Press Releases Archive for July, 2015

Kim Voynar, Mark Rabinowitz Named Programmers Of Oxford Film Fest

The Oxford Film Festival today appointed long-time staff member Melanie Addington as its Executive Director and named its programming team for the 2016 edition, to be lead by veteran industry fixtures Mark Rabinowitz and Kim Voynar as documentary and narrative feature head programmers, respectively. The 13th edition of the festival is set to unspool February…

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KINO LORBER ACQUIRES ALL NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO MIGUEL GOMES’ CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED “ARABIAN NIGHTS” TRILOGY

ALL THREE FILMS TO OPEN AT THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER STARTING DECEMBER 4   New York, NY – July 30, 2015 – Kino Lorber is proud to announce the acquisition of all North American rights to Miguel Gomes’ ARABIAN NIGHTS, a critically acclaimed and visionary six-hour trilogy about social and economic woes in…

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NYFF Centerpieces Steve Jobs Biopic

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today the selection of Steve Jobs, written by Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, Charlie Wilson’s War) and directed by Academy Award® winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours), as the Centerpiece of the upcoming 53rd New York Film Festival (September 25 – October 11), to…

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HBO Digitizes Mel Brooks & Buck Henry’s “Get Smart” For 50th Anniversary

Maxwell Smart Meets the 21st Century: Legendary Comedy SeriesGet Smart Available Digitally for the First Time Ever August 10, 2015   Release Marks the 50th Anniversary of the Iconic Series from Mel Brooks and Buck Henry   New York, N.Y., July 23, 2015 – When it originally debuted in September of 1965, Get Smart, the multiple Emmy®winning classic…

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Broad Green Slates Video Distrib With Uni Pictures Home Ent

BROAD GREEN PICTURES AND UNIVERSAL PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT ENTER LONG TERM, MULTI-YEAR DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT Broad Green Pictures to Handle Sales and Marketing Across All Platforms LOS ANGELES (July 22, 2015) – Broad Green Pictures and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment announced today a long term, multi-year distribution services agreement.  Under the agreement, Universal will exclusively manage back-room…

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SAG-ACTRA Remembers Activist-Oscar Nominee George Coe, Who Was 86

SAG-AFTRA Statement on the Passing of George Coe SAG-AFTRA mourns the passing of longtime union activist and Oscar-nominee George Coe who died Saturday at the age of 86. Coe served on the Screen Actors Guild’s National Board of Directors for more than a dozen years, covering the period of 1967-1973 and again in the early…

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THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES ATHINA RACHEL TSANGARI AS 2015 FILMMAKER IN RESIDENCE

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Jaeger-LeCoultre announced the selection of writer and director Athina Rachel Tsangari (Attenberg, 2011 New Directors/New Films) as their 2015 Filmmaker in Residence, the third annual initiative and partnership between the two  organizations. Previous participants include award-winning directors Lisandro Alonso (Jauja) and Andrea Arnold (Red Road). Lesli Klainberg, Executive…

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Hearst To Recycle The Wrap

The Wrap News and Hearst Partner to Carry Wrap Content in 17 Newspapers Wrap content to appear in leading metropolitan newspapers – digitally and in print – across the U.S., including in San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, and San Antonio.  The Wrap News Inc. and Hearst Newspapers have closed a deal to distribute Wrap content in print and digital…

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Kurt Cobain Doc Returns To Theaters

ABRAMORAMA TO RE-LAUNCH KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK FOR EXTENDED THEATRICAL RUN THIS AUGUST   Directed by Acclaimed Filmmaker Brett Morgen Executive Produced by Frances Bean Cobain July 9, 2015 New York – ABRAMORAMA is set to re-launch Brett Morgen’s critically acclaimed documentary, KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK in select theaters across the country Friday,…

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Here’s The Academy’s 2015 Submission Deadlines

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today published its list of upcoming submission deadlines for 88th Academy Awards® consideration. Submissions for individual categories and the General Entry/Official Screen Credits (OSC) form are due by 5 p.m. PTon the following dates: Scientific and Technical Awards Documentary Short Subject Documentary Feature Animated Short Film Live…

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Late Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. Launches “Survival Pictures” With Terry George Ottoman Empire Pic

Tracinda Corporation, founded by the late Kirk Kerkorian, announced today its formation of Survival Pictures, a production company dedicated to telling stories of perseverance, endurance and the inextinguishable fire of the human spirit. The company was humbly and discreetly started years ago by Kirk Kerkorian, who wanted this company and its first project to speak to his core values. Survival Pictures is managed…

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MAGNOLIA PICTURES ACQUIRES DOUGLAS TIROLA’S SUNDANCE/TRIBECA STANDOUT “DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON” 

Magnolia Pictures announced today that it is acquiring all U.S. rights excluding television to Douglas Tirola’s Sundance and Tribeca hit DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD: THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON, an inside look at the rise and fall of the legendary humor magazine that launched dozens of careers and broke as many taboos. Produced by…

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Impact Partners Launches Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship at DOC NYC 2015

Liz Garbus, Morgan Spurlock, Thom Powers, Stanley Nelson, Dan Cogan, Amy Ziering, Julie Goldman, Caroline Libresco and other industry luminaries to encounter documentary’s most promising film producers in yearlong workshop series July 2, New York, NY — Impact Partners announced today the launch of the new annual Emerging Documentary Producers Fellowship, which will be awarded…

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BMI CONTINUES ITS SUPPORT OF THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE FILM MUSIC PROGRAM

Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®), a global leader in music rights management, is proud to continue its support for the Sundance Institute Film Music Program, which collaborates with Skywalker Sound to host the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound. Its first 2015 session of the Lab, which begins July 7 at Skywalker…

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Press Releases

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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