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Hammond On Cannes: Wet Fest’s Official Competition Finally Heats Up With Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday May 18, 2013 @ 2:10pm PDTTags: Benicio Del Toro, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen, The Past
Pete Hammond

The first purely American entry in the 2013 Cannes Film Festival competition (opening nighter The Great Gatsby was Out of Competition), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen‘s terrific Inside Llewyn Davis had its first press screening Saturday night to strong response and big buzz on the very rainy Croisette. This tale of a talented folk singer unable to balance art and commerce, and who never quite hits the big time in the late ’50s/early ’60s emerging folk scene, is pure Coen Brothers with a winning mixture of brilliantly observed comedy and darker moments that give it an edge most reminiscent of Coen movies like Barton Fink, which won the Palme d’Or on their first try at Cannes in 1991. Joel Coen also took the Director award that year and again for The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) among the seven previous times they have been in the Cannes competition. 1994′s The Hudsucker Proxy, 1996′s Fargo, 2000′s O Brother Where Art Thou, 2004′s The Ladykillers and 2007′s No Country For Old Men represent their other numerous chances to reap a second Palme d’Or since Barton Fink but none of them did the trick.

Judging from initial reaction, at least among the press, Inside Llewyn Davis probably makes them an early front-runner for that second Palme. We say early since the film doesn’t have its official black tie premiere at the Palais until Sunday night, only the fourth day of the competition. But with its superb acting including leading man Oscar Isaac as the morose but oddly engaging Llewyn and a great supporting cast including Carey Mulligan, John Goodman (just great), Justin Timberlake, Stark Sands and a scene-stealing cat (or cats? – you’ll see) among others, plus the Coens’ knack for catching this era in all its glory, I suspect this will remain a contender for the entire week of debuts to come. READ MORE »

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Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ Set For December 6 Release

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday May 3, 2013 @ 2:28pm PDTTags: CBS Films, Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen

CBS Films announced today that Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis will see a limited release December 6 and expand out December 20 — during the heart of awards season. Oscar Isaac stars in the … Read More »

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CBS Films Acquires Coen Brothers’ ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 19, 2013 @ 10:01am PSTTags: Big Deals Film, CBS Films, Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Films has landed domestic distribution rights to Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis. The film attracted heavy interest after its first screening was held last week on the Sony lot, one that drew a music crowd, a constellation of movie stars and numerous studio execs. The result was, everybody got hot and bothered about the film. I’m hearing there were three bidders for the pic and CBS Films got the film for close to $4 million for U.S. rights. Oscar Isaac stars in the pic, which takes place in the folk-music circuit in downtown New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, F. Murray Abraham and Justin Timberlake co-star.

The Coens and producer Scott Rudin, reteaming after True Grit and No Country For Old Men, made the film without a domestic distributor; Studio Canal fully financed and is releasing in some international territories and brokering offshore deals in other territories. UTA negotiated the CBS Films deal on behalf of the filmmakers. Read More »

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Joel And Ethan Coen’s ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ Gets Early Showing On Sony Lot

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 11, 2013 @ 11:13am PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Who says all the hot film acquisition action is taking place in Berlin?

The first screening of Inside Llewyn Davis quietly took place last Saturday night in a screening room on the Sony lot. That’s the new film by … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 24, 2013 @ 10:55am PSTTags: Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis, Joel Coen, Oscar Isaac

The latest from Joel and Ethan Coen stars Oscar Isaac as a singer-songwriter looking for a break in the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene. It has yet to land at a distributor. The first Inside Llewyn Davis trailer arrived via an invitation … Read More »

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FX Teams With Joel & Ethan Coen And Noah Hawley For Series Adaptation Of ‘Fargo’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday September 24, 2012 @ 4:35pm PDTTags: Big Deals TV, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Noah Hawley
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: Joel and Ethan Coen are bringing one of their signatures movies to television. FX has closed a deal to develop Fargo, an hourlong project loosely based on the Coen brothers’ 1996 comedic crime drama. The Coens will serve as executive producers on the project, which will be written/executive produced by The Unusuals and My Generation creator Noah Hawley. Warren Littlefield also will executive the project, which will be co-produced by MGM Television and FX Prods.

The Fargo movie starred Frances McDormand as a pregnant Minnesota police chief who follows the trail of two bumbling criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) hired by a car salesman (William H. Macy) to kidnap his wife. The indie earned seven Oscar nominations, winning two statuettes — for the Coen brothers’ script and McDormand’s performance. (The Coens won three more Oscars for No Country For Old Men.) The title belongs to MGM’s library, making the project part of MGM TV’s strategy to mine the company’s catalogs for properties suitable for series adaptations/remakes. The company has the Teen Wolf reboot on MTV and recently announced it was teaming with American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe for Fame, a scripted series based on the 1980 MGM film and 1982 MGM TV series. MGM TV first attempted to adapt Fargo in 2003 with a pilot starring Edie Falco and directed by Kathy Bates, which was done without the Coen brothers’ participation. Read More »

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Scott Rudin Buys Film Rights To ‘The Marriage Plot’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday November 4, 2011 @ 2:44pm PDTTags: David Fincher, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin, Stephen Daldry
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Using his own money, producer Scott Rudin has acquired screen rights to The Marriage Plot, the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides that was published earlier this month by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The novel is a love … Read More »

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Oscar Isaac Lands Lead In Coen Brothers 60s Folk Music Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday October 13, 2011 @ 6:29pm PDTTags: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Oscar Isaac, Scott Rudin
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar Isaac has landed the coveted lead role in the next film to be directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Inside Llewyn Davis, which is being made without a domestic distributor, focuses on the early folk music scene in … Read More »

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The Coen Brothers Enter Television With Hourlong Comedy At Fox From Imagine TV

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday October 4, 2011 @ 5:04pm PDTTags: 20th Century Fox TV, Brian Grazer, Ethan Coen, Fox, Imagine TV, Joel Coen
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: In the highest-profile migration of feature talent to television so far this development season, Oscar-winning filmmakers Ethan Coen and Joel Coen are set to executive produce an hourlong single-camera comedy for Fox, which the two co-created with another feature writer, Phil Johnston (Cedar Rapids). The project, titled HarveKarbo, has received a script commitment with significant penalty from Fox. It hails from Imagine TV, whose principal Brian Grazer is credited with luring the Coen brothers to television. (Ethan and Joel Coen did their 2003 feature Intolerable Cruelty with Imagine). HarveKarbo, which will be written by Johnston, features the type of quirky, offbeat characters that have become a staple of the Coen brothers’ movies. It follows the title character — an ill-tempered LA private investigator whose cases frequently involve the depraved doings of the Hollywood elite — and his deadbeat friends in Los Angeles’ El Segundo. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Johnston, Grazer and Francie Calfo are executive producing for Imagine TV and 20th Century Fox TV. Read More »

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Toronto TOLDJA!: CBS Films Closes U.S. Deal On ‘Salmon Fishing In The Yemen’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Sunday September 11, 2011 @ 3:11pm PDTTags: 2011 Toronto Film Festival, Amr Waked, Cameron Diaz, CBS Films, Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Ethan Coen, Ewan McGregor, Joel Coen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lasse Hallström, Michael Hoffman, Paul Webster, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Scott Shooman, Simon Beaufoy, Stephen Garrett, Wolfgang Hammer, Zygi Kamasa
Mike Fleming

UPDATE 2, 7:03PM: CBS Films has just issued a press release confirming the acquisition:

TORONTO (September 12) – CBS Films announced today that they have acquired the U.S.distribution rights to SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN which made its world premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival this week. The announcement was made jointly today by CBS Films’ COO Wolfgang Hammer and EV Pof Acquisitions Scott Shooman.
Directed by Oscar©-nominee Lasse Hallström (Chocolat), SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN is an extraordinary, beguiling tale of fly-fishing and politicalspinning, of unexpected heroism and late-blooming love and of an attempt toprove the impossible, possible. Ewan McGregor (Beginners) and Emily Blunt (The Adjustment Bureau) star in the feature film alongside Oscar©-nominee Kristen ScottThomas (I’ve Loved You So Long).

Based on Paul Torday’s acclaimed novel, SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN is written by Oscar©-winner Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and produced by Paul Webster (The Motorcycle Diaries) and executive produced by Jamie Laurenson, Stephen Garrett, Paula Jalfon, Zygi Kamasa and Guy Avshalom.
“I am so happy to have the support of the team at CBS Films for the distribution of our labor of love, ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. ’I had the best of times working on it with producer Paul Webster, writer Simon Beaufoy and the cast, Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Amr Waked and Kristin Scott Thomas,” said Hallström.

“Lasse Hallström has done it again with this beautiful, heartwarming, and elegant picture. The performances are amazing from top to bottom,” commented Shooman who continued, “We are honored to have the opportunity to bring this extraordinary film to American audiences.”

UTA Independent Film Group set up the film’s financing and brokered the dealwith CBS Films.

 

UPDATE, 6:11PM: The deal has closed, and CBS Films has acquired U.S. rights to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Sources close to the buyer say it’s the $4 million that the sellers asked for, while sources close to the seller say it’s $5 million. Summit got the deal to that level. What’s clear is this is a healthy deal.

EARLIER EXCLUSIVE, 12:26 PM: CBS Films is in advanced negotiations to reel in U.S. distribution rights to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, the Lasse Hallstrom-directed film that premiered last night at the Princess of Wales Theater. Fox Searchlight, Summit, Focus and Miramax have been circling, but CBS appears to be tying down the property for a low-seven-figure deal. Adapted by Simon Beaufoy from the Paul Torday novel, the film stars Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, Kristin Scott Thomas and Amr Waked, the latter playing a wealthy sheik who pays a fisheries scientist to stock a stream with trout. The sheik believes that fishing brings him closer to God, an experience he wants to share with his countrymen, despite the dangerous fact that some local leaders oppose it; there is a burgeoning love story between his British legal rep (Blunt) and the stuffy fisheries scientist (McGregor) who is locked in a dull marriage. Read More »

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Toronto: Coen Brothers Firm Next Film — Without Domestic Distributor

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday September 9, 2011 @ 2:12pm PDTTags: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Olivier Courson, Scott Rudin
Mike Fleming

If there is one thing that buyers at the Toronto Film Festival have lamented so far, it’s that many of the strongest titles were bought by distributors at script stage. Imagine the bidding that would occur if a Coen Brothers film would bring if it came to a festival without a partner? It could happen. Joel and Ethan Coen have their next film, and while the project has been on the rumor mill, the surprise is that Inside Llewyn Davis will be made without a domestic distribution partner. The film’s focus is the early folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the 60s, and the Coens and their producing partner Scott Rudin are making it with only an alignment with Studio Canal, which will distribute in France and some other territories, and look to sell the rest of foreign down the line. 

The Coens wrote the script, and they have the usual number of stars lining up to play characters loosely based on folk singers like Dave Van Ronk and Tom Paxton. The brothers are also back in business with Rudin, their producing partner on the Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men and their last film, True Grit. Shooting will start early next year in New York. Read More »

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A 14-Year ‘Gambit’ Finally Provides a Big Payoff For Producer Mike Lobell

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 5, 2011 @ 6:58am PDTTags: Aaron Sorkin, Adam Ripp, Ben Kingsley, Cameron Diaz, CBS Films, Colin Firth, Ethan Coen, Hugh Grant, Jennifer Aniston, Joel Coen, Meg Ryan, Michael Caine, Michael Hoffman, Mike Lobell, Reese Witherspoon, Rob Paris, Roeg Sutherland, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine
Mike Fleming

Production begins today on Gambit, a caper comedy that stars Colin Firth as a London art curator who plans to con England’s richest man into buying a phony Monet painting. To do it, he enlists a Texas steer roper (Cameron … Read More »

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CBS Films Acquires Colin Firth-Cameron Diaz Redo ‘Gambit’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday March 9, 2011 @ 4:51pm PSTTags: Adam Ripp, Cameron Diaz, Colin Firth, Ethan Coen, Gambit, Joel Coen, Michael Caine, Michael Hoffman, Mike Lobell, Rob Paris, Shirley MacLaine
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: CBS Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Gambit. The film has a script by Joel and Ethan Coen, and Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz are set … Read More »

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‘True Grit’ Co-Financier Skydance Targets ‘Star Blazers’ For Christopher McQuarrie

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 21, 2011 @ 10:26am PSTTags: Barbra Streisand, Charlize Theron, Chris Pine, Christopher McQuarrie, Dan Fogelman, David Caspe, David Ellison, Ethan Coen, Jack Bender, Jack Ryan, Joel and Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Larry Ellison, Legendary Pictures, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, Seth Rogen, Shane Salerno, Skydance Productions, Steve Zaillian, Thomas Tull, Tom Cruise, True Grit
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: David Ellison’s Skydance Productions is negotiating a rights deal to turn the 1970s animated science fiction TV series Star Blazers into a large scale live action feature. Ellison will hire Christopher McQuarrie to write the script, with Ellison and … Read More »

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Paramount Crafts ‘Forgotten’ For Its ‘True Grit’ Discovery Hailee Steinfeld

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday February 18, 2011 @ 8:25am PSTTags: Ethan Coen, Fake Empire, Hailee Steinfeld, ICM, Joel Coen, Josh Schwartz, Movie Deals, Movies, Paramount Pictures, Stephanie Savage
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: When you come out of nowhere and turn in an Oscar nominated breakout performance like Hailee Steinfeld did as Mattie Ross in the Joel and Ethan Coen-directed True Grit, it’s natural for the studio involved to do its best … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘True Grit’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 27, 2010 @ 2:55pm PDTTags: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Movies, Trailers, True Grit, True Grit Remake, True Grit Trailer, Video
Mike Fleming

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