By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

TIFF-Preemed 99 Homes Listed By New Distrib Broad Green

BROAD GREEN TAKES US RIGHTS TO HYDE PARK – IMAGE NATION’S ’99 HOMES’ BY RAMIN BAHRANI AND STARRING ANDREW GARFIELD, MICHAEL SHANNON AND LAURA DERN

LOS ANGELES (September 16, 2014) – Broad Green Pictures (BGP) announced today that they have acquired all US rights to Ramin Bahrani’s feature 99 HOMES. BGP plans to release the film, which received rave reviews through the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto Film Festivals, in the spring of 2015 in theaters across the country and launch an Oscar campaign.

Directed and co-written by Bahrani, and produced by Ashok Amritraj, Bahrani, Kevin Turen and Justin Nappi, 99 HOMES stars Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern and Noah Lomax.

The film, which was financed and produced by Hyde Park-Image Nation, premiered recently at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been one of the most talked about domestic acquisitions titles at the festival.  The film had numerous offers from other distributors before Broad Green won the hotly contested bidding war. Hyde Park is currently in negotiations for many of the remaining territories as well.

Coined by critics as the first “humanist thriller,” this fast-paced deal-with-the-devil film is set in sunny Orlando, Florida, where construction worker Dennis Nash (Andrew Garfield) is evicted from his home by a charismatic, gun-toting real-estate broker Mike Carver (Michael Shannon), and forced to move his mom (Laura Dern) and young son into a shabby motel. Carver seduces Nash into a risky world of stealing from banks and the government. Nash makes big money; but there’s a cost. On Carver’s orders, Nash must evict honest families from their homes – just as it happened to him- and will have to choose between destroying an honest man for the ultimate win or going against Carver and finding redemption.

“I’m very happy to partner with Broad Green Pictures. Their passion and plan for this film felt like the perfect way to bring it to the US,” said Bahrani. “What excited me the most was to see that audiences’ reactions in all the festivals was so tremendous. Their passionate and visceral reaction convinced all of us that the country needs and wants to see a film like this. I’m thrilled to have such committed partners to make sure this film reaches a very wide audience.”
BGP Chief Creative Officer Daniel Hammond, speaking on behalf of Broad Green stated, “We are so excited to have the opportunity to support the incredible message behind the vision of a world class filmmaker and the performances of Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon. Broad Green could not be more excited to share this film with as wide of an audience as possible and create real world changes for the themes it represents. ”The deal for 99 HOMES was negotiated by Ashok Amritraj for Hyde Park – Image Nation, CAA on behalf of the filmmakers, and by CEO Gabriel Hammond for Broad Green Pictures.

 

About Broad Green Pictures

Broad Green Pictures is a feature film production, financing, and distribution company. The Company is building a self-financed studio infrastructure with a private company’s dexterity, providing it with an unparalleled creative palette and platform for innovation.

 

Broad Green provides filmmakers with a long-term creative home from script to screen making movies across all budget ranges and genres, and an incredible support and experience in the filmmaking itself. The company has offices in Los Angeles and New York City. The company’s upcoming release and production slate includes TIFF 2014 Audience Award Runner up LEARNING TO DRIVE, Carlos Marques-Marcet’s 10000km, which was recently included in Spain’s short-list for this year’s Oscar submission and Jeremy Saulnier’s GREEN ROOM.
About Hyde Park Entertainment – Image Nation
Amritraj’s Hyde Park and Image Nation Abu Dhabi partnered in November 2008 on a financing deal to finance and produce a slate of films. In addition to 99 HOMES, the company’s projects include the upcoming family adventure MIDNIGHT SUN, from Award Winning Director Roger Spottiswoode, and the currently in release LIFE OF CRIME starring Jennifer Aniston, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Isla Fisher and Will Forte, which was the 2013 Toronto Film Festival’s Closing Night Film.  Past films include GHOST RIDER 2:  SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE and the Emmy award-winning LOST CHRISTMAS.

Be Sociable, Share!

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