By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

STX Takes On Europacorp Theatrical Distribution

STX MOTION PICTURES GROUP AND EUROPACORP ENTER INTO MULTI-YEAR THEATRICAL MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT 
EuropaCorp’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” “The Circle,” “Renegades” and “Their Finest” 
to be released by STX Motion Pictures Group in 2017
(Burbank, CA and Beverly Hills, CA – January 3, 2017) — STX Motion Pictures Group, a division of STX Entertainment, and EuropaCorp Films USA have entered into a three-year agreement for STX to provide theatrical marketing and distribution services for EuropaCorp’s upcoming motion picture releases in the United States, it was announced today by Adam Fogelson, Chairman, Motion Picture Group, STX Entertainment, and Marc Shmuger, EuropaCorp CEO.
The first four films, to be released in 2017, include Luc Besson’s highly-anticipated adaptation of the comic book series “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” an epic science fiction action film written and directed by Besson, starring Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Kris Wu, John Goodman and Ethan Hawke; “The Circle”, starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, and John Boyega, and directed by James Ponsoldt; Lone Scherfig’s “Their Finest,” a romantic comedy-drama set in World War II Great Britain starring Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy; and “Renegades,” a visceral heist adventure written by Luc Besson and Richard Wenk and directed by Steven Quale, starring Sullivan Stapleton and J.K. Simmons.
In making the announcement, Fogelson said, “Luc Besson is a visionary entrepreneur, storyteller and filmmaker and we are enormously excited to be working with him and his entire team releasing Europacorp’s slate of motion pictures in the United States. Additionally, Marc Shmuger is not only a gifted executive but a friend to many in our company. Together we’ve enjoyed great successes in the past, and we all share a marketing shorthand that will make this an especially potent partnership.”
Shmuger added, “STX Entertainment’s Motion Pictures Group is the perfect home for EuropaCorp’s films. They bring the highest level of studio expertise to the marketing and distribution process, but they also bring an energy and nimbleness not found in a traditional major studio. This could not be a better fit for us.”
Added Besson: “We can’t wait to get started on this partnership with our friends at STX. I worked with Adam when he championed “Lucy” at Universal, and I have great faith in him and the marketing and distribution team.”
Alongside its new arrangement with STX, EuropaCorp will maintain its 50% ownership of RED, the marketing and distribution joint-venture it formed in 2014.
About STX Motion Pictures Group
 
STX Motion Pictures Group is a division of STX Entertainment, a global next-generation media company that specializes in the development, financing, marketing and distribution of a full range of both traditional and digital content, including motion pictures, television, VR, digital video, music video and gaming projects. The company is led by accomplished businessman Robert Simonds and was co-founded by Bill McGlashan, managing partner of the leading global private investment firm TPG. Other investors include Hony Capital, a leading private equity firm in China; PCCW, Southeast Asia’s largest Internet and cable services provider; Tencent Holdings, China’s leading provider of online products and services; Dominic Ng, Chairman of East West Bank; DNS Capital (representing the business interests of Gigi Pritzker and her immediate family); and Beau Wrigley, former Chairman and CEO of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, among others.  With these strategic relationships, the company is uniquely positioned to maximize the impact of content worldwide, with direct passage into the China market.

 

For more information, please visit https://www.stxentertainment.com/.
About EuropaCorp
 
EuropaCorp is one of Europe’s leading film studios. Founded in 1999, EuropaCorp has operations spanning production, theatrical distribution, video and VOD, and television sales. EuropaCorp also has international rights, partnerships and licensing, production and soundtrack publishing activities. The Group has also been producing TV series since 2010. EuropaCorp’s integrated business model allows it to benefit from diversified sources of revenue. With a line-up boasting various types of films and a very strong foothold in international markets, the Group has produced France’s biggest international hits in recent years. EuropaCorp was founded by French filmmaker, screenwriter and producer Luc Besson. The Group owns a catalogue of 500 movies.

 

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