By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

U.S. RIGHTS TO THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, STARRING RYAN GOSLING, BRADLEY COOPER, EVA MENDES AND DIRECTED BY DEREK CIANFRANCE, ACQUIRED BY FOCUS FEATURES FOR 2013 RELEASE

Posted Sunday, September 9th, 2012 - Comments Off on U.S. RIGHTS TO THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, STARRING RYAN GOSLING, BRADLEY COOPER, EVA MENDES AND DIRECTED BY DEREK CIANFRANCE, ACQUIRED BY FOCUS FEATURES FOR 2013 RELEASE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, September 9th, 2012 – U.S. rights to The Place Beyond the Pines, the highly anticipated new drama from director Derek Cianfrance, starring Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and Eva Mendes, have been acquired by Focus Features for a 2013 release. Focus CEO James Schamus and president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the movie is having its world premiere.

Focus acquired the rights from Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE), which financed the movie and which was represented at Toronto by Jim Tauber and Nick Hanks, with WME Global and Creative Artists Agency acting as sales agents. International sales to the feature are being handled by Sierra/Affinity.

The Place Beyond the Pines was written by Mr. Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder. The movie was produced by Jamie Patricof and Lynette Howell through their Electric City Entertainment, Alex Orlovsky through his Verisimilitude, and SKE’s Sidney Kimmel; Mr. Patricof, Ms. Howell, and Mr. Orlovsky previously produced the award-winning Blue Valentine, directed by Mr. Cianfrance and starring Mr. Gosling and Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams. The new movie’s executive producers are Mr. Tauber, Matt Berenson, and SKE’s Bruce Toll.

The film powerfully explores the consequences of motorcycle rider Luke (Mr. Gosling)’s fateful decision to commit a crime to support his child. The incident renders him targeted by policeman Avery (Mr. Cooper), and the two men become locked on a tense collision course which will have a devastating impact on both of their families in the years following.

The cast of The Place Beyond the Pines also includes Golden Globe Award nominee Rose Byrne (Damages), Mahershala Ali (Treme), Emory Cohen (Smash), Dane DeHaan (Chronicle), Gabe Fazio, Bruce Greenwood (Flight), Ray Liotta (Killing Them Softly), Ben Mendelsohn (The Dark Knight Rises), and Harris Yulin (Scarface).

Mr. Schamus and Mr. Karpen said, “Derek Cianfrance has made a bold, epic, and emotionally generous saga, once again showing a master’s hand in eliciting searingly beautiful performances from the actors with whom he collaborates.”

Mr. Cianfrance commented, “The Focus team’s ability to work in partnership with writers and directors is known and respected by the film community. Their passion for this very personal project is why I know they are the right home for our new movie.”

Mr. Tauber added, “Sidney Kimmel and I are convinced that the entire Focus team understands the uniqueness of Derek’s bold and daring film, and that they provide the perfect home for the filmmaking group.”

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com <http://www.focusfeatures.com/> ) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world; and is celebrating its 10th Anniversary in 2012.

In addition to The Place Beyond the Pines, current and upcoming Focus Features releases include Moonrise Kingdom, the hit movie from Wes Anderson; Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s ParaNorman, the new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA; Jamie Travis’ contemporary comedy For a Good Time, Call…, starring Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller; Closed Circuit, the suspense thriller directed by John Crowley and starring Eric Bana and Rebecca Hall; Paul Weitz’s comedy/drama Admission, starring Tina Fey and Paul Rudd; the historical tale Hyde Park on Hudson, directed by Roger Michell and starring Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney; Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, the contemporary drama written by and starring Matt Damon and John Krasinski; and Joe Wright’s epic love story Anna Karenina, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

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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