Exclusive: Mubi has acquired David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future for Latin America, Turkey, India and Malaysia.
Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman and Welket Bungué star in the story set in a world in which humans must adapt to a synthetic environment. With his partner Caprice, Saul Tenser, a celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.
Release dates and plans are still being set. Rocket Science is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with Mubi.
Written and directed by Cronenberg, the film had its world premiere at the recent Cannes Film Festival. It is produced by Robert Lantos. Pic is a Canada-Greece co-production with Serendipity Point Films and Argonauts Productions.
The film marks the fourth collaboration between Lantos and Cronenberg following Crash, eXistenZ, and Eastern Promises. Panos Papahadzis and Steve Solomos are also producers, with Laura Lanktree as co-producer.
Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman and Welket Bungué star in the story set in a world in which humans must adapt to a synthetic environment. With his partner Caprice, Saul Tenser, a celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances.
Release dates and plans are still being set. Rocket Science is handling international sales and negotiated the deal with Mubi.
Written and directed by Cronenberg, the film had its world premiere at the recent Cannes Film Festival. It is produced by Robert Lantos. Pic is a Canada-Greece co-production with Serendipity Point Films and Argonauts Productions.
The film marks the fourth collaboration between Lantos and Cronenberg following Crash, eXistenZ, and Eastern Promises. Panos Papahadzis and Steve Solomos are also producers, with Laura Lanktree as co-producer.
- 6/14/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Rocket Science handles international sales.
David Cronenberg has begun production in Greece for Serendipity Point Films and Argonauts Productions on Crimes Of The Future starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart.
Tanaya Beatty, Nadia Litz, Yorgos Karamichos, and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos have joined a previously announced cast that includes Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, and Lihi Kornowski.
Filming in Greece in the Canada-Greece co-production is scheduled to shoot until September. Cronenberg wrote the screenplay – his first original script since eXistenZ in 1999 – set in the near-future where some humans accept accelerated evolution while others try to police it.
“As we...
David Cronenberg has begun production in Greece for Serendipity Point Films and Argonauts Productions on Crimes Of The Future starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, and Kristen Stewart.
Tanaya Beatty, Nadia Litz, Yorgos Karamichos, and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos have joined a previously announced cast that includes Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, and Lihi Kornowski.
Filming in Greece in the Canada-Greece co-production is scheduled to shoot until September. Cronenberg wrote the screenplay – his first original script since eXistenZ in 1999 – set in the near-future where some humans accept accelerated evolution while others try to police it.
“As we...
- 8/3/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Filming is underway in Europe on David Cronenberg’s Crimes Of The Future, starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman.
Joining the cast are Tanaya Beatty (Yellowstone), Nadia Litz (Big Muddy), Yorgos Karamichos (The Durrells), and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (Beckett). Also previously announced were Welket Bungué (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Don McKellar (Blindness), and Lihi Kornowski (Losing Alice).
The film shoots in Athens, Greece until September 2021.
The film takes a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. The evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of ‘transhumanism’, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome”, is spreading fast.
“As we begin filming Crimes Of The Future, just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like we’ve entered a story he...
Joining the cast are Tanaya Beatty (Yellowstone), Nadia Litz (Big Muddy), Yorgos Karamichos (The Durrells), and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (Beckett). Also previously announced were Welket Bungué (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Don McKellar (Blindness), and Lihi Kornowski (Losing Alice).
The film shoots in Athens, Greece until September 2021.
The film takes a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. The evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of ‘transhumanism’, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome”, is spreading fast.
“As we begin filming Crimes Of The Future, just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like we’ve entered a story he...
- 8/3/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Cameras have begun rolling on David Cronenberg’s sci-fi thriller “Crimes of the Future” with Tanaya Beatty (“Yellowstone”) and Nadia Litz (“Big Muddy”) joining the cast alongside Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart.
Principal photography has begun on the movie in Athens, Greece, where shooting will run until September. Additional cast members include Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, Lihi Kornowski, Yorgos Karamichos and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos.
“As we begin filming ‘Crimes of the Future,’ just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like we’ve entered a story he collaborated on with Samuel Beckett and William Burroughs, if that were possible,” said Mortensen in a statement. “We are being pulled into a world that is not quite like this or any other, and yet is one that feels strangely familiar, immediate and quite credible. I can’t wait to see where we end up.”
The movie,...
Principal photography has begun on the movie in Athens, Greece, where shooting will run until September. Additional cast members include Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, Lihi Kornowski, Yorgos Karamichos and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos.
“As we begin filming ‘Crimes of the Future,’ just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like we’ve entered a story he collaborated on with Samuel Beckett and William Burroughs, if that were possible,” said Mortensen in a statement. “We are being pulled into a world that is not quite like this or any other, and yet is one that feels strangely familiar, immediate and quite credible. I can’t wait to see where we end up.”
The movie,...
- 8/3/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Neon will release the film in the U.S. that will start filming in Greece in August
David Cronenberg has set his first directorial feature since 2014, “Crimes of the Future,” with a cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart.
“Crimes of the Future” comes from Neon and Serendipity Point Films, with Neon set to release the sci-fi movie in the U.S. Production aims to kick off this August in Athens, Greece.
“Crimes of the Future” is Cronenberg’s first original screenplay since 1999’s “eXistenZ.” The movie is a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings and the fast-spreading “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome.” This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of transhumanism, others attempt to police it.
The film stars Mortensen as Saul Tenser,...
David Cronenberg has set his first directorial feature since 2014, “Crimes of the Future,” with a cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart.
“Crimes of the Future” comes from Neon and Serendipity Point Films, with Neon set to release the sci-fi movie in the U.S. Production aims to kick off this August in Athens, Greece.
“Crimes of the Future” is Cronenberg’s first original screenplay since 1999’s “eXistenZ.” The movie is a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings and the fast-spreading “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome.” This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of transhumanism, others attempt to police it.
The film stars Mortensen as Saul Tenser,...
- 4/29/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Principal photography scheduled to commence in August in Athens, Greece,
In a tantalising package, David Cronenberg will direct Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart in sci-fi Crimes Of The Future, Neon and Serendipity Point Films announced on Thursday (April 29).
Crimes Of The Future is based on Cronenberg’s first original screenplay since eXistenZ in 1999 and sees the Canadian auteur return to his familiar sci-fi stomping ground. “I have unfinished business with the future,” he said.
Neon will distribute in the US and MK2 | Mile End will release in Canada, with Rocket Science handling international sales.
Principal photography is scheduled...
In a tantalising package, David Cronenberg will direct Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart in sci-fi Crimes Of The Future, Neon and Serendipity Point Films announced on Thursday (April 29).
Crimes Of The Future is based on Cronenberg’s first original screenplay since eXistenZ in 1999 and sees the Canadian auteur return to his familiar sci-fi stomping ground. “I have unfinished business with the future,” he said.
Neon will distribute in the US and MK2 | Mile End will release in Canada, with Rocket Science handling international sales.
Principal photography is scheduled...
- 4/29/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Neon and Serendipity Point Films have set a summer production start in Athens, Greece for Crimes of the Future, the David Cronenberg-written and -directed sci-fi thriller that has locked Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart as its stars, with Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar and Lihi Kornowski also starring.
This is the first original sci-fi script by Cronenberg since 1999’s eXistenZ. It sounds just as ambitious, taking a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of trans-humanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” is spreading fast. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice,...
This is the first original sci-fi script by Cronenberg since 1999’s eXistenZ. It sounds just as ambitious, taking a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of trans-humanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, “Accelerated Evolution Syndrome” is spreading fast. Saul Tenser is a beloved performance artist who has embraced Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, sprouting new and unexpected organs in his body. Along with his partner Caprice,...
- 4/29/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: In an intriguing industry move, we can reveal that Victor Loewy, the former CEO of Canadian giant Alliance Films, is back in the distribution game via a potent Canadian partnership.
Lionsgate Canada has formed a strategic arrangement with industry vet Loewy, leading local exhibitor Cineplex and indie firm Mongrel to handle Canadian theatrical distribution of films produced or acquired by Lionsgate.
The first film expected to be released under the partnership will be Rian Johnson’s starry murder mystery Knives Out with Daniel Craig.
Michael Meyer and Susan Hummel negotiated on behalf of Lionsgate but further terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed. I hear the pact won’t impact headcount at Lionsgate.
The tie-up is an interesting one seeing as Loewy, who left Alliance when the company was bought by Entertainment One in 2013, is seen by some as the godfather of Canadian distribution, and given the...
Lionsgate Canada has formed a strategic arrangement with industry vet Loewy, leading local exhibitor Cineplex and indie firm Mongrel to handle Canadian theatrical distribution of films produced or acquired by Lionsgate.
The first film expected to be released under the partnership will be Rian Johnson’s starry murder mystery Knives Out with Daniel Craig.
Michael Meyer and Susan Hummel negotiated on behalf of Lionsgate but further terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed. I hear the pact won’t impact headcount at Lionsgate.
The tie-up is an interesting one seeing as Loewy, who left Alliance when the company was bought by Entertainment One in 2013, is seen by some as the godfather of Canadian distribution, and given the...
- 4/2/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Variety honored its 10 Producers to Watch for 2018 at a breakfast on Monday morning on Cannes’ Nespresso Beach.
First launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998, the event celebrates an eclectic mix of producers from the U.S. and the international film community, who are united in their commitment to bold and original storytelling.
The films produced by this year’s honorees have played festivals including Berlin, Sundance and Venice, with a number screening at Cannes. “As well as they’re doing, as exciting as they are right now, there’s even greater things ahead,” said Variety’s VP and executive editor Steven Gaydos.
Victor Loewy was also honored with a lifetime achievement award for his long and distinguished career. “You can’t tell the story of Cannes, you can’t tell the story of international cinema, you can’t tell the story of Canadian business in cinema, without knowing who...
First launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998, the event celebrates an eclectic mix of producers from the U.S. and the international film community, who are united in their commitment to bold and original storytelling.
The films produced by this year’s honorees have played festivals including Berlin, Sundance and Venice, with a number screening at Cannes. “As well as they’re doing, as exciting as they are right now, there’s even greater things ahead,” said Variety’s VP and executive editor Steven Gaydos.
Victor Loewy was also honored with a lifetime achievement award for his long and distinguished career. “You can’t tell the story of Cannes, you can’t tell the story of international cinema, you can’t tell the story of Canadian business in cinema, without knowing who...
- 5/14/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
It was an unlikely friendship and business partnership that has outlasted most Hollywood marriages. Victor Loewy was born in Romania; Robert Lantos, pictured at left, came to Montreal from Hungary.
“Hungarians have a sense of superiority to Romanians,” says Lantos, dryly — it’s been a running joke between them for years. Yet, the two McGill students formed a bond. Lantos would hitchhike to school. Loewy picked him up.
Together, in the early 1970s, they had formed a tiny company named Vivafilm and managed to acquire the Canadian rights to the “Best of the New York Erotic Film Festival” — it was their first hit.
“My main interest was to make films, and Victor’s main interest was to make money. So we matched up perfectly,” says Lantos.
From a tiny office filled with borrowed furniture, the duo launched an empire. Lantos was the wordsmith and Loewy handled all the graphics for...
“Hungarians have a sense of superiority to Romanians,” says Lantos, dryly — it’s been a running joke between them for years. Yet, the two McGill students formed a bond. Lantos would hitchhike to school. Loewy picked him up.
Together, in the early 1970s, they had formed a tiny company named Vivafilm and managed to acquire the Canadian rights to the “Best of the New York Erotic Film Festival” — it was their first hit.
“My main interest was to make films, and Victor’s main interest was to make money. So we matched up perfectly,” says Lantos.
From a tiny office filled with borrowed furniture, the duo launched an empire. Lantos was the wordsmith and Loewy handled all the graphics for...
- 5/8/2018
- by Katherine Brodsky
- Variety Film + TV
Victor Loewy overcame a childhood of adversity to make a mark on the landscape of Canadian cinema and worldwide film distribution.
“I grew up in Romania, and my childhood was not normal in any traditional sense,” Loewy says.
Both his parents’ families died in the Holocaust. His father left the family when he was only a year old, and he lived with his mother and sister in communist Bucharest until age 18.
Then, in 1964, they were allowed to immigrate to Montreal. Loewy went on to graduate with a B.A. in German and economics from McGill U. in 1971, before jumping head-first into an industry of which he wasn’t exactly.
“I was most intrigued by the business side of filmmaking, the dealmaking world and distribution. Before that, I’d seen films strictly as entertainment, but I figured I could do something exciting within the world of cinema.”
While music, food, clothing design...
“I grew up in Romania, and my childhood was not normal in any traditional sense,” Loewy says.
Both his parents’ families died in the Holocaust. His father left the family when he was only a year old, and he lived with his mother and sister in communist Bucharest until age 18.
Then, in 1964, they were allowed to immigrate to Montreal. Loewy went on to graduate with a B.A. in German and economics from McGill U. in 1971, before jumping head-first into an industry of which he wasn’t exactly.
“I was most intrigued by the business side of filmmaking, the dealmaking world and distribution. Before that, I’d seen films strictly as entertainment, but I figured I could do something exciting within the world of cinema.”
While music, food, clothing design...
- 5/8/2018
- by Nick Clement
- Variety Film + TV
Variety has selected its 10 Producers to Watch for 2018, a diverse mix of producers from the U.S. and the thriving international film scene. Variety Producers to Watch, which was originally launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998, returned to the Croisette last year and will once again be presented there this year.
Regardless of their home base, these producers all share a fierce commitment to storytelling. Their films have played festivals including Berlin, Sundance and Venice, and a number are screening at Cannes.
Producer Dina Emam’s her first narrative feature, “Yomeddine,” was selected for competition. It will vie alongside Russian-made “Leto,” a music filled biopic that Murad Osmann and Ilya Stewart produced for director Kirill Serebrennikov, now under house arrest in that country.
Variety has also selected the forces behind “I, Tonya,” an Oscar winner for Allison Janney (Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara), and Rachel Song, who brought two...
Regardless of their home base, these producers all share a fierce commitment to storytelling. Their films have played festivals including Berlin, Sundance and Venice, and a number are screening at Cannes.
Producer Dina Emam’s her first narrative feature, “Yomeddine,” was selected for competition. It will vie alongside Russian-made “Leto,” a music filled biopic that Murad Osmann and Ilya Stewart produced for director Kirill Serebrennikov, now under house arrest in that country.
Variety has also selected the forces behind “I, Tonya,” an Oscar winner for Allison Janney (Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara), and Rachel Song, who brought two...
- 4/24/2018
- by Variety Staff
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Principal photography has commenced in Shilo, Manitoba, on Rhombus Media’s Afghanistan-set war film that Elevation Pictures will distribute in Canada. WTFilms handles international sales.
Rhombus Media is producing in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Telefilm Canada, Manitoba Film and Music, Grand Technology Resources and Canadian educational rights holder Canada Company are financing the project.
Producers have released two first-look images to Screendaily (pictured). Paul Gross directs and stars alongside Rossif Sutherland, Christine Horne, Allan Hawco, Clark Johnson and Nabil Elouahabi.
Hyena Road is in the vein of Lone Survivor and The Hurt Locker and focuses on three men in three different wars who find themselves at the intersection of modern warfare where all is not as it seems.
“This story has been foremost on my mind since visiting our troops in Afghanistan back in 2010,” said Gross, who plays a veteran intelligence officer. “Their passion and commitment was truly inspiring, so I’m thrilled...
Rhombus Media is producing in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Telefilm Canada, Manitoba Film and Music, Grand Technology Resources and Canadian educational rights holder Canada Company are financing the project.
Producers have released two first-look images to Screendaily (pictured). Paul Gross directs and stars alongside Rossif Sutherland, Christine Horne, Allan Hawco, Clark Johnson and Nabil Elouahabi.
Hyena Road is in the vein of Lone Survivor and The Hurt Locker and focuses on three men in three different wars who find themselves at the intersection of modern warfare where all is not as it seems.
“This story has been foremost on my mind since visiting our troops in Afghanistan back in 2010,” said Gross, who plays a veteran intelligence officer. “Their passion and commitment was truly inspiring, so I’m thrilled...
- 10/9/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Rhombus Media, WTFilms and Canada Company are teaming up on the Afghanistan war film, set to begin shooting in Manitoba in late September before relocating to Jordan.
Paris-based WTFilms is the international sales outside Canada, where Elevation Pictures will distribute. Canada Company will handle Canadian educational rights.
Passchendaele director Paul Gross will helm the project from his screenplay, described as a high-octane tale in the vein of The Hurt Locker and Lone Survivor.
Gross will play a veteran intelligence officer in the story of three men whose lives intersect in the murky world of modern warfare.
The producers will unveil Hyena Road at a breakfast on Saturday (September 6) and expect to announce further casting shortly.
Rhombus Media will produce in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Rhombus head Niv Fichman, whose credits include Enemy and Blindness, produces with Gross, Buffalo Gal’s Phyllis Laing, who previously made My Winnipeg, and [link=tt...
Paris-based WTFilms is the international sales outside Canada, where Elevation Pictures will distribute. Canada Company will handle Canadian educational rights.
Passchendaele director Paul Gross will helm the project from his screenplay, described as a high-octane tale in the vein of The Hurt Locker and Lone Survivor.
Gross will play a veteran intelligence officer in the story of three men whose lives intersect in the murky world of modern warfare.
The producers will unveil Hyena Road at a breakfast on Saturday (September 6) and expect to announce further casting shortly.
Rhombus Media will produce in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Rhombus head Niv Fichman, whose credits include Enemy and Blindness, produces with Gross, Buffalo Gal’s Phyllis Laing, who previously made My Winnipeg, and [link=tt...
- 9/6/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Rhombus Media, WTFilms and Canada Company are teaming up on the Afghanistan war film, set to begin shooting in Manitoba in late September before relocating to Jordan.
Paris-based WTFilms is the international sales outside Canada, where Elevation Pictures will distribute. Canada Company will handle Canadian educational rights.
Passchendaele director Paul Gross will helm the project from his screenplay, described as a high-octane tale in the vein of The Hurt Locker and Lone Survivor.
Gross will play a veteran intelligence officer in the story of three men whose lives intersect in the murky world of modern warfare.
The producers will unveil Hyena Road at a breakfast on Saturday (September 6) and expect to announce further casting shortly.
Rhombus Media will produce in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Rhombus head Niv Fichman, whose credits include Enemy and Blindness, produces with Gross, Buffalo Gal’s Phyllis Laing, who previously made My Winnipeg, and [link=tt...
Paris-based WTFilms is the international sales outside Canada, where Elevation Pictures will distribute. Canada Company will handle Canadian educational rights.
Passchendaele director Paul Gross will helm the project from his screenplay, described as a high-octane tale in the vein of The Hurt Locker and Lone Survivor.
Gross will play a veteran intelligence officer in the story of three men whose lives intersect in the murky world of modern warfare.
The producers will unveil Hyena Road at a breakfast on Saturday (September 6) and expect to announce further casting shortly.
Rhombus Media will produce in association with Buffalo Gal Pictures and Whizbang Films.
Rhombus head Niv Fichman, whose credits include Enemy and Blindness, produces with Gross, Buffalo Gal’s Phyllis Laing, who previously made My Winnipeg, and [link=tt...
- 9/6/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
I’ve read some overriding impressions of this year’s Sundance, Peter Knegt’s on Sex and Sundance naturally caught my attention immediately. While I agree with his observations and would add that CAA’s party was the cherry on top of it all, I actually think that whatever one’s concerns of the moment are, that subject will be addressed for that person by more than one film at Sundance. After all, the reason sex sells so well is that everyone is concerned with sex just about every minute of the day (according for Freud, that is)
The Wrap cites “a Sundance for bold, kinky subject matter, for lots of sex (onscreen), for indie directors ramping up the excess and melodrama in a way that would have seemed completely out of place back in the days when the phrase ‘a Sundance movie’ usually meant something restrained and naturalistic like ‘Frozen River’ or ‘In the Bedroom’."
Sundance might also be said to be skewed this year toward: Women (on the rise), Violence (by gun, government, war), or, for me personally, reality.
Whether the loss of reality as in Escape from Tomorrow, Crystal Fairy or Magic Magic, or even The World According to Dick Cheney, or God Loves Uganda in which the person’s grasp on reality was lost in the normal course of living, or the thin border between reality and fiction as expressed in the panels on documentaries or “true fiction” or the Sloan Foundation panel on Science and Film, I found that most of what I was watching and hearing was concerned with “reality”. For those who know me, they are aware that my concerns at this time are dealing with the shifting realities of my life. And that is what I found being addressed by the events of Sundance.
I did not see the acquisitions films. I concentrated on World Cinema and mostly Latino and Eastern European cinema, though I was lucky to catch What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love from Indonesia. The reality of the deaf, mute and blind differs from ours though love is the same and is summed up when one person says, “the male loves what he sees and the female loves what she hears”.
I was also lucky to have seen Fruitvale, the winner of so much acclaim. The huge disconnect between reality and fantasy is found in the security guards’ readiness to resort to violence simply by seeing the color of another man’s skin. They were either looking for a fight or were panicked by the number of revelers on the train. Either way it was a tragic ending, redeemed only by the yearly memorial held in Oscar Grant’s honor. God Loves Uganda shows an entire nation deluded by extremists who speak only the deadly evil of homosexuality. I couldn’t stand watching the degradation of a people taking place because of the glib jabber of a white right-wing evangelist purporting to be speaking for G’d. Circles deals with a reality creating events otherwise unimaginable except for their occurring within a context of race hatred and war. Crystal Fairy’s gringo protagonists live in an unreal world inspired by past emotional injuries and only come to reality through the support of compassionate and accepting friends. Magic Magic, Escape from Tomorrow, A Teacher and Houston are about complete breaks from reality by the protagonists. Il Futuro likewise, in the way of Last Tango in Paris, shows how Thanatos’ antithesis Eros create an extreme sexual acting out of grief. In Lasting, winner of the Cinematography Award, reality finally wins out and a wiser love ensues. The doc Who is Dayani Cristal shows a reality we cannot deny as people brave unreal challenges just to aspire to the American Dream. The World According to Dick Cheney shows a man so blind that he cannot think of a single fault in his own character. The havoc he caused to the U.S. as a result was so devastating that I could barely watch the film to its end. No brings the role of media to a happy conclusion, though the media hype itself was based totally in fantasy, as media most often is. I Used to be Darker is the exception as it is deals entirely with reality. Inequality For All was the only dose of realism I received and I was inspired by the film to speak out!
Fifteen films in six days is not too bad, though it doesn’t give me bragging rights to having seen the top winners of awards or acquisitions, except for Fruitvale.
A big change for me was that I attended panels along with attending my traditional Creative Coalition luncheon for inspiring teachers.
The panels also dealt with the thin line between reality and fiction, “true fiction” and documentaries, communication and sharing between science and film.
Science in Film Forum a 10 year collaboration between The Sloan Foundation and the Sundance Film Festival which aims to encourage more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology themes and characters seemed somewhat debilitated by the very issue of how scientists and filmmakers communicate. I will write more on this later, but in terms of reality and unreality, the difference between the delivery of a scientist and an actor (in this case Kate Winslet in Contagion) as they explain the phenomenology of contagion itself is dramatically different. And the questions a filmmaker asks of a scientist will determine how communicative a scientist can be in terms of making a movie more realistic. Frankly speaking, Jon Amiel and screenwriter Scott Burns made more sense to me than the scientists. More on that later as well. In Imitation of Life, the panel with Sarah Polley, Michael Polish, Segio Oksman and others, about how art mirrors life was completely about reality vs. lies, another form of unreality. The best panel was one I caught accidently about the N.Y. Times online Opinion Pages and the shorts on Op-Docs, the best of which is called The Public Square by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, taking place in Times Square where protesters counter an anti-Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who set fire to the Koran, by singing The Beatles. This is a great new venue for short films. If I were making shorts, I would aim to land here.
In the editors’ own words:
"Since Op-Docs, our forum for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with creative latitude across many subjects, started in November 2011, 46 short films and videos have been published on nytimes.com. Today (December 16), we begin a new Op-Docs feature: Scenes. It will be a platform for very short work — snippets of street life, brief observations and interviews, clips from experimental and artistic nonfiction videos — that follow less traditional documentary narrative conventions. This first Scenes video presents a classic New York moment, recorded last year." — The Editors
The morning of my last at Sundance, I went to the Marriott Headquarters and wrote, saw friends as they passed by...shared the good news of my friend Rigo’s We Are What We Are selling to eOne for six figures for the U.S. and shared his excitement for the future of this film. eOne already had acquired Canada and U.K., South Africa and Australia/ N.Z. too, so this was an affirmation of its sincere approval of the finished product. Since EOne's merger with Alliance, not only is it the largest distributor and international sales agent in Canada, with branches In U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but it is also the Only Big One. The smaller companies now have the chance to move up to second position since the number one and two companies have merged. I have no doubt that Mr. Victor Loewy, the seller of Alliance, will still hold the position of victor, after all, his wallet is bigger than any and everybody else's. It's funny because eOne, though it seemed to pop up from nowhere (tv), the people running it are the same configuration as always: Patrice Theroux, Patrice Roy, Bryan Gliserman, Patrick Roy, consultant and former Lionsgate founder Jeff Sackman. I love it when I see him, because he has succeeded in this business without ever changing who he is. That in itself merits reward.
This afternoon I met with Gamila Yistra who is in Sundance for the first time, exploring ways to extend and reconfigure The Binger Institute in Amsterdam where we began our professional teaching in its first years. From the idea to the screen, projects and their producers, writers and directors will have extensive workshopping, and the relationships will be lasting ones. As we were leaving the Marriott Headquarters to go to the Planned Parenthood party to meet Caroline Libresco who announced a special women's initiative in Sundance, we ran into Paul Federbush, Director of international for Sundance Institute's Film Program; he told her, to her surprise, that the had a meeting set for the next day.
At the party where Gamila met Caroline, we ran into Mary Jane Skalski who's Two Good Girls is playing here. Others at the Planned Parenthood reception were producer Nermeen Shaikh of Democracynow.org’s whose Daily Independent News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez is drawing great praise. The event was marked by the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade (January 22, 2013).
“As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood understands that abortion is a deeply personal and often complex decision for a woman to consider, if and when she needs it,” said Cecile Richards, president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “A woman should have accurate information about all of her options around her pregnancy. To protect her health and the health of her family, a woman must have access to safe, legal abortion without interference from politicians, as protected by the Supreme Court for the last 40 years.”
I took a walk down Main Street and a walk up some stairs and discovered a jewel of a hotel for those with the money to spend. Next time you’re there, check out the Washington School House. It was like stepping into an enchanted history where you could almost imagine living in 1889 when it was built.
As my last act in Sundance, I searched the lost and found for my lost hat (didn’t find it!), and went to the 6:30 press screening of Magic Magic. Stay tuned for my interview with Sebastian Silva about this and his other film, Crystal Fairy, which as my readers know, I liked very much. How did it happen that he got two films into the limited space of Sundance is not a question answered in my interview.
After that I saw the 9:00 screening of Houston, an adult film about a German "headhunter" who is sent from Germany to Houston to recruit the CEO of a large petroleum company for a German based conglomerate. Both films' central concern was the perception of reality, especially across cultural lines.
In conclusion, I would repeat that this year's theme was the nature of reality and its fluid parameters as perceived by various individuals.
The next day I left in the morning to return my car by noon. The road became icy and the planes were unable to take off until 4pm. Lucky for me my plane was scheduled to leave at 9 pm and left on schedule. I had hours to spend at the airport and was lucky in meeting Michele Turnure-Salleo, the Director of Filmmaker 360 of the San Francisco Film Society (http://www.sffs.org/). We have been trying to catch up all year and this was our chance. At the same little table where we set up our computers, we were joined by another Sundance refugee Anecita Agustinez who is a journalist nad producer for www.onnativeground.org a news site dealing with native American issues.
Watch for further blogs on Sundance:
Interviews with:
Director Jacek Borcuch and producer Piotr Kobus of Lasting (Isa: Manana), winner of the Sundance’s World Cinema Cinematography Award Director Srdan Golubovic and producer Jelena Mitrovic of Circles (Isa: Memento) and winner of World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision Director Sebastian Silva of Crystal Fairy, winner of Sundance’s Directing Award, and Magic Magic (Isa: 6 Sales). Documentary and science panels
See you in L.A. Or Berlin! Or Guadajara in March!
The Wrap cites “a Sundance for bold, kinky subject matter, for lots of sex (onscreen), for indie directors ramping up the excess and melodrama in a way that would have seemed completely out of place back in the days when the phrase ‘a Sundance movie’ usually meant something restrained and naturalistic like ‘Frozen River’ or ‘In the Bedroom’."
Sundance might also be said to be skewed this year toward: Women (on the rise), Violence (by gun, government, war), or, for me personally, reality.
Whether the loss of reality as in Escape from Tomorrow, Crystal Fairy or Magic Magic, or even The World According to Dick Cheney, or God Loves Uganda in which the person’s grasp on reality was lost in the normal course of living, or the thin border between reality and fiction as expressed in the panels on documentaries or “true fiction” or the Sloan Foundation panel on Science and Film, I found that most of what I was watching and hearing was concerned with “reality”. For those who know me, they are aware that my concerns at this time are dealing with the shifting realities of my life. And that is what I found being addressed by the events of Sundance.
I did not see the acquisitions films. I concentrated on World Cinema and mostly Latino and Eastern European cinema, though I was lucky to catch What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love from Indonesia. The reality of the deaf, mute and blind differs from ours though love is the same and is summed up when one person says, “the male loves what he sees and the female loves what she hears”.
I was also lucky to have seen Fruitvale, the winner of so much acclaim. The huge disconnect between reality and fantasy is found in the security guards’ readiness to resort to violence simply by seeing the color of another man’s skin. They were either looking for a fight or were panicked by the number of revelers on the train. Either way it was a tragic ending, redeemed only by the yearly memorial held in Oscar Grant’s honor. God Loves Uganda shows an entire nation deluded by extremists who speak only the deadly evil of homosexuality. I couldn’t stand watching the degradation of a people taking place because of the glib jabber of a white right-wing evangelist purporting to be speaking for G’d. Circles deals with a reality creating events otherwise unimaginable except for their occurring within a context of race hatred and war. Crystal Fairy’s gringo protagonists live in an unreal world inspired by past emotional injuries and only come to reality through the support of compassionate and accepting friends. Magic Magic, Escape from Tomorrow, A Teacher and Houston are about complete breaks from reality by the protagonists. Il Futuro likewise, in the way of Last Tango in Paris, shows how Thanatos’ antithesis Eros create an extreme sexual acting out of grief. In Lasting, winner of the Cinematography Award, reality finally wins out and a wiser love ensues. The doc Who is Dayani Cristal shows a reality we cannot deny as people brave unreal challenges just to aspire to the American Dream. The World According to Dick Cheney shows a man so blind that he cannot think of a single fault in his own character. The havoc he caused to the U.S. as a result was so devastating that I could barely watch the film to its end. No brings the role of media to a happy conclusion, though the media hype itself was based totally in fantasy, as media most often is. I Used to be Darker is the exception as it is deals entirely with reality. Inequality For All was the only dose of realism I received and I was inspired by the film to speak out!
Fifteen films in six days is not too bad, though it doesn’t give me bragging rights to having seen the top winners of awards or acquisitions, except for Fruitvale.
A big change for me was that I attended panels along with attending my traditional Creative Coalition luncheon for inspiring teachers.
The panels also dealt with the thin line between reality and fiction, “true fiction” and documentaries, communication and sharing between science and film.
Science in Film Forum a 10 year collaboration between The Sloan Foundation and the Sundance Film Festival which aims to encourage more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology themes and characters seemed somewhat debilitated by the very issue of how scientists and filmmakers communicate. I will write more on this later, but in terms of reality and unreality, the difference between the delivery of a scientist and an actor (in this case Kate Winslet in Contagion) as they explain the phenomenology of contagion itself is dramatically different. And the questions a filmmaker asks of a scientist will determine how communicative a scientist can be in terms of making a movie more realistic. Frankly speaking, Jon Amiel and screenwriter Scott Burns made more sense to me than the scientists. More on that later as well. In Imitation of Life, the panel with Sarah Polley, Michael Polish, Segio Oksman and others, about how art mirrors life was completely about reality vs. lies, another form of unreality. The best panel was one I caught accidently about the N.Y. Times online Opinion Pages and the shorts on Op-Docs, the best of which is called The Public Square by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, taking place in Times Square where protesters counter an anti-Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who set fire to the Koran, by singing The Beatles. This is a great new venue for short films. If I were making shorts, I would aim to land here.
In the editors’ own words:
"Since Op-Docs, our forum for short, opinionated documentaries, produced with creative latitude across many subjects, started in November 2011, 46 short films and videos have been published on nytimes.com. Today (December 16), we begin a new Op-Docs feature: Scenes. It will be a platform for very short work — snippets of street life, brief observations and interviews, clips from experimental and artistic nonfiction videos — that follow less traditional documentary narrative conventions. This first Scenes video presents a classic New York moment, recorded last year." — The Editors
The morning of my last at Sundance, I went to the Marriott Headquarters and wrote, saw friends as they passed by...shared the good news of my friend Rigo’s We Are What We Are selling to eOne for six figures for the U.S. and shared his excitement for the future of this film. eOne already had acquired Canada and U.K., South Africa and Australia/ N.Z. too, so this was an affirmation of its sincere approval of the finished product. Since EOne's merger with Alliance, not only is it the largest distributor and international sales agent in Canada, with branches In U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but it is also the Only Big One. The smaller companies now have the chance to move up to second position since the number one and two companies have merged. I have no doubt that Mr. Victor Loewy, the seller of Alliance, will still hold the position of victor, after all, his wallet is bigger than any and everybody else's. It's funny because eOne, though it seemed to pop up from nowhere (tv), the people running it are the same configuration as always: Patrice Theroux, Patrice Roy, Bryan Gliserman, Patrick Roy, consultant and former Lionsgate founder Jeff Sackman. I love it when I see him, because he has succeeded in this business without ever changing who he is. That in itself merits reward.
This afternoon I met with Gamila Yistra who is in Sundance for the first time, exploring ways to extend and reconfigure The Binger Institute in Amsterdam where we began our professional teaching in its first years. From the idea to the screen, projects and their producers, writers and directors will have extensive workshopping, and the relationships will be lasting ones. As we were leaving the Marriott Headquarters to go to the Planned Parenthood party to meet Caroline Libresco who announced a special women's initiative in Sundance, we ran into Paul Federbush, Director of international for Sundance Institute's Film Program; he told her, to her surprise, that the had a meeting set for the next day.
At the party where Gamila met Caroline, we ran into Mary Jane Skalski who's Two Good Girls is playing here. Others at the Planned Parenthood reception were producer Nermeen Shaikh of Democracynow.org’s whose Daily Independent News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez is drawing great praise. The event was marked by the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade (January 22, 2013).
“As the nation’s leading women’s health care provider and advocate, Planned Parenthood understands that abortion is a deeply personal and often complex decision for a woman to consider, if and when she needs it,” said Cecile Richards, president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “A woman should have accurate information about all of her options around her pregnancy. To protect her health and the health of her family, a woman must have access to safe, legal abortion without interference from politicians, as protected by the Supreme Court for the last 40 years.”
I took a walk down Main Street and a walk up some stairs and discovered a jewel of a hotel for those with the money to spend. Next time you’re there, check out the Washington School House. It was like stepping into an enchanted history where you could almost imagine living in 1889 when it was built.
As my last act in Sundance, I searched the lost and found for my lost hat (didn’t find it!), and went to the 6:30 press screening of Magic Magic. Stay tuned for my interview with Sebastian Silva about this and his other film, Crystal Fairy, which as my readers know, I liked very much. How did it happen that he got two films into the limited space of Sundance is not a question answered in my interview.
After that I saw the 9:00 screening of Houston, an adult film about a German "headhunter" who is sent from Germany to Houston to recruit the CEO of a large petroleum company for a German based conglomerate. Both films' central concern was the perception of reality, especially across cultural lines.
In conclusion, I would repeat that this year's theme was the nature of reality and its fluid parameters as perceived by various individuals.
The next day I left in the morning to return my car by noon. The road became icy and the planes were unable to take off until 4pm. Lucky for me my plane was scheduled to leave at 9 pm and left on schedule. I had hours to spend at the airport and was lucky in meeting Michele Turnure-Salleo, the Director of Filmmaker 360 of the San Francisco Film Society (http://www.sffs.org/). We have been trying to catch up all year and this was our chance. At the same little table where we set up our computers, we were joined by another Sundance refugee Anecita Agustinez who is a journalist nad producer for www.onnativeground.org a news site dealing with native American issues.
Watch for further blogs on Sundance:
Interviews with:
Director Jacek Borcuch and producer Piotr Kobus of Lasting (Isa: Manana), winner of the Sundance’s World Cinema Cinematography Award Director Srdan Golubovic and producer Jelena Mitrovic of Circles (Isa: Memento) and winner of World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Artistic Vision Director Sebastian Silva of Crystal Fairy, winner of Sundance’s Directing Award, and Magic Magic (Isa: 6 Sales). Documentary and science panels
See you in L.A. Or Berlin! Or Guadajara in March!
- 1/29/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Toronto -- Will he stay or will he go? The question of the future of Victor Loewy on news Alliance Films has finally been acquired by rival Canadian indie distributor Entertainment One was on the minds of film distribution players at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday. The Canadian industry has been treating the merger of eOne and Alliance Films as a given since news of takeover talks first emerged ahead of the Cannes Film Festival. What has remained uncertain was what was on Loewy's mind as eOne, led by CEO Darren Throop and filmed entertainment chief Patrice Theroux , his
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- 9/7/2012
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto - Goldman Sachs has put its majority stake in Alliance Films, the Canadian-based movie distribution business, up for sale. The Financial Times newspaper on Monday reported Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, the investment bank’s private equity arm, has recruited the Bank of Montreal to shop a two-thirds stake in Canada’s biggest indie film distributor. Investissement Québec, the investment arm of the Quebec provincial government, owns a one-third stake in Alliance Films to help Goldman Sachs conform to Canadian foreign ownership restrictions. Alliance Films, which is led by Victor Loewy, includes an extensive film library, satellite divisions in Britain
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read more...
- 1/3/2012
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
From the very beginning, the Andy and Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer adaptation of the David Mitchell novel Cloud Atlas has sounded pretty crazy. There's the simple fact that the book is built out of six stories, each of which follows a different set of characters and is based on a different genre of storytelling. (You'll find a '70s thriller, a post-apocalyptic story of rebuilding civilization, a parable about corporate-controlled society, and more.) Some of the characters are releated to others in different stories, and there's the idea that one soul connects all the tales. That's just the book! The film features a massive cast, including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Bae Doona. We know that many cast members are playing multiple characters in different stories, sometimes changing race and gender. And the film is being shot in two parallel halves,...
- 12/6/2011
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
All the pre-shoot buzz and left-of-center rumors comprising our impressions of Cloud Atlas will dissipate in due time, but the process of covering these talks has been quite fun. The latest batch comes from a New York Times (via Filmonic) profile, in which various members of the production — among them Halle Berry and corporate higher-ups — discussed both the filmmaking process and creative results of a Wachowskis/Tom Tykwer collaboration.
I’m happy to report that Berry‘s comments aren’t the typical, hype-laden chatter most stars throw out in promotion of their new film. Instead, the actress provided insight into working on a project with multiple thespians, all of whom are disguising their own appearances throughout. (It sounds confusing.) For her, the most significant adjustment is collaborating with “two different film units and two different film crews and to go between the two from one day to the next.” Hard...
I’m happy to report that Berry‘s comments aren’t the typical, hype-laden chatter most stars throw out in promotion of their new film. Instead, the actress provided insight into working on a project with multiple thespians, all of whom are disguising their own appearances throughout. (It sounds confusing.) For her, the most significant adjustment is collaborating with “two different film units and two different film crews and to go between the two from one day to the next.” Hard...
- 12/6/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Much of my Cannes coverage has focused on the ferocious bidding battles among American distributors for films like The Wettest County, The Iron Lady and Looper. Even though DVD is still in the toilet and nobody can quite say why the business has rebounded, there seems to be enthusiasm in all quarters. Both offshore distributors and sellers are having a rip roaring good time here. How good? I'll focus on Alliance Films as an example and Xavier Marchand, who as president of worldwide distribution for Alliance is buying pictures for its distribution companies in Canada (Alliance and Alliance Vivafilm), UK (Momentum Pictures), and Spain (Aurum Producciones). He has closed 14 films, twice what he and chairman Victor Loewy expected. Marchand thought it might get busier than in past years, when he was sent a dozen scripts to read the weekend before flying here and found many of the late entries to be tantalizing.
- 5/16/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Omnilab Media managing director Christopher Mapp is one of the 12 new additions to the list of ‘Ambassadors’ for the inaugural ScreenSingapore event and market.
Other Australian Ambassadors include Rgm’s Devesh Chetty, Icon Productions’ Bruce Davey, Hoyts’ Delfin Fernandez, Golden Village’s David Glass, Ahl’s David Seargeant and Village Roadshow’s Robert Kirby.
ScreenSingapore has been conceived by the Singapore Media Development Authority as an international cinema event offering policy makers, industry buyers, sellers, producers and creative talent from all over the world a platform to exchange ideas, business opportunities and showcase their product. It will include an entertainment trade/technology market, premieres of upcoming Asian and Us releases, conferences, masterclasses and workshops.
Screen Singapore will be held from June 5-12.
The 52 Ambassadors are:
Milt Barlow
China Lion Film Distribution
Bill Block
Qed International
Moritz Borman
Onda Entertainment
Nadia Bronson
Nadia Bronson & Associates
Devesh Chetty
Rgm Media Ltd
Sukee Chew...
Other Australian Ambassadors include Rgm’s Devesh Chetty, Icon Productions’ Bruce Davey, Hoyts’ Delfin Fernandez, Golden Village’s David Glass, Ahl’s David Seargeant and Village Roadshow’s Robert Kirby.
ScreenSingapore has been conceived by the Singapore Media Development Authority as an international cinema event offering policy makers, industry buyers, sellers, producers and creative talent from all over the world a platform to exchange ideas, business opportunities and showcase their product. It will include an entertainment trade/technology market, premieres of upcoming Asian and Us releases, conferences, masterclasses and workshops.
Screen Singapore will be held from June 5-12.
The 52 Ambassadors are:
Milt Barlow
China Lion Film Distribution
Bill Block
Qed International
Moritz Borman
Onda Entertainment
Nadia Bronson
Nadia Bronson & Associates
Devesh Chetty
Rgm Media Ltd
Sukee Chew...
- 3/23/2011
- by Miguel Gonzalez
- Encore Magazine
Canadian film distributor Alliance Films have arranged to distribute CBS Films on all platforms through 2012 under a new deal.
Upcoming movies include CBS Films' first release, "Extraordinary Measures," starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell, opening Jan. 22;
The romantic comedy "The Back-Up Plan," stars Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin, opening April 16;
The Montreal-lensed teen romance "Beastly," stars Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer, opening July 30;
Action thriller "Faster," stars Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton, opening Fall 2010.
CBS Films plans to release four to six films annually, budgeted under $50 million.
"We are delighted to represent CBS Films in Canada," said Alliance Films chairman Victor Loewy, based in Montreal.
"They are going to be an important force in the marketplace and a strong addition to our slate of films..."...
Upcoming movies include CBS Films' first release, "Extraordinary Measures," starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell, opening Jan. 22;
The romantic comedy "The Back-Up Plan," stars Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin, opening April 16;
The Montreal-lensed teen romance "Beastly," stars Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer, opening July 30;
Action thriller "Faster," stars Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton, opening Fall 2010.
CBS Films plans to release four to six films annually, budgeted under $50 million.
"We are delighted to represent CBS Films in Canada," said Alliance Films chairman Victor Loewy, based in Montreal.
"They are going to be an important force in the marketplace and a strong addition to our slate of films..."...
- 12/4/2009
- by SneakPeek.Ca
- SneakPeek
Vancouver -- Alliance Films has closed a trio of multiyear distribution agreements, inking deals with financiers Relativity Media, Grosvenor Park and Freestyle Releasing.
The three partnerships expand on a slate of titles already supplied by Focus Features, the Weinstein Co., Overture Films and Remstar.
Relativity's first two titles for Alliance are the thriller "A Perfect Getaway," starring Milla Jovovich, and the drama "Brothers," with Natalie Portman. The deal calls for at least six films per year in Canada and the U.K. Relativity has raised $5.5 billion in film financing to date.
Grosvenor Park has 400 titles and $5 billion in financing under its belt. Upcoming titles for Canadian distribution include "Disaster Movie" by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer; Ed Zwick wartime drama "Defiance," starring Daniel Craig; and Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker."
Freestyle Releasing ("Bottle Shock") is slated to release the Halloween film "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" and the animated feature "Delgo.
The three partnerships expand on a slate of titles already supplied by Focus Features, the Weinstein Co., Overture Films and Remstar.
Relativity's first two titles for Alliance are the thriller "A Perfect Getaway," starring Milla Jovovich, and the drama "Brothers," with Natalie Portman. The deal calls for at least six films per year in Canada and the U.K. Relativity has raised $5.5 billion in film financing to date.
Grosvenor Park has 400 titles and $5 billion in financing under its belt. Upcoming titles for Canadian distribution include "Disaster Movie" by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer; Ed Zwick wartime drama "Defiance," starring Daniel Craig; and Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker."
Freestyle Releasing ("Bottle Shock") is slated to release the Halloween film "The Haunting of Molly Hartley" and the animated feature "Delgo.
- 9/2/2008
- by By Adele Weder
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto -- Canadian distributor Alliance Films is in talks to buy out TF1 International, the film sales unit of the Gallic TV network.
Victor Loewy, CEO of Montreal-based Alliance Films, which was acquired last year by Goldman Sachs, confirmed Tuesday that he has kicked the tires but has yet to make a formal offer.
"This is part of an open process with more than one suitor, so we're not in a position to make a bid," Loewy said.
A possible Canadian play for TF1 International comes as Alliance Films and domestic rival Entertainment One increasingly eye Europe as they build out multiterritory distribution networks.
In addition to Canada, Alliance has existing distribution arms in the U.K. and Spain. A possible foray into France would follow January's acquisition by the Quebec provincial government of a $100 million stake in Alliance, a deal that included shifting its head office from Toronto to French-speaking Montreal.
Entertainment One, which is backed by London-based equity player Marwyn Investment Management and trades on Britain's Aim market, last year acquired Britain's Contender Entertainment and Benelux distributor Rcv as part of its European expansion.
A deal for TF1 International would cap a busy summer for Alliance.
Canada's largest indie distributor is set to go public with an output deal with Relativity Media that was initially inked in Cannes. And a long-running Canadian output deal for New Line product that was earlier pulled from Alliance when Warner Bros. took the ministudio in-house is back on.
Warner Bros. has agreed to keep open until the end of 2009 the pipeline to Alliance of New Line product for release in Canada.
Victor Loewy, CEO of Montreal-based Alliance Films, which was acquired last year by Goldman Sachs, confirmed Tuesday that he has kicked the tires but has yet to make a formal offer.
"This is part of an open process with more than one suitor, so we're not in a position to make a bid," Loewy said.
A possible Canadian play for TF1 International comes as Alliance Films and domestic rival Entertainment One increasingly eye Europe as they build out multiterritory distribution networks.
In addition to Canada, Alliance has existing distribution arms in the U.K. and Spain. A possible foray into France would follow January's acquisition by the Quebec provincial government of a $100 million stake in Alliance, a deal that included shifting its head office from Toronto to French-speaking Montreal.
Entertainment One, which is backed by London-based equity player Marwyn Investment Management and trades on Britain's Aim market, last year acquired Britain's Contender Entertainment and Benelux distributor Rcv as part of its European expansion.
A deal for TF1 International would cap a busy summer for Alliance.
Canada's largest indie distributor is set to go public with an output deal with Relativity Media that was initially inked in Cannes. And a long-running Canadian output deal for New Line product that was earlier pulled from Alliance when Warner Bros. took the ministudio in-house is back on.
Warner Bros. has agreed to keep open until the end of 2009 the pipeline to Alliance of New Line product for release in Canada.
- 7/15/2008
- by By Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Edinburgh International Film Festival
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The "Stone of Destiny" in Charles Martin Smith's pedestrian new film is the macguffin that a group of Scottish nationalists plan to repatriate from the heart of England in order to encourage the movement for Scotland's independence.
Shrouded in myth and also known as the Coronation Stone, it's a slab of rock taken from Scotland by an English king 1000 years ago and kept for ages at Westminster Abbey. The film is based on a true incident in 1950 when some students from Glasgow broke into the Abbey and stole it.
Intended as a rousing feel-good tale of rebellion, the film suffers from slack direction and bland performances with very little tension and no surprises. Box office prospects are slim beyond what can be drummed up from the worldwide Scottish community but it's not going to cause many to spill their whisky.
Based on a book by central character Ian Hamilton (Charles Cox), "Stone of Destiny" relates in some awe what is obviously meant to be the daredevil escapade of an idealistic young man who relishes the opportunity of making a name for himself.
Although his best mate (Billy Boyd) decides not to put his education and future employment at risk, Ian recruits two other young men (Stephen McCole and Ciaron Kelly) and a pretty young woman named Kay (Kate Mara) with no arm-twisting at all.
With financial backing from a prominent educator and politician (Robert Carlyle), they set off to London to scout the layout of Westminster Abbey and plan their raid. Curiously, the presence of four young Scottish people in London arouses a great deal of suspicion as if everyone knows what they're up to. It stretches credibility and so do the foursome's contrived antics during the raid, which involve missed signals, dropped keys and lots of running about in the rain.
Veterans Carlyle, Mullan and Flicker have cameos but the film rests on the youngsters, especially Cox and Mara, who do their best but cannot enliven the dull script. By sticking reasonably close to the actual events, the film has to reach for its heroes' small victories but they're not enough to make the picture memorable.
Production: Infinity Features Entertainment and the Mob Film Company. Cast: Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Stephen McCole, Ciaron Kelly, Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullan, Brenda Flicker. Director: Charles Martin Smith. Screenwriter: Charles Martin Smith. Producers: Andrew Boswell, Rob Merilees. Executive producers: Terrence Yason, Michael S. Murphy, Charles Martin Smith, William Vince, Carole Sheridan, Victor Loewy. Director of photography: Glen Winter. Production designer: Tom Sayer. Music: Mychael Danna. Costume designer: Trisha Biggar.
EDINBURGH, Scotland -- The "Stone of Destiny" in Charles Martin Smith's pedestrian new film is the macguffin that a group of Scottish nationalists plan to repatriate from the heart of England in order to encourage the movement for Scotland's independence.
Shrouded in myth and also known as the Coronation Stone, it's a slab of rock taken from Scotland by an English king 1000 years ago and kept for ages at Westminster Abbey. The film is based on a true incident in 1950 when some students from Glasgow broke into the Abbey and stole it.
Intended as a rousing feel-good tale of rebellion, the film suffers from slack direction and bland performances with very little tension and no surprises. Box office prospects are slim beyond what can be drummed up from the worldwide Scottish community but it's not going to cause many to spill their whisky.
Based on a book by central character Ian Hamilton (Charles Cox), "Stone of Destiny" relates in some awe what is obviously meant to be the daredevil escapade of an idealistic young man who relishes the opportunity of making a name for himself.
Although his best mate (Billy Boyd) decides not to put his education and future employment at risk, Ian recruits two other young men (Stephen McCole and Ciaron Kelly) and a pretty young woman named Kay (Kate Mara) with no arm-twisting at all.
With financial backing from a prominent educator and politician (Robert Carlyle), they set off to London to scout the layout of Westminster Abbey and plan their raid. Curiously, the presence of four young Scottish people in London arouses a great deal of suspicion as if everyone knows what they're up to. It stretches credibility and so do the foursome's contrived antics during the raid, which involve missed signals, dropped keys and lots of running about in the rain.
Veterans Carlyle, Mullan and Flicker have cameos but the film rests on the youngsters, especially Cox and Mara, who do their best but cannot enliven the dull script. By sticking reasonably close to the actual events, the film has to reach for its heroes' small victories but they're not enough to make the picture memorable.
Production: Infinity Features Entertainment and the Mob Film Company. Cast: Charlie Cox, Kate Mara, Stephen McCole, Ciaron Kelly, Billy Boyd, Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullan, Brenda Flicker. Director: Charles Martin Smith. Screenwriter: Charles Martin Smith. Producers: Andrew Boswell, Rob Merilees. Executive producers: Terrence Yason, Michael S. Murphy, Charles Martin Smith, William Vince, Carole Sheridan, Victor Loewy. Director of photography: Glen Winter. Production designer: Tom Sayer. Music: Mychael Danna. Costume designer: Trisha Biggar.
- 6/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes film review, In Competition Blindness
Do you suppose an apocalyptic fable would ever possess any lightness or even rogue humor? No, social disintegration and degradation are the order of the day, and Fernando Meirelles' Blindness is no exception.
There is an extraordinary visual plan and considerable cinematic challenges to overcome for the Brazilian filmmaker (City of God) in adapting Nobel laureate Jose Saramago's 1995 novel to the screen so there is much here to quicken the pulse and engage the mind. Blindness is provocative cinema. But it also is predictable cinema: It startles but does not surprise.
An appreciative critical response will be needed stateside for Miramax to market this Brazilian-Canadian-Uruguayan co-production. Other territories may benefit from the casting of an array of international actors with some boxoffice draw.
The script by Don McKellar bears witness to a mysterious plague of blindness, a "white" disease in which people's eyes suddenly see only white light. As a cosmopolitan city struggles to cope with the horrifying fallout, a panicked government orders the immediate quarantine of those infected. The herding of shunned people into prison-like camps clearly provokes images of any number of 20th-century atrocities.
The film follows a few characters into a filthy, poorly equipped asylum where social order swiftly breaks down into gang conflict between republicans and royalists, between democracy and dictatorship. The republicans have a ringer though. The wife (Julianne Moore) of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) -- an eye doctor in a deliberate irony -- can actually see but tells no one.
As in Lord of the Flies or even Animal Farm, the order that establishes itself is elitist, corrupt and lethal. A bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) in the next ward is soon demanding valuables, then sexual favors for the distribution of the food, which he unaccountably controls. His ringer is a nasty old man (Maury Chaykin), blind from birth, who knows how to navigate in the world of sightlessness.
First comes acquiescence by the other wards, then rapes, murders and finally rebellion. Only then do the prisoners discover the guards have long disappeared. The entire world is caught in the throes of this plague. The ragged survivors stumble into a city of starvation and brutality.
Meirelles bathes the screen in a kind of white overexposure and other times a blurriness to convey the terrifying sense of dislocation and fear. You see the characters -- and the digusting filth they do not -- yet feel their helplessness when the screen jars or distorts your vision.
For this part, screenwriter McKellar creates two points of view -- initially that of the sighted wife, who tries to create order without giving away her ability to see, then switching occasionally to a man with an eye-patch (Danny Glover), whose philosophical commentary on metaphorical blindness expresses an authorial point of view.
One considerable problem with the first viewpoint is the character's slowness to act. She could easily have prevented any number of murders and rapes (including her own). Her failure marks an inexplicable failure of both nerves and morals that warps this not always convincing fable. And Glover's intellectual postures amid such physical distress come off as slightly pompous, perhaps cruelly so.
This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action. (Only a Stevie Wonder song and a line about volunteers raising their hands draw laughs.) Even the eventual lifting of the state of siege, while a welcome ending, has the arbitrariness of an author who has made his point and simply wants to sign off.
Removing a fable from the comfort of the printed page to the photo-reality of film can sometimes lead to its own kind of blindness.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, Yusuke Iseya. Director: Fernando Meirelles. Screenwriter: Don McKellar. Based on the novel by: Jose Saramago. Producers: Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai. Executive producers: Gail Egan, Simon Channing Williams, Tom Yoda, Akira Ishii, Victor Loewy Director of photography: Cesar Charlone. Production designer: Tule Peake. Music: Marco Antonio Guimaraes. Costume designer: Renee April. Editor: Daniel Rezende.
Production companies: Miramax Films presents a Rhombus Media/O2 Filmes/Bee Vine Pictures production
Sales: Focus Features.
Do you suppose an apocalyptic fable would ever possess any lightness or even rogue humor? No, social disintegration and degradation are the order of the day, and Fernando Meirelles' Blindness is no exception.
There is an extraordinary visual plan and considerable cinematic challenges to overcome for the Brazilian filmmaker (City of God) in adapting Nobel laureate Jose Saramago's 1995 novel to the screen so there is much here to quicken the pulse and engage the mind. Blindness is provocative cinema. But it also is predictable cinema: It startles but does not surprise.
An appreciative critical response will be needed stateside for Miramax to market this Brazilian-Canadian-Uruguayan co-production. Other territories may benefit from the casting of an array of international actors with some boxoffice draw.
The script by Don McKellar bears witness to a mysterious plague of blindness, a "white" disease in which people's eyes suddenly see only white light. As a cosmopolitan city struggles to cope with the horrifying fallout, a panicked government orders the immediate quarantine of those infected. The herding of shunned people into prison-like camps clearly provokes images of any number of 20th-century atrocities.
The film follows a few characters into a filthy, poorly equipped asylum where social order swiftly breaks down into gang conflict between republicans and royalists, between democracy and dictatorship. The republicans have a ringer though. The wife (Julianne Moore) of a doctor (Mark Ruffalo) -- an eye doctor in a deliberate irony -- can actually see but tells no one.
As in Lord of the Flies or even Animal Farm, the order that establishes itself is elitist, corrupt and lethal. A bartender (Gael Garcia Bernal) in the next ward is soon demanding valuables, then sexual favors for the distribution of the food, which he unaccountably controls. His ringer is a nasty old man (Maury Chaykin), blind from birth, who knows how to navigate in the world of sightlessness.
First comes acquiescence by the other wards, then rapes, murders and finally rebellion. Only then do the prisoners discover the guards have long disappeared. The entire world is caught in the throes of this plague. The ragged survivors stumble into a city of starvation and brutality.
Meirelles bathes the screen in a kind of white overexposure and other times a blurriness to convey the terrifying sense of dislocation and fear. You see the characters -- and the digusting filth they do not -- yet feel their helplessness when the screen jars or distorts your vision.
For this part, screenwriter McKellar creates two points of view -- initially that of the sighted wife, who tries to create order without giving away her ability to see, then switching occasionally to a man with an eye-patch (Danny Glover), whose philosophical commentary on metaphorical blindness expresses an authorial point of view.
One considerable problem with the first viewpoint is the character's slowness to act. She could easily have prevented any number of murders and rapes (including her own). Her failure marks an inexplicable failure of both nerves and morals that warps this not always convincing fable. And Glover's intellectual postures amid such physical distress come off as slightly pompous, perhaps cruelly so.
This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action. (Only a Stevie Wonder song and a line about volunteers raising their hands draw laughs.) Even the eventual lifting of the state of siege, while a welcome ending, has the arbitrariness of an author who has made his point and simply wants to sign off.
Removing a fable from the comfort of the printed page to the photo-reality of film can sometimes lead to its own kind of blindness.
Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, Yusuke Iseya. Director: Fernando Meirelles. Screenwriter: Don McKellar. Based on the novel by: Jose Saramago. Producers: Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai. Executive producers: Gail Egan, Simon Channing Williams, Tom Yoda, Akira Ishii, Victor Loewy Director of photography: Cesar Charlone. Production designer: Tule Peake. Music: Marco Antonio Guimaraes. Costume designer: Renee April. Editor: Daniel Rezende.
Production companies: Miramax Films presents a Rhombus Media/O2 Filmes/Bee Vine Pictures production
Sales: Focus Features.
- 5/14/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian indie movie distributor Alliance Films believes its long relationship with Miramax Films is likely coming to an end.
"We're speculating, as we don't have a formal notice" from Miramax, Alliance chairman Victor Loewy said Monday after Disney released Miramax's Smart People in Canada over the weekend.
Alliance Films and its predecessor, Alliance Atlantis Communications, has released all Miramax titles in Canada since 1994, including such boxoffice hits as Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love and Life Is Beautiful.
Now that pipeline has stopped as Miramax weighs its distribution options for the Canadian market.
"I'm not holding my breath. They have not decided who they are going to go with," Loewy said.
He added that Alliance has released Miramax titles on a film-by-film basis since 2005, when the Weinstein brothers left the distributor they founded in 1979 and set up their own company.
The last formal agreement between Miramax and Alliance Films, which has former Miramax executive Charles Layton as its president, expired Dec. 31.
A source at Miramax said that the U.S.
"We're speculating, as we don't have a formal notice" from Miramax, Alliance chairman Victor Loewy said Monday after Disney released Miramax's Smart People in Canada over the weekend.
Alliance Films and its predecessor, Alliance Atlantis Communications, has released all Miramax titles in Canada since 1994, including such boxoffice hits as Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love and Life Is Beautiful.
Now that pipeline has stopped as Miramax weighs its distribution options for the Canadian market.
"I'm not holding my breath. They have not decided who they are going to go with," Loewy said.
He added that Alliance has released Miramax titles on a film-by-film basis since 2005, when the Weinstein brothers left the distributor they founded in 1979 and set up their own company.
The last formal agreement between Miramax and Alliance Films, which has former Miramax executive Charles Layton as its president, expired Dec. 31.
A source at Miramax said that the U.S.
- 4/21/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian producer Sullivan Entertainment on Wednesday said it has hired former Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution executive Doug Smith as a sales consultant for its distribution arm.
Smith becomes the latest former Alliance Atlantis movie distribution executive to resurface elsewhere in the industry after a takeover of MPD, Canada's largest indie movie distributor by Goldman Sachs & Co.
Smith joined Alliance Atlantis in 1997, survived management turmoil in late 2006 that cost the jobs of Victor Loewy, Patrice Theroux and Paul Laberge, before he was promoted by newly installed MPD CEO John Bailey to become executive vp of sales.
But late last year, after Goldman Sachs acquired Alliance Atlantis, Loewy was reinstalled at the helm and Bailey and his regime was out.
Smith will oversee the distribution arm of Sullivan Entertainment, which is best known for worldwide sales of its "Green Gables-Avonlea" franchise and third party product.
Other former Alliance Atlantis executives that recently have gone elsewhere includes Patrice Theroux named president of distributor Entertainment One and Paul Laberge as the new COO of the Toronto-based Fight Network cable channel.
Smith becomes the latest former Alliance Atlantis movie distribution executive to resurface elsewhere in the industry after a takeover of MPD, Canada's largest indie movie distributor by Goldman Sachs & Co.
Smith joined Alliance Atlantis in 1997, survived management turmoil in late 2006 that cost the jobs of Victor Loewy, Patrice Theroux and Paul Laberge, before he was promoted by newly installed MPD CEO John Bailey to become executive vp of sales.
But late last year, after Goldman Sachs acquired Alliance Atlantis, Loewy was reinstalled at the helm and Bailey and his regime was out.
Smith will oversee the distribution arm of Sullivan Entertainment, which is best known for worldwide sales of its "Green Gables-Avonlea" franchise and third party product.
Other former Alliance Atlantis executives that recently have gone elsewhere includes Patrice Theroux named president of distributor Entertainment One and Paul Laberge as the new COO of the Toronto-based Fight Network cable channel.
- 3/13/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian distributor Alliance Films has inked a deal to release Overture Films titles in Canada through 2010.
The multiyear distribution deal, unveiled Tuesday, gives Alliance, formerly Motion Picture Distribution LLP, rights to an initial 8-12 Overture titles released annually in Canada.
The agreement kicks off Jan. 25 with "Mad Money", directed by Callie Khouri and starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes.
"(Alliance Films) are one-stop shopping for us," Overture CEO Chris McGurk said, pointing to the Canadian distributor's theatrical releasing arm, home video distribution and nationwide pay TV footprint.
"And there's no one as talented as (Alliance executive chairman) Victor Loewy). He's part of the landscape in Canada," McGurk added. "There's no one in his league".
Alliance Films also releases titles from Miramax, New Line, the Weinstein Co. and Focus Features.
For his part, Alliance Films' Loewy said he was drawn to Overture's "well-seasoned team," led by McGurk and COO Danny Rosett. He also pointed to Overture's deep pockets via backing from John Malone's Liberty Media.
The multiyear distribution deal, unveiled Tuesday, gives Alliance, formerly Motion Picture Distribution LLP, rights to an initial 8-12 Overture titles released annually in Canada.
The agreement kicks off Jan. 25 with "Mad Money", directed by Callie Khouri and starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes.
"(Alliance Films) are one-stop shopping for us," Overture CEO Chris McGurk said, pointing to the Canadian distributor's theatrical releasing arm, home video distribution and nationwide pay TV footprint.
"And there's no one as talented as (Alliance executive chairman) Victor Loewy). He's part of the landscape in Canada," McGurk added. "There's no one in his league".
Alliance Films also releases titles from Miramax, New Line, the Weinstein Co. and Focus Features.
For his part, Alliance Films' Loewy said he was drawn to Overture's "well-seasoned team," led by McGurk and COO Danny Rosett. He also pointed to Overture's deep pockets via backing from John Malone's Liberty Media.
- 9/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Ending a year of corporate disarray, Canadian movie distribution giant Motion Picture Distribution was relaunched Monday by Goldman Sachs & Co. as Alliance Films, with industry veteran Victor Loewy taking the reins as executive chairman.
Additionally, Goldman Sachs installed Charles Layton, former executive chairman at Miramax, as president of the company, while former Momentum Pictures executive Xavier Marchand was named president of international distribution.
The latest executive signings ends a year of corporate turmoil at Alliance Films, which is envied by industry rivals for plum output deals with New Line Cinema, Miramax, Focus Features and the Weinstein Co. Alliance Films also runs Viva Films, Quebec's largest distributor of English- and French-language films.
"It's back to normal", Loewy said Monday of a deck-clearing that sees MPD CEO John Bailey and executive managing director Jim Sherry leaving to make way for his new management team.
Marchand is returning to the MPD fold after he was suspended last February as managing director of London-based Momentum Pictures and Spain's Aurum Produccions, pending an internal probe into his conduct.
Additionally, Goldman Sachs installed Charles Layton, former executive chairman at Miramax, as president of the company, while former Momentum Pictures executive Xavier Marchand was named president of international distribution.
The latest executive signings ends a year of corporate turmoil at Alliance Films, which is envied by industry rivals for plum output deals with New Line Cinema, Miramax, Focus Features and the Weinstein Co. Alliance Films also runs Viva Films, Quebec's largest distributor of English- and French-language films.
"It's back to normal", Loewy said Monday of a deck-clearing that sees MPD CEO John Bailey and executive managing director Jim Sherry leaving to make way for his new management team.
Marchand is returning to the MPD fold after he was suspended last February as managing director of London-based Momentum Pictures and Spain's Aurum Produccions, pending an internal probe into his conduct.
- 9/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Alliance Atlantis Communications on Friday said New Line Cinema will maintain its output agreement with its movie distribution arm Motion Picture Distribution LP after a bitter legal battle with three former MPD executives was settled out of court. Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis said it has rehired former MPD chairman Victor Loewy as an independent consultant overseeing the release of New Line titles in Canada. Loewy ran MPD, which is 51% controlled by Alliance Atlantis, until he resigned on July 19 in protest over the firing of former CEO Patrice Theroux and former general counsel Paul Laberge.
- 9/29/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Victor Loewy, the former Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution chairman, appears set to return to the Canadian independent movie distributor to handle the release of New Line Cinema titles. Executives at Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., the parent of Motion Picture Distribution LP, declined comment Thursday on current talks to bring Loewy back into the company and only issued a terse statement. "While there is a dialogue going on between the parties relating to that process, it is premature to comment or speculate on the range of possible results that may occur," Alliance Atlantis said.
- 9/15/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Victor Loewy, the former Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution chairman, appears set to return to the Canadian independent movie distributor to handle the release of New Line Cinema titles. Executives at Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., the parent of Motion Picture Distribution LP, declined comment Thursday on current talks to bring Loewy back into the company and only issued a terse statement. "While there is a dialogue going on between the parties relating to that process, it is premature to comment or speculate on the range of possible results that may occur," Alliance Atlantis said.
- 9/14/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Embattled Canadian independent movie distributor Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution LP on Friday said it has extended an existing three-year distribution agreement with the Weinstein brothers and Dimension Films for another year to 2010. Financial terms of the deal was not disclosed. But the extension to Dec. 31, 2010 for handling movies from the Weinstein Co. and Dimension comes as Toronto-based MDP attempts to put six weeks of corporate turmoil caused by the recent departure of chairman Victor Loewy behind it "Alliance Atlantis continues to be the best distributor for our product in Canada," Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein said in a statement.
- 9/11/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution LP and its former chairman Victor Loewy have opened informal talks towards possibly ending six weeks of boardroom turmoil at Canada's largest independent movie distributor. Sources indicate Loewy, who resigned from the company on July 19, is negotiating through representatives with Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communiucations Inc., which has a 51% controlling stake in the independent film distributor, with an eye to settling a dispute that has now tipped into the courts. "Cooler heads have prevailed. The thinking now is how do we all stay rich and keep everyone happy," a source close to the negotiations said.
TORONTO -- Veteran Canadian independent movie distributor Victor Loewy is expected to announce this week that he will form his own company to compete against former employer Motion Picture Distribution Llp. Sources close to Loewy, who abruptly resigned July 19 from MPD, said Monday that he likely will put out his new shingle midweek. The move follows Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., which controls MPD through a 51% stake, insisting that Loewy's contract include confidentiality and noncompetition clauses that would bar him from forming his own startup (HR 8/21).
- 8/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canadian independent film distributor Motion Picture Distribution Lp. has promoted Jim Sherry to executive managing director, a move that follows company chairman Victor Loewy and president and CEO Patrice Theroux abruptly leaving the company two weeks ago. Sherry, who most recently was president of Canadian theatrical distribution, will head MPD's English-Canadian distribution business. "Jim and the team here have been doing exceptional jobs for this company and for all of our suppliers," John Bailey, former chairman and CEO of Canadian cinema chain Famous Players Ltd., said Friday.
TORONTO -- Motion Picture Distribution Lp. said that CEO Victor Loewy will step away from day-to-day operations at the Canadian independent distributor to become chairman, effective Feb. 1. Lloyd Wiggins, a spokesman for the Toronto-based company, said Loewy will hand the administration reins to Patrice Theroux, who will become president and CEO after serving as president and chief operating officer. The operating officer position will not be filled. In his new post, Loewy will oversee the growth and long-term development of Motion Picture Distribution, which has output deals to release product from New Line Cinema, Miramax and Focus Features in the Canadian market. Loewy's latest deal with Motion Picture Distribution has him under contract through 2009.
- 1/16/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Canada's largest independent movie distributor said Wednesday that it has extended the contracts of its two top executives. The Movie Distribution Income Fund, which distributes Hollywood studio and independent films in Canada, Britain and Spain, said Victor Loewy, CEO, had agreed to extend his current contract to Dec. 31, 2009. The distributor, which is 51%-controlled by Alliance Atlantis Communications, also said president and chief operating officer Patrice Theroux has agreed to see his contract run to June 30, 2009. Alliance Atlantis last week moved its general counsel, Paul Laberge, to oversee growth and legal affairs at Motion Picture Distribution Ltd. Partnership, in which the Movie Distribution Income Fund holds a 49% interest. The movie distributor, based in Toronto with a 14,000 film library, also operates Momentum Pictures in the United Kingdom and Spanish independent distributor Aurum Producciones.
- 2/17/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
TORONTO -- Alliance Atlantis Communications, Canada's largest independent movie distributor, said Wednesday it has renewed its domestic distribution agreement with Artisan Entertainment for another four years. Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis, which has handled Artisan product in Canada since 1998, will continue to hold the Canadian distribution rights to upcoming Artisan theatrical, home video and TV product to March 31, 2007. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upcoming Artisan titles covered by the deal include Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights and the John Travolta starrer The Punisher. Alliance Atlantis also holds local rights to New Line Cinema and Miramax product, its largest core suppliers, and Universal Focus fare. The Artisan-Alliance Atlantis renewal was announced by Artisan Entertainment CEO Amir J. Malin, and by Victor Loewy and Patrice Theroux, CEO and president, respectively, of the Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution Group.
- 7/17/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Critical and art house-audience fave Raul Ruiz (who has worked in France for decades) crafts a chilly but suitably diverting puzzler in his newest film, which premiered at this year's Venice Film Festival. Lions Gate Releasing's "Shattered Image" should draw healthy crowds of the curious in limited engagements.
Anne Parillaud ("La Femme Nikita") stars in the dualistic role of Jessie, a hitwoman in one incarnation and a demure, scared newlywed in another. Tense and dreamy, stylistically dense and thoroughly mystifying, the film jarringly shifts between realities, one or both of which may be nightmares.
But getting lost in the surrealistic landscape of the native Chilean's cinema is part of Ruiz's appeal. Unfortunately, for all the craftsmanship and an eclectic cast that includes Graham Greene, co-producer Lisanne Falk and William Baldwin, "Shattered Image" is too remindful of artistically inferior, flimsier doppelganger/secret-sharer thrillers over the years.
Along with the elevated filmmaking sensibility comes a murky plot by newcomer Duane Poole, who has extensive writing credits in network television, and the dark-side erudition of producer Barbet Schroeder hangs over the project. Shattered peace of mind and a violent journey into awareness, reflected off the shards of a double-narrative, with eye-snagging art direction and sometimes fascinating dramatic exchanges -- it's an intoxicating brew for some, but from "Vertigo" on there's a hit-or-miss quality to this kind of film experience.
Starting with a swift assassination in a restaurant washroom, Jessie the man-slayer-for-hire is disturbed by her dreams of a more conventional existence, but it's her wealthy heiress version -- on a honeymoon to Jamaica with intimidating husband Brian (Baldwin) -- who has tried suicide and appears destined to be a victim of foul play. While the nice Jessie grows more paranoid and indeed almost falls off a cliff, the bad Jessie is hired to kill someone who looks a lot like Brian.
Greene and Falk appear in both worlds, and a lot of blood is shed on the way to a gimmicky conclusion. Nic Roeg has successfully and unsuccessfully covered this territory, and even a master like Krzysztof Kieslowski struggled to keep one engaged in "The Double Life of Veronique". Still, Ruiz makes the moviegoer not seriously regret seeing "Shattered Image", with his vibrant cinematic skills drawing one into a glorified potboiler.
SHATTERED IMAGE
Lions Gate Releasing
Peter Hoffman presents
a Seven Arts/Schroeder Hoffman production
in association with Fireworks Entertainment
Director: Raul Ruiz
Screenwriter: Duane Poole
Producers: Barbet Schroeder, Susan Hoffman, Lloyd A. Silverman
Executive producers: Jack Baran, Jay Firestone, Victor Loewy, Bastiaan Gieben, James Michael Vernon
Director of photography: Robby Muller
Production designer: Robert de Vico
Editor: Michael Duthie
Costume designer: Francine LeCoultre
Music: Jorge Arriagada
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jessie: Anne Parillaud
Brian: William Baldwin
Paula/Laura: Lisanne Falk
Conrad/Mike: Graham Greene
Lamond: Billy Wilmott
Simon: O'Neil Peart
Isabel: Leonie Forbes
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Anne Parillaud ("La Femme Nikita") stars in the dualistic role of Jessie, a hitwoman in one incarnation and a demure, scared newlywed in another. Tense and dreamy, stylistically dense and thoroughly mystifying, the film jarringly shifts between realities, one or both of which may be nightmares.
But getting lost in the surrealistic landscape of the native Chilean's cinema is part of Ruiz's appeal. Unfortunately, for all the craftsmanship and an eclectic cast that includes Graham Greene, co-producer Lisanne Falk and William Baldwin, "Shattered Image" is too remindful of artistically inferior, flimsier doppelganger/secret-sharer thrillers over the years.
Along with the elevated filmmaking sensibility comes a murky plot by newcomer Duane Poole, who has extensive writing credits in network television, and the dark-side erudition of producer Barbet Schroeder hangs over the project. Shattered peace of mind and a violent journey into awareness, reflected off the shards of a double-narrative, with eye-snagging art direction and sometimes fascinating dramatic exchanges -- it's an intoxicating brew for some, but from "Vertigo" on there's a hit-or-miss quality to this kind of film experience.
Starting with a swift assassination in a restaurant washroom, Jessie the man-slayer-for-hire is disturbed by her dreams of a more conventional existence, but it's her wealthy heiress version -- on a honeymoon to Jamaica with intimidating husband Brian (Baldwin) -- who has tried suicide and appears destined to be a victim of foul play. While the nice Jessie grows more paranoid and indeed almost falls off a cliff, the bad Jessie is hired to kill someone who looks a lot like Brian.
Greene and Falk appear in both worlds, and a lot of blood is shed on the way to a gimmicky conclusion. Nic Roeg has successfully and unsuccessfully covered this territory, and even a master like Krzysztof Kieslowski struggled to keep one engaged in "The Double Life of Veronique". Still, Ruiz makes the moviegoer not seriously regret seeing "Shattered Image", with his vibrant cinematic skills drawing one into a glorified potboiler.
SHATTERED IMAGE
Lions Gate Releasing
Peter Hoffman presents
a Seven Arts/Schroeder Hoffman production
in association with Fireworks Entertainment
Director: Raul Ruiz
Screenwriter: Duane Poole
Producers: Barbet Schroeder, Susan Hoffman, Lloyd A. Silverman
Executive producers: Jack Baran, Jay Firestone, Victor Loewy, Bastiaan Gieben, James Michael Vernon
Director of photography: Robby Muller
Production designer: Robert de Vico
Editor: Michael Duthie
Costume designer: Francine LeCoultre
Music: Jorge Arriagada
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jessie: Anne Parillaud
Brian: William Baldwin
Paula/Laura: Lisanne Falk
Conrad/Mike: Graham Greene
Lamond: Billy Wilmott
Simon: O'Neil Peart
Isabel: Leonie Forbes
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/4/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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