By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

MAGNOLIA PICTURES TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO JOE SWANBERG’S DRINKING BUDDIES

Posted Tuesday, March 19th, 2013 - Comments Off on MAGNOLIA PICTURES TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO JOE SWANBERG’S DRINKING BUDDIES
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY (March 19, 2013) – The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures announced today that they have acquired North American distribution rights to writer-director Joe Swanberg’s DRINKING BUDDIES, starring Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston. Produced by Dark Arts’ Alicia Van Couvering and Andrea Roa; Burn Later’s Paul M. Bernon and Sam Slater; and Swanberg, the film premiered this month at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. The film was executive produced by Mike Witherill, Ashley Bernon, Jessica Klapman, David Kaplan, Anish Savjani, and Wilde. Magnolia Pictures is planning a theatrical release for later this year.

DRINKING BUDDIES follows the lives of Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson) who work together at a craft brewery. They have one of those friendships that feels like it could be something more. But Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston), and Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick). And Jill wants to know if Luke is ready to talk about marriage. The answer to that question becomes crystal clear when Luke and Kate unexpectedly find themselves alone for a weekend.

“Joe Swanberg has been evolving steadily as a filmmaker, and with DRINKING BUDDIES, he’s delivered his best work yet—a truly funny, smart and insightful film about real adult relationships,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson and the rest of the cast also deliver some of the best work of their careers. We’re raising an imperial pint in celebration.”

“I feel tremendously privileged to work with such a smart, energetic and exciting company,” said Swanberg. “I had an amazing time working with the Magnolia family on V/H/S and I can’t wait to be their drinking buddy again. I just know they will do great things with the film.”

The deal for the film was negotiated by Magnolia SVP of Acquisitions Dori Begley and Director of Acquisitions Peter van Steemberg, with CAA on behalf of the filmmakers and producers.

Swanberg’s prior films include HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS, ALEXANDER THE LAST, UNCLE KENT, SILVER BULLETS, and V/H/S.

About Magnolia Pictures

Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the Landmark Theatres chain and AXS TV. Recent releases include Lars Von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA, Kevin Macdonald’s biopic MARLEY, David Gelb’s JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, powerful hunger doc A PLACE AT THE TABLE, Craig Zobel’s COMPLIANCE, Lauren Greenfield’s THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, the exciting noir-thriller DEADFALL, and the Academy Award nominated A ROYAL AFFAIR. Magnolia’s upcoming releases include Terrence Malick’s TO THE WONDER, Lars Von Trier’s NYMPHOMANIAC, Thomas Vinterberg’s THE HUNT, David Gordon Green’s PRINCE AVALANCHE, documentaries NO PLACE ON EARTH, BLACKFISH, BIG STAR: NOTHING CAN HURT ME, ÉVOCATEUR: THE MORTON DOWNEY JR. MOVIE, and MUSCLE SHOALS, Lynn Shelton’s TOUCHY FEELY, and many more.

 

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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