkey, and Jennifer Weinbaum. Ms. Graynor is also an executive producer of the movie along with Daniel M. Miller, who financed the film through his AdScott Pictures. The filmmakers were represented in the transaction by Cinetic Media and Sloss Eckhouse LawCo.

Mr. Schamus said, “The For a Good Time… team have crafted that rarest of combinations – a wildly funny comedy that’s also a genuine and heartfelt celebration of friendship and love. We’re so proud to join them in bringing to the world a film that not only lifted its cheering audiences at Sundance to their feet, but lifted our spirits, too.”

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world.

In addition to For a Good Time, Call…, current and upcoming Focus releases include Tomas Alfredson’s thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, nominated for 3 Academy Awards including Best Actor (Gary Oldman); writer/director Dee Rees’ contemporary drama Pariah, nominated for 2 Spirit Awards; Being Flynn, written and directed by Paul Weitz and starring two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and Paul Dano; Moonrise Kingdom, the new feature from Wes Anderson, starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman; Lorene Scafaria’s Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley; Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s ParaNorman, the new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA; the historical tale Hyde Park on Hudson, directed by Roger Michell and starring Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney; and Joe Wright’s epic love story Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, Aaron Johnson, and Jude Law.

Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

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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

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~ David Simon