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: Kino Lorber Takes North American Rights to “Winter in the Blood”
• Press Release: Sing Along Scheduled for Screening of “Pulp”
• Press Release: Saban Films Expanding Executive Team
• Press Release: “Rosewater” to Release November 7

Press Release: Kino Lorber Takes North American Rights to “Winter in the Blood”

KINO LORBER TAKES NORTH AMERICAN RIGHTS TO ALEX & ANDREW SMITH’S WINTER IN THE BLOOD

NEW YORK, NY (JULY 29, 2014) – Kino Lorber announced today that the company is acquiring North American rights to WINTER IN THE BLOOD, from directors Alex Smith and Andrew Smith (THE SLAUGHTER RULE). The film, which is based on the landmark novel by James Welch, features Chaske Spencer (TWILIGHT SAGA), David Morse (THE HURT LOCKER, WORLD WAR Z), and Julia Jones (TWILIGHT SAGA). The film had its World Premiere in Narrative Competition at the Los Angeles Film Festival and has won several awards and played at over thirty film festivals. WINTER IN THE BLOOD will open theatrically at IFC Center, New York on August 20th with filmmakers and key cast members in attendance. Los Angeles screenings and additional markets will follow in September.

WINTER IN THE BLOOD follows Virgil First Raise (Chaske Spencer) who wakes in a ditch on the Northern plains of Montana, hungover and badly beaten. He returns to his ranch on the reservation, only to find that his wife, Agnes, (Julia Jones) has left him. Worse, she’s taken his beloved rifle. Virgil sets out to town find her, beginning a hi-line odyssey of inebriated and possibly imagined intrigues in town with the mysterious ‘Airplane Man,’ (David Morse) a beautiful barmaid (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), and two dangerous Men in Suits. Are they real? Or spirits tricking him from his true path? Virgil’s quest brings him face-to-face with childhood memories of his beloved, lost brother, Mose.

WINTER IN THE BLOOD authentically portrays the lost world of the “True West” with its sweeping shots of untouched prairie, remote towns, and mountain terrain. The film unfolds like a poem, capturing the novel’s dreamscape of memory, trauma, and motion with breathtaking cinematography and design.

“The novel Winter in the Blood is a true classic – unique, universal, timeless, and uncompromising,” said co-director Alex Smith, “It touches people in a profound, life-changing way because it is a story of survival and recovery. Our desire has always been to expose this unflinching, hilarious, ferocious story to a worldwide audience in the collective dream-house of cinema.”

WINTER IN THE BLOOD was shot entirely in Montana on locations closely associated with Welch and is adapted for film by Alex and Andrew Smith, who knew the author, and Ken White. This is the Smith brothers second film collaboration as writer/directors and second time working with David Morse, following 2002’s award-winning THE SLAUGHTER RULE, starring Ryan Gosling, Clea Duvall, and Amy Adams.

WINTER IN THE BLOOD features a score composed by renowned Austin band, HEARTLESS BASTARDS and new songs by ROBERT PLANT, BLACK PRAIRIE, CASS MCCOMBS and several other artists.

WINTER IN THE BLOOD is a Ranchwater Films Production. Producers include Susan Kirr, noted Native American author Sherman Alexie, Heather Rae, Jason Miller and Peter Wiley. The cast is comprised of Chaske Spencer (TWILIGHT SAGA), David Morse (THE HURT LOCKER), Julia Jones (TWILIGHT SAGA), Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS), Gary Farmer (SMOKE SIGNALS), Saginaw Grant (THE LONE RANGER) and new-comer Lily Gladstone.

The deal for the film was negotiated by Susan Kirr, Alex Smith and Andrew Smith of Ranchwater Films and Elizabeth Sheldon, Senior Vice-President of Kino Lorber.

The IFC CENTER screenings will run from August 20th – 28th. Filmmakers Alex and Andrew Smith, as well as lead actors Chaske Spencer, Julia Jones will be in attendance at the screenings on the 20th and 21st.

Press Release: Sing Along Scheduled for Screening of “Pulp”

Rooftop Films and Oscilloscope Laboratories Invite You to ‘Sing Along with the Common People’ at a Special Preview Screening of Pulp: A Film About Life, Death and Supermarkets

Featuring PULP’s Jarvis Cocker in Attendance

(New York, NY | July 30, 2014) Rooftop Films is excited to present Florian Habicht’s film PULP: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets, with special guests Florian Habicht and PULP frontman Jarvis Cocker in attendance. One of the most influential bands to come out of the ‘90s, PULP is captured in the intimate and imaginative documentary as they prepare for the final show in their beloved hometown of Sheffield, England. The film will be released in theaters by Oscilloscope Laboratories in November.

PULP’s charismatic frontman Jarvis Cocker will be on hand for a Q&A session, as well as playing celebrity judge to a post-film karaoke contest. Mondo, called “the gold standard for New York indiepop”, will bring their famous dance party DJs to kick off the night, and New Amsterdam Gin & Vodka will help fuel the after party.

Following the Q and A, there will be a Pulp fan karanioke contest, and fans can tweet to @RooftopFilms with the hashtag #singforjarvis and make their case for why they should be chosen as one of the select few who will get the chance to perform a Pulp song for Jarvis Cocker and Florian Habicht. Anyone chosen to perform will get two free tickets to the event and the winner of the karaoke contest will be awarded special prizes by Cocker and Habicht. Tweets must be sent by Monday, August 4 at noon and the winning contestants will be chosen that day. Details of the contest are available at http://rooftopfilms.com/blog/2014/07/jarvis-cocker-wants-to-judge-your-karaoke.html.

Film Details:
8:00PM Doors Open
8:30PM DJ set by Mondo
9:00PM Film Begins
10:45PM Q&A with filmmaker Florian Habicht and Jarvis Cocker
11:00PM After Party sponsored by New Amsterdam Spirits with Pulp Karaoke Contest judged by

Venue: On the roof and in the courtyard of Industry City: 220 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232

PULP: A FILM ABOUT LIFE, DEATH & SUPERMARKETS (Florian Habicht | Berlin | 90 min.)

Florian Habicht (Love Story) returns to the roof with a lovingly crafted portrait of Pulp, the sexy/nerdy Sheffield rock group that struggled through the 80’s, soared to superstardom in the mid 90’s and then reunited in 2012 for a celebratory final tour. Habicht follows lead singer Jarvis Cocker, an eccentric and cheeky Everyman, as he and his band prepare for their ultimate performance in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans in their native city. The resulting film, like Jarvis’ lyrics, overflows with bittersweet memories, unexpected moments, and the understanding that life and death can be made immensely more bearable with the indulgence of tiny fantasies.

Pulp is most famous for their mega hit “Common People,” an exuberant anthem sung in the voice of a working class kid recounting a night of erotic accomplishment with a slumming heiress. The song is ingeniously constructed and exuberantly performed, and it immediately grabs your ear and makes you want to sing along and dance and fuck. But “Common People” is sung in the past tense, and the implication is that the morning after none of this worked out for the best and that the narrator—like most of the rest of us—will return to a world of work and struggle and disappointment. Most of the city of Sheffield lives their lives within that disappointing morning after, but as they talk to Habicht about Cocker, one gets the sense that they relish having had the chance to live vicariously through their native son, almost as if each of the decadent gestures of his wildest years were in some way performed on their behalf.

Habicht builds upon his previous work by continuing to mine the comic and emotional possibilities of the candid on-the-street interview. The true stars of this film are not the band mates, but rather the people of Sheffield, and Cocker wisely allows Habicht to shift the spotlight away from the stage and onto the faces of the struggling dreamers in the crowd. It is their observations that carry the film, and the most powerful performance in the film does not occur on stage, but rather in a small local cafe where a room-full of aging residents sing a devastatingly poignant cover of Help The Aged. Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And Supermarkets is at once a raucous concert film, a celebratory portrait of a place and time, and a bittersweet farewell to a town that shaped—and was shaped by—a band of dreamers with dirty minds and open, fragile hearts.

Press Release: Saban Films Expanding Executive Team

SABAN FILMS EXPANDS EXECUTIVE TEAM FOLLOWING LAUNCH IN CANNES

Jonathan Saba leads Marketing and Azniv Tashchyan heads up Finance As Saban Bolsters Its Release Slate

LOS ANGELES – July 31, 2014 – Saban Films, an entertainment venture from Haim Saban’s Saban Capital Group, expands their team with the hire of Azniv Taschyan as Vice President of Finance and Jonathan Saba as Vice President of Marketing. After a success launch in Cannes, Saban is quickly expanding the team to support their upcoming slate.

After acquiring Tommy Lee Jones’ THE HOMESMAN at Cannes this year, Saban Films will release the Western drama this fall, in partnership with Roadside Attractions. Saban Films will release 8 to 10 high-quality, feature films per year and distribute in North America via a major studio distribution partner.

Saba will oversee all aspects of theatrical and ancillary marketing for the entire Saban Films slate starting with the November 7th theatrical release of THE HOMESMAN. Saba will also manage all third party studio, producer and distribution relationships.

At Saban Films, Taschyan will oversee all financial reporting and analysis functions, and she will play a pivotal role in finance related decision making whie working closely with key internal and external partners.

“We are thrilled to be adding two esteemed film veterans to our executive team,” comments Saban’s President Bill Bromiley. “Jonathan brings a wealth of creative experience from his previously held executive positions, while Azniv adds the industry knowledge necessary to run an effective and fiscally reliable distribution program. Both Jonathan and Azniv will advance Saban Films’ overall mission to acquire and release high quality feature films.”

Prior to joining Saban Films, Saba held a wide range of acquisitions and marketing positions at Anchor Bay Films and Image Entertainment. Most recently, Saba helped launch the distribution division of the Criterion Collection, where he oversaw all managerial, administrative and strategic aspects of North American sales and marketing.

Azniv Taschyan began her career at Ernst & Young LLP here in Los Angeles, then moved to Dreamworks LLC where she held the position of Divisional Controller. Most recently, she was the Director of Accounting for Paramount Pictures Corporation. As a Certified Public Accountant, Taschyan has 18 years of finance and accounting experience in both public and private industries, primarily focusing on entertainment industry.

Press Release: “Rosewater” to Release November 7

OPEN ROAD FILMS WILL RELEASE JON STEWART’S ROSEWATER ON NOVEMBER 7, 2014 IN SELECT THEATERS

Open Road Films will release ROSEWATER – written for the screen and directed by Jon Stewart – in select theaters on November 7, 2014.

The feature film ROSEWATER is based on the New York Times best-selling memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival,” written by the BBC journalist Maziar Bahari. A true story, the film marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of The Daily Show host and anchor Jon Stewart, and stars Gael Garcia Bernal, leading an international cast. ROSEWATER is produced by Scott Rudin, Stewart, and Gigi Pritzker, with Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShane serving as executive producers.

ROSEWATER follows the Tehran-born Bahari, a 42-year-old broadcast journalist with Canadian citizenship living in London. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who was the prime challenger to controversial incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Moussavi’s supporters rose up to protest Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed on election day, Bahari endured great personal risk by submitting camera footage of the unfolding street riots to the BBC. Bahari was soon arrested by Revolutionary Guard police, led by a man identifying himself only as “Rosewater,” who proceeded to torture and interrogate the journalist over the next 118 days.

In October 2009, with Bahari’s wife leading an international campaign from London to have her husband freed, and Western media outlets including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart continuing to keep the story alive, Iranian authorities released Bahari on $300,000 bail and the promise he would act as a spy for the government.

ROSEWATER has a direct connection to Stewart, who since taking over as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show in 1999, has turned the nightly half-hour satirical look at newsmakers and news-coverers into not only a perennial Emmy-winning juggernaut, but also an important touchstone on the zeitgeist. Stewart’s reach with his show appeals to a broad age group including those 18-24 years of age, many of whom get their news updates solely from The Daily Show. Stewart and The Daily Show covered Bahari’s saga nightly and had the journalist appear on the show to talk about his ordeal once he was released from prison.