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‘SUNLIGHT JR.’ SHINES WITH HYDE PARK INTERNATIONAL AT CANNES

Posted Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 - Comments Off on ‘SUNLIGHT JR.’ SHINES WITH HYDE PARK INTERNATIONAL AT CANNES
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts Headline Inspirational Drama from Director Laurie Collyer

Los Angeles, CA – (May 8, 2012) – The gritty, inspirational drama SUNLIGHT JR. will be unveiled to international buyers by Hyde Park International at this year’s Marche du Film. Written and directed by the award-winning Laurie Collyer (SHERRYBABY) and starring Naomi Watts (J. EDGAR, KING KONG), Matt Dillon (CRASH, THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) and Norman Reedus (THE BOONDOCK SAINTS, THE WALKING DEAD).  The film is produced by Original Media’s Charlie Corwin (HALF NELSON, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE), Freight Yard Films’ Andrea Roa and Ariel Elia, who is producing on behalf of Empyrean Pictures. Joshua Skurla and Dan Klabin are executive producers for Empyrean, which fully financed the film, and are joined by Simon Fawcett (HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE, IN THE LOOP) as executive producer.

SUNLIGHT JR. is currently in post-production and a promo will be shown at Cannes. Shot on location in southern Florida, the story spotlights hard-working convenience store clerk Melissa (Naomi Watts) and her paraplegic boyfriend, Richie (Matt Dillon), who are trapped in a generational cycle of poverty and ignorance. They are genuinely excited, however, once they learn that Melissa is pregnant.  But when she loses her job and they are evicted from the motel they live in, things go from bad to worse. Through this adversity, the couple realizes that they can never lose everything as long as they have each other.

Hyde Park International has built a robust slate for the 2012 Marche du Film, including Hugh Hudson’s MIDNIGHT SUN, which has already generated significant interest among buyers; Medusa purchased Italian rights and Alliance Atlantis purchased Canadian rights. They are also selling ADULT WORLD, the latest comedy from Award-winning commercial and music video director Scott Coffey (ELLIE PARKER) starring Emma Roberts, Evan Peters and John Cusack.

About Hyde Park International

Hyde Park International has become one of the most important foreign sales companies in the world and is a permanent fixture at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, and the American Film Market. The company is focused on representing commercial fare as well as award-winning films that serve the global marketplace. Hyde Park’s recent slate includes GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE 3D in partnership with Sony and starring Nic Cage which opened worldwide in February, 2012; the spy thriller THE DOUBLE starring Richard Gere, Topher Grace, Stephen Moyer, Stana Katic and Martin Sheen which opened nationwide in the US in October, 2011; as well as indie favorites such as Richard Linklater’s BERNIE starring Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Shirley Maclaine; the award-winning BLUE VALENTINE starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams; and the Paul Rudd comedy OUR IDIOT BROTHER.

About Original Media

Founded in 2002, Charlie Corwin’s Original Media has built a strong reputation for cutting-edge content and quality production. Original Media produces hundreds of hours of award-winning content across multiple media formats including Academy Award nominated feature films, reality television, scripted television and digital programming and currently has thirteen television series on air. Original Media produced the Academy Award nominated films THE SQUID AND THE WHALE and HALF NELSON. The company, headquartered in New York, is a subsidiary of Endemol USA.

Freight Yard Films

Andrea Roa started the production company Freight Yard in 2011 and produced the feature film, BOOSTER, which premiered in competition at SXSW in 2012. She produced SUNLIGHT JR. currently in post-production and is in development on two other films with writer/director Laurie Collyer.  Along with Charlie Corwin and Original Media, Andrea is in development on several features including Ti West’s WHICH WAY IS OUT and Sarah Daggar-Nickson’s FROM THE SHADOWS IT WILL COME.

Empyrean Pictures

Empyrean is a newly formed production entity dedicated to the financing and production of world-class motion pictures. Empyrean fully financed SUNLIGHT JR. and is actively developing a slate of projects for a global audience. The company’s partners are Joshua Skurla, Dan Klabin, Ariel Elia and Marcos Tellechea.

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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