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New York, NY, June 13, 2011 – The Weinstein Company (TWC) announced today that it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “W.E.,” Madonna’s directorial debut of a feature film. W.E. is a romantic drama co-written by Madonna and Alek Keshishian, produced by Madonna and Kris Thykier and executive produced by Scott Franklin (BLACK SWAN). It stars Abbie Cornish (LIMITLESS), Oscar Isaac (DRIVE), James D’Arcy (MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD), Andrea Riseborough (NEVER LET ME GO), Natalie Dormer (“The Tudors”), Richard Coyle (PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME), James Fox (SHERLOCK HOLMES) and Laurence Fox (“Inspector Lewis”). The announcement was made by TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein and President of Production Donna Gigliotti.
Spanning six decades, W.E. juxtaposes a contemporary love story with that of King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
“W.E. is about the nature of true love, and the sacrifices and compromises that are often made. I’ve wanted to tell this story for a very long time, and bringing it to life has been a great adventure for me. I’m looking forward to working with Harvey and The Weinstein Company on this film,” commented Madonna.
“Madonna has really come into her own as a filmmaker with W.E.,” said Weinstein. “She’s taken one of the most famous romances of the 20th Century and brought it to life in a smart, sexy and thoroughly modern way. It’s a terrific addition to our US release slate.”
Commented Gigliotti, “The advance footage for W.E. was some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait for American audiences to have the opportunity to see this film.”
The deal was negotiated for TWC by Weinstein, COO David Glasser and Michal Steinberg, Senior Vice President Business Affairs and Acquisitions; and by CAA, on behalf of the filmmakers.
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correction: her “debut” was that godawful “Filth & Wisdom” (2008)
It wasn’t awful at all actually, however it was a low budget indie film with the roma gypsy artist Eugene Hutz (from gogol bordello) It got neutral to good reviews overall, which is very hard for a Madonna film. That’s why I’m very certain she’s gonna surprise us all with W.E
I almost spit my coffee out on the screen, I’m laughing so hard.
Wanna bet how quickly the DVD will be in a bin at the 99 cent store?
I´m sure u gonna be surprised
Weren’t these people essentially Nazi sympathizers, or maybe even Nazi Nazis? Why does Scott Rudin make movies worshipping these creepy people? He’s Jewish! Madonna, I assume, has her reasons, like still trying to scramble up the class ladder, and become a duchess.
Dullsville
Yes, Edward and Wallis were Nazi sympathizers and were Hitler’s personal guests at his summer home in Germany. The US Government was keeping tabs on them and providing info to the British military concerning their whereabouts and Germans they were franternizing with prior to the war. Including the German ambassador that Wallis was sleeping with while being romanced by Edward. I don’t know why people want to romanticize that relationship and portray them as star-crossed lovers with pure motives.
And of course, there’s Edward’s sexual perversions that suggest he liked being dominated by Wallis and would crawl on the floor and bark like a dog for her. Ohhhh, the facts are always stranger than the fiction…… Maybe Madonna should do a movie on that!
Just read the script!! Its very good! She also discuss they were Nazi sympatizers. Wally and her husband argue about this. In the end they agree to disagree.
They “agree to disagree” about GENOCIDE?!? Wow, how perfectly blase….nothing at all fundamental about someone’s character like their lack of disapproval regarding the murder of an entire race. Seems like a deal breaker to me.
“Madonna’s directorial debut of a FEATURE FILM.”
Will reserve judgment until after the trailer and reviews hit.
What exactly makes a “FEATURE FILM”?
I stand corrected. This is her second feature. Thought Filth and Wisdom was a short.
Its also more Wally´s (abbie cornish) journey instead of Wallis. The script looks very intresting, really want to see all the camera work.
They should just pay her to not make or star in anymore films.
I am most excited to see Abbie Cornish and Oscar Isaac. They were both respectively the best parts of Sucker Punch and I hear they are great in this one too.
The footage is truly great. Madonna did well, and the film is worthy of a US release. TWC is a great fit. Why shoot it down?
Why shoot it down? People who make light and/or gloss over those whose sheer presence/involvement helped justify the most horrific regime in human history deserve nothing less. That’s like making the “Hugo Boss” story, and saying that he was a fashion innovator who just so happened to make/design all of the Nazi uniforms just so he could make ends meet.
Wonder how much Madonna agreed to put into the distribution / P&A to get this film distrubuted by the Weinsteins who up until the Kings Speech were two steps away from bankruptcy?
These guys can’t even cobble up the cash to wholly fund a Quentin Tarantino film (QT is their cash cow, it must kill them to spilt any revenue of him with other studios).
I read half the script on line yesterday. It’s well written enough but the constant cross-cutting between two time periods becomes fatiguing, continuing as it does through at least 50 pages. There’s a kind of high gloss Lifetime appeal to it in that it features not uninteresting women making do of their time in history, but there’s no real emotion generated in the first half. And there’s not a strong narrative thrust or dramatic tension to make me want to finish the story, at least in script form.