By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS KEEPS COMPANY WITH ROBERT REDFORD

Posted Friday, August 24th, 2012 - Comments Off on SONY PICTURES CLASSICS KEEPS COMPANY WITH ROBERT REDFORD
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NEW YORK (August 24, 2012) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all US Rights to Robert Redford’s THE COMPANY YOU KEEP.  Redford, who directed and produced the film, also stars alongside a stellar cast including Shia LeBeouf, Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon. Additional producers include Nicolas Chartier (THE HURT LOCKER), and Bill Holderman (THE CONSPIRATOR).

Redford also assembled a prestigious crew to work on THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, Director of Photography Adriano Goldman (JANE EYRE, SIN NOMBRE), Composer Cliff Martinez (DRIVE, TRAFFIC), Editor Mark Day (HARRY POTTER films) and Production Designer Laurence Bennett (THE ARTIST, CRASH).

A thriller centered on a former Weather Underground activist who goes on the run from a journalist who has discovered his identity, THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, will premiere Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival and at the Toronto International Film Festival.

THE COMPANY YOU KEEP was financed by Voltage Pictures, who is also the international sales agent on the film.

“Robert Redford’s film is classic storytelling at its best and we are really looking forward to bringing the film to the American audience,” states Sony Pictures Classics.

“I’ve known Tom and Michael for many years. I have great respect for what they do and how they do it. So it’s a pleasant connection,” adds Redford.

The deal with Sony Pictures Classics was negotiated by CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992, which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world.

Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 29 Academy Awards (25 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 127 Academy Award nominations (101 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com/.

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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