By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

Cassian Elwes Takes North American Rights to Syrian Director Sam Kadi’s ‘The Citizen’

Posted Thursday, July 19th, 2012 - Comments Off on Cassian Elwes Takes North American Rights to Syrian Director Sam Kadi’s ‘The Citizen’
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For Immediate Release:

Veteran Sales Agent Presents Syrian Filmmaker’s First Feature to Distributors in Toronto

Los Angeles, CA (July 19, 2012) –  3K Pictures announces today that veteran sales agent Cassian Elwes is handling all North American rights to director Sam Kadi’s debut political drama THE CITIZEN. The film was produced by Kadi, Chris Wyatt (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE) and Alan Noel Vega, with Ameer Kabour executive producing. The film is currently scheduled to screen for distributors during the Toronto Film Festival.

THE CITIZEN tells the story of an Arab immigrant named Ibrahim (played by celebrated Egyptian actor Khaled Nabawy from FAIR GAME) who wins the American green card lottery, arriving in New York City on September 10th, 2001.  In addition to Nabawy, the film’s cast includes Agnes Bruckner (BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE), William Atherton (GHOSTBUSTERS) and Cary Elwes (THE PRINCESS BRIDE).

The script took over three years to write and was co-written by the noted Arab American playwright Samir Younis (BROWNTOWN). Younis was living and working in New York on 9/11, and brought his experiences about the aftermath of that event to bear on the script.

Kadi was recognized by the prestigious foundation Cinema for Peace for raising awareness for human rights issues through film, and was invited to speak before the International Criminal Court at The Hague, The Netherlands on June 16, 2012. Kadi discussed the ongoing Syrian Revolution, and the toll it is taking on the citizens and artists in his home country.

Born and raised in Syria, Kadi attended the College of Engineering at the University of Aleppo, where he founded the Marya Halab Theater Company.  After seven years of theater, he moved in 2000 to the U.S. to pursue a career in the arts and eventually attended the Motion Picture Institute of Michigan, which he graduated from in 2007.

For additional information about the film, please visit see THE CITIZEN website:

www.thecitizenmovie.com

Also follow the film on Facebook and Twitter:

facebook.com/TheCitizenMovie .

Twitter.com/TheCitizenMovie

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Posted in Festivals, Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on Cassian Elwes Takes North American Rights to Syrian Director Sam Kadi’s ‘The Citizen’

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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