By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

Western “Yellow Rock” Saddles up with Screen Media Films

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, May 9, 2012 – Suzanne Blech, president of Screen Media Films, has announced the acquisition of the Western, YELLOW ROCK, starring Michael Biehn, James Russo, and Lenore Andriel for distribution in August 2012.  Blech will also be at Cannes in an acquisition mode for 2012 and 2013 theatrical releases.

 

Said Blech about the acquisition: “We are thrilled to work with Director Nick Vallelonga, and Producers Lenore Andriel and Steve Doucette, to bring this prestigious independent Western to the marketplace.  Winning the Western Heritage Award for Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture, Screenplay, Director, and Lead Actors is a wonderful endorsement telling the world what a fantastic film this is.”

 

Producers and Writers Lenore Andriel and Steve Doucette said in a joint statement: “The acquisition by Screen Media is the perfect home and launch pad for this powerful message Western. We’re delighted and very proud to have Suzanne and her team, bring this important film to light.”

 

YELLOW ROCK is produced by Enlightenment Films, Inc. and Vallelonga Productions, written by Lenore Andriel and Steve Doucette, and directed by Nick Vallelonga. The film, starring Michael Biehn, James Russo, Lenore Andriel, Michael Spears, Eddie Spears and Zahn McClarnon, realistically depicts the plight of Native Americans in their 1880 California Territory. Told through their eyes, the story reveals the callousness of men on a deceptive ‘Search and Rescue’ mission that begins in the eerie town of Yellow Rock. Through their greed and betrayal, they ultimately bring the unsuspecting tribe to the brink of extinction.

 

The film recently won the prestigious “Western Heritage Award,” which celebrates the best Western each year from The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Previous winners include “True Grit” (2011), “Appaloosa” (2009) and “3:10 to Yuma” (2008) to name a few.  For more on “YELLOW ROCK’S Wrangler Award” and the museum, please visit: http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/events/wha/CurrentWinners.aspx.  For more information on the film please visit: http://www.yellowrockmovie.com

 

YELLOW ROCK has also won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor from the Red Nation Film Festival in Los Angeles, and premiered at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, garnering a Best Supporting Actor Nomination for Michael Spears. The film will also premiere at the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival May 18th -20th, followed by the Almeria Western Film Festival, in Almeria, Spain, in September.

 

The deal was negotiated by Rob Lynch on behalf of Screen Media with Noor Ahmed at Reder & Feig, LLP in Beverly Hills, CA.

 

ABOUT SCREEN MEDIA

Screen Media acquires the rights to high quality, independent feature films for the US and Canada.  Screen Media’s theatrical releases include “La Mission,” starring Benjamin Bratt; “The City of Your Final Destination,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney; “Lymelife,” starring Alec Baldwin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon and “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” starring Robin Wright and Keanu Reeves. Since 2001, Screen Media Films has released more than 250 titles including “Noel,” starring Penelope Cruz and Susan Sarandon; “Sherrybaby,” starring Maggie Gyllenhaal; Kevin Bacon’s directorial debut, “Loverboy;” and Emmy nominated “Dog Whisperer” with Cesar Millan.

 

Screen Media Films is a division of Screen Media Ventures, LLC.  With a library of over 1,500 motion pictures, Screen Media Ventures is one of the largest independent suppliers of high quality motion pictures to U.S. and international broadcast markets, cable networks, home video outlets and new media venues. For more information, visit www.screenmediafilms.net.

 

# # #

 

Be Sociable, Share!

One Response to “Western “Yellow Rock” Saddles up with Screen Media Films”

  1. Bill Nelson says:

    Awesome! Yellow Rock is in great hands and I look forward to the release!

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