By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS FILLS THE VOID

Posted Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 - Comments Off on SONY PICTURES CLASSICS FILLS THE VOID
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                        

NEW YORK (October 2, 2012) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American rights to Rama Burshtein’s directorial debut, FILL THE VOID.  Written and directed by Burshtein, FILL THE VOID played in Venice and Toronto to enthusiastic audiences and will make its US debut at the New York Film Festival.   The winner of 7 Ophir Awards including Best Picture, FILL THE VOID is produced by Assaf Amir, who previously worked with Sony Classics on BROKEN WINGS.

FILL THE VOID tells the story of a young Orthodox Hassidic girl, Shira, and her family as they are struck by tragedy when her older sister dies in childbirth, just when Shira is about to be married.  When her sister’s husband is pressured to remarry and her mother makes a shocking proposal, Shira is forced to choose between her heart’s wish and her family duty.

“We’re very happy to have Sony Classics represent our film in North America. Rama and I feel that this collaboration with Sony Classics is a big boost to our hope of exposing this special story of an Orthodox family in Tel Aviv to the American public,” says Producer Assaf Amir and Director Rama Burshtein.

Sony Pictures Classics adds, “FILL THE VOID is insightful, human and touching on many levels.  In crafting this fresh, personal story, Rama Burshtein has succeeded in creating a universal story that will connect in a big way with American audiences.  We are also extremely happy to be working with Rama and to be back with our friends Assaf Amir from Norma Productions and Michael Weber from The Match Factory.”

SPC negotiated the deal with THE MATCH FACTORY’s Michael Weber.

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