Amazon acquired 'Against All Enemies' for distribution in the US

After dominating the Sundance market by buying five of the hottest films, Amazon Studios has landed U.S. rights to Benedict Andrews’ political thriller Against All Enemies.

The film, which stars Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell and Anthony Mackie, is inspired by true events surrounding French New Wave darling and Breathless star Jean Seberg, who in the late 1960s was targeted by the FBI because of her political and romantic involvement with civil rights activist Hakim Jamal (Mackie). She was the focus of the FBI’s attempts to disrupt, discredit and expose the Black Power movement. Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel wrote the screenplay.

Amazon made the move for Against All Enemies after viewing only a promotional reel. The film is currently in post-production, and Memento Films is handling international sales at the Berlin market.

Against All Enemies also stars Colm Meaney, Margaret Qualley, Vince Vaughn, Zazie Beetz, Stephen Root and Yvan Attal.

La La Land's Fred Berger produced alongside his Automatik partner Brian Kavanaugh Jones as well as Kate Garwood, Stephen Hopkins. Marina Acton, Alan Ritchson and Brad Pilz also produced, while Waterhouse and Shrapnel executive produced.

As Jen Salke settles into her new post as head of Amazon Studios, the company has shown a voracious appetite for the hottest properties available at recent markets like Sundance and now Berlin. In Park City, Amazon bought four narrative features and one documentary for a record-setting $47 million dollars -- Late Night, The Report, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Honey Boy and One Child Nation. The Shia LaBeouf starrer Honey Boy also was produced by Automatik.

UTA Independent Film Group negotiated the deal with Amazon on behalf of the filmmaking team and financiers.

Andrews is repped by UTA, Paul Hastings and Judy Daish.

Mackie is handled by UTA and Inspire Entertainment.

Qualley is repped by UTA, Management 360 and Harris Hartman.

O’Connell, Shrapnel and Waterhouse are clients of CAA, while Shrapnel and Waterhouse are additionally repped by Grandview.

Stewart, Beetz and Root are handled by Gersh.

Vaughn is repped by WME.

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'Lionsgate' to release 'Cafe Society' in theaters + first reactions to a clip at Cinema Con

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For an update on the date of release for 'Cafe Society' please check out our post here.

"A good robust theatrical run is good for everyone," Amazon Studios chief Roy Price told theater owners in Las Vegas hours after learning that five of his movies will play at the Cannes Film Festival.

Just hours after learning that five of its films will play at the Cannes Film Festival, Amazon Studios on Thursday revealed that the streaming service is teaming with Lionsgate to release Woody Allen's festival opener Cafe Society in theaters in August.

Amazon Studios marketing and distribution chief Bob Berney announced the news during a luncheon hosted by the streaming service at CinemaCon, the annual gathering of theater owners in Las Vegas. His boss, Roy Price, also took to the podium, declaring that Amazon will give most of its original movies a proper theatrical release, unlike rival Netflix.

"A good robust theatrical run is good for everyone," Price told the crowd, prompting several rounds of applause. "Therefore, almost all of our films will have full theatrical releases. Our goals are aligned with exhibition."

Berney led most of the luncheon presentation. It's a coup that Amazon was part of the official program at CinemaCon, considering many exhibitors have been leery about Netflix and Amazon's move into the original movie business. However, Amazon has quickly decided that it's better for their films to play first in theaters and honor the 90-day window before making them available to Amazon Prime customers. Otherwise, most theaters will refuse to play the movies at all.

Last fall, Amazon and partner Roadside Attractions failed to book more than 300 locations for Spike Lee's Chi-Raq since the movie was made available in short order on Prime. Chi-Raq topped out at $2.7 million; worse, it was shut out of the Oscar race, as was Netflix's Beasts of No Nation, which got an even smaller theatrical run. (Price is keen to achieve the same awards glory with film that he has had in TV with Transparent and Mozart in the Jungle.)

The other Amazon Studios pics going to Cannes include Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon, Jim Jarmusch's Paterson and Iggy Pop music documentary Gimme Danger, all of which will play in competition, and The Handmaiden from Korean genre-film master Park Chan-wook.

"As you know, we've been very, very busy, We acquired six films at Sundance," said Berney, who went detailed the company's slate, including never-before-seen footage of Cafe Society and Neon Demon, as well as the premiere of the trailer for the latter pic. Refn spoke to the room via taped message, while Neon Demon star Elle Fanning appeared in person to plug the film.

"Nick is a genius and he’s created something that I’ve never, ever seen before.
 There’s a lot of secrets in it, too, so there’s lots of surprises," said the actress.

Neon Demon was filmed in chronological order, and Fanning said they came up with the ending after they were already shooting. The short clip of Cafe Society featured Jesse Eisenberg and Anna Camp. 


Deadline ...has learned is that the all-star film is going wide on Aug. 29, making it the filmmaker’s first wide release since 2003’s Anything Else which was distributed by DreamWorks and opened to $1.67M at 1,033. That’s big news for an Allen title which typically get platformed. As is the standard, Allen films typically debut in his hometown of New York City, and also in Los Angeles during their first frame. I remember during my distribution days at Savoy Pictures in the ’90s calling around for hourlies on Friday opening films and Allen’s title at the time was putting up hourly grosses at Sony/Loews Lincoln Center on par to a title like Warner Bros. Batman Forever.

Clip from Woody Allen's "Cafe Society": Jesse Eisenberg doing a credible Allen impression.

— Ben Fritz (@benfritz) April 14, 2016

The Cafe Society clip we saw featured Jesse Eisenberg's character turning down Anna Camp's character bc he has a headache #cinemacon

— Rebecca Ford (@Beccamford) April 14, 2016

Just saw a funny scene from Cafe Society with Anna Camp and Jesse Eisenberg. Woody sent it to Amazon just last night. #CinemaCon

— Gregory Ellwood (@TheGregoryE) April 14, 2016

We just saw the first footage of Woody Allen's Cafe Society featuring Jesse Eisenberg. #cinemacon

— Rebecca Ford (@Beccamford) April 14, 2016

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Amazon acquires the untitled Woody Allen project for North America

Continuing its relationship with Woody Allen, Amazon Studios has acquired all North American rights to the director’s new movie, which stars Jeannie Berlin, Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll and Ken Stott.

A romantic comedy set in the 1930s that was shot last summer in New York and Los Angeles, the untitled film will receive a traditional theatrical release nationwide, after which it will become available exclusively to Prime members through Prime Video.

Producers of the new film include Allen’s longtime collaborator Letty Aronson, as well as Steve Tenenbaum and Edward Walson. Executive producers are Ronald L. Chez, Adam B. Stern and Marc I. Stern.

“Like all beginning relationships, there is much hope, mutual affection and genuine goodwill — the lawsuits come later,” joked Allen.

“Woody Allen is a brilliant filmmaker. We’re so proud to be in business with him for both his next film and his first ever TV series,” said Roy Price, head of Amazon Studios.

Allen is also writing and directing an untitled six-episode TV series for Amazon starring himself, Elaine May and Miley Cyrus. It’s executive produced by Erika Aronson, produced by Helen Robin, and begins shooting next month.

The movie deal was negotiated by John Burnham and Jessica Lacy of ICM Partners, Erika Aronson of Taborlake and Loeb & Loeb on behalf of the filmmakers.

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