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CinemaCon: Can Star-Driven 2013 Slate Power Sony To Top Their Best Year Ever?

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday April 18, 2013 @ 3:30am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, CinemaCon, Elysium, Grown Ups 2, Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures, The Monuments Men, This Is The End
Pete Hammond

Sony Pictures played it lean and mean with a tightly produced program for exhibitors at CinemaCon on Wednesday evening that put the emphasis squarely where the theatre owners wanted it — on the product. And the studio delivered as promised with an intriguing 51-minute reel showcasing their 2013 movie slate — and in no particular order. Where other studios this week have put the emphasis on summer, Sony presented a year-round picture with a wide diversity of product and more than one potential Oscar contender.

Among the previously unseen footage in the reel were brief snippets from year-end awards contenders The Monuments Men directed by and starring George Clooney and an all-star cast, along with David O. Russell’s newly named American Hustle with virtually the entire cast of last season’s Russell Oscar darling Silver Linings Playbook. Also, Tom Hanks is starring as Captain Phillips (October) from director Paul Greengrass, a true story about a ship hijacked by Somalian pirates. If this weren’t enough to whet Oscar-watcher appetites there was generous footage from 2010 Best Picture Oscar nominee Neil Blomkamp’s (District 9) latest, Elysium, which those who have seen a rough cut tell me could be another contender for the director. Matt Damon and Jodie Foster star. There’s also a Russian production of a World War II epic, Stalingrad, from director Fedor Bonarchuk which the studio is partnering on for fall release that has “prestige product” written all over it. READ MORE »

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Hot Trailer: ‘Elysium’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday April 9, 2013 @ 4:11pm PDTTags: Elysium, Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Sony Pictures

Matt Damon and Jodie Foster star in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 follow-up, set in a future where humanity is divided into the very wealthy who live on a man-made space station and the poor who still live down below on a ruined Earth. Sony releases … Read More »

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Sony Upgrades ‘Elysium’ Into Summer 2013, Pushing ‘RoboCop’ To February 2014

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday October 15, 2012 @ 5:21pm PDTTags: Elysium, RoboCop, Sony Pictures

Sony Pictures said today it is moving its Neill Blomkamp sci-fi thriller Elysium onto the studio’s summer slate next year, giving it a August 9, 2013 wide release date. If that date sounds familiar it is: Jose Padilha’s RoboCop reboot, a co-production with MGM, was slated for that spot. Now, it will move off the summer and to February 7, 2014. That August date is familiar for another reason: Sony released Blomkamp’s first feature District 9 around the same time in 2009, when it grossed $37.4 million on opening weekend en route to a $200M-plus global cume. It has high expectations for his latest film, a TriStar pic that originally was given a March 2013 release date. Elysium stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster in a tale about a future world where two classes of people exist: ones who live on a luxurious space station and ones who live on a ruined, overcrowded Earth. One man (Damon) takes on a mission to bring equality to the worlds. Read More »

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Comic-Con: Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’ Plus ‘Looper’, ‘Total Recall’ & ‘Resident Evil 5′

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday July 13, 2012 @ 7:01pm PDTTags: Comic-Con Wrap-Up, Elysium, Jodie Foster, Looper, Matt Damon, Sony Pictures

Luke Y. Thompson is contributing to Deadline’s coverage of Comic-Con.

The most-anticipated moment of the Sony panel was easily the presentation of Neil Blomkamp‘s Elysium, and it did not disappoint, looking like a 2001/District 9 hybrid, or maybe even Wall-E with humans. It’s another stylish sci-fi class-struggle parable with Matt Damon as a shaven-headed working-class guy on an overpopulated earth (downtown LA is shown covered with tent encampments, even atop the skyscrapers). He was inadvertently exposed to toxic radiation and given a mechanical exoskeleton to help him capture a rich bureaucrat played by William Fichtner and infiltrate Elysium, an off-world space station created for the richest 1%, where disease Comic-Concan be eradicated and everything is perfect. Sharlto Copley’s also in there as a crazy bearded dude with a personal force-field. Robotic cops look not unlike the District 9 bugs. It feels like a potential smash. The footage shown had rough, unfinished effects but it didn’t matter. Panelists were Blomkamp, Jodie Foster, producer Simon Kinberg, Copley (hugely cheered by this crowd) and Damon. Copley revealed that his character is a villain, which wasn’t evident in the clips. He also begged fans to ask Blomkamp for a District 9 sequel, joking that he’s still looking for work.
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Comic-Con: Movies, More On Display

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday July 11, 2012 @ 11:53pm PDTTags: Comic-Con, Elysium, Iron Man 3, The Expendables 2, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Here are a few more snapshots from Deadline contributor Luke Y. Thompson of booths or displays set up so far. They’re fairly obvious, but clockwise from … Read More »

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Comic-Con: Getting A Head Start

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday July 11, 2012 @ 7:21pm PDTTags: Comic-Con, Elysium, Revolution, Warner Bros. TV

Comic-Con

Strolling around the San Diego Convention Center and grounds, Deadline contributor Luke Y. Thompson snapped a few photos as preparations for Comic-Con got underway. Clockwise from top right: A Marvel’s The Avengers tie-in, a promotion for NBC’s … Read More »

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‘Elysium’ Brings Jodie Foster To Comic-Con As Movies Rub Elbows With TV Series

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday June 29, 2012 @ 8:05pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Big Deals TV, Elysium, Game of Thrones, ParaNorman, The Walking Dead

Luke Y. Thompson is contributing to Deadline’s Comic-Con coverage. This year’s event runs July 12-15.

Comic-ConJodie Foster at Comic-Con? Absolutely believe it. She and Matt Damon will be part of a panel that day for Elysium, Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to District 9, which launched its initial ad campaign at Comic-Con (“this restroom is for humans only”) a year before actually showing footage there that really hyped things up. This is the biggest unknown quantity announced so far, the “we didn’t even know to be excited about it yet” item that could end up being the big-buzz item a la 300 (or, ahem, Sucker Punch). This news emerged today as Comic-Con continued its day-by-day rollout of what’s in store this year, releasing its schedule for Friday July 13. Elysium is surrounded on the Sony panel by Total Recall (they gave that a big push last year, and movies about to open seem less interesting to Con-goers) and Looper, which got a great reaction at Wondercon. Screen Gems’ latest Resident Evil sequel, which shared space with Looper and The Amazing Spider-Man at Wondercon, gets a panel all to itself, featuring all the usual regulars from the movies plus Michelle Rodriguez, somehow returning despite being killed in the first film. Read More »

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Media Rights Capital Seals $350 Million Revolving Credit Facility Over Five Years

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 9:06am PDTTags: Elysium, How To Be a Gentleman, Matt Damon, Media Rights Capital, Ted, The Adjustment Bureau, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: Media Rights Capital partners Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu have closed a five-year, $350 million revolving credit facility with funding provided by a group of banks led by JPMorgan Chase, Comerica, Bank of America, SunTrust and Union Bank. The syndicate includes East West Bank, Wells Fargo, Bank Leumi and City National Bank. The funds will be used to finance MRC’s feature and television productions. MRC’s last credit facility was also $350 million over three years, secured in 2008 in the midst of the economic downturn, from a consortium of banks that included JPMorgan Chase and Comerica.

MRC, which has enjoyed strong relationships with talents and the agencies, changed its feature structure from constructing pictures it licensed for distribution to  studio, (it famously made a $42.5 million deal for Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat follow-up Bruno with Universal for U.S. and English-speaking territories) to actually financing a lot of them through a five-year distribution deal with Universal Pictures. That studio has become a prime outlet for MRC fare, though it was District 9 distributor Sony Pictures that licensed the Neill Blomkamp-directed futuristic film Elysium, which stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley. It was the second MRC film for Damon, who starred with Emily Blunt in the Universal-distributed The Adjustment Bureau, which grossed $128 million worldwide. MRC is also in production on Ted, the feature directing debut of Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane that stars Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis and will also be released by Universal. MRC has two more projects with Blomkamp and two with Fincher, among others. MRC makes the case-by-case decision whether the productions are licensed to studios or fall under its new distribution deal at Universal.

MRC, after a failed foray that involved programming the Sunday night lineup for the CW, is active on the small-screen front. MRC has The Ricky Gervais Show on HBO and is developing series that include the CBS sitcom How to Be a Gentleman with Entourage’s Kevin Dillon, and a serialized political drama for Netflix that is being produced by David Fincher and stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. In all cases, MRC makes deals that grant talent at the ground floor an ownership stake in the film or TV project. Read More »

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Alice Braga Added To ‘Elysium’ Cast

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday May 28, 2011 @ 4:54pm PDTTags: Alice Braga, Elysium, Film Castings

UPDATE: So an idiot publicist can’t distinguish between Brazilian actresses even though they’re a generation apart and Alice Braga is the niece of Sonia Braga. It’s the former who’s confirmed for Neill Blomkamp’s latest project Elysium. The filmmaker won’t provide any details on the character she’ll play, but the actress … Read More »

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3RD UPDATE: Sony Pictures Snaps Up Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’; Matt Damon And Jodie Foster Set To Star

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday January 19, 2011 @ 4:04pm PSTTags: Bill Block, Elysium, Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley, Simon Kinberg
Mike Fleming

3RD UPDATE: Sony Pictures has now decided to go it alone on Neill Blomkamp’s new scifi pic Elysium for worldwide distribution. So there is no Universal Pictures’ involvement, as the studio declined to take part. MRC put the … Read More »

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Jodie Foster Joins Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday January 3, 2011 @ 11:35am PSTTags: Elysium, Elysium Distribution, Jodie Foster, Matt Damon Elysium, Media Rights Capital, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Though it hasn’t yet been shopped to studios by Media Rights Capital, Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 followup Elysium is looking better and better. He’s just gotten Jodie Foster to commit and join Matt Damon and District 9‘s … Read More »

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Matt Damon In Talks To Join Neill Blomkamp’s ‘Elysium’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday December 10, 2010 @ 7:55am PSTTags: Elysium, Matt Damon, Matt Damon Elysium, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Matt Damon is in early negotiations to star in Neill Blomkamp’s scifi film Elysium for Media Rights Capital. Damon will join District 9‘s Sharlto Copley in a film that is shrouded in secrecy. While a Damon commitment–they’re in the … Read More »

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Neill Blomkamp Moving Ahead On ‘Elysium’

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday December 6, 2010 @ 9:10am PSTTags: Elysium, Elysium Distribution, Media Rights Capital, Movie Deals, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley



EXCLUSIVE I’ve just learned that Neill Blomkamp is reteaming with his District 9 star Sharlto Copley on his second sci-fi feature Elysium. Copley played Wikus van de Merwe in District 9 as well as HM Murdock in this summer’s The A-Team reboot. Meanwhile, director Blomkamp … Read More »

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