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Cannes: Music Box Snags Competition’s ‘Michael Kohlhaas’ Starring Mads Mikkelsen

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 17, 2013 @ 12:36pm PDTTags: Cannes Film Festival, Cannes Wrap-Up, Mads Mikkelsen, Music Box Films

Mads Mikkelsen, last year’s Cannes best actor winner – and TV’s Hannibal – plays the titular Michael Kohlhaas in the Arnaud des Pallières drama. Chicago-based Music Box Films has acquired all U.S. and Canadian rights in what is the first North American deal on a Competition title since the fest started on Wednesday (Worldwview picked up Jimmy P. ahead of the proceedings). The film is freely adapted from the 1811 Heinrich von Kleist novel which served as the inspiration for E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. It’s being sold by longtime Michael Haneke collaborator Les Films du Losange, whose chief, Margaret Ménégoz, produced Amour. The story follows a prosperous and honest 16th century horse merchant who falls victim to an injustice and raises an army to restore his rights. Produced by Les Films d’Ici (Waltz With Bashir), the movie sold ahead of its first market screening. This is des Pallières’ first film to secure U.S. distribution. The cast also includes Bruno Ganz, Sergi Lopez and Holy Motors‘ Dennis Lavant. The deal was negotiated by Music Box consultant James Brown and Films du Losange’s Agathe Valentin. Music Box plans a 4th quarter 2013 theatrical release.

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Music Box Acquires French Pic ‘Augustine’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday February 4, 2013 @ 1:25pm PSTTags: Music Box Films

Chicago, IL…Music Box Films has acquired all US rights to AUGUSTINE, the debut feature film from French writer-director Alice Winokou starring Vincent Lindon, Soko and Chiara Mastroianni.

AUGUSTINE is an examination of the real case story and unusual relationship between Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, the pioneering 19th century French neurologist and his star teenage patient. The film had its international premiere in Critics’ Week of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and will make its U.S. debut in Rendez Vous With French Cinema this March. Music Box Films plans a spring 2013 release.

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Music Box Acquires U.S On Roger Michell’s ‘Le Weekend’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Monday January 28, 2013 @ 12:31am PSTTags: Music Box Films, Roger Michell

Hyde Park On Hudson director Roger Michell‘s Le Weekend is currently in post-production after wrapping a Paris shoot at the end of last year. Music Box has taken U.S. rights on the film … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘Any Day Now’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday November 13, 2012 @ 2:57pm PSTTags: Any Day Now, Music Box Films

The 1970s-set drama stars Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt as a gay couple who take on a biased legal system in a fight to adopt a mentally handicapped teenager they’ve rescued from a bad home. Travis Fine directed and co-wrote Any Day Now with George Arthur Bloom, and … Read More »

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Music Box Films Acquires ‘Any Day Now’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday September 21, 2012 @ 12:25pm PDTTags: Any Day Now, Music Box Films

Chicago, IL…Music Box Films has acquired all US and Canadian rights to ANY DAY NOW, directed by Travis Fine, written by Fine and George Arthur Bloom, and starring Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt. The film will be

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Music Box Acquires SXSW Pic ‘Starlet’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday May 16, 2012 @ 7:20am PDTTags: Music Box Films, Starlet, SXSW

New York, NY (May 16, 2012) – Music Box Films announced today that the company is acquiring all North American rights to Sean Baker’s STARLET, a provocative showcase for newcomer Dree Hemingway (great granddaughter of Ernest and daughter of Mariel). STARLET premiered in competition at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival, where it was one of the most buzzed about and risqué titles.

STARLET explores the unlikely cross-generational friendship between 21 year-old Jane (Hemingway), and the elderly Sadie (Besedka Johnson), two women whose worlds collide in California’s San Fernando Valley. After a confrontation between the women at Sadie’s yard sale, Jane uncovers a hidden stash of money inside a relic from Sadie’s past. Jane attempts to befriend the caustic older woman in an effort to solve her dilemma and secrets emerge as their relationship grows.

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Music Box Takes U.S. Rights To Cate Shortland’s Post-War Drama ‘Lore’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Thursday April 5, 2012 @ 3:08am PDTTags: Music Box Films

Cate Shortland’s debut, Somersault, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in 2004 and starred the then-relative newcomer Abbie Cornish and a pre-Avatar Sam Worthington. Shortland picks up that film’s theme of the coming of age of a … Read More »

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Rachel Weisz And Terence Davies Team For Early 2012 Awards Contender

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday March 23, 2012 @ 2:55pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Music Box Films, Rachel Weisz, Terence Davies, The Deep Blue Sea
Pete Hammond

With all eyes focused on Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games this weekend, not many will notice Music Box Films’Rachel Weiss The Deep Blue Sea quiet limited (NY, LA, Miami) launch of their 2011 Toronto Film Festival pickup The Deep Blue Sea. It’s the first narrative film in over a decade from British director Terence Davies — his last was 2000′s The House Of Mirth – and stars Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz in another Oscar-bait role. Davies did do a highly regarded 2008 documentary, Of Time And The City, in the long interim between narrative projects.

With an impressive 84% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes  and major raves today from the NY and LA Times among others, Weisz and the film are winning the kind of top reviews that Oscar voters usually notice. In fact, Music Box was toying with the idea of opening the heavy relationship drama for a week in December in order to qualify for the last Oscars but finally decided it was not in the film’s best interests to rush it out there — especially with such a competitive Best Actress race already going on. Plus, Weisz had another potential awards role with the August release The Whistleblower, so it might have just confused things, though as it turned out the Samuel Goldwyn Co did not end up campaigning Whistleblower in any significant way. A March opening for Deep Blue Sea is a tough time for releasing Oscar contenders and hoping they will be remembered. Nevertheless Weisz’s emotionally naked performance as a 1950′s-era woman caught in an unsatisfying marriage and embarking on a torrid affair with a younger man (played by War Horse’s Tom Hiddleston) is the kind of thing actors crave, and it’s certainly one of the few female roles of any real substance to surface at this early point in the year. Read More »

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Specialty Box Office: ‘The Deep Blue Sea,’ ‘Musical Chairs,’ ‘The Raid: Redemption,’ ’4:44 Last Day On Earth’

By BRIAN BROOKS | Friday March 23, 2012 @ 7:00am PDTTags: IFC Films, Music Box Films, Paladin, Sony Pictures Classics

This weekend’s specialty offerings are comparatively light compared to last week’s openings. A few of this week’s new limited releases are forgoing the typical New York and Los Angeles showings, with Music Box’s The Deep Blue Sea … Read More »

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