You are viewing the archive: “Marc Butan”

Megan Ellison To Back New Shingle Panorama Media, Launching At Cannes

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 26, 2012 @ 9:28am PDTTags: Annapurna Pictures, Marc Butan, Megan Ellison
Mike Fleming

Los Angeles, CA – April 26, 2012 – Annapurna Pictures, Megan Ellison’s nascent production company, has agreed to back Panorama Media, a new production, financing, and international sales entity based in Los Angeles. Panorama will be run by company President Marc Butan and its Head of International Sales Kimberly Fox.

Panorama’s mandate is to produce, finance and arrange for worldwide distribution on a slate of filmmaker-driven projects with broad commercial appeal. In addition to originating product for the worldwide marketplace, Panorama will also serve as the international sales agent on select Annapurna projects and quality third party titles.

Panorama will launch at Cannes 2012 with its initial slate of films including the currently shooting Kathryn Bigelow project, a new project written and directed by Spike Jonze and Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” project. The Company expects to announce several other titles in the weeks leading up to the market.

“I fully believe in Marc and Kim’s ability to develop and expand this business,” said Ellison, “I consistently see projects that I would like to support in addition to my current slate. Panorama will provide the extra bandwidth which will allow us the opportunity to get involved with these films.”

“I am looking forward to building an operation which suits the needs of both filmmakers and distributors worldwide while living up to the high standards set by Annapurna and its films,” said Butan.

“There is a great opportunity in the international markets today,” Fox adds,” Distributors are seeking, more than ever, high end theatrical titles – exactly the type of product that Panorama will generate.”

During Butan’s career, which includes serving as the President of 2929 Productions and as EVP of Production at Lionsgate, he has overseen films including Andrew Dominick’s “Killing Them Softly”, John Hillcoat’s “The Road”, Andrew Niccol’s “The Host”, James Gray’s “We Own The Night” and George Clooney’s “Good Night and Good Luck”.

Fox joins Panorama after previous stints at Inferno, QED International and KMI. Films handled by Fox include “The Grey” starring Liam Neeson, Andrew Dominick’s “Killing Them Softly” starring Brad Pitt, Neil Blomkamp’s blockbuster hit “District 9” and Oliver Stone’s “W”.

Annapurna has recently completed “Lawless” directed by John Hillcoat and “Killing Them Softly” directed by Andrew Dominick, both of which will premiere in competition at the 2012 Cannes film festival. They are also currently in post-production on “The Master,” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and “The Grandmasters,” directed by Wong Kar Wai, are in production on Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled project and are in pre-production on Spike Jonze’s untitled project and Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher”.

Comments (13)

Cannes: Andrew Niccol To Direct Saoirse Ronan In Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 12, 2011 @ 1:20pm PDTTags: Andrew Dominik, Andrew Niccol, Bill Johnson, Brad Pitt, Cannes, Chuck Russell, Clive Owen, Jason Statham, Jim Seibel, Joe Carnahan, Liam Hemsworth, Liam Neeson, Marc Butan, Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae Schwartz, Robert De Niro, Roger Schwartz, Saoirse Ronan, Steve Schwartz
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Niccol has been set as the director of The Host, directing his scripted adaptation of the bestselling novel by Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer. The project, which is being shopped here at Cannes by Inferno Entertainment and producers Nick Wechsler and Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz, will star Saoirse Ronan.

After resisting overtures to sell the book, Meyer finally entrusted it with the producers, who gave her strong creative input. She chose Niccol originally because she was a fan of his film Gattaca and script for The Truman Show. While Niccol adapted the book into the current script, he exited to make the film Now, which he has completed with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy starring. The producers went down the road with several directors, but talks with Niccol to return started heating up in recent weeks. Ronan ramped up interest in the film when she was set to star.

Ronan will play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls. These parasites invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. The story follows Melanie as she is captured by the aliens and implanted by a Soul called Wanderer, something of a legend because of all of the “hosts” she has attached to on numerous planets. Wanderer’s goal is to get Melanie to give up the remaining pockets of humans, but instead the alien finds Melanie to be unique in her unwillingness to surrender her consciousness. Wanderer is so overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories and feelings that she is driven to reconnect with Melanie’s old life, which includes falling for Melanie’s boyfriend. The result is a complex, romantic and emotional human/alien love triangle. Read More »

Comments (18)

‘Twilight Saga’ Author Stephenie Meyer’s ‘The Host’ Lands Saoirse Ronan To Star

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday May 3, 2011 @ 10:45am PDTTags: Andrew Niccol, Bill Johnson, Inferno, Jim Seibel, Marc Butan, Nick Wechsler, Paula Mae Schwartz, Roger Schwartz, Saoirse Ronan, Stephenie Meyer, Steve Schwartz, The Host
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Saoirse Ronan has been set to star in The Host, the screen adaptation of the bestselling novel by Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer. Scripted by Andrew Niccol, the film figures to be one of the hot titles when Inferno launches sales at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival next week. Niccol, who was originally set to direct, might resurface as the filmmaker.

Ronan, the Oscar-nominated star of Atonement, The Lovely Bones and most recently Hanna, will play Melanie Stryder, one of the last humans putting up a fight against an alien species called Souls. These parasites invade human bodies, fuse to each person’s consciousness and systematically erase their personalities. Melanie is captured by the aliens and implanted by a Soul called Wanderer, something of a legend because of all of the “hosts” she has attached to on numerous planets. Wanderer’s goal is to get Melanie to give up the remaining pockets of humans, but instead the alien finds Melanie to be unique in her unwillingness to surrender her consciousness. Wanderer is so overwhelmed by Melanie’s memories and feelings, the alien is driven to reconnect with Melanie’s old life.

The concept is more of a visual challenge than Meyer’s Twilight Saga books, but one thing they plan is for Ronan to play both Melanie and Wanderer. Meyer’s book has an enormous fan base, and the author had long resisted offers to sell it. She finally made a deal two years ago with producers Nick Wechsler and Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz, who’d done the adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road together. They deliberately developed the script outside the studio system, and invited the author to be very hands on in the adaptation. Read More »

Comments 98