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Every week, I get several press releases, screening invitations and other notifications from a handful of studio contacts. While I won’t be sharing any information regarding my screening invites, some of the press releases might be of interest to my readers, so I thought I’d start sharing them in toto with all of you. These could include new image galleries for various films or important updates to upcoming releases from various smaller studios and art house production companies.


Press Release: 2012 Brigade Spring & Summer Preview

On April 8, 2012, we posted a preview of the 2012 Brigade PR Spring & Summer slate, which you can find here: 2012 Brigade Spring/Summer Preview. They have updated their list to include two more films. These are covered below:

KUMARร‰

Directed By: Vikram Gandhi
Featuring: Vikram Gandhi
Release Date: June 20 in New York; rollout to follow
Genre: Documentary

Kumarรฉ is a wise guru from the East who indoctrinated a group of followers in the West. Kumarรฉ, however, is not real – he is the alter ego of American filmmaker Vikram Gandhi who impersonated a spiritual leader for the sake of a social experiment designed to challenge one of the most widely accepted taboos: that only a tiny โ€œ1%โ€ can connect the rest of the world to a higher power. Concealing his true identity from everyone he meets, Kumarรฉ forges profound and spiritual connections with people from all walks of life. At the same time, in the absurdity of living as an entirely different person, Vikram, the filmmaker, is forced to confront difficult questions about his own identity. At the height of his popularity, Kumarรฉ unveils his true identity to a core group of disciples who are knee-deep in personal transformation. Will they accept his final teaching? Can this illusion reveal a greater spiritual truth? KUMARร‰, at once playful and profound, is an insightful look at faith and belief.

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SLEEPWALK WITH ME

Directed By: Mike Birbiglia
Screenplay Written By: Mike Birbiglia, Ira Glass, Joe Birbiglia, Seth Barrish
Starring: Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, James Rebhorn, Carol Kane, Cristin Milioti, Aya Cash
Studio: IFC Films
Release Date: August 24, 2012
Genre: Comedy / Drama

โ€œIโ€™m going to tell you a story, and itโ€™s true….I always have to tell people that.โ€ So asserts comedian-turned-playwright-turned-filmmaker Mike Birbiglia directly to the viewer at the outset of his autobiographically inspired, fictional feature debut. Birbiglia wears his incisive wit on his sleeve while portraying a cinematic surrogate. We are thrust into the tale of a burgeoning stand-up comedian struggling with the stress of a stalled career, a stale relationship threatening to race out of his control, and the wild spurts of severe sleepwalking he is desperate to ignore.

Based on the successful one-man show, SLEEPWALK WITH ME engages in the kind of passionate and personal storytelling that transfigures intimate anguish into comic art. Bursting with sincerity, Mike Birbigliaโ€™s foray into the medium marks the invigorating emergence of a strong and poignant American voice, at once hilarious and heartbreaking.

Press Release: Meyers Media Group Buys Rights to ‘Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D’

MEYERS MEDIA GROUP CAPTURES SIMON WEST PRODUCTIONSโ€™ โ€œNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS 3Dโ€

ALL INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS ACQUIRED FOR 3-D โ€˜GRAPHIC FILMโ€™ USING NEW GENERATION CG TECHNOLOGY

LOS ANGELES, CA(April 18, 2012)- Newly-formed international sales company Meyers Media Group announces today that they have picked up all international rights to director Zebediah De Sotoโ€™s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS 3D from Simon West Productions. Simon West (director of โ€œExpendables 2โ€) will produce alongside Jib Polhemus (โ€œThe Mechanicโ€), Gus Malliarodakis and Matty Mangone-Miranda. Written by De Soto, David Reuben Schwartz and Warren Davis, the film is a motion capture re-imagining of the George A. Romero zombie classic that stars Danielle Harris (โ€œHalloween Vโ€), Tom Sizemore (โ€œSaving Private Ryanโ€) and Tony Todd (โ€œCandymanโ€). The deal was brokered by Lawrence Meyers and Randy Dannenberg of Meyers Media Group and Polhemus on behalf of Simon West Productions.

In the film, New York lies in ruin when zombies have overtaken the city. For the few people left alive there is only one dream โ€“ survival. That includes Ben (Tony Todd) and Barbra (Danielle Harris), two survivors who find themselves trapped and fighting to escape the hordes of undead that walk the streets.

Shot completely in a CG environment using stereoscopic 3D, the film employs the next generation facial capture technology that is a step beyond any previous versions used for this type of film. The look is a marriage between the graphic novel and modern animation, making it a true โ€˜graphic filmโ€™ that younger audiences will be more accustomed to experiencing.

“Horror films, especially zombie based films, already have a huge audience so it is particularly exciting to reinvent the genre with a totally new look,” said Simon West.

โ€œNIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is the most important franchise for the zombie genre, and to be a part of this re-imagining alongside Simon and Jib is exciting for us as a company,โ€ said Lawrence Meyers, President of Meyers Media Group.

This is helmer De Sotoโ€™s debut as a feature director. Also rounding out the cast are Bill Moseley (โ€œDevilโ€™s Rejectsโ€) and Joe Pilato (โ€œDay of the Deadโ€).

The film has been produced with the cooperation of The Graphic Film Company in association with Giant Studios, whose credits include motion capture work on TIN TIN and AVATAR.

Simon West Productions is currently in post-production on STOLEN, starring Nicholas Cage and written by David Guggenheim (โ€œSafehouseโ€), and EXPENDABLES 2 with Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD: ORIGINS 3D will be one of the titles Meyers Media Group will be representing at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. Additional titles for their slate are currently being assembled.

About Meyers Media Group
Meyers Media Group is a global film sales and production company that sells, finances and produces A-list cast-driven projects with broad international appeal. Launched by entertainment industry veterans Lawrence Meyers and Bobby Meyers in 2012, the company specializes in the foreign sales process, utilizing international co-productions and attracting equity sources. Randy Dannenberg serves as the companyโ€™s Executive Vice President of Productions & Acquisitions with Peter Rowley as Vice President of International Distribution and Administration.

About Simon West Productions
Simon West Productions, led by Simon West and Jib Polhemus, is a film and television development company with a fully equipped post-production visual effects house. The upcoming feature, Thunder Run, which is to be directed by West, employs the same motion capture technology used in Avatar and the same proprietary facial-capture technology which will be used in Night of the Living Dead: Origins 3D. In addition to computer generated films, their past projects in live action film and television include: Black Hawk Down, The Mechanic, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Generalโ€™s Daughter, Con Air, The Cape, Human Target, and Keen Eddie


Press Release: Chris Pine Participates in 3rd Annual Milk & Bookies Event

Chris Pine reads โ€œThe Man in the Moonโ€ by William Joyce at the 3rd Annual Milk + Bookies A Story Time Celebration at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. The book is the inspirational story behind DreamWorks Animation’s RISE OF THE GUARDIANS in which Chris voices the character of Jack Frost. The film will be released nationwide on November 21, 2012.

Press Release: Monty Python’s Holy Grail Returns for Limited Engagements

Monty Python Returns! โ€“ In Rare Form!

Like Youโ€™ve Never Seen Or Heard It Before!
Re-Mastered to the Highest Definition Ever!

Boston-Kendall Square 4/27
Philadelphia-Ritz at the Bourse 4/27
St. Louis-Tivoli 5/4
Detroit – Main Art. 5/11
Washington DC – E Street 5/11

***

โ€œPure Comic Genius!โ€ Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
โ€Gloriously hysterically and splendiferously unhinged, as fresh and funny as ever!โ€ San Francisco Examiner
โ€œA great film, a brilliant send-up of medieval movies and lore!!โ€ Glen Whipp, LA Daily News

Yes! One of every filmgoer-with-a-funny-boneโ€™s favorite cult-classic comedies is back in its best version yet โ€” clearer, sharper and packing more laughs than ever before.

Rainbow Releasing announces the theatrical return of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, fully re-mastered in high definition for superb Big Screen viewing and introducing the new, never-before-seen, 12-minute short feature โ€œTerry Gilliamโ€™s Lost Animations.โ€

If youโ€™re already a fan of this zany Monty Python send-up of the King Arthur Legend (and name one person whoโ€™s seen it who isnโ€™t), you wonโ€™t want to miss the chance to experience the film the way itโ€™s meant to be experienced โ€” on the Big Screen, in a movie theater, with other die-hard fans laughing at the gags (the clippety-clopping coconuts!) and reciting the dialog (โ€œItโ€™s just a flesh wound!โ€) right alongside.

If youโ€™ve never seen this comic masterpiece, youโ€™re in for a very special treat. As reviewer Jeff Shannon writes, โ€œIt’s basically a series of sketches woven together as King Arthurโ€™s quest for the Holy Grail, with Graham Chapman as the King, Terry Gilliam as his simpleton sidekick Patsy, and the rest of the Python gang filling out a variety of outrageous roles. The comedy highlights are too numerous to mention…. The sum of this madness is a movie thatโ€™s beloved by anyone with a pulse and an irreverent sense of humor. If this movie doesn’t make you laugh, youโ€™re almost certainly dead.โ€

Mark your calendar for this must-see event:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Fully re-mastered in high definition
Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones & Michael Palin
Written by: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones & Michael Palin
Directed by: Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones
Produced by: John Goldstone

92 minutes, 12-minute short feature / Rated PG

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