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EXCLUSIVE: Metropolitan Inc, led by film industry veteran James Schramm, is about to announce it has acquired the U.S. theatrical distribution rights from rights holder Rollercoaster Entertainment to Casino Jack. I’ve heard the company committed 8 figures to acquire and support the planned nationwide release of Casino Jack this fall, including $9M P&A and an aggressive Oscar campaign.
The feature film produced by George Vitetzakis directed by George Hickenlooper (Factory Girl) from an original screenplay by Norman Snider, stars 2-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff, the high-powered Washington D.C. lobbyist convicted in 2006 of defrauding American Indian casinos and now behind bars. Spacey and Hickenlopper visited Abramoff in prison during the pic’s development. Casino Jack marks Metropolitan’s first foray into film distribution. This newly launched arm of the motion picture media company will service approximately 20 releases per year.
CAA together with Cassian Elwes brokered the deal on behalf of Rollercoaster Entertainment which also provided production financing as well as Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC (Canada) and Media Capital Group. Hannibal Pictures is handling international sales.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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That is such awesome news!!!! There isn’t a better guy in this town than George Hickenlooper.
Thrilled For A Great Filmmaker!
More fun facts to back of the Affleck film:
According to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by the Center for Responsive Politics, the 2008 Obama campaign received $12.6 million from Wall Street “Securities and Investment” firms versus McCain’s $7.9 million
The top three corporate employers of donors to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Rahm Emanuel were Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and JPMorgan
Employees of Lehman Brothers alone gave Obama $370,000, compared to about $117,000 to McCain. (No wonder Bush let them go under.)
Since 1998, the financial sector has given a total of $37.6 million to Obama, compared to $32.1 million to McCain. But Obama ran for his first national office only in 2004. So McCain got less from the financial industry in a decade that included two runs for president than Obama did in four years.
Corporate money always bets on who they think will win. McCain was a dog in that race – thus less money. Corporate money really doesn’t care about parties.
Nice to see George Higgenlooper reads your site, “A Great Filmmaker” (HI GEORGE).
Who in their right mind wants to see this film? George hasn’t had a decent movie since…ever, Spacey is washed up, we all know that…Metro? Who the funk are those guys? See you on Starz real soon…
Is Pepper playing a disgraced castmember of BATTLEFIELD EARTH? Love the golf-glove and shades.
jim schramm… lol, no way this film ever sees the light of day..
would hope the producers did more checking on who they’re in business with..
Yeah, Jim Schramm’s last released grossed over 61 million worldwide and he was only using 6 million to release with. You are jealous. You are a looser.
You are an idiot. You are probably one of those people Jim kicked out of his office because you were wasting his time.
I wish Jim the best of luck. Jim took 5 independent films I invested in and released them theatrically, DVD, TV and international. I made an average of 40% on top of my investment. This guy knows what he is doing and that is why I trust my money with him. Good for you Jim and congratulations on Casino Jack!
Nick
Excited to see an early screening. Jack and his “Indian Industry” tricks, is just one of several thousand lobbyists, lawyers and legislators who scheme for taxpayer dollars for the 560 Indian tribes in America. The real story is that for all this privilege
providing service to the banana republic-like tribal leaders, the
Abramoff style Beltway Indian Industry insiders are paid in completely tax free dollars from the tribes. All these do-gooder guys are OFF THE BOOKS; a special Congressional provision, indeed.
I hope this movie is real, because it is a sensational long suppressed story surrounding tribal sovereignty, a phoney and fake premise.
Wasn’t there $9m P&A last time out…for Bloodrayne. I hope Hickenlooper doesn’t end up challenging people in the boxing ring a la Boll over how this will turn out. Shoot for a December 4, 2010 “release” date.
It was 6 million spent on Bloodrayne you idiot. Uwe Boll told everyone and raised 20 million so he could pocket lots of money. They were supposed to get 10 million and only got 6. Uwe Boll made good money screwing Romar. Uwe pocketed over 14 million! then he sued the distributor. What a greedy Ahole. Carma is a bitch Uwe. That is why Jim Schramm is still releasing films and Uwe Boll is nowhere on the screen.
Ex Boll Fan
In a simple Google search for James Schramm I came upon a recent lawsuit filed against his previous distribution company Romar Entertainment by notorious filmmaker Uwe Boll – anyone familiar with the case know what resulted? From what I understand Romar never followed through with their extravagant P&A promise to distribute his film Bloodrayne (not that anyone should). It’s always a great day when a new upstart is announced, but I question whether he’s capable of such a commitment – especially in these economic times.
You do not know the truth.
Uwe Boll used a lawsuit with no valid claim to get more money from the distributor. This information came from one of Uwes investors from Gemany. They said that Uwe told them that Americans are stupid, just sue them for anything and make it public and they will settle and give you money.
Uwe has sued 22 people and companies in 4 years. This is the kind of human being he is. He is dirt. He is a looser and I am sure it is a matter of time we will see him getting arrested and going to jail. I cannot wait for that to happen.
Sorry to sound so new, but what does “P&A” mean?
Prints and advertising. From the-numbers.com:
Prints and Advertising (P&A) Budget
Prints are the actual physical film that are shown in theaters and are quite expensive to make and distribute, costing about $2,000 per print. Each theater needs at least one print and possibly more depending on how many screens the film is playing on. The advertising part of the budget is the amount spent on just that, advertising. Most of the money is spent on TV, but radio, newspapers and magazines, the Internet and in theater advertising are also very important. The average film spends $34.4 million on P&A, while some films have spent more than $100 million.
Thank you so much for spelling it out for me, I truly appreciate it.
where are you getting your info on print at 2k per print?
Your information is inaccurate. Don’t make statements when you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The only accurate information you stated is that P&A stands for Prints and Advertising.
Kevin Spacey has kept Busy filming I can”t wait to see Father of Invention
I’m glad to hear Cassian has put something together.
I saw a rough cut of the film at the Denver Film Festival last autumn. The audience and I enjoyed it tremendously! We thought Spacey and the film deserves serious Oscar consideration. Eagerly anticipating the final version and seeing the cameo of Denver Mayor Hickenlooper again.
P&A is the distribution / marketing budget for a film, as distinct from the production budget (which is how much it cost to make the movie). P&A budgets often rival production budgets nowadays for big studio films, with $30 or $40 million + being standard for wide releases (3000 or so screens). Much of that money goes to TV ads, but it also goes to billboards, radio, print, internet, etc., and the cost of creating and shipping the prints.
$9 million is a strange amount to commit to a film, because it’s not really enough to get the word out, but it’s an awful lot to risk if the movie doesn’t have “sure thing” breakout potential.
You have no idea what you are talking about. 9 million is enough to go out as a national release. It is enough if you know what you are doing and you have the relationships that can get the reach.
It would be wise to not make statements that you really do not know what you are talking about.
Is this going to try and make him more human (Abramoff, not Spacey)?
Cant wait for the movie it sounds great!!!!