By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

IFC MIDNIGHT TAKES DAVID GUY LEVY’S WOULD YOU RATHER

 Film Premiered at Screamfest

New York, NY (October 15, 2012) – IFC Midnight announced today that the company is acquiring all rights in North America, Latin America, the United Kingdom, France and Germany to director David Guy Levy’s thriller WOULD YOU RATHER. The film, written by Steffen Schlachtenhauffen, stars Brittany Snow, Jeffrey Combs, Lawrence Gilliard, Jr., John Heard, Sasha Grey, Enver Gjokaj and Jonny Coyne. It was produced by Levy, Zak Kilberg and Maura Anderson, with Snow, Andre Royo and Morgan Conrad executive producing. WOULD YOU RATHER had its US premiere at Screamfest in Los Angeles on October 14.

In Levy’s dark but often funny thriller, Iris struggles in the wake of her parent’s death to make ends meet while caring for her terminally ill younger brother. Shepard Lambrick, a seemingly philanthropic aristocrat, expresses an interest in helping them. When he invites her to an exclusive dinner party, she accepts. Also attending the dinner party are seven more desperate individuals. They soon find themselves trapped in Lambrick’s mansion and forced to play a sadistic game of Would You Rather, where the winner will be awarded untold amounts of money. As the game progresses, the dilemmas Iris and the other players face grow increasingly deadly.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “We’re very happy to be working with David Guy Levy and the entire team that made WOULD YOU RATHER.  It’s an incredibly inventive film that is sure to get people talking.”

The deal for WOULD YOU RATHER was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman, Director of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Traction Media on behalf of the filmmakers.

IFC Midnight is a sister label of IFC Films and Sundance Selects and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

*                      *                      *                      *

About IFC MIDNIGHT

Established in 2010 and based in New York City, IFC Midnight is a leading U.S. distributor of genreentertainment including horror, science-fiction, thrillers, erotic art house, action and more.  Its unique distribution model makes independent genre films available to a national audience by releasing them in theaters as well as on cable’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, reaching nearly 50 million homes. Some of the company’s successes have included Tom Six’s controversial horror film THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE), Johnnie To’s Hong Kong revenge thriller VENGEANCE, James Gunn’s SUPER starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page and Kevin Bacon, Ben Wheatley’s unconventional hitman thriller KILL LIST, Justin Kurzel’s unsettling THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS, and Bertrand Bonello’s sensually dazzling HOUSE OF PLEASURES. Upcoming IFC Midnight releases include Alexandre Courtes THE INCIDENT, Adrian and Romero Garcia Bogliano’s PENUMBRA, Rodney Ascher’s acclaimed documentary ROOM 237 (which showed at the 2012 Cannes and Sundance film festivals) and Im Sang-Soo’s erotic drama THE TASTE OF MONEY (which made its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival). IFC Midnight is a sister label to Sundance Selects and IFC Films, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

 # # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

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