By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Screen Media Films Acquires SXSW Comedy “Awful Nice”

Posted Tuesday, July 9th, 2013 - Comments Off on Screen Media Films Acquires SXSW Comedy “Awful Nice”
Be Sociable, Share!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

New York, July 9, 2013 – Screen Media Films has acquired the US rights to Todd Sklar’s comedy AWFUL NICE, which previously had its world premiere at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival.  Screen Media President Suzanne Blech announced that they are targeting a Spring 2014 theatrical and VOD release, preceded by a nationwide college tour of event screenings and interactive parties via Sklar’s Range Life outfit.

“We are extremely pleased to work with the AWFUL NICE team in bringing this funny and poignant film to theaters,” said Blech about the acquisition.  “We feel audiences will connect in the same way we did with Todd Sklar’s heartfelt story of brothers and the trials and tribulations of their enforced acceptance of life as adults.”

“We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Screen Media on this movie” said Sklar. “Truly thrilled by how much they believe in the film and how eager they are to build a release that utilizes our pre-existing network and the audience we’ve built over the years on the road.”

The film, which played to great buzz and sold out crowds at SXSW, centers on estranged brothers Jim (James Pumphrey) and Dave (Alex Rennie) who are forced to travel to Branson together to renovate and flip the lake house they’ve inherited from their just-deceased father. A series of hilarious mishaps and costly misadventures follow as they attempt to restore the dilapidated house and rebuild their strained relationship.

The deal was negotiated by Blech and Seth Needle, Manager of Acquisitions and Marketing, on behalf of Screen Media with CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.

AWFUL NICE was written, directed and produced by Sklar, executive produced by Jason Krigsfeld and Joseph Krigsfeld of Brothers K Productions, and also produced by Michael Forstein, Adam Paulsen, Todd Sklar, Maury Steinman, and Brock Williams, with cinematography by Adam Ginsberg and editing by Kamau Bilal. The film stars Alex Rennie (who also co-wrote), James Pumphrey (“High Road”), Christopher Meloni, Brett Gelman (“Go On,” “The Other Guys”), and Keely Hazell, and is based on Sklar’s award winning short film”’92 Skybox Alonso Mourning Rookie Card”, which also starred Rennie and Pumphrey. All three are repped by CAA and Principato Young.

ABOUT SCREEN MEDIA

Screen Media acquires the rights to high quality, independent feature films for the US and Canada.  Screen Media’s theatrical releases include “La Mission,” starring Benjamin Bratt; “The City of Your Final Destination,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney; “Lymelife,” starring Alec Baldwin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon and “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” starring Robin Wright and Keanu Reeves. Since 2001, Screen Media Films has released more than 250 titles including “Noel,” starring Penelope Cruz and Susan Sarandon; “Sherrybaby,” starring Maggie Gyllenhaal; Kevin Bacon’s directorial debut, “Loverboy;” and Emmy nominated “Dog Whisperer” with Cesar Millan.  Upcoming theatrical releases include the recent Sundance favorites “The Lifeguard,” starring Kristen Bell, and Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s “C.O.G.”, the first film adaptation of famed author David Sedaris.

Screen Media Films is a division of Screen Media Ventures, LLC.  With a library of over 1,500 motion pictures, Screen Media Ventures is one of the largest independent suppliers of high quality motion pictures to U.S. and international broadcast markets, cable networks, home video outlets and new media venues. For more information, visit www.screenmediafilms.net.

ABOUT RANGE LIFE

Range Life Entertainment is a privately-held exhibition and marketing company that tours independent films to college campuses on a bi-annual basis. Focusing on event-based screenings, scholastic engagements, and raucous after-parties, Range Life has worked on over 40 films since 2008, including; Oscar nominee “Exit Through The Gift Shop,” Sundance hits “Mystery Team,” “Assassination of a High School President,” and “Teenage Paparazzo,” and recent campaigns include “The Imposter,” “Samsara,” and “The House I Live In.”

Range Life was founded after the successful self-release of Todd Sklar’s debut feature “Box Elder,” and the company has since grown to include guerilla street campaigns and experiential marketing events in large markets, in addition to their cross-country campus touring program. For more information, please visit www.RangeLifeEntertainment.com.

# # #

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | Comments Off on Screen Media Films Acquires SXSW Comedy “Awful Nice”

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