By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

Brainstorm Media Sets Up Distribution Arm With Acquisition of Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse

Posted Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 - 1 Comment »
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Beverly Hills, CA – (April 27, 2011) – Meyer Shwarzstein, Brainstorm Media President, announced today the acquisition of Todd Solondz’s award-winning film Dark Horse, signaling Brainstorm’s entry into theatrical distribution. Having assembled an elite team run by Ruth Vitale, David Shultz, and Margot Gerber, Barbara Javitz, and Marian Koltai-Levine of PMK*BNC, Brainstorm will release the film in New York on June 8, with additional cities to follow.

Dark Horse will be distributed in association with industry veteran Ted Hope’s Double Hope Films. Written and directed by Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Life During Wartime), Dark Horse stars Justin Bartha (The Hangover, The Hangover Part II) as Richard, Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, Hellboy) as Miranda, Mia Farrow (Rosemary’s Baby, The Great Gatsby) as Phyllis, Jordan Gelber (“Boardwalk Empire”, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3) as Abe, Donna Murphy (Tangled, “The Nanny Diaries”) as Marie, Christopher Walken (The Deer Hunter, Catch Me if You Can) as Jackie, Zachary Booth (The Blue Eyes, Taking Woodstock) as Justin, and Aasif Mandvi (The Last Airbender, The Proposal) as Mahmoud. The film tells the story of a thirty-something year-old guy with arrested development who falls for a thirty-something year-old girl with the same problem. When he tries to move out of his junior high school bedroom, tragedy ensues. The film was produced by Ted Hope and Derrick Tseng, with Nick Quested as executive producer.

“With Brainstorm, we found a team that was willing to put our film and the audience first,” said Hope. “Like that old 35mm we once all loved, Dark Horse will be playing only in theatres this summer! Meyer and his team have constructed a way for the filmmakers and our investors to be true partners in this venture. How often do distributors really want the producers to make money?”

“With this move into theatrical, there’s no better film, producer, or team with whom to work,” said Shwarzstein. “We have the best of both worlds – taking our team’s extensive experience in marketing and distributing films in all platforms while utilizing all the new media tools available to us. We’ve created a twenty-first century deal structure that allows the producer to have true input into how we’re releasing the film.”

Solondz added, “I’m totally delighted to have team Brainstorm handling the distribution of Dark Horse.”

Ruth Vitale runs The Film Collective, a consultancy business that helps financiers and companies with the strategic planning for their films in the worldwide marketplace from development and production through distribution. Previous positions include: President of First Look Pictures, Co-President of Paramount Classics, and President of Fine Line Features. Her films have received three Oscars and received sixteen nominations as well as eighteen Golden Globe nominations and two wins. David Shultz serves as President of Vitagraph Films, a self contained theatrical and home optical television distribution entity. Margot Gerber is Head of Marketing, Publicity and Digital Strategy for Vitagraph Films. Barbara Javitz has overseen operations, marketing, acquisitions, production, and post production, and has held executive positions at ARC Entertainment and Lightning Entertainment.

Ted Hope is known for producing critically acclaimed films such as 21 Grams, which earned two Academy Awards nominations and five BAFTA nominations; the groundbreaking Sundance Film Festival Grand Prize winner American Splendor; the Cannes Critics Prize-winning Happiness; and the BAFTA winner The Ice Storm. He also produced Todd Field’s acclaimed drama In the Bedroom, which earned five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture.

About Brainstorm Media

Brainstorm Media is the leading independent aggregator of feature films for Video on Demand and Television in the United States. Past and current clients include Lionsgate, Blockbuster, BMG, The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Magnolia Pictures, Roadside Attractions, and more. The company also develops and produces feature films, documentaries, and series. For more information please visit www.brainmedia.net

About Double Hope

Double Hope Films was founded by the independent filmmaking couple Vanessa and Ted Hope. They are currently in production on Vanessa’s directorial debut, a documentary on US-China relations.  Sean Baker’s Starlet was executive produced by Ted and premiered earlier this year at SXSW. Ti West’s sci-fi thriller The Side Effect, starring Liv Tyler, shoots this summer with Ted producing.

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Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Brainstorm Media Sets Up Distribution Arm With Acquisition of Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse”

  1. Denise Kasell says:
    May 3, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    Very excited about this!

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