By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

BLOOD TIES – Lionsgate Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights from Worldview Entertainment

Posted Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013 - Comments Off on BLOOD TIES – Lionsgate Acquires U.S. Distribution Rights from Worldview Entertainment
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Lionsgate has acquired U.S. distribution rights to BLOOD TIES from Worldview Entertainment.  The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Festival and the studio will release through its sister company Roadside Attractions.  Directed by Guillaume Canet from a screenplay written by Canet and James Gray, the film is based on the screenplay “Les Liens du sang” by Jaques Maillot, Pierre Chosson, and Eric Veniard, and the novel “Deux Freres, un flic, un truand” by Michel and Bruno Papet.  The film stars Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Maroin Cotillard, Domenick Lombardozzi, Mila Kunis, Matthias Schoenaerts, Zoé Saldana, and James Caan.

Lionsgate UK acquired UK rights to the film prior to its premiere in Cannes.

The deal for BLOOD TIES makes the movie the biggest sale to date this past week when compared to other films that made their premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.<

The film is produced by Alain Attal and Hugo Selignac of Les Productions du Tresor, Guillaume Canet, Worldview CEO, Christopher Woodrow and John Lesher of Le Grisbi Productions. Executive producers are Xavier Amblar, Christopher Goode, Kerry Orent, Molly Conners, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Maria Cestone, and Hoyt David Morgan.

The deal was negotiated on behalf of Lionsgate by Jason Constantine, President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, with Eda Kowan, SVP of Acquisitions and Wendy Jaffe, EVP of Business and Legal Affairs.

CAA, which packaged and arranged financing for the film, brokered the deal on behalf of Worldview Entertainment.

Wild Bunch is handling international sales for the film in Cannes.

Worldview’s 2012 slate also includes James Gray’s period drama, “The Immigrant,” starring Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard and Academy Award nominees Joaquin Phoenix and Jeremy Renner and Arnaud Desplechin’s drama, “Jimmy P.,” starring Benicio Del Toro both which will have their world premieres in Cannes.

BLOOD TIES SYNOPSIS

New York, 1974. Fifty-year-old Chris has just been released on good behavior after several years in prison following a gangland murder. Waiting for him reluctantly outside the prison gates is his younger brother, Frank, a cop with a bright future. Chris and Frank have always been different, and their father, Leon, who’d raised them alone, seems strangely to prefer Chris – this, despite all his troubles. Yet blood ties are the ones that bind. Frank, hoping that his brother has changed, is willing to give him a chance; he shares his home, finds him a job, and helps him reconnect with his children and his ex-wife, Monica. But Chris’ past quickly catches up to him, and his descent back into a life of crime becomes inevitable. For Frank, this descent proves to be the last in a long line of betrayals, and after his brother’s latest transgressions, he banishes him from his life. But it’s already too late; the brothers’ destiny will keep bounded, forever…

ABOUT LIONSGATE

Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has 28 television shows on 20 networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the new comedy Anger Management, the network series Nashville, the syndication successes Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, its spinoff Meet the Browns, For Better Or Worse, The Wendy Williams Show, Are We There Yet? and the upcoming Orange Is The New Black, an original series for Netflix.

Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first installment of The Hunger Games franchise, The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Tyler Perry’s Temptation, Warm Bodies, Snitch, Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, The Cabin in the Woods and Arbitrage. Lionsgate’s home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.

 

ABOUT WORLDVIEW  ENTERTAINMENT

Worldview’s 2013 slate includes the upcoming drama, “Song One,” starring Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway; Zach Braff’s drama, “Wish I was Here;” David Gordon Green’s drama, “Manglehorn,” starring Academy Award winner Al Pacino; and two studio co-financing deals: Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s comedy, “Birdman,” with Fox Searchlight and New Regency, starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis and Academy Award nominee Edward Norton; and Daniel Espinosa’s crime thriller “Child 44,” with Summit/Lionsgate, starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Academy Award nominee Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnaman.

 

Worldview also has several completed films, which will premiere later this year including Academy Award nominee Atom Egoyan’s crime thriller, “Devil’s Knot,” starring Academy Award winners Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon; David Gordon Green’s drama, “Joe,” starring Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage; Eli Roth’s highly anticipated return to directing with the horror thriller, “The Green Inferno;” and Ti West’s horror thriller, “The Sacrament,” presented and produced by Roth.

 

Worldview Entertainment is a leading independent motion picture production and investment company. The company finances and produces theatrical quality feature films with budgets up to $50 million for worldwide distribution. Worldview is backed by a strong capitalization and represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The company was founded in 2007 and is based in New York City.

 

 

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