Film News Roundup: Austin Festival Selects Terrence Malick’s ‘A Hidden Life’
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In today’s film news roundup, the Austin Film Festival selects a Terrence Malick title, “A Day Without a Mexican” gets a sequel and DCR Finance signs a first-look deal.
FESTIVAL SCREENING
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The Austin Film Festival will screen Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” which won the Francois Chalais and Ecumenical Jury awards at the Cannes Film Festival.
Starring August Diehl and Valerie Pachner, the film follows the true story of an Austrian farmer who refused to yield to Nazi forces in World War II. Fox Searchlight will open “A Hidden Life” on Dec. 13.
The festival, which runs Oct. 24-31, is also screening the Harriet Tubman biopic “Harriet,” written by Kasi Lemmons and Gregory Allen Howard and starring Cynthia Erivo, Joe Alwyn, and Janelle Monáe. AFF will also screen “The Truth” from writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda, starring Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke, and the world premiere of the documentary feature “Cowboys,” written and directed by John Langmore and Bud Force.
Other world premiere titles include “The Vice Guide to Bigfoot,” written by Zach Lamplugh and Brian Emond, and the Texas crime thriller “Sleeping in Plastic” from writer/director Van Ditthavong.
SEQUEL SET
Javier Chapa and Simon Wise of Mucho Mas Media are partnering with Joshua Maurer and Alixandre Witlin on “Another Day Without a Mexican: This Time It’s Personal.”
The project is a sequel to the team’s 2004 social satire, “A Day Without a Mexican.” Yareli Arizmendi will write the screenplay with Sergio Arau, who will direct.
The original movie offered a look at the consequences of all the Mexicans in the state of California suddenly disappearing.
“Sometimes dark humor is the only way to tell the real story,” Arau said. “What we imagined 15 years ago has now become reality. We again intend to use the absurdity of the current climate to offer a deeper insight into the consequences and further the premise of the original film.”
DCR FINANCE DEAL
DCR Finance Corp, founded by Adi Cohen and producer Mark Damon, has signed a first-look deal with Atlanta-based Agency 850.
Terms of the deal cover all films packaged and financed by DCR by providing product placement and integration funds. The partnership will allow DCR to offer producers another tier of financing.
This deal comes in the wake of the position taken by DCR in the Georgia film industry through its Go Media deal for $150 million in financing. The deal was orchestrated and brokered by Go Media principals Len Gibson and Wayne Overstreet.
Agency 850’s CEO Chris DeBlasio said, “The landscape of advertising has changed drastically in the last decade, and it’s now essential for brands to be ingrained within the narrative of films and television series in order to create a lasting impression on the consumer.
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