Kristen to star in Steven Shainberg’s 'The Big Shoe' with Elizabeth Banks & Jim Sturgess

Deadline

Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks are joining Jim Sturgess in Steven Shainberg’s The Big Shoe. HanWay Films is handling international here at the EFM with CAA repping domestic. Secretary director Shainberg is helming from a script he wrote with Mickey Birnbaum. 

Sturgess plays a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who wants to turn his designs into mass-produced knock-offs. The family hires psychotherapist Mary Kay (Banks) and muse Delphi (Stewart) to lure him back to work. 

Shainberg says the film will combine eroticism and humor in a similar way to dark comedy Secretary. Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance produces and Richard Middleton and Christina Lurie are executive producing.

Variety

Kristen Stewart is set to join the cast of Steven Shainberg's comedy drama "The Big Shoe." Elizabeth Banks is also confirmed for the cast alongside Jim Sturgess.

Marking helmer Shainberg's first feature outing since 2006's "Fur," "The Big Shoe" follows a show designer (Sturgess) whose family want to use his designs to make mass-produced knock-offs for fast profit. The family hires a muse (Stewart) and a psychotherapist (Banks) to lure him back to work when he breaks free from the family.

The film is described by Shainberg as combining eroticism and humor in the same vein as his 2002 film "Secretary."

Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions will produce the film, which is scripted by Shainberg and Mickey Birnbaum. Lensing is set to begin June 17.

HanWay Films handles international sales. CAA are handling domestic rights.

THR

BERLIN -- Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks have joined the cast of Steven Shainberg's The Big Shoe, which European outfit HanWay films is shopping to foreign buyers at the European Film Market in Berlin.

They join Jim Sturgess, who plays a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who want to turn his beautiful designs into mass-produced knock-offs for a quick buck. The family hires psychotherapist Mary Kay (Banks) and "muse" Delphi (Stewart) to lure Nate back to work.

Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance Productions will produce, with Shainberg (Secretary) directing from a script he co-wrote with and Mickey Birnbaum. Richard Middleton and Christina Lurie are executive producing.

"The Big Shoe gives me the opportunity to explore a playful, romantic, sexy, intimate connection just as Secretary did. Not since that film have I had a script that combines eroticism and humor in such a fun way," Shainberg said. "This is a script dear to my heart, and I intend to make a truly unique film from it."

Added HanWay's Thorsten Schumacher: "The director of Secretary making a film about shoes, fashion and fetishism was a must-have item for our team and to have such a stellar cast on board will make it a great fit for distributors. Georgina Goodman’s incredible designs threaten to steal every scene they're in so we’ll see plenty of great marketing possibilities for the film."

Cannes 2012 article: THR (via @ADarkParadise)

The Big Shoe -- featuring footwear designed for the film by England's Georgina Goodman -- will be financed by a new $150 million equity film fund announced this week by AngelWorld Entertainment.

Shainberg (Secretary, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus) is set to start shooting this fall from a script he co-wrote with Mickey Birnbaum. The project reteams Sarandon and Sturgess, who will be seen in Focus Features' Cloud Atlas, from Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowski.

Andrew Lazar's Mad Chance Productions will produce alongside AngelWorld's Darby Angel, Tykwer and the Wachowskis. HanWay Films will handle international sales, while CAA negotiated the deal and is representing North American rights (CAA also reps WorldView).

The Big Shoe follows Nate (Sturgess), a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who wants to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. His overbearing mother Irene (Sarandon) hires a psychotherapist and a muse to lure Nate back to work.

"The Big Shoe provides the opportunity to explore a playful romantic, sexy, intimate connection just as Secretary did. The script combines eroticism and humor in such a unique way -- where shoes are better than sex," Shainberg said.

Goodman recently designed a pair of wedding shoes commissioned by the Royal Mint to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Only 11 pairs of the shoes were produced, the first going to Kate Middleton.

"The project has all the elements we were looking for to satisfy our financing model. The script is strong, as is the cast and the creative team, and it's great to work with an experienced and reputable producer like Lazar. The Big Shoe ticks all the boxes, especially as our investment criteria are non-negotiable," said Angel.

AngelWorld's new $150 million equity fund -- putting investors in the first position -- will finance six projects. The Big Shoe is the first to be announced.

Production Company, Angelworld Entertainment official synopsis: 

A gifted shoe designer, Nate, is forced to break free from a family who want to cheapen his art for their own commercial gain. “The Big Shoe” is a touching an sexy love story and a classic boy-to-man coming-of-age tale, with the colourful backdrop of the fashion/shoe industry. When a muse is strategically ‘planted’ along Nate’s path by his mother, he begins to embrace the mad “logic” of the creative drive, allowing his own deep impulses and wishes to finally be expressed and experienced. He’s revealing to her and to the world his secret. And, while it may make no real practical “sense” to do his art (shoemaking), Nate must….

IMDB The Big Shoe

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