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Flatiron Film Company in Association with Variance Films Announces November Theatrical Release of José Padilha’s ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN (TROPA DE ELITE 2)

Posted Monday, September 26th, 2011 - Comments Off on Flatiron Film Company in Association with Variance Films Announces November Theatrical Release of José Padilha’s ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN (TROPA DE ELITE 2)
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BRAZIL’S OFFICIAL SUBMISSION TO THE 84TH ACADEMY AWARDS® OPENS NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES WITH NATIONAL ROLLOUT TO FOLLOW

New York, September 26, 2011 – New Video’s Flatiron Film Company and Variance Films announced today that they have partnered for the theatrical release of José Padilha’s record-breaking Brazilian crime thriller, ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN (TROPA DE ELITE 2).  The film will open in New York City on November 11, 2011 at the AMC Empire 25 in Times Square, and at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 in Los Angeles on November 18, 2011. A platform expansion to top markets across the country will immediately follow. “ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN is the rare film that truly has it all,” said Dylan Marchetti, Founder of Variance Films.  “There’s a tense, well-acted story that’s so intelligently written it makes you start to question your own politics, and then, without warning, these impossibly kinetic action scenes explode across the screen, all set to the real-life backdrop of Rio’s favelas.  When you add in that Variance had been looking to work with New Video for some time now, this feels a little bit like having Christmas, prom, and a new puppy all at the same time.” “We’ve got the best of both worlds with ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN – a brilliant foreign film and an action-packed thriller,” said Steve Savage, Co-President of New Video. “We’ve found an apt partner in Variance for tapping into U.S. audiences and building on the film’s incredible run in Brazil. With Dylan and his team at the helm of our distribution strategy we have the highest expectations for success.” ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN (TROPA DE ELITE 2) is Brazil’s official submission to the 84th Academy Awards, and is fresh off a festival run with stops at Sundance, the Berlinale, and Austin’s legendary Fantastic Fest. The film is directed by Padilha (BUS 174, ELITE SQUAD) and co-written by Padilha and Bráulio Mantovani (Academy Award nominee for his CITY OF GOD script), and is the highest-grossing film of all time in Brazil, grossing over $70 million domestically. ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN (TROPA DE ELITE 2) takes place in one of the most dangerous places on Earth: the sprawling slum that surrounds Rio de Janeiro. As the head of Rio’s Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE), Captain Nascimento (Wagner Moura) is accused of a massacre when a BOPE mission to quell a jail riot ends in the violent death of a gang leader.  But the citizens of Rio, tired of the crime and drugs that plague their city, embrace him as a hero–and with elections around the corner, he finds himself promoted. Nascimento uses his powerful new position to bring the gangs to their knees, but quickly discovers that he’s only making things easier for the dirty cops and corrupt politicians that are truly running the game. Now, Nascimento must confront his true enemies, who are much more dangerous… and sitting just down the hall.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE:  http://www.elitesquad-movie.com ABOUT NEW VIDEO Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2011, New Video is a leading entertainment distributor and the largest aggregator of independent digital content worldwide. Headquartered in New York City, with an international presence in 45 territories, the company delivers feature films, TV programs and web originals via digital download, streaming media, video-on-demand, Blu-ray and DVD, and theatrical release. New Video streamlines the distribution and marketing process for filmmakers, producers and brand partners to bring a wide variety of fresh content to new audiences. The company’s library includes original TV series and movies from A+E Home Entertainment, HISTORY, and Lifetime, unforgettable games and trophy sets from Major League Baseball, storybook treasures from Scholastic, award-winning documentaries from Docurama Films, Arthouse Films, and Plexifilm, next-gen indies and web hits from Flatiron Film Company, the best in Chinese cinema from China Lion, and festival picks from Tribeca Film. New Video recently launched Flatiron Film Company as a distribution brand for out-of-the-ordinary, often risk-taking films and original content from an international cadre of creative talent.  Recent titles have included the Oscar-nominated animated film, The Secret of Kells, True Adolescents, starring Mark Duplass and Melissa Leo, and hitRECORD Volume 1, directed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. ABOUT VARIANCE FILMS Variance Films is an independently owned and operated New York City-based theatrical distribution company whose mission is to bring the best in independent cinema to theatrical audiences across the USA and Canada, while allowing filmmakers to retain all rights to their work.  Founded in 2008 by Dylan Marchetti, Variance distributes films by using innovative release strategies that focus on collaborative, grassroots marketing to drive audiences to theaters.  Recent Variance releases include Ip Man 2: Legend Of The Grandmaster, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt And The Magnetic Fields, and John Sayles’ Amigo. Upcoming releases include Jackie Chan’s war epic 1911 (October 7), the stunningly personal grunge documentary Hit So Hard (February 2012), and Let the Bullets Fly (March 2012), the highest-grossing film of all time in China.  For more information, please visit www.variancefilms.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?

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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.

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