By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

TRIBECA FILM ACQUIRES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME

Posted Wednesday, July 25th, 2012 - Comments Off on TRIBECA FILM ACQUIRES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Spring 2013 theatrical release set for Bob Byington’s offbeat SXSW comedy starring Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman and Jess Weixler

New York, NY – July 25, 2012 – Tribeca Film today announced it has acquired all North American rights to indie director Bob Byington’s deadpan comedy Somebody Up There Likes Me, starring Keith Poulson, Nick Offerman, and Jess Weixler. Produced by Hans Graffunder (Knight of Cups, To the Wonder) and Nick Offerman (“Parks and Recreation”), the film turned heads earlier this year when it world premiered at South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin – Byington’s home-base.

Somebody Up There Likes Me marks a new, more scripted approach to filmmaking for Byington, whose signature freeform style defined films such as RSO (Registered Sex Offender) (2008) and Harmony and Me (2009). The endearing dry humor that made him a household name from Austin to Brooklyn, however, has not been lost. Indiewire calls it “a surreal comedy about the cycle of life” and “consistently silly and poignant at once.”

Tribeca Film plans a theatrical Spring 2013 release day and date with on-demand platforms where it will be available in 40+ million homes through a variety of video-on-demand offerings, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Xbox and Samsung Media Hub. A strong U.S. and Canada Festival run is set for pre-release.

Byington creates an offbeat energy by brilliantly pairing established actors and non-actors in this comedic fable about a man watching his life fly by. Max (Keith Poulson), along with his best friend Sal (Nick Offerman, “Parks & Recreation”) and the woman they both adore, Lyla (Jess Weixler, Teeth), stumble through thirty-five years of seemingly mandatory but unfulfilling entanglements. Featuring an original score from Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio, stunning animated sequences from Bob Sabiston (A Scanner Darkly), produced by Offerman and directed by cult auteur Bob Byington (Harmony and Me),  the experience of life sneaking up on you while time appears to stand still has never been more surreal and charmingly entertaining.

“Somebody Up There Likes Me displays all the quirkiness, personality, and distinction that defines independent filmmaking,” said Geoffrey Gilmore, Chief Creative Officer of Tribeca Enterprises. “Infused with a biting, dry sense of humor and filled with wonderful performances from a talented cast, Bob Byington’s latest film reaffirms his reputation for being one of the most wonderfully idiosyncratic directors at work today.  Although the destination is familiar, the path that Byington charts is unexpected, strange and utterly unique.”

“Very gratified that Tribeca responded to the film, and that Mr. Gilmore, who is a cinema icon, would put energy into releasing the film. Pleased to have made a film with a great team, and to be releasing the film with a team that is on par,” said director Bob Byington.

“Little films like ours are made exponentially more buoyant by the tender ministrations of a company like Tribeca. Finding ourselves in their tasteful clutches makes me as happy as a clam at high water,” said actor/producer Nick Offerman.

The deal was negotiated for Tribeca Film by Nick Savva, Director of Acquisitions, and on behalf of the filmmakers by attorney Andre Des Rochers from Gray Krauss Stratford Des Rochers LLP. Faliro House also produced along with executive producers Stuart Bohart, Morgan Coy, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, and Brenda Greene Mitchell.

For additional information please visit www.facebook.com/somebodyuptherelikesme

About Tribeca Film

Tribeca Film is a comprehensive distribution label dedicated to acquiring and marketing independent films across multiple platforms, including video-on-demand, theatrical, digital, home video and television.  It is an initiative from Tribeca Enterprises designed to provide new platforms for how film can be experienced, while supporting filmmakers and introducing audiences to films they might not otherwise see. American Express continues its support of Tribeca and the independent film community by serving as the Founding Partner of Tribeca Film.

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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