By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

New Film About Hollywood Legend Mary Pickford To Begin Production in Early 2013

Posted Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 - Comments Off on New Film About Hollywood Legend Mary Pickford To Begin Production in Early 2013
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Pic to be directed by Jennifer DeLia, written by Josh Fagin and produced by Julie Pacino

New York, May 3, 2012 – Poverty Row Entertainment, a production company headed by Julie Pacino and Jennifer DeLia, has recently acquired the rights, along with producer Said Zahraoui, to silent screen legend Mary Pickford’s biography “Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood,” written by Eileen Whitfield.  This definitive biography establishes the star as a groundbreaking genius, casting new light on one of the most influential – and least understood – artists in the history of popular culture.

THE UNTITLED PICKFORD FILM will delve into Pickford’s life from a woman’s point of view and will illuminate the artistry, spirituality, and integrity that moved Mary Pickford through the ground-breaking and controversial world of her time.  A script by Josh Fagin (“Born to Rock;” “Pride and Glory”) is currently being written with production aiming to begin in early 2013.  Pacino and DeLia are currently in talks with potential talent and will be in Cannes to take further meetings about casting as well as financing.

“With no intention of creating a conventional biopic, we will use the language of film to hopscotch through time, in order to tell the story of a woman so ahead of her time who was living one of the most romantic love stories of all-time,” said Pacino and DeLia in a joint statement.  “Mary Pickford’s story is one of intense emotion, astute intuition, dedicated artistry, and about the creation of Hollywood.  Pickford was floating between the worlds of vast femininity and of masculine savvy and power.  It’s synchronistic for us to be where we’re at as filmmakers as we’re exploring the world through Pickford’s eyes.”

From 1892 through to her passing in 1979, Pickford was the powerhouse who, along with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D. W. Griffith, created their own distribution company, United Artists, that was designed to serve the filmmakers rather than the studio heads.  Known as ‘America’s Sweetheart,’ ‘Little Mary,’ and ‘The Girl with the Curls,’ the Canadian-born Pickford was one of silent film’s most important performers and had international fame that reached heights never seen before, as for the first time, an idol emerged from moving images or ‘cinema.’  She was the biggest and most beloved movie star of the time; she was the face of the American Military; she was one of the 36 co-founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; and she was an activist.  She fulfilled missions that no one else in her time could have and no one since her could even imagine.

In acquiring the rights, Steven Beer at Greenberg Traurig handled the legal representation for Poverty Row and Said Zahraoui.

The filmmakers strongly believe in the work done over the years by the staff at the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education (MPI) and encourage everyone to show their support in the preservation of her memory and legacy by signing this petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/447/355/995/save-the-mary-pickford-institute-for-film-education/.

ABOUT POVERTY ROW ENTERTAINMENT

Poverty Row Entertainment has been based in New York since 2009, opening with the short film “Abracadabra” starring Beth Grant and Ty Simpkins.  DeLia and Pacino recently screened their debut feature film, “Billy Bates,” at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. The film follows a fictional artist in the vein of Basquiat or Warhol, who faces his dark childhood memories and as a result, breaks through inherent psychological barriers, thus, enabling him to create his newest body of work. The film received high praise from press and industry members who attended the screening, with some calling it “a new breed of filmmaking” and “a breath of fresh air.”

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