Press Releases Archive for January, 2013

SUNDANCE SELECTS TAKES NA RIGHTS TO RICHARD ROWLEY’S U.S. DOC COMPETITION TITLE DIRTY WARS AT SUNDANCE

By Ray Pride - Sunday, January 20th, 2013

PARK CITY, UT (January 20, 2013) – Sundance Selects announced today from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival that the company is acquiring North American rights to Richard Rowley’s DIRTY WARS, which premiered in the U.S. documentary competition section. The film, with a screenplay by Jeremy Scahill and David Riker, was produced by Anthony Arnove, Brenda Coughlin, and…

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SIR MICHAEL GAMBON, ALFRED MOLINA TO STAR IN LOVE IS STRANGE, IRA SACHS’ NEWEST FEATURE

By Ray Pride - Friday, January 18th, 2013

Indie About Recently Married Gay Couple’s Forced Separation To Shoot in NYC This Summer Park City, Utah (January 18, 2013) –  Parts & Labor announced today that Sir Michael Gambon and Alfred Molina will star in LOVE IS STRANGE, Independent Spirit Award Nominee Ira Sachs’s newest feature. Production is slated to begin in New York City this…

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Ford Foundation JustFilms Supports Eight Films Set for World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival

By Ray Pride - Friday, January 18th, 2013

Initiative supports works that address urgent social issues

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SnagFilms ANNOUNCES FURTHER GROWTH CAPITAL FUNDING

By Ray Pride - Friday, January 18th, 2013

Park City, UT – January 18, 2013 – SnagFilms, which now offers independent films in more places than any other film platform, announced today that it has closed a $6 million Series C financing round that involved the entire existing investment group and new shareholder CNF Investments, LLC, an affiliate of Clark Enterprises, Inc. This funding will accelerate…

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Digital Debut for 13 Independent Films via Sundance Institute’s Artist Services

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Detropia, The Atomic States of America, I Am Not A Hipster and more available now

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Gravitas Ventures plugs in for VOD distribution of Dave Grohl’s highly anticipated Sound City

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Film to bow on VOD in 100 countries

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Picturehouse Reopens Its Doors With Founder Bob Berney At The Helm

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Company has Signed Multi-Year Output Deal with Netflix

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Sundance World Premiere “UPSTREAM COLOR” Hits U.S. Theaters April 2013

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

Filmmaker Shane Carruth Leads Creative Distribution Team

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Variance Films acquires North American theatrical rights to AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY

By Ray Pride - Monday, January 14th, 2013

Terence Nance’s award-winning debut.

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VILLAGE AT THE LIFT RETURNS TO PARK CITY

By Ray Pride - Monday, January 14th, 2013

Main Street’s Annual Town Lift is Transformed for its 11th Year During the Film Festival

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2013 FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS FILMMAKER GRANT WINNERS ANNOUNCED

By Ray Pride - Sunday, January 13th, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   Spirit Award Winners To Be Revealed on Saturday, February 23   Premiere broadcast on IFC at 10:00 pm ET/PT LOS ANGELES (January 12, 2013) – Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the winners of its four Spirit Awards filmmaker grants…

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AMPAS Member David Clennon Makes A Public Appeal To Shun Zero Dark Thirty

By David Poland - Friday, January 11th, 2013

“I’m a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Motion Picture Academy clearly warns its members not to disclose their votes for Academy Awards. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that the film Zero Dark Thirty promotes the acceptance of the crime of torture, as a legitimate weapon in America’s so-called War on…

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Amy Pascal Responds To AMPAS Member David Clennon’s Public Attack On Zero Dark Thirty

By David Poland - Friday, January 11th, 2013

“Zero Dark Thirty does not advocate torture. To not include that part of history would have been irresponsible and inaccurate. We fully support Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal and stand behind this extraordinary movie. We are outraged that any responsible member of the Academy would use their voting status in AMPAS as a platform to…

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85th OSCAR® NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

By Ray Pride - Thursday, January 10th, 2013

January 10, 2013 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Nominations for the 85th Academy Awards® were announced today (Thursday, January 10) by this year’s Oscar host, Seth MacFarlane, and actress Emma Stone. MacFarlane and Stone announced the nominees at a 5:38 a.m. PT live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives….

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ASC Nominations 2012

By David Poland - Wednesday, January 9th, 2013
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EE British Academy Film Awards Nominations in 2013

By MCN Editor - Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

09 January 13   BEST FILM ARGO – Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney LES MISÉRABLES – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh LIFE OF PI – Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark LINCOLN – Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy ZERO DARK THIRTY – Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison   OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM…

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SONY PICTURES CLASSICS ACQUIRES WOODY ALLEN’S BLUE JASMINE

By Ray Pride - Tuesday, January 8th, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             Film marks sixth collaboration with the filmmaker and Sony Classics NEW YORK (January 8, 2013) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all North American rights to Woody Allen’s next film, BLUE JASMINE from Gravier Productions….

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Sundance Institute Announces National Screenings for 2013 Sundance Film Festival New Frontier Project, Coral: Rekindling Venus

By Ray Pride - Monday, January 7th, 2013

Coral: Rekindling Venus, a full-dome film and augmented reality presentation will screen at 14 full-dome planetariums.

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JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT TO HOST 2013 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS CEREMONY

By Ray Pride - Friday, January 4th, 2013

“Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s accomplished and original artistic perspectives have contributed greatly to Sundance Institute and the independent film community.”

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WGA Nominations 2012

By David Poland - Friday, January 4th, 2013

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Flight, Written by John Gatins; Paramount Pictures Looper, Written by Rian Johnson; TriStar Pictures The Master, Written by Paul Thomas Anderson; The Weinstein Company Moonrise Kingdom, Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola; Focus Features Zero Dark Thirty, Written by Mark Boal; Columbia Pictures ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Argo, Screenplay by Chris Terrio; Based on…

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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