By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SCREEN MEDIA FILMS AND FOCUS WORLD ACQUIRE ADVENTURE COMEDY A BIRDER’S GUIDE TO EVERYTHING, STARRING KODI SMIT-McPHEE, BEN KINGSLEY

Posted Tuesday, August 27th, 2013 - Comments Off on SCREEN MEDIA FILMS AND FOCUS WORLD ACQUIRE ADVENTURE COMEDY A BIRDER’S GUIDE TO EVERYTHING, STARRING KODI SMIT-McPHEE, BEN KINGSLEY
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New York, August 27, 2013 – Focus World, the alternative distribution initiative owned and operated by Focus Features, and Screen Media Films have partnered for a third time on U.S. distribution rights to a feature film, acquiring the U.S. rights to A Birder’s Guide to Everything, which made its debut at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and was a crowd favorite. Focus World and Screen Media will release the film on digital platforms and in theaters for the spring of 2014.

David Portnoy (Kodi Smit-McPhee of Let Me In and Focus’ ParaNorman), a 15-year-old birding fanatic, embarks on an epic road trip with a ragtag crew that includes a legendary ornithologist (Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley) to solidify a place in birding history. A Birder’s Guide to Everything marks the feature directorial debut of Rob Meyer and is written by Academy Award winner Luke Matheny and Mr. Meyer. Also in the cast are Katie Chang (The Bling Ring) and Spirit Award nominee James Le Gros.

KKQopVUy6viSv0mvBep4THTplb00rlUO0-9VUTRhcB8,wGjDwUian9BlVKhVmOgKbQJJYCL-49HjQD-Jx046UBw,h7FyGLdRe50vsMA4Iga0eSoabK_Z156bM-jggUe_nFU-1The deal was closed for Screen Media by Suzanne Blech, President, and Seth Needle, Director of Marketing and Acquisitions; for Focus by Avy Eschenasy, Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning, Business Affairs and Acquisitions, and Kent Sanderson, Director, Alternative Content & Distribution; and for the filmmakers by Cinetic Media.

Screen Media and Focus World are also partnered on U.S. distribution of Liz W. Garcia’s The Lifeguard, starring Kristen Bell, and Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s C.O.G., starring Jonathan Groff, for release in theaters and on digital platforms in, respectively, the summer and the fall of 2013.

Ms. Blech said, “We’re excited to partner with Focus World again, bringing a wonderful and engaging movie to audiences nationwide. The filmmakers have created a uniquely appealing coming-of-age story that will register with all audiences.”

About Focus World

Launched in 2011, Focus World (www.focusfeatures.com/focusworld) identifies and curates the most exciting voices in international and independent cinema. Part of Focus Features’ multi-platform strategy, Focus World presents titles of genuine vision and originality across platforms both new and traditional.

Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

About Screen Media

Screen Media Ventures, LLC, a leading global independent motion picture distribution company with a broad distribution network that includes US and international theatrical, home video, television, cable and new media distribution, with one of the largest independently owned motion picture libraries in the world. In 2011, Screen Media launched its wholly-owned ad-supported streaming channel Popcornflix, which is now available in multiple international territories and soon to expand worldwide. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visitwww.screenmedia.net.

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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