Studio Will Release Romantic Drama on March 27, 2015
SANTA MONICA, Calif.,
Sept. 29, 2014 /CNW/ -- Focus
Features has acquired North American distribution rights to A
LITTLE CHAOS, directed by Alan
Rickman from a screenplay he wrote with Alison Deegan and Jeremy
Brock. The company also acquired distribution rights to the
film, which is financed by Lionsgate UK and BBC Films, in
Scandinavia. The romantic drama stars Academy Award® winner
Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts,
Mr. Rickman, Academy Award nominee Stanley
Tucci, and Danny Webb. Focus
Features will release the movie in North
America on March 27, 2015.
A LITTLE CHAOS had its world premiere as the closing-night film
of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The project
is produced by Gail Egan and
Andrea Calderwood via their
Potboiler Productions banner, and Bertrand
Faivre via The Bureau production banner. Executive Producers
of the project are Zygi Kamasa,
Guy Avshalom, Nick Manzi, Christine
Langan, Ray Cooper,
Norman Merry, and Richard Wolfe.
Peter Schlessel, CEO of Focus
Features, said, "We are pleased to be in business with Alan Rickman and this sterling cast on such a
crowd-pleasing movie. A LITTLE CHAOS is a great addition to Focus
Features' 2015 slate."
Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate UK
commented, "We're delighted to be in partnership with Focus
Features. They are the perfect home to give this beautiful drama
the attention it needs in the US and Canada."
Director Alan Rickman added "I'm
very proud of the fact that A LITTLE CHAOS found its North American
home during its World Premiere at TIFF. It's encouraging to see
that the film resonated with both audiences and the industry in
Toronto, and I'm excited for its
release next spring."
A LITTLE CHAOS follows Sabine
(Winslet), a strong-willed landscape designer who challenges
sexual and class barriers when she is chosen to build one of the
main gardens at King Louis XIV's new palace at Versailles, causing her to become
professionally and romantically entangled with the court's renowned
landscape architect André Le Notre
(Schoenaerts).
A LITTLE CHAOS is the third time in recent years that the UK
division of Lionsgate has financed a British production from its UK
base and sold North America rights
during TIFF. SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN was sold to CBS in 2011, THE RAILWAY MAN
was sold to The Weinstein Company in 2013, and now A LITTLE CHAOS
to Focus Features. All deals were concluded during the
festival.
The acquisition of A LITTLE CHAOS was negotiated on behalf of
Focus Features by Lia Buman,
President of Acquisitions, and Beth
Lemberger, Executive Vice President of Business Affairs. CAA
brokered the deal on behalf of Lionsgate UK and Potboiler
Productions. Lionsgate International is handling foreign sales of
the film. Lionsgate UK will release the film in the UK during the
first quarter of 2015.
ABOUT FOCUS FEATURES
Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com) makes, acquires, and
releases movies from rising and established talent and filmmakers.
The company is moving forward with a diverse slate of wide releases
appealing to a range of moviegoers. Staying true to the company's
roots, the slate will also include several specialty films each
year.
Current and upcoming releases from Focus include The
Boxtrolls, the new family event movie from LAIKA, directed by
Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable with a voice cast that includes
Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, and Tracy
Morgan; the true-life dramatic thriller Kill the
Messenger, starring Jeremy
Renner; the romantic drama The Theory of Everything,
directed by Academy Award winner James
Marsh and starring Eddie
Redmayne and Felicity Jones
as Stephen and Jane Hawking;
Black Sea, the suspenseful adventure thriller starring
Jude Law for director Kevin Macdonald; Tarsem
Singh's Selfless, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben
Kingsley; Leigh Whannell's
Insidious: Chapter 3, the newest chapter in the terrifying
horror series; Sinister 2, directed by Ciaran Foy; Juan Antonio
Bayona's visually spectacular drama A Monster Calls,
starring Lewis MacDougall,
Felicity Jones, and Liam Neeson; and Stephen
Hopkins' Race, starring Jeremy Irons, Jason
Sudeikis, and Stephan James
as the legendary athletic superstar Jesse
Owens.
Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world's
leading media and entertainment companies in the development,
production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information
to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable
portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier
motion picture company, significant television production
operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned
theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses.
NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate, home to The Hunger Games, Twilight and
Divergent franchises, is a premier next generation global
content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion
picture production and distribution, television programming and
syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, new channel
platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate
currently has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different
networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and
syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as
the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse
Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the broadcast
network series Nashville,
the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show and the
critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New Black.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent
successes as the blockbuster first two installments of The
Hunger Games franchise, The Hunger Games and The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the first installment of the
Divergent franchise, Now You See Me, Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, Warm
Bodies, The Expendables 2, The Possession,
Sinister, Roadside Attractions' A Most Wanted Man and
Pantelion Films' breakout hit Instructions Not Included, the
highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the
U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in
box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate.
Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of
approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is
an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the
foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The
Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original,
daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
www.lionsgate.com
CONTACT
Hans-Dieter
Kopal
Principal Communications Group
hans@pcommgroup.com / 323-658-1555
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SOURCE Lionsgate