Tag: Working Title

Focus Features To Release Working Title’s THEORY OF EVERYTHING

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Working Title Films’ THEORY OF EVERYTHING will be released domestically by Focus Features in exclusive engagements beginning Friday, November 7th, 2014. Focus CEO Peter Schlessel made the announcement today.

Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire) helms the romantic drama starring Eddie Redmayne (of Working Title’s blockbuster Les Misérables) as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, world-famous as the author of A Brief History of Time, opposite Gotham Independent Film Award winner Felicity Jones (Like Crazy).

The movie explores the excitement of the 1960s for Stephen as he studies at Cambridge University. At the dawn of a brilliant life’s work, he falls passionately in love with arts student Jane Wilde. Their relationship leads him through personal and scientific challenges and breakthroughs, and as his world opens up he opens up the entire world to new ways of seeing.

Jane’s memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen inspired the new film; the screenplay is by Anthony McCarten, who is producer on the film with Lisa Bruce (producer of Working Title’s Mary and Martha) and Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

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The cast of THEORY OF EVERYTHING also includes two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson and David Thewlis (Harry Potter). The creative team also includes cinematographer Benoît Delhomme (Lawless), production designer John Paul Kelly (Working Title’s About Time), costume designer Steven Noble (Under the Skin), and film editor Jinx Godfrey (marking her seventh feature with Mr. Marsh).

Mr. Schlessel commented, “This extraordinary love story between one of the greatest minds of our time, Stephen Hawking, and his first wife Jane is profoundly moving and inspirational, with heart and humor. Under the dynamic direction of James Marsh, Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones deliver performances of stunning emotional power.”

Focus Features’ successful collaborations with Working Title Films have included such hits as THE WORLD’S END, PRIDE & PREJUDICE, and TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY; and the Academy Award-winning ANNA KARENINA and ATONEMENT.

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WISH I WAS HERE

In addition to THEORY OF EVERYTHING, upcoming Focus films include THE SIGNAL, which world-premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; WISH I WAS HERE, the new comedy from actor/director Zach Braff; the true-life dramatic thriller KILL THE MESSENGER, starring Jeremy Renner; BLACK SEA, the suspenseful adventure thriller starring Jude Law for Academy Award-winning director Kevin Macdonald; THE BOXTROLLS, the new family event movie from LAIKA, directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable with a voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Elle Fanning, and Tracy Morgan; and FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, the highly anticipated film adaptation of E L James #1 bestselling book that is being directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson and stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson.

STUDIOCANAL And Working Title Team To Produce TWO FACES OF JANUARY; STUDIOCANAL Acquires UK Rights To ROBOCOP

Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac will star in the thriller, TWO FACES OF JANUARY, based on a Patricia Highsmith novel, and directorial debut of DRIVE writer Hossein Amini. Shooting will start on October 1st, on location, mainly in Greece and Turkey.

Working Title will produce, STUDIOCANAL will finance, distribute in the U.K., Germany and France, and handle international sales. Based on the same principle, Working Title and STUDIOCANAL produced TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY in 2011, as well as I GIVE IT A YEAR, currently in post-production, with Rose Byrne and Simon Baker.

Set in Greece and Turkey, a charming and brilliant con artist, Chester MacFarland (Viggo Mortensen) accidentally kills a private detective who has tracked him down from the US to Athens. He goes on the run from the international police with his wife (Kirsten Dunst) and a young American (Oscar Isaac) across the Greek islands through to Istanbul. Their flight will involve deception, betrayal and the tragic death of one of them.

TWO FACES OF JANUARY is adapted from a thriller by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote “Plein Soleil/The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) announced that STUDIOCANAL has acquired rights to RoboCop, MGM and Sony’s reboot of the 1987 sci-fi action classic, in the UK, France and Germany. STUDIOCANAL will release director José Padilha’s RoboCop theatrically and across platforms including video, VOD and television, with certain limited exceptions. The announcement was made by Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officers of MGM, and Olivier Courson, Chairman and CEO of STUDIOCANAL.

“MGM is thrilled to be bringing RoboCop back to the big screen,” said Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officers of MGM. “STUDIOCANAL is the ideal partner to help us share the reimagined, action-packed classic with audiences in the UK, France and Germany.”

“STUDIOCANAL is extremely happy to be partnering with MGM on RoboCop. We have been admirers of the director José Padilha since we first saw and distributed the award winning Elite Squad in the United Kingdom. As film fans, we cannot wait to see his vision of this new RoboCop with such an incredible cast including Gary Oldman, Joel Kinnaman, and Samuel Jackson and with producers like Marc Abraham and Eric Newman,” said Olivier Courson, Chairman and CEO of STUDIOCANAL.

In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit.  After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life.  He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

Director José Padilha (Elite Squad) reimagines the tale of part man, part machine, all cop starring Joel Kinnaman (“The Killing”) as the title character, Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises) as the scientist who creates RoboCop, and Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers) as media mogul Pat Novak. RoboCop is being produced by Strike Entertainment’s Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, with Eric Carraro as Executive Producer. The film is currently in pre-production and slated for a summer 2013 release.

STUDIOCANAL will release RoboCop theatrically in the UK, France and Germany in 2013. STUDIOCANAL acquired the rights to the film for 20 years.

Joe Wright’s ANNA KARENINA Begins Production; Stars Keira Knightley

LONDON, October 3rd, 2011 – Working Title Films has commenced production on Joe Wright’s epic love story Anna Karenina, adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love). The film will shoot in the U.K. and Russia. Focus Features will distribute the movie domestically, and Universal Pictures International (UPI) will distribute the movie internationally.

Anna Karenina marks Mr. Wright’s fourth film with Working Title, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, and The Soloist. The film is produced by Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and reunites them with Paul Webster, all three of whom produced Mr. Wright’s first two films Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, released domestically by Focus and internationally by UPI. Also for Focus, Mr. Wright recently directed the hit adventure thriller Hanna.

Keira Knightley, Academy Award-nominated for Pride & Prejudice, will star as Anna Karenina in her third collaboration with Mr. Wright. Ms. Knightley stars opposite two-time Academy Award nominee Jude Law, as Anna’s husband Aleksei Karenin; and Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy), as Count Vronsky. Rounding out the cast are Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), Matthew Macfadyen (Pride & Prejudice), Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Alicia Vikander (The Seventh Son), two-time Academy Award nominee Emily Watson, Olivia Williams (Hanna), and Ruth Wilson (Luther).

Also reteaming with Mr. Wright on Anna Karenina are Academy Award-winning composer Dario Marianelli, twice-Academy Award-nominated costume designer Jacqueline Durran, three-time Academy Award-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood, and Academy Award-nominated director of photography Seamus McGarvey. Melanie Ann Oliver (Focus’ Jane Eyre) is the editor. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is the choreographer on the movie.

The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Ms. Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.

Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies. Founded in 1983, Working Title has made nearly 100 films that have grossed over $4.5 billion worldwide. Its films have won 6 Academy Awards, 26 BAFTA Awards, and prestigious prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals. In addition to Anna Karenina, the current release slate includes Tomas Alfredson’s thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Tom Hardy; Baltasar Kormákur’s Contraband, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale; Rowan Atkinson in Johnny English Reborn, directed by Oliver Parker; and Ken Kwapis’ Big Miracle, starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski.

Universal Pictures markets and distributes films internationally through Universal Pictures International (UPI), which officially began doing business on January 1, 2007. In the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, Benelux, Russia, Australia, Mexico and France, UPI directly markets and distributes movies through our local offices, creating campaigns and release strategies that respond to the culture and market behavior of those territories. In other parts of the world, Universal distributes through Paramount’s local offices as it transitions out of the formerly shared UIP model. In some smaller territories we continue to work through UIP on theatrical distribution.

Focus Features and Focus Features International (www.focusfeatures.com) comprise a singular global company. This worldwide studio makes original and daring films that challenge the mainstream to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world that deliver global commercial success. The company operates as Focus Features in North America, and as Focus Features International (FFI) in the rest of the world.

In addition to Anna Karenina, and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, current and upcoming Focus releases include John Madden’s hit espionage thriller The Debt, starring Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, and Jessica Chastain; writer/director Dee Rees’ contemporary drama Pariah, which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival; Being Flynn, written and directed by Paul Weitz and starring two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro and Paul Dano; Lorene Scafaria’s pre-apocalyptic comedic romance Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, starring Steve Carell and Keira Knightley; Moonrise Kingdom, the new feature from Wes Anderson, starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman; Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s ParaNorman, the new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA; and the historical tale Hyde Park on Hudson, directed by Roger Michell and starring Academy Award nominees Bill Murray and Laura Linney.

New TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Trailer

Watch the exciting new trailer for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. The much anticipated thriller features a stellar cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kathy Burke.

Synopsis:

Set in the 1970s, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY finds George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a recently retired MI6 agent, doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the Circus, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects – all experienced, urbane, successful agents – but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment.

The screenplay is by Peter Straughan and Bridget O’Connor and the film, which was shot in London, Budapest and Istanbul is produced by Working Title’s co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and Robyn Slovo. The executive producers are Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin, Douglas Urbanski, Peter Morgan, Olivier Courson, Ron Halpern and John le Carré.

Directed by Tomas Alfredson (“Let The Right One In”) TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER is a Working Title production for STUDIOCANAL. The film will be released in UK & Ireland on 16 September 2011 through Optimum Releasing and in US theatres on November 18, 2011 from Focus Features.

Visit the film official site: http://www.tinker-tailor-soldier-spy.com/

“Like” the film on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TinkerTailorMovie

Watch The First Trailer For TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Here’s your first look at the trailer for Working Title’s TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY.

Synopsis:

George Smiley, a recently retired MI6 agent, is doing his best to adjust to a life outside the secret service. However, when a disgraced agent reappears with information concerning a mole at the heart of the Circus, Smiley is drawn back into the murky field of espionage. Tasked with investigating which of his trusted former colleagues has chosen to betray him and their country, Smiley narrows his search to four suspects – all experienced, urbane, successful agents – but past histories, rivalries and friendships make it far from easy to pinpoint the man who is eating away at the heart of the British establishment…

The hotly anticipated film from director Tomas Alfredson (LET THE RIGHT ONE IN) is an adaptation of John le Carre bestselling novel and boasts an all-star cast including Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong and Benedict Cumberbatch. TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY will be distributed in UK theaters on September 16, 2011 by StudioCanal and in US theatres on November 18, 2011 from Focus Features. “Like” the film on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TinkerTailorMovie

PAUL Poster Stars Pegg, Frost & Rogen

Empire Online introduces us to Seth Rogen’s little alien dude in this new poster for Universal Pictures’ PAUL. They had me with the line “from the producers of HOT FUZZ.” That’s it brother – I’m in. HOT FUZZ was the funniest film of 2007! Frost and Pegg are gods among men. Here’s another look at the first trailer for the film.

Synopsis:

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever.

For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town – a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Collings (Frost).

Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.

Paul is directed by Superbad’s Greg Mottola, from a story by Pegg & Frost. Joining the comedy’s cast are Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner, Joe Lo Truglio, John Carroll Lynch, David Koechner and Sigourney Weaver.

PAUL will be landing in theaters in the U.K. on February 14, 2011 and in the U.S. on March 18, 2011. Visit the film’s official site here and on Facebook here.