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Dimension To Develop ‘Scanners’ TV Series

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday July 22, 2011 @ 12:02pm PDTTags: Alexandre Aja, Bob Weinstein, Clark Peterson, David Cronenberg, Dimension Films
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: David Cronenberg’s science-fiction horror classic Scanners may be headed to the small screen. The Weinstein Co.’s Dimension Films is developing a drama series adaptation of the movies about a group of people with telepathic and telekinetic abilities, with The Hills Have Eyes writer-director Alexandre Aja signed to executive produce the series and potentially direct the pilot.

Dimension was not involved in the original 1981 Scanners film or its sequels, but acquired the rights to the franchise in a development deal several years ago. The original plan was to mount a theatrical remake, with David Goyer tapped to write two drafts, and Rene Malo, Clark Peterson and Pierre David signed as producers. But with the recent resurgence of genre TV dramas like AMC’s monster hit The Walking Dead, Dimension started also considering a small-screen adaptation. According to insiders, it was Dimension principal Bob Weinstein and Aja who conceived of the plan to transform the Scanners property into a TV show. Malo, Peterson and David remain attached as executive producers on the series, while Goyer is no longer involved. Dimension is already in talks with potential showrunners to create and run the series. Aja is repped by WME and Industry Entertainment.

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Sony Classics Acquires David Cronenberg’s ‘A Dangerous Method’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday June 16, 2011 @ 12:39pm PDTTags: A Dangerous Method, David Cronenberg, Sony Pictures Classic

NEW YORK (June 16, 2011) – Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired the US Rights to David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD from UK based Hanway Films. The film, produced by Jeremy Thomas (THE LAST EMPEROR, SEXY BEAST), stars Viggo Mortenson, Keira Knightley, Michael Fassbender, and Vincent Cassel. The film is currently in post-production.

Cronenberg once again gathered a prestigious crew to work on A DANGEROUS METHOD, director of photography Peter Suschitsky (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES), composer Howard Shore (THE LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy, AVATAR), editor Ronald Sanders (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES, CORALINE), costume designer Denise Cronenberg (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, EASTERN PROMISES, THE INCREDIBLE HULK) and production designer James McAteer (GOOD WILL HUNTING, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN). The screenplay was adapted by Christopher Hampton (ATONEMENT, THE QUIET AMERICAN) from his own play.

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GK Films Hires Focus Exec Kahli Small

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday May 2, 2011 @ 7:00am PDTTags: Colin Farrell, David Cronenberg, George Clooney, GK Films, Graham King, Johnny Depp, Kahli Small, Keira Knightley, Martin Scorsese, Peter Morgan, Sacha Baron Cohen, Tim Headington, Viggo Mortensen
Mike Fleming

Graham King’s GK Films has hired Focus Features exec Kahli Small to be executive vice president of production and development. She will report directly to King and will work out of GK’s Santa Monica headquarters. Kahli is a seven-year vet … Read More »

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David Cronenberg Taps Sarah Gadon Again For ‘Cosmopolis’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday March 28, 2011 @ 1:25pm PDTTags: Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg
Mike Fleming

Sarah Gadon has been set to star alongside Rob Pattinson in Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg’s next directorial effort. It’s her second straight film with the director after wrapping A Dangerous Method. Cronenberg, who adapted the Cosmopolis script from the Don DeLillo novel, has cast Gadon as the estranged wife of financial wunderkind Eric Packer (Pattinson). He risks his entire fortune to bet against the yen on a tumultuous day, a move that puts him in an assassin’s crosshairs as he moves from place to place in a limo in a study of capitalism that takes place in a slightly futuristic metropolis. Samantha Morton, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti and Mathieu Amalric are also in the cast. Read More »

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Robert Pattinson To Star In David Cronenberg’s ‘Cosmopolis’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 5, 2011 @ 2:48pm PSTTags: Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg, Movie Deals, Movies, Robert Pattinson, Twilight Saga
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Pattinson has booked his first major lead for when he completes The Twilight Saga. Pattinson will star in Cosmopolis, the Don DeLillo novel adaptation that David Cronenberg wrote and will direct. Pattinson, who just starred with Reese Witherspoon … Read More »

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Q&A With Brit Producer Jeremy Thomas: “My Advice To American Filmmakers Is To Marry A European. I’m Not Kidding.”

By TIM ADLER in London | Thursday October 21, 2010 @ 4:40am PDTTags: British Film Institute, David Cronenberg, Movies, Takeshi Kitano

At a time when the UK film industry seems increasingly inward-looking, a recurring theme of the 46 films which Jeremy Thomas has produced has been cross-cultural — whether it’s Japanese director Takeshi Kitano looking at America in Brother (2000) or Bernardo Bertolucci retelling Chinese history in the Best Picture Oscar-winner The Last Emperor (1987). He also exec-produced Takeshi Miike’s 13 Assassins, which competed at Venice last month and will work on Miike’s next pic. Thomas specialises in filming the un-filmable, whether William S Burrough’s novel Naked Lunch or JG Ballard’s notorious Crash or his latest plan: a pic about North Korean dictator Kim-Jong il. Currently in post on David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, Thomas gave the keynote interview at Wednesday’s Film London Production Finance Market as part of the BFI London Film Festival which is where I interviewed him.

As the former chairman of the British Film institute, he urged the British government to reconsider rejoining European super fund Eurimages to boost co-productions and had harsh words for  UK leaders: “The problem with these politicians is that they’ve never made a film. They’re planning the war but they’ve never been in the trenches and had their faces splattered with blood. But when it comes to movies everybody thinks they’re an expert. It wouldn’t happen in any other business.” Thomas unlike most producers owns the rights to his films and believes that should be the endgame of any independent moviemaker. (He even owns the freehold on his office building.) He launched his own sales agency Hanway Films in 1998, which has become one of the biggest in the market. “Raising the money, shooting the film, distributing it – it’s all a nightmare,” the 61-year-old said. “But it’s better than working.”

Deadline London: Given the kind of films you make, are you disheartened by the state of filmmaking in Hollywood today?

Jeremy Thomas: Even the people who run the studios themselves – and some of them are friends of mine — when they go home at night, are dismayed that they entered a business in which they’re doing such unoriginal work. If you look at Hollywood’s output over the past decade there’s a very small percentage of original work. It’s all remakes, sequels, prequels. What you have going on in world cinema today is like a peanut compared to the 1970s. You look at the films made then compared with the films being made today – they’re thin and empty. I don’t think anybody came into the movie business to be unoriginal and plagiarising and not having an original idea in their brain. The studios are financially moribund. They are worried about their financial model because they have to spend so much money on marketing costs. Digital exhibition hasn’t saved any money. I’m still waiting to see this digital dividend. Read More »

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Germany Funds 3 More Foreign Projects

By TIM ADLER in London | Friday July 9, 2010 @ 12:47am PDTTags: A Dangerous Method, Ashley Greene, Dark Castle, David Cronenberg, Focus Features, Hanna, Joe Wright, The Apparition

Ashley_GreeneEXCLUSIVE: DFFF, the German state feature film fund, has awarded €1.8 million ($2.3 million) to David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method and €952,348 ($1.2 million) to Dark Castle’s The Apparition, starring Ashley Greene (Twilight: Eclipse). It’s also backing Joe Wright’s action movie … Read More »

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