Paramount Vantage Tagged Articles at Cinematical

1. Twiddle thumbs while waiting for bidding wars to break out -- So Senator Entertainment has already landed domestic distribution for Antoine Fuqua's cop drama, Brooklyn's Finest (they'll probably do right by it and sit it on a shelf right next to All the Boys Love Mandy Lane); now, it's just a matter of waiting for Fox Searchlight to snatch up their next sleeper in waiting, and for either Focus or Paramount Vantage to pick up the rights to something they can't quite turn a profit on *cough1* *cough2*. Modest comfort comes in the form of Searchlight already planning a late-summer release for 500 Days of Summer, and of Sony Pictures Classics reportedly calling dibs on Sam Rockwell's sci-fi drama, Moon. Keep those ears and eyes open, folks.

2. Monitor some seriously similar, sometimes simultaneous Twitter action -- For starters, there's our crew: Snider, then Davis, then Rocchi, and (lastly but not least-ly) new convert Weinberg. Then you have the Onion folks, your CHUD, the IFC one-two, the Spout reps, our HitFix homies, not to mention your /Film and your Film School Rejects and your First Showing (these fellas happen to be sharing accommodations, so expect much echo). Daily posts? Facebook status updates? Please. With a minute-by-minute play-by-play, who needs to go outdoors?

In Kim Voynar's most recent Telluride dispatch, she mentioned good buzz at the film fest about Into the Wild, the latest film directed by Sean Penn, which he adapted from Jon Krakauer's book. The movie is about a young man, Christopher McCandless, who graduates from college and decides to give all his money to charity and hitchhike to Alaska to live off the land. If you're wondering whether Into the Wild will live up to its buzz, you can check out a clip from the film exclusively on Moviefone.

In the clip, McCandless (Emile Hirsch) is discussing his decision to travel across the country on no money at all with another indigent traveler, played by Catherine Keener. Up until now I'd only heard about Hirsch being in the film -- no one told me Keener was also in it, and I like her enough that my interest in Into the Wild doubled after watching the clip. I hope the movie contains more of her than this one minute and change. The cast also includes Vince Vaughn, William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden. Paramount Vantage will release the film on Sept. 21.

Kim is catching Into the Wild at Telluride and should have a review available later this week, as well as details on the Telluride panel about the film that included Penn as well as Werner Herzog. Perhaps we'll find out more about Penn's upbeat presence at the festival, which Kim described as "warm, inviting, funny and penetratingly intelligent," so don't forget to check back with us for more about Into the Wild.

The first time I watched Open Water, I had nightmares for a week. Mainly because, when I'm on vacation, the wife and I are those two people who go on the same type of diving excursions. Plus, I never like to stay with the crowd -- I always venture off to find my own space, away from all the awkward vacationers and their seven disposable, underwater cameras. So when I saw the flick, I said to myself: "Crap, that could most definitely be me in another year." Heck, I'm all for swimming with sharks, but there needs to be a boat around in case, ya know, them sharks want to eat me. It's been four years since director Chris Kentis and producer Laura Lau scared the crap out of us with Open Water, and according to Variety, the two have finally decided on their follow-up project. Yup, and it once again has to do with sharks -- but not the kind that takes your limbs, I'm talking the kind that takes your money.

Kentis wrote and will direct the currently untitled legal thriller for Paramount Vantage, with Lau back onboard as producer. The story sounds pretty intriguing; essentially, it revolves around a woman who is arrested for a crime she didn't commit, but then gets "plunged into a state of confusion and psychological terror as she defends herself." See, defending yourself is always a bad move -- but if you don't got the cash, I guess it's the way to go. Apart from this, Kentis will also helm (while Lau produces) a project for Warner Bros. based on the WWII sinking of the USS Indianapolis. If you weren't previously aware of this story, you might have learned more about it recently during the Discovery Channel's very awesome Shark Week. I know they aired a two-hour docudrama about the incident, in which a crew of 900 were left stranded in the water for five days with a slew of blood-thirsty sharks. Variety says the legal thriller is eying a 2008 start, and there's currently no word on when Warners plans to kickoff the USS Indianapolis flick.

Not much to see here that wasn't covered in the trailer that we passed along a few days ago, but here is the first one-sheet for Nicole Kidman's next film, Margot at the Wedding. Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) the film focuses on a 40-something woman, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose (apparent) spur of the moment decision to get married prompts the arrival of her disapproving sister, Margot, played by Kidman. The advance buzz on this movie is pretty good, with a few sneak reviews saying that the trailer is covering up more serious elements to the storyline, and that Kidman's performance is what will sell the movie. Jack Black plays the almost-husband of Jason Leigh's character, so I think it's safe to say that he'll be balancing out whatever serious intentions the trailer is masking.

Kidman is currently in Australia, shooting the Baz Luhrmann epic of the same name, and is loosely attached to two future projects -- Need, in which she may co-star with Naomi Watts and Wong Kar Wai's The Lady from Shanghai, which has gone through a lot of shifts over the past couple of years. I'm not up on the latest regarding the project, but something tells me you shouldn't hold your breath for it. As for Jennifer Jason Leigh, she'll next be seen opposite Alec Baldwin in Lymelife, a family dramedy about a marriage that is falling apart. Margot at the Wedding is currently scheduled to hit theaters on October 19.

Looking to get their feet wet in the world of horror, Paramount Vantage has picked up a spooky high-concept spec script, Ink, by Harris Wilkinson (Stir of Echoes: The Dead Speak) that apparently has something to do with tattoo artists. Though they aren't revealing any plot details, I think it's safe to assume there are a number of different places to go here. Since it's "high-concept," I imagine the tattoo ink will possess some sort of supernatural power that, when inked into someone's skin, magically comes to life ... or something like that. Heck, it's scary enough just watching someone get a dragon tattooed down their leg, imagine if the freaking thing came to life and devoured the poor fool who shelled out $400 to have it permanently etched into their skin. (Hmm, and I wonder what would happen to the dude sitting next to him who opted to go for the Playboy Bunny instead?)

Now, keep in mind, I have no idea whether that's the direction Wilkinson took with his script, but it seems like the most logical one. Unless, for instance, the pic focuses on a tattoo artist-turned-serial killer whose instruments aren't exactly clean ... if you know what I mean. The script is currently out to directors, and it's being produced by Riche Prods. in association with Mandalay Independent Pictures. Depending on how successful the film is, I wonder if it would have any effect on the tattoo industry -- after seeing Ink, will people be too afraid to down seven shots of vodka and have their significant others name tattooed in a place where the light doesn't shine? Oh, you know who you are ...

I went to a meeting tonight and returned home to discover that the industry wheeling and dealing at Sundance had produced a number of distribution deals. An LA Times article refers to the latest round of deals as "a spending spree reminiscent of drunken sailors on shore leave." I can't top that description. Here's the scoop, as well as some updates on previous deals in progress:

• Fortissimo Films has bought the worldwide (except China) distribution rights to Nanking for an as-yet undisclosed price. Nanking is about the Japanese invasion during WWII of Nanking, China. At first, I thought Nanking was a feature because well-known actors are listed on the film's IMDb page, and some controversy has occurred about writing credits, but apparently it's a documentary that contains a filmed stage reading of pertinent letters and documents. Look for a review of Nanking by Kim Voynar later this week.
  
• Paramount Vantage picked up near-worldwide distribution rights to How She Move (pictured at right), a Canadian feature about urban step dancing. Is this the same as stepping, which was featured in Stomp the Yard? If so (or if buyers are similarly confused), Stomp the Yard's box office success might explain the estimated $3-4 million sale for this film. The plot of How She Move also sounds Save the Last Dance-ish.
  

In an attempt to remove the "Hey, that's the chick in all those romantic comedies and Spider-Man movies" label from below her name, Kirsten Dunst will star in and produce A Jealous Ghost for Paramount Vantage. Film 360 will also produce, while Megan Holley has been brought onboard to adapt from A.N. Wilson's novel of the same name. However, before the project was even brought to Paramount, a whole team of people (including Dunst, Holley and 360's Ben Forkner) ripped the book to shreds, removing chunks of it and adding new characters and story points. Hmm, a film that will in no way stay faithful to the original source material? There's a new one for Hollywood.

Dunst had been searching for a juicy psychological thriller to sink her fangs into as of late, seeing as her last attempt in the genre was 1994's Interview With the Vampire -- a film that kick-started her career. In A Jealous Ghost, Dunst will play a young woman who, upon shacking up with one of her professors while attending University in London, begins seeing demons. I guess that's what happens when you try to sleep your way toward a good grade. Not that I would know, of course -- back in college, all my professors had hair protruding out of places I'd rather not discuss, which made it difficult to even look at them, let alone flirt or -- God forbid -- engage in any sexual activities. Here's hoping Dunst can successfully pull off the thrills and chills. A part of me is really looking forward to seeing what she can do with this genre as an adult now, however it's quite difficult to watch without wincing out of fear that this might be trainwreck waiting to happen.

Don't worry, Paramount didn't fall down and hurt themselves ... even if Tom Cruise might secretly wish they would. Instead, the studio has added another notch on its bedpost of upcoming projects.

According to Variety (via Sci-Fi Wire), Paramount's specialty division (aka Paramount Vantage) has acquired worldwide rights to the psychological thriller Fracture by Alan McElroy (who also wrote Spawn and The Marine) for producers Mike Macari and Neil Edelstein of, among other things, The Ring and the recent thriller The Invisible.

This Fracture should not be confused with the other Fracture (which I mentioned before) being directed by Gregory Hoblit. That film features Anthony Hopkins as a killer who gets off on a technicality and Ryan Gosling as the DA trying to put him back behind bars. They are not the same film. Instead, the story of this film centers around a desperate man's search for his wife and children after they disappear without a trace into a hospital emergency room. At the moment, this Fracture has no director attached (although it's out to some), a cast or an expected start date.

After it took him 7 years to release his sophomore film, Capote, for which he was nominated for a directing Oscar, it wouldn't have been surprising to discover that Bennett Miller had no follow-up planned. Maybe he would become another one of those filmmakers who take a long time between projects. Personally, I was hoping that he'd go and do another documentary, a la The Cruise. Maybe this time he could follow his friend Sarah Vowell around on a historical vacation of some sort.

Well, he didn't have anything up and running immediately following the Oscars, but now he is about to get started on developing The Immortalist (which he will direct off a script by Dante Miller), a drama that Miller says is, "not a science fiction film, but a drama set in the very real world of those pursuing biological immortality. It's a pursuit that attracts some extremely brilliant, wealthy and influential people; it also attracts tragic figures. The story follows one such person on his disturbing foray into it." Paramount Vantage has already picked up the rights to U.S. distribution.

[via MovieWeb]

The trades reported this morning that Will Ferrell and his writer-director pal Adam McKay have signed a two-year, first-look deal with Paramount's specialty division, Paramount Vantage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal will be focused on low-budget films ($10-20 million), not for Ferrell to star in, but to enable the pair to "grow a brand via their newly formed Gary Sanchez Prods." Vantage president John Lesher, feeling that Vantage is leaning too high-brow (they're making both No Country for Old Men and Paul Thomas Anderson's oil epic, There Will be Blood), was eager to add some projects that would broaden the division's base, both in terms of genre and target audience. Lesher, however, is not slumming: He feels McKay's and Ferrell's contributions will be "sophisticated and fresh material," just like the rest of the Vantage slate.

I gotta say that I'm not going to instantly call BS on Lesher's ravings here, though that's my normal inclination with studio spin. I mean, sure, Anchorman is full of stupid humor. But it's also way weirder and smarter than most mainstream comedy -- it could have been a lucky accident, I guess, but at least until Talladega Nights comes out, we can remain hopeful about the quality of the films that will come out of this deal.