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Hammond On Cannes: Sun Comes Out As Parties, Deals And Movies Take Over Croisette

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 4:31am PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Dallas Buyers Club, Harvey Weinstein, Inside Llewyn Davis, Leslie Moonves, Paul Haggis, Tim Burton
Pete Hammond

The sun finally came back to a windy and rainy Cannes but the weather clearly couldn’t slow the nonstop parties, premieres, deals and hype for which this festival is famous. And despite the rain on Saturday the turnout for Lionsgate’s big Catching Fire bash was wall-to-wall at Baoli Beach, with everyone including star Jennifer Lawrence crowded into the large tent. One exec there actually was happy with the monsoon-like conditions. “The rain probably kept 30% of our RSVPs away which is probably good because i don’t know how we could have squeezed them in,” he said.

With everyone drying out Sunday there seemed to be even more party-hopping than usual. At the crowded Participant Films party at the Carlton, Focus Features CEO James Schamus was accepting congratulations on his re-upping at the company. I have rarely heard him wax more eloquently about a film than Focus’ recent pickup of The Dallas Buyers Club, the movie where Matthew McConaughey lost about 50 pounds to play an early AIDS victim. It’s not dated yet according to Schamus but is planned  for fall sometime. “It’s just a bloodbath trying to pick the right date in that period but this movie is extraordinary. I just so admire what Matthew has been doing with his career in the last couple of years between Magic Mike, Killer Joe, The Paperboy, Mud and now this. You know me, I don’t rave like this a lot, but he really knocks this one out of the park. It is the performance of a lifetime,”  he says of the actor in a film that is sure to be a main focus of Focus’ awards-season plans. READ MORE »

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Focus Features Acquires HIV/AIDS Drama ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ Starring Matthew McConaughey

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday April 23, 2013 @ 10:20am PDTTags: Dallas Buyers Club, Focus Features, Matthew McConaughey

This was a long-coveted project for actors and directors even before Matthew McConaughey came aboard in May 2011 to star alongside Hilary Swank (Jennifer Garner eventually came on to take the latter role). McConaughey said he lost almost 40 pounds to tell the real-life story of Ron Woodruff, who fought the U.S. medical and pharmaceutical companies after he was diagnosed with HIV in the mid-1980s, when the disease was still mostly without a public face. Focus plans a release for Dallas Buyers Club in the second half of this year — which usually means an awards-season slot. Here’s the release

NEW YORK, April 23rd, 2013 – Dallas Buyers Club, currently in post-production, has been acquired by Focus Features for domestic theatrical release in the second half of 2013. The company has also acquired Latin American rights to the feature. Focus CEO James Schamus and Focus president Andrew Karpen made the announcement today. A Truth Entertainment production, Dallas Buyers Club is produced by Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter. Spirit Award winner Matthew McConaughey stars in the fact-based drama for director Jean-Marc Vallée (The Young Victoria). The film’s original screenplay is by Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack.

In Dallas Buyers Club, Mr. McConaughey portrays real-life Texas electrician Ron Woodroof, an ordinary man who found himself in a life-or-death battle with the medical establishment and pharmaceutical companies. In 1986, Ron was blindsided by being diagnosed as HIV-positive and given 30 days to live. With the U.S. still internally divided over how to combat the virus and restricting medications, Ron grabbed hold of non-toxic alternative treatments from all over the world by means both legal and illegal. Seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines and supplements, he established a “buyers club,” which fellow HIV-positive people could join for access to his supplies.

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Jared Leto Joins ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday November 6, 2012 @ 12:00pm PSTTags: Dallas Buyers Club

Jared Leto has been cast alongside Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner in the AIDS drug drama Dallas Buyers Club, which is starting production next week in New Orleans. It will be the first feature film … Read More »

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AFM: Jennifer Garner Near Deal To Star In Drama ‘Dallas Buyers Club’

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday October 31, 2012 @ 5:01pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Dallas Buyers Club, Jennifer Garner

EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Garner is in talks to star in the long-gestating drama Dallas Buyers Club alongside Matthew McConaughey. The plot centers on a man who was given six months to live after contracting AIDS in 1986; he lived another six years by illegally smuggling medicine into the U.S., making sure a lot of other sufferers got them too. The spirit of the drama paints a picture at the time of powerful and unyielding bureaucrats at the Food and Drug Administration. We’re hearing that the production is also close to casting the key role of a cross-dresser, but nothing’s been sealed. Worldwide rights are available with Voltage Pictures’ Nicolas Chartier setting up sales at AFM.

Related: ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ Takes Shape Read More »

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