EFM Roundup: Submarine Sells Rights To ‘Paul Bowles’, Focus Features International Kills It With ‘Kill The Messenger’; IM Global Sells Out On ‘Before Midnight’
Submarine Entertainment has sold all distribution rights to Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open to First Run Features in the U.S. and Films We Like in Canada. The deals were negotiated by David Koh, Dan Braun and Josh Braun of Submarine along with Executive Producer, Stanley Buchthal of Dakota Group Ltd. along with Marc Mauceri & Seymour Wishman of First Run Features and Ron Mann of Films We Like. First Run Features and Films We Like will coordinate a release later in the year. Directed by Daniel Young, the docu film is based on moving interviews given by the writer shortly before his death. It features Bowles and his wife writer Jane Bowles, Gore Vidal, John Waters, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ira Cohen, Edmund White, William Burroughs and Francis Bacon, among others. A HesseGreutert Film Production, Paul Bowles: The Cage Door Is Always Open is executive produced by This Brunner, Stanley Buchthal, Andres Bruetsch, and Simon Hesse.
Focus Features International has virtually sold out on hot market title Kill The Messenger starring Jeremy Renner. The Michael Cuesta-directed project will be distributed in the U.S. by Focus Features, and Universal will release in the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. FFI closed deals during the EFM in such territories as France (Metropolitan), Russia (Top Films), Latin America (Imagen), Australia (Transmission), Israel (Shani) and Malaysia (Golden Screen). FFI’s Alison Thompson told me today that Messenger resonated because “The movie is a real movie. It has a great script that doesn’t need to spend six months in development, Jeremy Renner is firmly attached, the director is super-hot off the back of Homeland and it’s a story that fascinates a lot of people.” The film is based on the tragic tale of a journalist who committed suicide after being smeared by the CIA. “We had two aims” in Berlin, Thompson said. “One was to sell the hell out of Kill The Messenger and the other was to launch Promised Land,” which screened here in competition with Matt Damon, John Krasinski and Gus Van Sant in town for support. “It went really well, we got the two jobs done.”
Stuart Ford’s IM Global sold out the world on Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight ahead of its official out of competition screening today. The film that reunites the Before Sunrise and Before Sunset trio of Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, debuted in Sundance where Sony Pictures Classics acquired it for North America and the UK from Cinetic Media. Hawke, Delpy and Linklater sat for a press conference this afternoon where they talked about the film and addressed possibilities for a fourth feature in the series. Linklater said, “We created these characters 18 years ago and we realize they are still alive in us every six years or so. So, it begs the question. We have absolutely no idea what a fourth could possibly be and probably won’t for five or six years. We joke about it and then our jokes become more serious.” Hawke then joked, “I try to push Julie into doing a full-blown erotica film but somehow that doesn’t…,” he trailed off as Delpy cut in, “I resist. Maybe in the 7th part when I’m 80.” Later she and Linklater mused that maybe their last in the series should be a remake of Amour. IM Global held a packed buyers’ screening on Friday and sealed key deals in Germany (Prokino), France (Diaphana), Japan (New Select), Scandinavia (NonStop), Latin America (Sun), Australia/New Zealand (eOne) and elsewhere.
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