By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Sundance Selects Wraps Polanski’s VENUS IN FUR

SUNDANCE SELECTS ACQUIRES U.S. RIGHTS TO ROMAN POLANSKI’S VENUS IN FUR

Film Made Its World Premiere In Competition at 2013 Cannes Film Festival

New York, NY (June 5, 2013) – Sundance Selects announced today that the company is acquiring U.S. rights to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski’s VENUS IN FUR. With a screenplay by Polanski and David Ives, based on the critically acclaimed, Tony award winning stage play by Ives, the film stars Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric, and was produced by Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde.  The film made its world premiere in Competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Set in modern-day Paris, VENUS IN FUR follows writer-director Thomas (Amalric) and a pushy, foul-mouthed actress named Vanda (Seigner) who bursts into auditions in a whirlwind of erratic energy. Vanda’s emotionally charged audition for the gifted but demanding playwright becomes an electrifying game of cat and mouse that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, and ultimately, attraction and obsession.

Jonathan Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films, said: “VENUS IN FUR proves once more why Roman Polanski is one of the world’s premier auteurs.  It is a brilliant cinematic adaptation in every way and features two powerful performances from Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric.  We are honored to have the chance to work with Roman, Robert and Alain and everyone involved with this film.”

Polanski won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2003 for his film THE PIANIST.  His other acclaimed films include TESS, ROSEMARY’S BABY, CHINATOWN, THE GHOST WRITER and REPULSION.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Arianna Bocco, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Productions for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Jeff Berg at Resolution on behalf of the filmmakers.

The film marks the onscreen reunion of Amalric and Seigner who starred opposite one another in Julian Schnabel’s Oscar-nominated film THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY.

In addition to VENUS IN FUR, Sundance Selects acquired other films out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival including Abdellatif Kechiche’s Palme D’Or winner BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR; Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Jury Prize Winner LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON; Clio Barnard’s Directors Fotnight title THE SELFISH GIANT; Francois Ozon’s Competition title YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL; and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT starring Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard, which is currently in pre-production.

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

*                      *                      *                      *

 

About SUNDANCE SELECTS

Established in 2009 and based in New York City, Sundance Selects is a leading U.S. distributor of prestige films focusing on American independents, documentaries and world cinema. Previous releases include Cristian Mungiu’s double Cannes Prize winner BEYOND THE HILLS; David France’s Oscar nominated documentary HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE; Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon’s THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE; Alison Klayman’s AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY; Wim Wenders’ Oscar nominated PINA; Werner Herzog’s CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS; Cindy Meehl’s BUCK; the Dardennes Brothers THE KID WITH A BIKE; Abbas Kiarostami’s CERTIFIED COPY and Adam Leon’s GIMME THE LOOT.  Upcoming releases include Alexandre Moors’ BLUE CAPRICE starring Isaiah Washington; Richard Rowley’s DIRTY WARS; and Nick Ryan’s THE SUMMIT. Sundance Selects is a sister label to IFC Films and IFC Midnight, and is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc.

 

Press Contact:

Michael Kupferberg, Strategy PR/Consulting

Be Sociable, Share!

One Response to “Sundance Selects Wraps Polanski’s VENUS IN FUR”

  1. Steffi says:

    Emmanuelle Seigner and Mathieu Amalric – I love this couple, and the guy totally looks like Polanski:
    http://judytapapp.com/polanski.php

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