VARIETY, APRIL 24, 2023 - Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies,” starring Sean Penn, and Catherine Corsini’s “Le retour” have been added to the competition lineup of the upcoming 76th Cannes Film Festival. As many as 13 movies have been peppered across several sections, including the Competition, Special Screenings, Un Certain Regard and Out of Competition.
Sauvaire’s paramedic thriller Black Flies also stars Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson. An adaptation of the novel by Shannon Burke, the story is set in the high-wire world of New York City paramedics and takes a look at the toll the job inflicts on their lives.
Sheridan is playing a first-year medic who hits the streets driving an ambulance with a grizzled vet, played by Penn. Choices they make will take them in opposite directions, as the newbie finds his desire to help people challenged to the breaking point. Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King wrote the script.
Producers include Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor Media, Christopher Kopp and Lucan Toh, and Sheridan. Penn is also producing via his Projected Picture Works partners, John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth.
DEADLINE, February 22, 2002 - EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a hot one for action aficionados. Gerard Butler (Greenland) is eyeing the starring role in heist thriller movie Just Watch Me, which John Wickcreator and Nobody scribe Derek Kolstand is set to script from the novel by Jeff Lindsay (Dexter).
Copshop, The Marksman and Honest Thief producer Sculptor Media is financing and producing the project, which will mark the debut title for the company’s new international sales division Mossbank, headed by former Miramax, TWC, IM Global and AGC vet Michael Rothstein with former IM Global and AGC exec Sam Hall.
Just Watch Me, the first in the Riley Wolfe book series, follows Wolfe, a master thief and expert in disguise who targets the wealthiest 0.1 percent. The likeable bad guy teams up with a master forger named Monique and a team of expert thieves on a job that will make history. Producers are aiming to shoot the film in Q4, 2022.
The project reteams Sculptor Media, Gerard Butler, G-BASE, and Raven, whose action-thriller Copshop starring Butler was released last year by Open Road and STX. Lindsay is the author behind Showtime’s smash TV series Dexter. Sculptor Media’s Warren Goz and Eric Gold are producing the movie alongside Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Films (which had initially conceived of the project as a TV series) and Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel of G-BASE. Executive producers are James Masciello and Matt Sidari of Raven, which has a slate financing and production partnership with Sculptor Media. Joel Falderon from Stone Village will co-produce.
Derek Kolstad commented: “As both a fan and a friend of Jeff Lindsay, I am excited to bring Just Watch Me to the screen. I’m eager to see Gerard Butler bring Riley Wolfe to cinematic life with the incredible team of Dylan Russell, Scott Steindorff, Alan Siegel, Raven and Sculptor Media.”
Producer Warren Goz said: “What attracted us to this project was the veritable dream team of producers, creatives and partners, some of whom, we have previously worked with to achieve great creative success. We are also excited to team with Derek, who has a renowned track record of great commercial achievement.” Producer Scott Steindorff added: “Gerry (Butler) and I love the take Derek has on this brilliant book and we have all the right creative minds to execute this plan.”
Kolstad is coming off last year’s sleeper action hit Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk, as well as the hit series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the blockbuster John Wick franchise. Stone Village recently produced well-received HBO Max series Station Eleven. G-BASE most recently wrapped Kandahar, in which Butler starred, from director Ric Roman Waugh.
Sculptor is currently in pre-production on Black Flies with Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. The company most recently came aboard to finance and produce feature The Delivered about a U.S. Marshal who risks everything to save his convict brother from execution.
DEADLINE, February 25, 2021 - Exclusive: Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan are set to star in Black Flies, with Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire set to direct. Open Road Films has landed U.S. rights and will release theatrically in the States, while FilmNation Entertainment will handle international sales and debut the project at EFM. CAA Media Finance brokered the U.S. distribution deal.
Scripted by Ryan King, Black Flies is an adaptation of the Shannon Burke novel, an intense thriller about lifesaving paramedics and the toll the job takes on them. Sheridan plays a idealistic young man who is prepping for medical school and gets a street-side view of things when he drives an ambulance alongside a grizzled veteran (Penn) who is considered to be one of the city’s best emergency medics. It is an immersive view of life on the streets and one medic’s struggle to continue to help despite his growing fear that nothing he can do will make a difference. Production is expected to begin in New York City late this year.
The film is produced under the Sculptor Media banner alongside Force Majeure, James Masciello’s creative producing arm, and Projected Picture Works, in association with Wiip. Sculptor’s Warren Goz and Eric Gold are producing with Christopher Kopp, Lucan Toh and Projected Picture Works’ Penn, John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth.
The exec producers are Luke Rodgers, Josh Stern, Sheridan, James Masciello, Matthew Sidari, Tom Ortenberg and King.
Said Goz: “We have been working in earnest with Jean-Stephane for over a year to bring this story to life in a way that is enduring and that will capture Jean’s special story telling abilities. We think this story, which portrays the pressures first-responders face on the job is an especially important one to tell at this time.”
Raven Capital Management acquired Open Road Films in 2018 and relaunched the theatrical film distributor with former head Ortenberg at the helm. Since its relaunch, the distributor has had two straight opening-weekend toppers with Honest Thief and The Marksman, both starring Liam Neeson.
Penn is repped by CAA, Sheridan by WME and Mosaic, Sauvare is with CAA, King is at UTA and Heroes and Villains Management and Burke is at Paradigm.
BOX OFFICE MOJO, JANUARY 19, 2021 - Moviegoers didn’t have much time to miss Liam Neeson, whose Honest Thief debuted in the top box-office spot back in October. Because now, just three months later, the AARP action star is back and this time he’s No. 1 with a bullet as his latest thriller, The Marksman, pulled in $3.2 million over the weekend and in total $3.7 million including the MLK Jr. holiday —more than enough to finally unseat Wonder Woman 1984, which had spent three straight weeks as the highest-grossing movie in North America.
Open Road Films, the indie behind The Marksman, has certainly found a good luck charm in the 68-year-old leading man. His new PG-13-rated suspenser, about an Arizona rancher who comes to aid of a Mexican boy being hunted by a south-of-the-border drug cartel, is his third No. 1 debut for the studio following 2012’s release of The Grey and 2020’s Honest Thief.
While Neeson’s films often have muscular openings, the fact that his latest toppled a tentpole the size of Wonder Woman while it was still in its first month reinforces both the star’s multiplex might and Wonder Woman’s surprising underperformance. Over the holiday weekend, The Marksman opened in 1,975 theaters and racked up a $1,875 per-screen average. It has not yet opened internationally.
VARIETY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 - Gerard Butler and Frank Grillo have boarded Joe Carnahan’s police drama “Copshop,” with filming set to start in Georgia and New Mexico in October.
“Copshop” will be set at a small-town police station that becomes the unlikely battleground between Butler’s professional hitman, a smart rookie female cop and a double-crossing con man played by Grillo, who seeks refuge behind bars with no place left to run.
Kurt McLeod wrote the original screenplay based on a story he created with Mark Williams. Carnahan penned the most recent draft. Williams and Tai Duncan of Zero Gravity Management are producing the film alongside Warren Goz and Eric Gold of Sculptor Media, Butler and Alan Siegel’s G-Base Productions, and Carnahan and Grillo through their WarParty Films production banner. Executive producers are James Masciello, Matthew Sidari and Tom Ortenberg for Open Road Films.
Open Road Films will release the movie theatrically in the U.S., while STX International will handle foreign distribution and release directly in the U.K. and Ireland. STX will present the project to buyers virtually at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
Raven Capital Management, which acquired Open Road Films in 2018 and recently relaunched the theatrical film distributor with former head Tom Ortenberg at the helm, developed “Copshop” in partnership with Sculptor and Zero Gravity, and is fully financing the film. CAA Media Finance arranged the project’s financing and domestic distribution deal.
“I’m thrilled to be teaming up with Joe Carnahan for the fifth time, and Frank Grillo has been a good luck charm for Open Road since its inception, having been featured in Joe’s film ‘The Grey,’ ‘End of Watch’ and ‘Homefront.’ Putting Joe and Frank together with one of the biggest action stars in the world in Gerard Butler in Joe’s exciting script for ‘Cop Shop’ is a recipe for a big theatrical hit,” Ortenberg said.
Butler was most recently seen in ”Angel Has Fallen,” the third installment in the ”Fallen” film series. Butler produced all three films under the G-Base banner. He’s starring STX’s “Greenland,” Lionsgate’s action/thriller “The Plane” and the action pic “Kandahar,” also with Waugh.
Grillo portrayed Crossbones in Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” and is the face of Universal’s “Purge” franchise as Sergeant Leo Barnes in “The Purge: Anarchy” and “The Purge: Election Year.” He starred in the DirecTV series “Kingdom” for three seasons.
DEADLINE, MAY 9, 2019 - Liam Neeson has been set to star in The Minuteman, an action thriller to be directed by Robert Lorenz, the frequent Clint Eastwood collaborator who has three Oscar nominations as a producer for American Sniper, Letters From Iwo Jima and Mystic River. Production on the new pic is set to begin in September on location in New Mexico and Ohio.
Voltage Pictures will rep international rights to the film at the upcoming Cannes film market. CAA and UTA Independent Film Group will co-rep U.S. rights.
Zero Gravity Management’s Tai Duncan and Mark Williams will produce alongside Sculptor Media’s Warren Goz and Eric Gold. Raven Capital Management’s James Masciello will executive produce with Voltage CEO Nicolas Chartier and Jonathan Deckter.
The pic marks Lorenz’s follow-up directing effort after 2012’s Trouble With the Curve, which starred Eastwood and Amy Adams. He co-wrote with Chris Charles and Danny Kravitz the script for The Minuteman, with tells a fast-paced story of a retired Vietnam veteran who finds himself responsible for the life of a young boy who is being hunted by a cartel, shades of the protector character Neeson nailed in his three Taken films.
“Fans love to see Liam play the highly skilled protector, a role he does better than anyone else as seen in the Taken film series, and Robert has helped bring some of the most celebrated films about an everyman’s journey to becoming a hero to the big screen,” said Deckter, who with Chartier negotiated the deal to represent the film with Williams and Goz. “This powerful combination gives The Minuteman a critical edge in the international marketplace. We’re thrilled to partner with Zero Gravity’s Tai and Mark and Sculptor’s Warren and Eric to share this visceral story with audiences around the world.”
Neeson’s Taken trilogy for Fox has grossed $929.4 million worldwide. He is currently shooting Made In Italy in the UK and Italy; that pic is also in play at Cannes.
SCULPTOR MEDIA BOARDS TRADING PAINT
VARIETY, September 7, 2017 - Warren Goz’s Sculptor Media has come on board to finance and executive produce, alongside Ambi Media Group and Paradox Studios, the father/son stock car racing film “Trading Paint,” Variety has learned exclusively.
The movie stars John Travolta, Shania Twain, Toby Sebastian, Michael Madsen, and Kevin Dunn. Karzan Kader is directing “Trading Paint.”
Producers are Ambi dia Group’s Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi, and Paradox Studios’ Silvio Muraglia and Alexandra Klim. Sculptor Media’s Goz and Eric Gold are executive producers.
Written by Craig Welch and Gary Gerani, “Trading Paint” revolves around a down and out dirt track racing legend (played by Travolta), who is drawn back into the winners circle after his son (portrayed by Sebastian) joins a competitor’s racing team and incites an intense and dangerous competition between father and son.
Ambi Distribution is handling worldwide sales. Principal photography is now underway in Alabama.
DEADLINE, February 22, 2002 - EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a hot one for action aficionados. Gerard Butler (Greenland) is eyeing the starring role in heist thriller movie Just Watch Me, which John Wickcreator and Nobody scribe Derek Kolstand is set to script from the novel by Jeff Lindsay (Dexter).
Copshop, The Marksman and Honest Thief producer Sculptor Media is financing and producing the project, which will mark the debut title for the company’s new international sales division Mossbank, headed by former Miramax, TWC, IM Global and AGC vet Michael Rothstein with former IM Global and AGC exec Sam Hall.
Just Watch Me, the first in the Riley Wolfe book series, follows Wolfe, a master thief and expert in disguise who targets the wealthiest 0.1 percent. The likeable bad guy teams up with a master forger named Monique and a team of expert thieves on a job that will make history. Producers are aiming to shoot the film in Q4, 2022.
The project reteams Sculptor Media, Gerard Butler, G-BASE, and Raven, whose action-thriller Copshop starring Butler was released last year by Open Road and STX. Lindsay is the author behind Showtime’s smash TV series Dexter.
Sculptor Media’s Warren Goz and Eric Gold are producing the movie alongside Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell of Stone Village Films (which had initially conceived of the project as a TV series) and Gerard Butler and Alan Siegel of G-BASE.
Executive producers are James Masciello and Matt Sidari of Raven, which has a slate financing and production partnership with Sculptor Media. Joel Falderon from Stone Village will co-produce.
Derek Kolstad commented: “As both a fan and a friend of Jeff Lindsay, I am excited to bring Just Watch Me to the screen. I’m eager to see Gerard Butler bring Riley Wolfe to cinematic life with the incredible team of Dylan Russell, Scott Steindorff, Alan Siegel, Raven and Sculptor Media.”
Producer Warren Goz said: “What attracted us to this project was the veritable dream team of producers, creatives and partners, some of whom, we have previously worked with to achieve great creative success. We are also excited to team with Derek, who has a renowned track record of great commercial achievement.”
Producer Scott Steindorff added: “Gerry (Butler) and I love the take Derek has on this brilliant book and we have all the right creative minds to execute this plan.”
Kolstad is coming off last year’s sleeper action hit Nobody, starring Bob Odenkirk, as well as the hit series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the blockbuster John Wick franchise.
Stone Village recently produced well-received HBO Max series Station Eleven. G-BASE most recently wrapped Kandahar, in which Butler starred, from director Ric Roman Waugh.
Sculptor is currently in pre-production on Black Flies with Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan. The company most recently came aboard to finance and produce feature The Delivered about a U.S. Marshal who risks everything to save his convict brother from execution.
