By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Jake Gyllenhaal to Star as Leonard Bernstein in “The American” with Cary Joji Fukunaga to Direct. BRON Studios comes aboard.

Posted Tuesday, May 1st, 2018 - Comments Off on Jake Gyllenhaal to Star as Leonard Bernstein in “The American” with Cary Joji Fukunaga to Direct. BRON Studios comes aboard.
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Sierra/Affinity to commence international sales at the 2018 Cannes Film Market

New York, NY (May 1, 2018) – Jake Gyllenhaal is set to produce and star as Leonard Bernstein in “The American,” with Cary Joji Fukunaga directing and producing. BRON Studios will produce and back the film, which begins principal photography in the fall. Sierra/Affinity commences international sales of the project at the 2018 Cannes Film Market.

The screenplay, from Michael Mitnick, is based on the sweeping biography Leonard Bernstein by Humphrey Burton. In five movements, like a symphony, “The American” follows Leonard Bernstein from conducting the New York Philharmonic at the impressive age of 25 through the meteoric rise to fame, all while struggling both personally and publicly to be everything that everyone expected him to be, most of all himself.

The project is an original idea, developed by Nine Stories, Gyllenhaal’s and Riva Marker’s New York-based production company.  Gyllenhaal and Marker will produce alongside BRON’s Aaron L. Gilbert, Fukunaga’s Parliament of Owls and Martha Parker.  Jason Cloth of Creative Wealth Media, Michael Mitnick, and Adam Gopnik are executive producers.

“Like many people, Leonard Bernstein found his way into my life and heart through West Side Story when I was a kid,” said Gyllenhaal. “But as I got older and started to learn about the scope of his work, I began to understand the extent of his unparalleled contribution and the debt of gratitude modern American culture owes him. As a man, Bernstein was a fascinating figure—full of genius and contradiction—and it will be an incredible honor to tell his story with a talent and friend like Cary.”

“Bernstein’s artistic passions changed the way generations understood and appreciated music. It’s been wonderful collaborating with Michael and Jake on Bernstein’s story as we endeavor to capture both the iconic person and artist. Jake is the perfect partner to help bring this story to life and to play this legend,” said Fukunaga.

Nine Stories’ most recently produced Paul Dano’s directorial debut “Wildlife.” The film, starring Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan, premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and is the opening night film for Critics’ Week at the 2018 Cannes International Film Festival.

BRON Studios “Leave No Trace” directed by Oscar nominee Debra Granik, premiered at Sundance and will be featured in this year’s Director’s Fortnight.  “Tully,” directed by Jason Reitman and starring Charlize Theron, will be released by Focus May 4.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Nine Stories are represented by WME and Bloom Hergott. Cary Joji Fukunaga is represented by WME, Anonymous Content, and Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler & Feldman.

Endeavor Content represents “The American” for North American rights and Sierra/Affinity for international sales.

ABOUT NINE STORIES

Nine Stories is a New-York based production company founded by Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker in 2015. The company, which has a first look deal with Bold Films, is dedicated to working with visionary storytellers in all fields and across all mediums. For the stage, Nine Stories produced the acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, starring Gyllenhaal and Tony-winner Annaleigh Ashford.  Nine Stories produced David Gordon Green’s feature film STRONGER, starring Gyllenhaal as Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman, which opened to critical acclaim in the fall 2017, and executive produced HONDROS, an award-winning documentary on war photographer Chris Hondros, which was released theatrically by Entertainment Studios in spring 2018. The company also produced WILDLIFE, Paul Dano’s directorial debut starring Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan which premiered at both the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals and will be released by IFC this Fall.

Gyllenhaal’s previous producing credits include David Ayer’s “End of Watch” and Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler,” which was nominated for numerous awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and winning Independent Spirit Awards for Best Screenplay and Best First Feature. Some of Marker’s previous credits include the Academy Award-nominated “The Kids Are All Right;” “What Maisie Knew;” “Hello, My Name is Doris,” and the Peabody Award-winning film “Beasts of No Nation,” written and directed by Cary Fukunaga.

ABOUT BRON

Launched in 2010, BRON is an award-winning producer and financier, working with new voices and established talents both in front of and behind the camera. The studio focuses on creating diverse stories told with powerful visuals, that resonate with audiences globally. BRON launched four films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation to be distributed by NEON, Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace which will receive its international bow at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and opens in the states on June 29; Anthony Mandler’s Monster; and Jason Reitman’s Tully due out May 4 from Focus. BRON is currently in production on Greyhound starring Tom Hanks; on Fonzo, the Al Capone bio-pic starring Tom Hardy; on Villains, from BRON’s genre label The Realm, starring Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe and on The Good Liar directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon and starring Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren. BRON is in post-production on The Front Runner from co-writer/director Jason Reitman starring Hugh Jackman; The Red Sea Diving Resort from writer/director Gideon Raff, starring Chris Evans, and Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale with Sam Claflin and Aisling Franciosi.  BRON is headquartered in Burnaby, BC, Canada with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto.

ABOUT SIERRA/AFFINITY LLC

Sierra/Affinity is a leading independent film finance, production and foreign sales company, consistently delivering high-quality, commercially viable feature films for a global audience. Sierra/Affinity capitalizes on the ever-evolving global film marketplace, representing sales of third-party films as well as its own productions designed to appeal to both the North American and global marketplaces. In addition to representing sales of third party films, the company acts as the exclusive sales agent for films developed and produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, Bold Films and Sierra Pictures. Following Entertainment One’s (eOne) strategic equity investment in Sierra Pictures in January 2016, the international sales and distribution of films produced and acquired by eOne Features, as well as eOne-distributed films from The Mark Gordon Company, will be handled by Sierra/Affinity outside of Canada, the UK, Australia/New Zealand, Benelux and Spain, where eOne directly distributes films. The company is also compiling a slate of wide-release, director-driven commercial films with domestic and global appeal that will complement the slates built by its partners.

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