By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES INFINITELY POLAR BEAR

Posted Saturday, February 1st, 2014 - Comments Off on SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES INFINITELY POLAR BEAR
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         

NEW YORK (February 1, 2014) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American, German, UK, Scandinavian, Eastern European and Russian rights to Maya Forbes’ directorial debut INFINITELY POLAR BEAR.  Also written by Forbes, the film stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana and premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to great acclaim.

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR is produced by Paper Street Films and Park Pictures Features, in association with Bad Robot and KGB Media.  Wally Wolodarsky, Benji Kohn, Bingo Gubelmann, Sam Bisbee and Galt Niederhoffer produced the film with Executive Producers J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Austin Stark, Ruth Mutch, Noah Millman, Mark Ruffalo, Jackie Kelman Bisbee, Danny Rifkin, Tom Valerio and Richard Rifkin.

Set in the late 70s, an eccentric mess of a father tries to win back his wife by taking responsibility for their two young daughters. The spirited girls don’t make the overwhelming task any easier in INFINITELY POLAR BEAR.

“I am thrilled!” said Writer/Director Maya Forbes. “Sony Pictures Classics consistently releases the movies I want to see. The film connected deeply with audiences at Sundance and I think Michael, Tom and Dylan have a terrific plan to expand on that experience. INFINITELY POLAR BEAR could not have found a better home.”

Executive Producer J.J. Abrams added, “Maya’s film is bold, funny, insightful and real. We at Bad Robot could not be more proud to be involved in this film, or more excited to have the film released through Sony Classics.”

“We are excited and pleased to be bringing Maya Forbes’ accomplished, deeply moving and joyous autobiographical story to the public,” stated Sony Pictures Classics.

INFINITELY POLAR BEAR was negotiated with ICM Partners, who reps Forbes, Wolodarsky and Saldana, and Chris Tricarico of Tricarico Chavez LLP on behalf of the filmmakers.  Forbes and Wolodarsky are also repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners, along with Ruffalo.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992, which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world.

Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 31 Academy Awards® (27 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 140 Academy Award® nominations (114 at Sony Pictures Classics) including Best Picture nominations for AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, AND CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.

ABOUT SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT

Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE’s global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; a global channel network; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of entertainment in more than 142 countries. For additional information, go to http://www.sonypictures.com/.

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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