Cannes: Exclusive Media Acquires Sales Rights To ‘Passengers’ With Keanu Reeves And Reese Witherspoon Starring
EXCLUSIVE: Exclusive Media has picked up international rights to Passengers, the sci-fi romance starring Keanu Reeves and now Reese Witherspoon that Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire director Brian Kirk is directing in his major feature film debut. Wayfare Entertainment is financing and producing the pic from a script by Prometheus scribe Jon Spaihts. The story follows a spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet that has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger (Witherspoon), marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story. The script was developed by Stephen Hamel and Reeves at their production shingle Company Films. Hamel will produce the pic with Wayfare CEO Ben Browning. Start Media’s Michael Maher and Lynwood Spinks will executive produce. CAA is repping domestic rights to the pic.
Related: ‘Passengers’ To Star Keanu Reeves, With Brian Kirk Directing
No domestic sales reps have been set yet, and production is set to kick off in January 2014. Exclusive’s Alex Walton will launch international sales at the Cannes Film Market. “I have loved this script since I first read it,” Walton said. “It is a fresh and original concept with a wonderful love story at the core. Reese and Keanu are magnetic actors — put them together and you have a golden ticket.” Exclusive is getting its Cannes slate in order, having just announced that it will produce, finance and sell the Jackie Chan pic Skiptrace on the Croisette. CAA is repping domestic rights.
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