By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

A24 TO DISTRIBUTE J.C. CHANDOR’S A MOST VIOLENT YEAR IN THE U.S. FOR PARTICIPANT MEDIA

Posted Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 - Comments Off on A24 TO DISTRIBUTE J.C. CHANDOR’S A MOST VIOLENT YEAR IN THE U.S. FOR PARTICIPANT MEDIA
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THRILLER STARRING OSCAR ISAAC AND JESSICA CHASTAIN TO START FILMING SHORTLY IN NYC

 

New York, NY, January 22, 2014 – A24 has acquired U.S. rights to Participant Media’s A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, written and directed by J.C. Chandor (All is Lost, Margin Call) and starring Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) and two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain. A24 is planning for a fourth quarter 2014 wide release.

 

“A24 has established itself as an innovative distributor that understands how to reach a large, diverse audience.” says Jim Berk. “They share our passion for J.C.’s thrilling vision of 1980’s New York featuring the extraordinarily talented Oscar and Jessica.”

 

“Participant has a terrific track record of partnering with groundbreaking filmmakers and we are thrilled to continue that tradition with this exciting film. J.C. has already shown what a talent he is and is consistently making bold choices in the stories he chooses to tell. This is an important step for our company as we are thrilled to be working with the incredible team involved in making this film,” says A24.

 

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, which Participant Media and Image Nation Abu Dhabi are co-financing, is produced by Before The Doors’ Neal Dodson and Washington Square Films’ Anna Gerb, along with Chandor. Dodson and Gerb also produced Chandor’s ALL IS LOST and MARGIN CALL. Executive producers are Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, Joshua Blum, Kerry Orent, and Glen Basner of FilmNation Entertainment, which will handle international sales to commence at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin. Jonathan King, Participant’s EVP Production and Robert Kessel, SVP Production, are overseeing the production for Participant.

 

A Most Violent Year is a thriller set in New York City during the winter

of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city’s history.  The film follows the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built.

 

A24 negotiated the deal with FilmNation’s Basner and Participant COO Jeff Ivers.

 

The film is scheduled to begin shooting shortly in New York City.

 

About Participant Media

Participant (ParticipantMedia.com) is a global entertainment company founded in 2004 by Jeff Skoll to focus on feature film, television, publishing and digital content that inspires social change. Participant’s more than 45 films include GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, SYRIANA, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, FOOD, INC., WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’, THE HELP, CONTAGION and LINCOLN. Through its films, social action campaigns, digital network TakePart.com and Pivot, its new television network for Millennials, Participant seeks to entertain, encourage and empower every individual to take action.

 

About A24

Launched in the summer of 2012, A24 is a New York-based media company focused on the distribution, financing and production and feature films. Recent releases include Sofia Coppola’s buzzed about THE BLING RING and James Ponsoldt’s Sundance darling, THE SPECTACULAR NOW. The company previously released Harmony Korine’s record-breaking SPRING BREAKERS starring Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens, and James Franco. Upcoming titles for 2014 include David Michod’s highly anticipated second feature THE ROVER, Steven Knight’s Tom Hardy starrer LOCKE, Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed Scarlett Johansson film UNDER THE SKIN, Jake Gyllenhaal starrer ENEMY, and Kevin Smith’s monster movie TUSK.

 

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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

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~ David Simon