Millennium Media Hires Ryan Svendsen As Head Of Music; Abramorama At ‘Mountaintop’ With Neil Young; Melora Hardin’s ‘Cruel Hearts’ Sells Overseas – Film Briefs
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Millennium Media has hired Ryan Svendsen as its Head of Music. He comes over from Lionsgate, where he was Director, Film and TV Music and worked on music for La La Land, Nashville and The Hunger Games movies.
In his new role he will oversee music strategy and development for Millennium Media’s slate that currently includes the sequel The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard; the Tanya Wexler-directed Jolt; and Tesla, the biopic of inventor Nikola Tesla starring Ethan Hawke.
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Svendsen, a musician who has worked on songs for Shawn Mendes, Christina Aguilera, Demi Lovato and Jon Bellion, worked at UTA and Azoff Music Management before joining Lionsgate. He will now report to Millennium president Jeffrey Greenstein and co-president Jonathan Yunger.
“As we continue our focus on being content creators, music is such an important part of the movie-going experience,” Greenstein said. “Ryan is a musician with great experience, and we’re excited for the new energy he will bring to further our collaborations with incredibly talented musicians, composers and filmmakers.”
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Abramorama is teaming with Shakey Pictures and Reprise/Warner Records for a theatrical release of Mountaintop, the documentary chronicling the process of Neil Young with Crazy Horse making their first album in seven years.
The film, directed by Young (as nom de plume Bernard Shakey) will bow in North America on October 22 and in Europe and South America on November 18. The dates are timed to the release of the album, Colorado, on October 25 via Reprise.
”The only thing better than working on a Bernard Shakey film is working on another Bernard Shakey film,” Abramorama CEO Richard Abramowitz said. “Providing fans around the world with the opportunity to see how Neil and the band put it all together is a particularly rare and exciting experience.”
Here’s the trailer (language NSFW, but music is):
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Hewes Pictures has secured foreign distribution rights to Cruel Hearts, a suspense crime thriller starring Melora Hardin (The Bold Type, Transparent) and Eddie Jamison (Ocean’s franchise, Chicago Med). Paul Osborne wrote and directed the film, which will get a theatrical release sometime next year.
The plot centers on Guy, a young man who discovers the woman he’s been sleeping with is not only married, but she’s married to Burt Walker (Patrick Day), a notorious low-level crime boss. Worried that Walker will at some point discover the affair and kill him, Guy decides to be upfront and tell Walker about his transgression and beg for forgiveness.
Osborne Jonathan Brown and Joe Pezzula produced the film, while Leslie Osborne, Mark Relyea, Robert Hornak and Bill Eikost served as executive producers. Hewes Pictures’ Head of Sales and Acquisitions Princeton Holt negotiated the deal with Osborne of Conspicuous Pictures on behalf of the producers.
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