By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SETH ROGEN AND EVAN GOLDBERG LET IT ALL HANG OUT WITH “SAUSAGE PARTY”

Posted Tuesday, September 24th, 2013 - Comments Off on SETH ROGEN AND EVAN GOLDBERG LET IT ALL HANG OUT WITH “SAUSAGE PARTY”
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SETH ROGEN AND EVAN GOLDBERG LET IT ALL HANG OUT WITH “SAUSAGE PARTY,” AN OUTRAGEOUS, NOT-FOR-KIDS ANIMATED MOVIE, FROM SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT, ANNAPURNA PICTURES AND POINT GREY
 
CULVER CITY, Calif., September  24, 2013 – Sony Pictures Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures will partner on what is expected to be an R-rated animated film titled Sausage Party, written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Kyle Hunter & Ariel Shaffir, from a story by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Jonah Hill, to be directed by Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens, Madagascar 3) & Greg Tiernan, it was announced today by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, and Hannah Minghella, president of Production for the studio, and by Megan Ellison.  Annapurna Pictures and Point Grey Pictures are producing.

After Point Grey and Annapurna packaged the film and presented it to the studio,  Sony agreed to co-finance it with Annapurna. The film will be produced by Megan Ellison, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Conrad Vernon.  The executive producers are Jonah Hill, James Weaver, Kyle Hunter, and Ariel Shaffir.  Nitrogen Studios Canada Inc., in Vancouver, will handle all CG animation, design, production and post-production. Sony Pictures will release the film worldwide and the studio is eyeing a release date in 2015.

Sausage Party is a raunchy animated movie about one sausage’s quest to discover the truth about his existence. After falling out of a shopping cart, our hero sausage and his new friends embark on a perilous journey through the supermarket to get back to their aisles before the 4th of July sale.

Commenting on the announcement, Minghella said, “We’re thrilled to be back in business with Seth and Evan.  This project has all the irreverent, insightful and risqué R-rated humor we have come to expect from them. Matching their unique comic sensibility with an animated film is a fun and inspired idea. We are confident Seth, Evan, Conrad and Greg will deliver one of the most memorable animated movies of all time.”

Rogen and Goldberg most recently wrote and directed the $100 million hit Sony Pictures comedy This Is The End and are currently working on upcoming films The Interview (also for Sony Pictures) and The Neighbors.

Andrea Giannetti will oversee the project for the studio along with Minghella. David Distenfeld will oversee the project for Annapurna.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com.

About Annapurna Pictures
Annapurna Pictures is a film production and finance company founded with the goal of boldly creating sophisticated, high-quality and ambitious films that appeal to a variety of audiences.

Annapurna’s recent releases include Kathryn Bigelow’s multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated film ZERO DARK THIRTY; Paul Thomas Anderson’s multiple Golden Globe and Academy Award nominated masterpiece THE MASTER; Andrew Dominik’s KILLING THEM SOFTLY starring Brad Pitt and John Hillcoat’s LAWLESS. Annapurna’s latest release SPRING BREAKERS, directed by Harmony Korine and starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and James Franco, broke records earning the biggest box office opening weekend of 2013 for a film playing in limited release. The company previously acquired the U.S. rights to Wong Kar Wai’s THE GRANDMASTER, the story of martial arts master and Bruce Lee trainer Ip Man, which was released August 23, 2013 by The Weinstein Company.

Annapurna’s upcoming projects include David O. Russell’s AMERICAN HUSTLE starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence. Also scheduled for release later this year is Bennett Miller’s FOXCATCHER starring Channing Tatum, Steve Carell, and Mark Ruffalo based on the true story of convicted millionaire murderer John DuPont. Both of these films will be distributed by Sony Pictures. In addition, Annapurna is producing Spike Jonze’s new film HER starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Rooney Mara, set for a fourth quarter release through Warner Bros.

Annapurna also just announced that they will partner with Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures on a rebooted “TERMINATOR” movie, the first of a stand-alone trilogy to be release by Paramount in 2015.Further, the company has partnered with Nina Jacobson’s Color Force on the best-selling comedic novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette, written by Maria Semple and has partnered with Denver & Delilah and CJ Entertainment on the SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE remake written by William Monahan and starring Charlize Theron. Last spring, the company made a deal to back Panorama Media, which will serve as the international sales agent on select Annapurna projects.

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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