Every week, I get several press releases, screening invitations and other notifications from a handful of studio contacts. While I won’t be sharing any information regarding my screening invites, some of the press releases might be of interest to my readers, so I thought I’d start sharing them in toto with all of you. These could include new image galleries for various films or important updates to upcoming releases from various smaller studios and art house production companies.
- Image Gallery: 42
- Image Gallery: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
- Image Gallery: Jack the Giant Slayer
- Press Release: Gravitas Ventures Gets Rights to “Jug Face”
- Press Release: 42 West Tribeca Lineup
- Press Release: Kate Winslet Joins “Divergent” Cast
Image Gallery: 42
Image Gallery: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Image Gallery: Jack the Giant Slayer
Press Release: Gravitas Ventures Gets Rights to “Jug Face”
Gravitas Ventures Takes Digital Rights to Moderciné’s Horror-Thriller JUG FACE
Slamdance title will have a day and date roll out after its Pre-Theatrical VOD Premiere later this summer, with Modernciné handling theatrical distribution
Los Angeles, CA (March 22, 2012) – Gravitas Ventures announced today that they have acquired U.S. VOD rights to JUG FACE, the tense horror-thriller that was written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle. The film was produced by Andrew van den Houten (“Funeral Kings,” ‘’The Woman”) and Robert Tonino (‘’Home Movie,” “Ghoul”) for Modernciné, and stars Lauren Ashley Carter (“The Woman”), Sean Bridgers (“Deadwood”), Sean Young (“Blade Runner”), Larry Fessenden (“I Sell the Dead”) and Daniel Manche (“The Girl Next Door”). The film was executive produced by Lucky McKee, Arrien Schiltkamp and Loren Semmens. JUG FACE won the Slamdance Grand Prize Screenwriting Award in 2011 and debuted as a Special Screening selection at this year’s festival. The film is slated for a July Pre-Theatrical VOD premiere, followed by a national theatrical roll out.
Ada, her family and a small isolated backwoods community worship a mysterious pit. The pit has the power to heal and protect all who honor it but at a deadly price…it demands an occasional sacrifice. The pit communicates through the local potter who, while in a trance, crafts ceramic jugs that carry the face of a person to be sacrificed to the entity that lives within it. Ada has a secret about the latest jug face that she’s determined to keep hidden but the pit demands a sacrifice and unleashes an evil onto the community until it gets who it really wants.
The deal for the U.S. VOD rights was negotiated by Gravitas Ventures’ Nolan Gallagher and Andrew van den Houten, President of Modernciné.
“Modernciné is proud to be pairing with Gravitas to release this incredibly original film by Chad Crawford Kinkle. Gravitas understands how to release into the digital marketplace better than most distributors in the business. We are confident that our theatrical release in conjunction with their heightened VOD release will give this unique film a chance to find a very large audience,” said Modernciné’s van den Houten.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with the Modernciné team on the undeniably unique JUG FACE. As longtime fans of horror films that break the mold, we are happy to follow the Pit’s wishes and bring JUG FACE to a mass VOD audience,” said Gravitas’ Nolan Gallagher.
Additional rights have yet to be assigned and will be announced shortly. T.C. Rice will be working for Modernciné booking the film theatrically in U.S. markets.
About Gravitas Ventures
Gravitas Ventures connects independent filmmakers, producers and distribution companies to leading cable, satellite, telco and online distribution partners. Working with more than 500 content partners, Gravitas Ventures aggregates and distributes thousands of hours of feature films, documentaries, horror films, animation, alternative sports, comedy, and music concert programming. As of December 2011, Gravitas has expanded its operation to include Gravitas International, a new division that will focus on a worldwide audience. For more information, go to http://www.gravitasventures.com.
About Modernciné
Modernciné is dedicated to making high-quality films by telling stories that are edgy and groundbreaking. Modernciné has been behind the development, financing and production of over a dozen feature length motion pictures. Among them are the recent released “Funeral Kings,” the cult classic “Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door,” “Offspring,” “The Woman,” “Home Movie,” and the Chiller Network presentation, “Ghoul.” Modernciné has gained a solid reputation as a company that is willing to tackle the most controversial subjects and as a result attracted the talents of cutting edge filmmakers Lucky McKee, the McManus Brothers, Patrick Wang and Gregory M. Wilson. The company’s films have been recognized worldwide by The Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, The Deauville Film Festival, Brussels International Fantastic Film Fest, Sitges, Fantastic Fest, FrightFest, Busan International Film Festival, New York City Horror Film Festival and many others.
Press Release: 42 West Tribeca Lineup
CASE OF YOU – Directed by Kat Coiro – World Premiere
(Acquisition title: CAA/Cassian Elwes)
A young writer (Justin Long) woos a cute and quirky barista (Evan Rachel Wood) by creating an embellished online profile. When she falls for his alter ego, he must keep up the act or lose his dream girl.
Starring Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood and featuring a cast of hilarious cameo performers including
Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Vince Vaughn and Sienna Miller.
AT ANY PRICE – Directed by Ramin Bahrani
(Sony Pictures Classics releasing on April 26, 2013)
In the competitive world of modern agriculture, ambitious HENRY WHIPPLE (Dennis Quaid) wants his rebellious son DEAN (Zac Efron) to help expand his family’s farming empire. However, Dean has his sights set on becoming a professional race car driver. When a high-stakes investigation into their business is exposed, father and son are pushed into an unexpected crisis that threatens the family’s entire livelihood.
Starring Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron, Heather Graham and Maika Monroe
BEFORE MIDNIGHT – Directed by Richard Linklater
(Sony Pictures Classics releasing on May 24, 2013)
In BEFORE MIDNIGHT, we meet Celine and Jesse 9 years on. Almost 2 decades have passed since that first meeting on a train bound for Vienna, and we now find them in their early 40’s in Greece. Before the clock strikes midnight, we will again become part of their story.
Starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST – Directed by Mira Nair
(IFC releasing on April 26, 2013)
From Award-winning director Mira Nair, and based on the acclaimed novel by Mohsin Hamid, comes the explosive new film,
The Reluctant Fundamentalist. In 2010, as student demonstrations rage in Lahore, a young Pakistani professor Changez Khan (Riz Ahmed) is interviewed by American journalist Bobby Lincoln (Liev Schreiber). Princeton-educated Changez tells Lincoln of his past as a brilliant business analyst on Wall Street. He talks of the glittering future that lay before him, his mentor, Jim Cross (Kiefer Sutherland), and the beautiful and sophisticated Erica (Kate Hudson), with whom he was set to share that future.
Starring Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland and Kate Hudson
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Kat Coiro’s A CASE OF YOU
Screenings:
Press & Industry Screening – Monday, April 22, 11:30a.m. – Chelsea Clearview Cinemas
Public Screening 1 –Sunday, April 21, 9:30p.m. – Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Public Screening 2 – Tuesday, April 23, 5:30p.m. – AMC Village 7
Public Screening 3 – Thursday, April 25, 9:00p.m. – AMC Village 7
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Ramin Bahrani’s AT ANY PRICE
Screenings:
Press & Industry Screening – Thursday, April 18, 10:15a.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
Public Screening 1 – Friday, April 19, 9:30p.m. – Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Public Screening 2 – Tuesday, April 23, 9:00p.m. – AMC Village 7
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Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT
Screenings:
Press & Industry Screening – Thursday, April 18, 9:45a.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
Public Screening 1 – Monday, April 22, 6:00p.m. – Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Public Screening 2 – Wednesday, April 24,6:45p.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
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Mira Nair’s THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST
Screenings:
Press & Industry Screening – Thursday, April 18, 3:45p.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
Public Screening 1 – Monday, April 22, 9:30p.m. – Tribeca Performing Arts Center
Public Screening 2 – Wednesday, April 24, 9:30p.m. – SVA Theatre
Public Screening 3 – Saturday, April 27, 12:00p.m. – Clearview Chelsea Cinemas
Press Release: Kate Winslet Joins “Divergent” Cast
Summit Entertainment, a LIONSGATE® company, confirmed today that Kate Winslet will star as “Jeanine Matthews” in the studio’s futuristic action adventure DIVERGENT. Background on the film is below for your reference.
DIVERGENT
Summit Entertainment’s DIVERGENT will star Golden Globe nominated Shailene Woodley and Theo James who join other confirmed cast members Jai Courtney, Zoë Kravitz, Ansel Elgort and Maggie Q. The futuristic action adventure, based on author Veronica Roth’s New York Times best seller, will be directed by Neil Burger from a script by Vanessa Taylor and commences principal photography this April in Chicago. The original draft of the script was written by Evan Daugherty. Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher are producing the project via their Red Wagon Entertainment banner along with Pouya Shahbazian. Red Wagon’s Rachel Shane is executive producing. Summit will release the film theatrically in North America in THE HUNGER GAMES slot on Friday, March 21, 2014.
DIVERGENT is a thrilling adventure set in a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities, Tris Prior (Woodley) is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late.
The extremely popular young adult novel Divergent was written by first time author Veronica Roth and has topped the New York Times Best Sellers list ever since being published in May of 2011 by Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers. The book was written by Roth while she was earning her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University. She followed her first novel with the book Insurgent, which has also made its way to the #1 position on specific New York Times Best Sellers lists. To date, book sales are now over 2.6 million copies for both novels combined, and both titles are HarperCollins most successful e-books ever in regards to sales. The studio acquired the film rights to the novel in early 2011 several months before the book Divergent was published.
DIVERGENT marks another strategic foray for Summit into producing material for young adults, building on Summit and corporate parent Lionsgate’s leadership in the young-adult genre. Summit’s TWILIGHT SAGA franchise has grossed more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office, and the first film of Lionsgate’s THE HUNGER GAMES franchise is the 13th highest-grossing North American release of all time.
To stay connected with all updates related to the film, follow the official DIVERGENT Twitter handle (www.twitter.com/Divergent) and like the movie’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DivergentMovie).
About Summit Entertainment
Summit Entertainment, a LIONSGATE® company, is a worldwide theatrical motion picture development, financing, production and distribution studio. The company handles all aspects of marketing and distribution for both its own internally developed motion pictures as well as acquired pictures. Summit also represents international sales for both its own slate and third party product.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of primetime cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 27 shows on 18 networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men, Weeds and Nurse Jackie, the new comedy Anger Management, the network series Nashville, the syndication successes Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, its spinoff Meet the Browns, For Better Or Worse, The Wendy Williams Show, Are We There Yet? and the upcoming Orange Is The New Black, an original series for Netflix.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first installment of The Hunger Games franchise, the 13th highest-grossing North American release of all time, The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn – Part 2, which has grossed more than $800 million at the worldwide box office, Warm Bodies, Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, The Cabin in the Woods, Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection, Arbitrage and the international hits The Impossible and Step Up Revolution. With the January 2012 acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the Company has now added the blockbuster Twilight Saga, which has grossed more than $3.3 billion at the worldwide box office, to its current slate, giving the Company the two premier young adult franchises in the world.
Lionsgate’s home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
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