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After Gritty Sundance Debut On ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’, David Lowery To Reinvent ‘Pete’s Dragon’ For Disney

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 4:39pm PDTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery, Disney, Pete's Dragon
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: I didn’t see this one coming. After directing one of the most talked-about films at Sundance Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, David Lowery has hired on with writing partner Toby Halbrooks to script Pete’s Dragon for Disney and producer Jim Whitaker. I’m told they will reinvent the core story of a venerable Disney family film. It will not be a musical and at this point Lowery is just engaged as writer. The original 1977 Pete’s Dragon mixed an animated fire-breather with a live-action cast of actors that included Mickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters, Helen Reddy and Jim Dale, with Sean Marshall playing the orphan boy who comes to a town with his magical dragon, his abusive adoptive parents in hot pursuit.

It is certainly a departure for Lowery, who made the jump from editor to director on Saints, a gritty drama he wrote and directed that stars Rooney Mara, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster. It’s the tale of an outlaw who escapes prison and sets across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. The film was acquired by IFC, which will release the pic August 16. He made a small feature called St. Nick, about runaway children who have to fend for themselves in the wild, so he has explored themes of innocence and magical realism. And he and Halbrooks made the Sundance short Pioneer, which was essentially an epic bedtime story.

Lowery’s repped by WME.

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Sundance: IFC Closes Big Deal For ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 25, 2013 @ 3:35am PSTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Big Deals Film, IFC Films, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Wrap-Up
Mike Fleming

2ND UPDATE: IFC has finally confirmed this deal. Here’s the release, at the bottom of Deadline’s break on the deal.

UPDATE, 3:35 AM: It was easier for Deadline to splash an exclusive about the Ain’t Them Bodies Saints deal last night than it was for Sundance dealmakers to paper it. But Cassian Elwes and WME Global’s Graham Taylor and Alexis Garcia finally closed with IFC Films‘ Arianna Bocco at 3 AM Los Angeles time, for a bit more than $1 million for U.S. rights. That means the reps will hold a mini-auction for Canadian rights — after they take a nap. I heard this morning from Elwes, who said Saints will benefit from a multi-platform strategy that the dealmaker/producer road-tested with Margin Call, and which he feels is a major reason the indie market is reinvigorated.

On this deal, Elwes had his original flight canceled and had to take another back to L.A. They negotiated until he had to shut off his cell phone, and then continued when he landed. Plane rides factored into the festival more than once, as Wednesday (at 3:36 AM West Coast time), WME Global closed a deal with eOne for the cannibal tale We Are What We Are. I’d heard that the agents were on the same flight with the eOne team, and they were going back and forth — and getting testy at times but not enough where they had to be duct-taped to their seats — on the way back to LA from Park City. By the time they landed, they were all smiling, and probably papered the deal with a Delta cocktail napkin for a platform theatrical release. When I asked Elwes why, like vampires, Sundance sellers and buyers only seem to get anything done between nightfall and dawn, he said: “Unfortunately, you watch the movies during the day and the only time to make a deal is when most people are asleep.” A few more deals and then these agents and buyers all deserve a long winter’s nap when this festival ends, as do the insomniac journalists who stalk them into the wee hours. Read More »

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Sundance: ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ Wins Indian Paintbrush Grant

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday January 20, 2013 @ 1:19pm PSTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Indian Paintbrush, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Wrap-Up

Indian Paintbrush has chosen Sundance contender Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and producers Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston and their company Sailor Bear as recipients of the 2013 Indian Paintbrush Producer’s Award and accompanying $10,000 grant. Ain’t Them … Read More »

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Fest Films With Highest Wanna-See From Buyers: Mike Fleming On 2013 Sundance

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday January 18, 2013 @ 2:30pm PSTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Don Jon's Addiction, Lovelace, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Wrap-Up
Mike Fleming

Related: Part I: Sundance Forecast: Small Deals Galore, And More Chances For Filmmakers

Foot traffic on Main Street is building, and the deals are starting to go down. In the second part of my 2013 Sundance Film Festival opener, here are the films that have been mentioned most often by the buyers who’ll determine whether or not this will be a good festival for the filmmakers. There are some good-sounding films with strong casts, the kind that ring up decent numbers.

DON JON’S ADDICTION:  Writer-director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Cast: Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenne Headly. Gordon-Levitt plays a porn addict who becomes torn between two women. This one premieres tonight, 6:30 PM at Eccles, and it will likely be the fest’s first real auction.

AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS: Writer-director: David Lowery. Cast: Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster, Nate Parker, Keith Carradine. The tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. Killer title and good cast. 1st Screening – Sunday, January 20th, 12:15pm – Eccles

Related: Sundance: Five Actors & Actresses To Watch

THE WAY, WAY BACK: Writer-director: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash. Cast: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph. An introverted 14-year-old comes into his own over the course of a comedic summer when he forms unlikely friendships with the gregarious manager of a rundown water park and the misfits who work there. Carell’s last festival film like this was Little Miss Sunshine. 1st Screening – Monday, January 21st, 3:30pm – Eccles

BREATHE IN: Writer-director: Drake Doremus. Cast: Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan, Felicity Jones, Mackenzie Davis. A teacher falls for one of his students, the one who just transferred from London. Doremus and Jones reteam from Like Crazy. 1st Screening – Saturday, January 19th, 3:00pm – Eccles

Related: Sundance: Five Directors To Watch

BEFORE MIDNIGHT: Writer-director: Richard Linklater (written with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke). Sure it might be the lowest-grossing film franchise in film history, but buyers are sparked for the third installment which picks up Jesse and Celine nine years later in Greece, some two decades after they first met on a train bound for Vienna. 1st Screening – Sunday, January 20th, 9:45pm – Eccles

THE LIFEGUARD: Writer-director: Liz W. Garcia. Cast: Kristen Bell, Mamie Gummer, Martin Starr, Amy Madigan. Bell plays an ex-valedictorian who bails on her journo job in Gotham to return to her last happy place. That’s the family home in Connecticut, and she gets a lifeguard job and falls into a dangerous relationship with a troubled teen. 1st Screening – Saturday, January 19th, 5:30pm – Library

THE NECESSARY DEATH OF CHARLIE COUNTRYMAN: Director: Fredrik Bond. Writer, Matt Drake. Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Mads Mikkelsen, Rupert Grint, Til Schweiger. Countryman is a young man who’s traveling abroad. When he falls for a beauty he becomes determined to find his way into her heart. That means  taking brutal punishment from her violent ex. 1st Screening – Monday, January 21st, 6:30pm – Eccles

PRINCE AVALANCHE: Writer-director: David Gordon Green. Cast: Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch. Two highway road workers spend the summer of 1988 away from their city lives. The isolated landscape becomes a place of misadventure as the men find themselves at odds with each other and the women they left behind. 1st Screening – Sunday, January 20th, 2:30pm – Library

Related: Sundance: Five Producers To Watch Read More »

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Financing Team In Place For Indie Thriller ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday July 23, 2012 @ 10:40am PDTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints

Evolution Independent is joined by Lagniappe and Paradox Entertainment aboard David Lowery’s dramatic thriller Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which stars Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck as a pair of outlaws who are brought down by the law in Texas. Ben Foster also stars, and Keith Carradine has just been added … Read More »

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‘Red Tails’ Nate Parker Cast In Indie ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday July 12, 2012 @ 1:16pm PDTTags: Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Red Tails

Actor Nate Parker (Red Tails, The Secret Life Of Bees, The Great Debaters, Pride) is joining Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, and Ben Foster in the cast for Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. The indie film is written and directed … Read More »

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