Press Releases Archive for January, 2016

HBO, Magnolia In Pink With Sundance Doc Tickled

[PR]  HBO has acquired the U.S. television rights to the shocking Sundance documentary, TICKLED, while MAGNOLIA has picked up North American theatrical rights, and world rights outside of North America excluding Australia and New Zealand.  Co- directed by David Farrier & Dylan Reeve and produced by Carthew Neal, TICKLED is about a journalist who stumbles upon a “competitive endurance tickling” competition….

Read the full article »

The Complete 22nd Annual SAG Awards List

Outstanding Film and Television Performances Honored at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® LOS ANGELES (Jan. 30, 2016) —The Screen Actors Guild Awards® presented its coveted Actor® statuettes for the outstanding motion picture and primetime television performances of 2015 at the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® held Saturday, Jan. 30 at the Los…

Read the full article »

Sundance Awards 2016

Sundance Institute tonight announced the prizes in feature filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, with top awards going to Between Sea and Land, The Birth of a Nation, First Girl I Loved, Jim: The James Foley Story, Sand Storm, Sonita and Weiner. The Birth of a Nation and Sonita won both the Grand Jury…

Read the full article » 1 Comment »

Sony Classics Adopts John Krasinski Sundance Pic

  [PR] NEW YORK (January 29, 2016) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all rights in the US and Asia to John Krasinski’s THE HOLLARS.   Directed by Krasinski (BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN) with a script from Jim Strouse (PEOPLE PLACES THINGS), the film is premiering tonight at the Sundance Film Festival….

Read the full article »

“MAD MAX: FURY ROAD,” “THE BIG SHORT” AND “INSIDE OUT” WIN BIG AT THE 66TH ANNUAL ACE EDDIE AWARDS RECOGNIZING THE BEST FILM EDITING OF THE YEAR

Beverly Hills, January 29 – “Mad Max: Fury Road” (edited by Margaret Sixel) and “The Big Short” (edited by Hank Corwin, ACE) won Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic) and Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy) respectively at the 66th Annual ACE Eddie Awards tonight where trophies were handed out recognizing the best editing of 2015 in ten…

Read the full article »

Slamdance 2016 Announces Audience And Jury Prizes

  [PR]  (PARK CITY, UT – January 28, 2016) – The 22nd Slamdance Film Festival tonight announced the feature and short film recipients of this year’s Sparky awards in the Audience, Jury, and Sponsored Categories. The award winners were announced at the festival’s annual Awards Ceremony at the Treasure Mountain Inn in Park City, UT. As…

Read the full article »

Open Road Films Partners On Upcoming Productions

OPEN ROAD FILMS PARTNERS WITH CRYSTAL CITY ENTERTAINMENT AND BOUNDARY STONE FILMS FOR MULTI-YEAR DEVELOPMENT FINANCING DEAL   Los Angeles, CA – January 28, 2015 – Open Road Films and Crystal City Entertainment/Boundary Stone Films today announced a multi-picture development financing pact for all of Open Road Films’ own productions over the coming years. The…

Read the full article »

Bigelow-Boal Set Untitled 1967 Detroit Riot Crime Drama With Annapurna

Details about the Detroit project are not being revealed at this time.

Read the full article »

Santa Barbara Film Festival Names All Five Best Director Nominees As Directors Of The Year

[PR] The Santa Barbara International Film Festival announced today that Lenny Abrahamson, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Tom McCarthy, Adam McKay and George Miller will receive the 2016 Outstanding Directors of the Year award. They will each be celebrated individually for their films ROOM, THE REVENANT, SPOTLIGHT, THE BIG SHORT and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, respectively.  The individual…

Read the full article » 4 Comments »

Universal Music Group Gets Behind Lee Daniels Apollo Theatre Doc

[PR] Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels (LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER, PRECIOUS and creator and producer of the Fox hit series EMPIRE) will direct the documentary feature film THE APOLLO THEATER FILM PROJECT – the authorized history of New York’s famed Apollo Theater, it was announced today by White Horse Pictures’ Nigel Sinclair and Jeanne Elfant Festa….

Read the full article »

The Black List Announces Cassian Elwes Screenwriting Fellowships At Sundance

THE BLACK LIST ANNOUNCES THIRD ANNUAL CASSIAN ELWES INDEPENDENT SCREENWRITING FELLOWSHIPS AT THE 2016 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL   PARK CITY, UT (January 27, 2016) – The Black List and Cassian Elwes announced that they had selected not one but two 2016 Cassian Elwes Independent Screenwriting Fellows who joined them at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival….

Read the full article »

Sundance Announces 2015 Short Film Awards

Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today the jury prizes in short filmmaking at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize, awarded to one film in the program of 72 short films selected from 8,712 submissions, went to Thunder Road by director and screenwriter Jim Cummings. The awards were presented…

Read the full article »

Sundance Institute Announces $60,000 In Sloan In Science Cinema Awards

Embrace of the Serpent by Ciro Guerra wins 2016 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at 2016 Sundance Film Festival Park City, UT — Sundance Institute announced today awards for the most promising new independent films about science and technology, including Embrace of the Serpent directed by Ciro Guerra as the recipient of the Sloan Science-in Film-Prize at…

Read the full article »

Sony Pictures Classics Takes Equity At Sundance

Worldwide rights to the first female driven Wall Street film.

Read the full article »

SONY PICTURES TO DISTRIBUTE BLADE RUNNER INTERNATIONALLY

LOS ANGELES, CA, JANUARY 25, 2016 –Sony Pictures Releasing International will distribute Alcon Entertainment’s follow-up to Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece BLADE RUNNER in all overseas territories in all media; with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing in North America and Canada through its output agreement with Alcon, it was announced by Alcon co-founders and co-CEO’s Andrew Kosove…

Read the full article »

American Masters Doc Theatrical Label Announced At Sundance

WNET Launches First Theatrical Imprint  American Masters Pictures   Documentaries Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, Richard Linklater – Dream is Destiny and Maya Angelou: Still I Rise World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival (Park City, UT – January 22, 2016) Today at the Sundance Film Festival, WNET, parent company of New York’s public television stations…

Read the full article »

STATEMENT FROM ACADEMY PRESIDENT CHERYL BOONE ISAACS

I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees.  While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it’s time for big changes. The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership.  In the…

Read the full article » 3 Comments »

Sundance Institute Launches Initiative To Support “Inventive Artistic Practice” In Nonfiction Film

Robert Greene, Margaret Brown, Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq Selected as First ‘Art of Nonfiction’ Fellows Los Angeles, CA — Sundance Institute, one of the world’s largest grantmakers to documentary film, today announced the ‘Art of Nonfiction’ initiative, which will expand the Institute’s existing support for documentaries exploring contemporary social issues to include targeted creative…

Read the full article »

Slamdance 2016 Sets Juries

“We are fortunate to have such acclaimed industry members and alumni join our juries.”

Read the full article »

88TH OSCARS® NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

LOS ANGELES, CA – Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, Guillermo del Toro, John Krasinski and Ang Lee announced the 88th Academy Awards® nominations today (January 14). Del Toro and Lee announced the nominees in 11 categories at 5:30 a.m. PT, followed by Boone Isaacs and Krasinski for the remaining 13 categories at 5:38 a.m. PT,…

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