Republic Pictures’ Dan Cohen & Producer Annabelle Dunne Talk Emotional Venice Premiere For William Friedkin’s ‘Caine Mutiny’; Collaboration On Karl Lagerfeld Doc
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Republic Pictures President Dan Cohen and producer Annabelle Dunne were among the main representatives of William Friedkin’s last film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial at its posthumous world premiere at the Venice Film Festival over the weekend.
Taking place less than a month after Friedkin died at the age of 87 on August 7, it was an emotional night for both.
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Alongside tributes from this year’s jury president Damien Chazelle and Venice director Alberto Barbera, Dunne took to the stage to share anecdotes, including how Guillermo del Toro and J.J. Abrams became involved as back-up directors after Friedkin’s age made it impossible to secure a completion bond.
Deadline caught up with the pair on the terrace of the Venice Lido’s Excelsior Hotel the next day, ahead of a screening of Friedkin’s The Exorcist in Venice Classics.
“It was really emotional for everybody. It was important to us that it really be about the movie because that’s what Billy… did not want fanfare,” said Dunne.
“We did as best we could to just stick to let’s look at this and this is the best way to think about this person and how he’s living. In a few hours, The Exorcist, the remaster, screens. This is its 50th anniversary. That’s pretty amazing to have those as your bookends, as your postscript.”
Friedkin was a regular Venice attendee, notably with Jade in 1995 and Killer Joe in 2011, and was awarded the festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2013.
“This was his favourite festival hands down and the way that Alberto and [Venice’s U.S. programmer] Giulia [D’Agnolo Vallan] have given so much of their time and energy to be present,” says Dunne.
“They came to the set when they were in town for other reasons and reached out. He said, ‘I’m shooting’, and they came to the set and that was really fun. To have them to see that happen was really important for us.”
Following its Venice debut the film gets its U.S. premiere on Paramount+ with Showtime on October 6, ahead of being rolled out on Paramount+ in international territories where the streaming platform is live, on an as yet unspecified date.
Cohen, who is Chief Content Licensing Officer at Paramount Global as well as President of its recently launched distribution label Republic Pictures, which backed the film, says a streaming release was on the cards from early on in the film’s development.
“Two things were discussed at the very first meeting with Billy. One was his vision to do this film as a streaming premiere,” says Cohen. “He did 12 Angry Men for Showtime in 1997. George C. Scott won an Emmy. We were aligned that this was going to be made as a television event, not a theatrical event.”
“The second thing we talked about is that in a perfect world, where would you like to debut it? And it was Venice. He won the lifetime achievement award here 10 years ago. I’m just so grateful he made one more movie, from start to finish. And while he couldn’t be here, his dream got realised. And I am just very grateful that that happened.”
Dunne revealed that Friedkin worked for scale on the film, such was his focus on getting it made over remuneration.
“He didn’t have the time or the energy to focus on anything but making the movie.” recounts Dunne.
“He felt like he was in really good hands with where he’d sold it. They completely gave him carte blanche to do what he wanted. It just wasn’t a thing that he was thinking about. He was so focused on getting the actors and the script and making it happen.”
Dunne has mainly produced documentaries until now, working in partnership with former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, with credits including Everything Is Copy, Agnelli, Hooking Up in the Digital Age, Fake Famous, and Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.
She says her first major foray into fiction with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was made easier by its high-profile cast featuring Kiefer Sutherland, Lance Reddick, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, Monica Raymund Lewis Pullman, Jay Duplass and Tom Riley.
“I’m really spoiled now because every single person we had was at the top of their field. We had an incredible casting director [Denise Chamian]. She was instrumental, and Billy commanded the best. If you’re surrounded by the best, it’s not hard to do your job,” she says.
“They all wanted to work with Billy… I have gotten personal notes from every single person that worked with us about the experience… And the follow up from our cast since we wrapped in the winter, there’s just been a lot of love.”
Next up for Dunne is a new documentary, again in partnership with Carter, exploring the life and career of iconic German fashion designer Karl Largerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85. Cohen will be also be partnering under the Republic Pictures banner.
“It’s a really fascinating global story. And I love things that work for a global marketplace because my distribution business is worldwide,” says Cohen.
Julia Nottingham’s UK company Dorothy Street Productions is also on board. Republic Pictures previously worked with London-based production house on the Lionel Ritchie-produced documentary A Night In Pop.
“I worked with them on that. And then discovered that Julia was going to do Lagerfeld with them [Dunne and Carter]. I’d just had this fabulous experience on Caine Mutiny and was like, ‘Well, if you’re working together, can I at least be the distributor?’,” says Cohen.
“My business is largely acquiring content for distribution. I sit within Paramount global. I don’t have a development team. I’m not a development exec, I have really no production infrastructure at all. So that translates to me finding talented producers and filmmakers that you trust, that don’t need much help from you and you support them.
“That’s where some somebody like Annabelle is so great for me. I knew I was going to get a quality film and I’m ecstatic with what they delivered. And I don’t have to worry about Lagerfeld because it’s in great hands. And then my job is just to get it into the marketplace.”
Launched in March of this year, and taking its name from the historic movie label running from 1935 to 1967, Republic Pictures will acquire around 10 to 12 titles a year, with different release strategies in mind, explains Cohen.
“It’s a little unpredictable,” says Cohen, he says on the underlying strategy. “On the movie BlackBerry, for example, that had a very nice run in the U.S. theatrically through IFC. We’re not involved in the U.S. or Canada, but we have it outside the U.S. There’s a Jodie Comer movie that’s coming to TIFF, The End We Start From. We don’t have it outside of the North America., but we have North America rights.”
“We’re a very, very very modular distribution group. If we see an opportunity to jump in on something, in one market, two markets or half the world we will do so. Caine Mutiny, Lagerfeld, those are more the exception where we basically get involved at the beginning and have global. When we do that, it’s really got to be producers we trust in and projects I know that we can sell.”
In an aside, he reveals that by chance The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial was shot at the Radford lot in Studio City, which once belonged to the original Republic Pictures.
‘it’s kind of a nice synergy,” he says.
Alongside continuing to make documentaries, Dunne says she would love to work again in the scripted space with a new generation of filmmakers.
“To start working with someone like Billy, you’re really at the top of a certain rung, and you’re also kind of at the end of a certain era,” she says.
“It’s amazing is to see all these young filmmakers who I think are taking a page out of his book and saying, ‘I want to work like that. I want to think like that and I want to be like that.’”
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