Press Releases Archive for May, 2014

Gravity Named Best At 15th Annual Golden Trailer Awards

(Beverly Hills, May 30, 2014) — Hollywood celebrated the best in motion picture marketing at the 15th Annual Golden Trailer Awards tonight in Beverly Hills. More than 1,100 studio marketing executives, movie fans, celebrities and trailer editors were on hand as Warner Bros.’ work for Gravity titled “detached” won the Best of Show Prize and…

Read the full article »

LIONSGATE ANNOUNCES “THE HUNGER GAMES: THE EXHIBITION”

Touring Exhibit Debuts Summer 2015  Company Appoints Veteran Thinkwell Executive To Oversee Branded Attractions SANTA MONICA, May 30, 2014 – As part of its initiative to extend its global brands and franchises into new lines of business, Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the premier next generation global content leader, will launch a U.S. tour of “The Hunger Games: The…

Read the full article »

Universal Names Goldstine Head Of Worldwide Marketing

Goldstine and his team were instrumental in positioning the studio for its best year at the worldwide box office in 2013.

Read the full article »

Jonathan Gordon New Production Prez For Annapurna Pictures

Annapurna Pictures’ Megan Ellison announced today that the company has hired producer Jonathan Gordon as President of Production for the company, effective immediately.

Read the full article »

SPC Snaps Salt Of The Earth, Un Certain Regard Winner By Wenders And Salgado

NEW YORK (May 25, 2014) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all US rights to Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado’s THE SALT OF THE EARTH.  The film was in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Special Prize Award. The film was…

Read the full article »

Saban Films Takes North America For Tommy Lee Jones’ Manifest Destiny Western

SABAN FILMS ACQUIRES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER TOMMY LEE JONES’ “THE HOMESMAN”   New Banner Aggressively Sweeps Up Rights to Buzz-Worthy Cannes Competition Title to Mark First Acquisition   CANNES – May 22, 2014 – Haim Saban announced today that after launching Saban Films last week the company has acquired North American distribution rights…

Read the full article »

THE DAILAN WANDA GROUP ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR CREATION OF NEW STUDIO AND MEDIA COMPLEX, AND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN QINGDAO, CHINA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   Stephen Mensch announced as CEO of the Qingdao Oriental Movie Industrial Park with Rose Kuo named as the CEO of the Qingdao International Film Festival  Cannes, France (May 16, 2014) – Hawk Koch, President of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and Special Advisor to Dailan Wanda Group announced at a press conference during the…

Read the full article »

PARTICIPANT MEDIA JOINS EVOLUTION MEDIA CAPITAL AND TPG GROWTH IN GLOBAL MEDIA, SPORTS, AND ENTERTAINMENT VENTURE

Evolution Media to Help Accelerate Growth of Young Companies May 15, 2014, Los Angeles, CA – Participant Media, the leading provider of entertainment that inspires, announced today that it has joined TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment platform of global investment firm TPG, and Evolution Media Capital (EMC), a merchant bank focused on…

Read the full article »

Cannes 2014: Opening Day

I have long been of the opinion that Cannes is an indulgence to US press. Starting my third year covering the festival, I have to say, nothing’s changed that opinion. But like Telluride, it’s a lovely indulgence. It’s the most civil film festival of the biggies. The schedule is loaded, but manageable. The town is…

Read the full article » 3 Comments »

OPEN ROAD FILMS ACQUIRES U.S. DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS TO JON STEWART’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT, ROSEWATER

Film from Oddlot Entertainment and Producers Jon Stewart, Scott Rudin and Gigi Pritzker to be Released Fall 2014 Los Angeles, CA, May 12, 2013 – Open Road Films announced today that it has acquired U.S. distribution to Jon Stewart’s ROSEWATER, the feature film based on the New York Times best-selling memoir Then They Came for…

Read the full article »

Sundance Institute Selects 13 Projects for June Directors and Screenwriters Labs

Part of 10 Summer Labs the Institute will Lead for Independent Artists in Film and Theatre Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute today announced the 13 projects selected for its annual June Directors and Screenwriters Labs, taking place at the Sundance Resort in Utah from May 26 through June 26. The Labs are the centerpiece of the…

Read the full article »

OSCILLOSCOPE IS GETTING LOW DOWN; ACQUIRES ACCLAIMED SUNDANCE DRAMA

Oscilloscope Laboratories announced today that it has acquired North American rights to Jeff Preiss’ LOW DOWN, starring John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Flea (with featured turns by Caleb Landry Jones, Tim Daly and Taryn Manning). The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January as an early…

Read the full article »

Nominees For The 15th Annual Golden Trailer Awards

NOMINEES FOR 15th ANNUAL GOLDEN TRAILER AWARDS REVEALED AS INDUSTRY PREPARES FOR ONE OF THE MOST FUN AND ORIGINAL AWARDS SHOWS HONORING THE BEST IN MOTION PICTURE TRAILERS AND MARKETING — Warner Bros. Earns Most Nominations By Studio as Universal, Fox, Lionsgate and Disney Round Out The Top 5 — — Top Nominations by Vendor…

Read the full article »

Hot Docs 2014 Awards Announced

At a reception hosted by award-winning broadcaster and best-selling author Jian Ghomeshi, host of CBC Radio’s Q, at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto. Thirteen awards and $66,000 in cash and prizes were presented to Canadian and international filmmakers, including awards for Festival films in competition and those recognizing emerging and established filmmakers. Best Canadian…

Read the full article »

Christopher Plummer will star in Atom Egoyan’s “REMEMBER”

Director Atom Egoyan and Producer Robert Lantos reteam for this this emotionally charged contemporary thriller FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  – “Remember” is produced by Ari Lantos (producer of “Stage Fright,” “The Right Kind of Wrong”) and Robert Lantos (Producer of Academy Award® and Golden Globe Nominated “Barney’s Version,” “Eastern Promises”).  Academy Award® Nominated and Cannes Grand Prix…

Read the full article »

Press Releases

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