Overture Films

Overture Films

Industry	Motion pictures
Founded	2006
Headquarters	Beverly Hills, CA, USA
Products	motion pictures
Parent	Liberty Starz
Website	http://www.overturefilms.net/

Overture Films, LLC is an American film production and distribution company. It is a subsidiary of Liberty Media^[1] (although its byline reads "A Starz Company" (Starz is also owned by Liberty Media)).

Launched in November 2006 by Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett, it is a fully integrated studio that produces, acquires, markets, and distributes theatrical motion pictures worldwide. The studio performs collaborative relationships with filmmakers and empowers them to produce quality films that take creative risks and break new grounds.

Overture Films aims to release 8 to 12 movies per year, across a broad spectrum of different genres. This business model is designed to attract a higher quality of film projects, filmmakers, and talent.

Through its affiliated companies Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Entertainment Pay Channels, Starz Media, and Starz Play, Overture Films makes its films available worldwide to viewers across multiple platforms via their home video, premium television, and Internet distribution channels.

Overture Films will distribute films domestically. International sales and distribution, outside of the U.S., are managed through its ventures with co-financing partners and Alliance Films.

Mission

Overture Films has adopted an independent film model similar to New Line Cinema, aiming to produce mainstream commercial films under the $30 million mark targeted at distinct marketing niches. “I believe that this economic model is favorable for setting up a business that can take creative risks,” McGurk said. “We will forge the kind of alliances that made UA so strong years ago. We have created a haven for great filmmakers and allowed them to make movies.”^[2]

In keeping with our objective to be a company dedicated to empowering filmmakers and to produce films outside of the boundaries of the big studio system, McGurk and Rosett hired Robert Kessel because of his unique hands on filmmaking and acquisitions experience and felt that his knowledge was crucial to meeting their filmmaker-friendly objective.^[3] That same philosophy is why we hired Peter Adee to run marketing and distribution because of his creativity, strong leadership ability, and deep talent relationships as well as his cutting-edge marketing campaigns andtalent-friendly approach.^[4]

Upcoming releases

Haywire

Steven Soderbergh will direct the new movie, Haywire, originally under the title of Knockout. A group of people intend to stop a female soldier who seeks revenge after she is betrayed. Haywire is set to release in 2011.

Released movies

Let Me In

Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) will write and direct the horror feature Let Me In. Based on the bestselling Swedish novel "Låt den rätte komma in", Let Me In is a contemporary coming of age tale about Owen, an overlooked and bullied boy, who finds love and revenge in Abby, a beautiful yet peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire. Let Me In is set to hit the theaters on October 1, 2010.

Stone

John Curran (The Painted Veil) directs Angus MacLachlan’s (Junebug) script about a convicted arsonist Edward Norton who looks to manipulate a parole officer Robert De Niro into a plan to secure his parole by placing his beautiful wife Milla Jovovich in the lawman's path. This film will be coming out sometime later this year, 2010.

Jack Goes Boating

Jack Goes Boating is an unconventional romantic comedy directed by Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman who also stars in the film alongside Oscar nominee Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) John Ortiz (American Gangster), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Broadway’s Rent). This romantic comedy will be releasing later this year, 2010.

Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest follows three Brooklyn cops (Golden Globe-winner Richard Gere, Oscar-nominee Ethan Hawke, and Oscar-nominee Don Cheadle) who wind up at the same deadly location after experiencing vastly different career paths. It also stars Wesley Snipes (Blade franchise) and Golden Globe-nominee Ellen Barkin (Ocean's Eleven) and reunites director Antoine Fuqua with Ethan Hawke, who earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in the Fuqua-directed Training Day. Brooklyn's Finest will be unleashed on March 5, 2010.

The Crazies

A reinvention loosely based upon the George A. Romero classic of the same name, The Crazies is about the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin called Trixie 'Rhabdoviridae Prototype' Biological Weapon whose contaminates their water supply and turn the resident into depraved, bloodthirsty killers. Timothy Olyphant is set to star and Breck Eisner to direct this movie. It is written by Scott Kosar and Ray Wright. The Crazies was released on February 26, 2010.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

The Men Who Stare at Goats is the story about a top-secret unit within the American military whose purpose is to develop mind-control powers for "psychic spying." Based loosely on Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book of the same title, Men Who Stare at Goats follows a reporter, Bob (Ewan McGregor), who stumbles into the story of a lifetime when he meets a special forces agent, Lyn (George Clooney). As they embark on a new mission, Lyn reveals his twenty-year involvement in this top-secret, psychic military unit and shares details of their activities, including staring at goats in order to kill them telepathically. The film stars Oscar-winner Clooney (Syriana), with McGregor (Moulin Rouge!), Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, The Usual Suspects) and Oscar-winner Jeff Bridges (The Contender, Crazy Heart). It is directed by Oscar-nominee Grant Heslov (producer and writer of Good Night, and Good Luck.) ^[5]

Law Abiding Citizen

Law Abiding Citizen is a thriller about a brilliant sociopath (Gerard Butler) who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia—all from inside his jail cell—and the prosecutor assigned to his case (Jamie Foxx) who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story explores the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore has described as the biggest robbery in the history of this country—the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.^[6]

Pandorum

From the producers of the Resident Evil film franchise comes Pandorum, a terrifying thriller in which two crew members (Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster) wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they have been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they are actually not alone—and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.

Paper Heart

Charlyne Yi embarks on a quest across America to make a documentary about the one subject she doesn’t fully understand: Love. Michael Cera (Superbad, Juno) becomes the object of her affection. Weaving together reality and fantasy, Paper Heart combines elements of documentary and traditional storytelling to bring a fresh perspective to the modern romance.

Sunshine Cleaning

Rose Lorkowski, a former high school cheerleader and now thirtysomething-year-old maid, is trying to create a better life for herself and her eccentric eight-year-old son Oscar. Her burnout younger sister Norah still lives at home with their father, Joe, whose on the latest of a lifelong string of get-rich-quick schemes. When Rose learns of the big money to be made in crime scene cleaning and biohazard removal business, she and Norah partner up to create their own company, Sunshine Cleaning. Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin

Last Chance Harvey

A struggling New York jingle writer (Dustin Hoffman) and a lonely British bureaucrat (Emma Thompson) meet by chance in London and transform one another’s lives. Last Chance Harvey is a low-key romantic-comedy. Directed by Joel Hopkins

Nothing Like the Holidays

It's Christmastime, and the far-flung members of the Rodriguez family are converging at their parent's home in Chicago to celebrate the season and rejoice in their youngest brother's safe return home from combat overseas. However, when old disputes surface and new surprises arise, familial bonds are stretched to the limit and the Rodriguezes realize they're going to have to pull together to make it through the holidays in one piece. John Leguizamo, Freddy Rodriguez, Debra Messing, Alfred Molina

Righteous Kill

Longtime partners Detectives David Fisk and Thomas Cowan investigate a series of vigilante killings in a gritty and sophisticated New York City crime thriller. Righteous Kill stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino.

Traitor

A rogue former U.S. Special Forces operative is aiding terrorists to carry out acts against the West; however, it's unclear where the man's loyalties lie. Traitor stars Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff.

Henry Poole Is Here

Luke Wilson, Radha Mitchell, and George Lopez, a disillusioned man goes into hiding in placid suburbia only to discover he cannot escape the forces of hope.

The Visitor

In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy's follow-up to his award winning directorial debut The Station Agent, Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) stars as a disillusioned Connecticut economics professor whose life is transformed by a chance encounter in New York City.

Sleepwalking

Sleepwalking tells the story of a young girl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s AnnaSophia Robb) who comes to terms with her mother’s abandonment by forming an unlikely bond with her Uncle (Nick Stahl), who is struggling to deal with his own troubled life. Woody Harrelson and Dennis Hopper co-star. Academy Award-winner Charlize Theron, who stars as the mother, produced the film.

Mad Money

Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes star as three ordinary women who form an unlikely friendship and decide to do something extraordinary — rob one of the most secure banks in the world. Mad Money is directed by Thelma & Louise writer Callie Khouri.^[7]

Miscellanea

In 2008, The Hollywood Reporter named Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett #10 on their Indie Power 50.^[8]

In 2007, The Hollywood Reporter named Chris McGurk and Danny Rosett #37 on their Indie Power 50.^[9]

In early 2010, speculation of a sale of the studio arose due to many its films failing at the box office.^[10] Its marketing and distribution are now handled by Relativity Media.^[11]

Notes and references

1. ^ "An Upstart in Films With Many Fast Moves"; David M. Halbfinger; The New York Times; January 10, 2008
2. ^ Malone taps McGurk to run new studio-distrib; Anne Thompson; The Hollywood Reporter; November 14–20, 2006
3. ^ Overture Films announces production and acquisition leadership team; Starz Media Press Release; January 22, 2007
4. ^ Peter Adee joins Overture Films; Starz Media Press Release; February 21, 2007
5. ^ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i381632271e5e8b9672dd190755b1d08f
6. ^ Michael Moore unveils title of new doc; Dave McNary; Variety; July 8, 2006
7. ^ Overture happy to nab Mad Money; Dave McNary; Daily Variety; Tuesday, May 01, 2007
8. ^ The Indie Power 50; Hollywood Reporter; January 17, 2008
9. ^ Rule makers: The Hollywood Reporter's Indie Power 50; Hollywood Reporter; January 18, 2007
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ [2]

External links

• Overture Films