Mike Fleming

BREAKING: In the culmination of talks that go back to the Cannes Film Festival last May, The Weinstein Company acquired North American distribution rights to This Must Be the Place, the Paolo Sorrentino-directed drama that stars Sean Penn as a retired rock star who comes out of seclusion to continue the hunt for the ex-Nazi war criminal who humiliated his father, who has just died. The film is produced by Lucky Red, Indigo Film and Medusa Film. It was an official selection at Cannes and there was distributor interest in the film for an awards season release for the performance by Penn, who as an aging rock star looks a lot like The Cure’s Robert Smith. At this point, it’s going to be too late to launch the film for this year’s Oscar race, particularly because TWC has other films that are expected to be in the Oscar hunt, including The Artist and the Meryl Streep-starrer Iron Lady. So expect to see This Must Be the Place in 2012. Nicola Guiliano and Francesca Cima produced with Andrea Occhipinti. UTA Independent Film Group repped the film and made the deal with TWC COO David Glasser. “Sorrentino is a true auteur,” Harvey Weinstein said in a statement. “We were gripped by his film and are excited to share it with American audiences. Sean proves once again that he is one of the finest actors of our time.”

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