You are viewing the archive: “Red Granite”

Will Red Granite Save ‘Dumb And Dumber To’ With Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Farrellys?

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday June 10, 2013 @ 7:04pm PDTTags: Dumb And Dumber To, Jeff Daniels, Jim Carrey, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, Red Granite
Mike Fleming

The news that Warner Bros exited Dumb And Dumber To is hardly surprising. The studio has hovered over this sequel package like a wet blanket since January, unable to decide what it wanted to do with the property that originated through its production label New Line. Warners execs have hemmed and hawed over whether to let someone else finance while they distributed, or let it go completely. That apathy finally led to Warner Bros bailing a few days ago. At Cannes, the project was being discussed a lot, and I’m told that Wolf Of Wall Street financier Red Granite is in first position to finance the film and sell foreign. That company launched in Cannes with a Kanye West concert and fireworks on the beach a couple of years ago with a solid sales team headed by Danny Dimbort. But everybody’s waiting for them to start committing to splashy projects beyond the Martin Scorsese-Leo DiCaprio stockbroker film. This might be the moment for Red Granite to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. There are about five distributors ready to take domestic. Keep an eye on Universal! READ MORE »

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Berlin: Jennifer Aniston Attached To Peter Bogdanovich’s ‘She’s Funny That Way’

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Sunday February 10, 2013 @ 1:38am PSTTags: Berlin Film Festival, Big Deals Film, EFM, Jennifer Aniston, Red Granite

What is it about Berlin and Jennifer Aniston? This is the third project being sold here at the EFM that involves the actress (the other two are Convention and an untitled Elmore Leonard project that’s … Read More »

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Universal International Acquires ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’ European Rights

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday November 8, 2012 @ 10:28am PSTTags: Red Granite, The Wolf of Wall Street, Universal Pictures International

Universal Pictures International has picked up the distribution rights to The Wolf Of Wall Street in six European territories. UPI will handle the film in Germany, the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Spain, it was announced … Read More »

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Paramount Lands Martin Scorsese-Leo DiCaprio Pic ‘Wolf Of Wall Street’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 16, 2012 @ 12:29pm PDTTags: Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Paramount Pictures, Red Granite, The Wolf of Wall Street
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures has closed a deal for domestic distribution on  The Wolf Of Wall Street, the Martin Scorsese-directed saga of the rise and fall of a Wall Street hotshot that stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort. The drama is shooting in New York, and it was financed by Red Granite. The plan is to release in the fourth quarter of 2013, which gives Paramount an awards contender to add to the product the studio showed in New York yesterday.

The film also stars Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Kyle Chandler, Margot Robbie and The Walking Dead‘s Jon Bernthal. Boardwalk Empire creator Terry Winter wrote the script. This will be a hot title at AFM, but Warner Bros, which originally developed the project, gets to eyeball the bids that come in on each territory before the deals go down. Scorsese and DiCaprio last teamed at Paramount on the hit Shutter Island. Read More »

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Cannes Film Festival: Producers To Watch

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Thursday May 17, 2012 @ 1:09am PDTTags: Alexander Rodnyansky, Cannes Film Festival, Megan Ellison, Red Granite

The past year has seen the emergence of producers from varied backgrounds who are working on high-profile projects with major talent. This year in Cannes, a constantly heard refrain is that there is an abundance of quality product. Below are some of the key producers responsible:

Megan Ellison: The daughter of Oracle founder Larry Ellison has deep pockets and good taste that have put her at the forefront of today’s hot producers via her Annapurna Pictures. She’s also respected for what one distributor says is her “strategy of working only with strong directors.” Of the official selection films in Cannes, she produced John Hillcoat’s Lawless. Last year at Cannes, she won a bidding war for the rights to make 2 more Terminator installments. On her upcoming roster are Kathryn Bigelow’s hunt for Bin Laden pic, being sold by the sales company she’s backing, Panorama Media. There’s also Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths (sold by Hanway), Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming The Master, which the Weinsteins have and Inherent Vice starring Robert Downey Jr as well as Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher with Steve Carell and Channing Tatum and also via Panorama. Deadline also recently reported a big deal is in the works for Ellison and Annapurna to fully fund American Bullshit, the drama that has David O Russell attached to direct, with Christian Bale also attached and Bradley Cooper in talks.

Red Granite: When Red Granite Pictures launched its international sales division in Cannes last year, they did so in style. You can tell a lot about a company from the way it throws a party and Red Granite’s last year is one people still talk about. Kanye West performed with Jamie Foxx joining him to duet on Gold Digger while Leonardo DiCaprio, Jon Hamm and Jennifer Westfeldt rocked out on the beach. In 2011, Red Granite’s first production, Westfeldt’s Friends With Kids, was released and the company has steadily been building its roster of impressive product including Wolf Of Wall Street with DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese and Out Of The Furnace starring Christian Bale, Zoe Saldana and Casey Affleck which Scott Cooper is directing. Red Granite is also selling those pictures. Exec Joe Gatta tells me the company’s vision is to “make quality movies first and foremost. It’s a tough business; we have a lot of competition and we want to stand out as a company that’s getting the movies made.” Gatta says Red Granite wants to “grow, but grow steadily.” That could “in the future” include distribution, but the company will definitely grow its sales division under Danny Dimbort, the former Millennium/Nu Image partner who Gatta calls “the best in the business.” The goal for Red Granite is to be doing 3-5 productions per year with some third party pick-ups in the mix. Read More »

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TOLDJA! Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio Commit To ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday April 19, 2012 @ 9:40am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Red Granite, The Wolf of Wall Street
Mike Fleming

Back in March, Deadline revealed that Martin Scorsese would next direct The Wolf Of Wall Street, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the title character after the upstart Red Granite stepped up with the funding. Here’s the official release:

Los Angeles, CA – April 19, 2012 – Martin Scorsese will direct “The Wolf of Wall Street” starring Leonardo DiCraprio. The deal, which brings Scorsese and DiCaprio together for their fifth feature collaboration, was made official today.

Red Granite Pictures owns the rights to Jordan Belfort’s best-selling memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, on which the film is based. Red Granite principals Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland are producing along with Leonardo DiCaprio (Appian Way), Martin Scorsese and Emma Koskoff (Sikelia Productions) and Alexandra Milchan (EMJAG Productions). Irwin Winkler and Georgia Kacandes will executive produce.

Leonardo DiCaprio will star as Jordan Belfort – the ‘Wolf of Wall Street.’

Terence Winter (“The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire”) adapted the screenplay, which chronicles Belfort’s dramatic rise and fall on Wall Street, along with his hard-partying lifestyle and tumultuous personal life, which included drug and alcohol addiction.

Read More »

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Alex Proyas Tackles Robert Heinlein’s ‘The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday April 10, 2012 @ 10:00am PDTTags: Alex Proyas, Red Granite
Mike Fleming

Alex Proyas hasn’t had much luck lately. The last two films he tried to make, Dracula Year Zero and Paradise Lost, both got scratched for budget reasons. He’s just aligned himself to The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, based on a Robert Heinlein novella from 1942. Here’s hoping he gets … Read More »

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Martin Scorsese And Leonardo DiCaprio Committing To ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ For August; Red Granite Fully Funding

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday March 15, 2012 @ 9:33am PDTTags: Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Red Granite, The Wolf of Wall Street
Mike Fleming

Martin Scorsese The Wolf of Wall StreetEXCLUSIVE: Director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are committing to make The Wolf of Wall Street their fifth collaboration. The film is based on the Jordan Belfort memoir of his days … Read More »

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