September
13, 2006
For
Immediate Release:
LIONSGATE GETS AWAY FROM HER
Film
Stars Academy Award® Nominee Julie Christie, Academy Award®
Winner Olympia Dukakis and Gordon Pinsent
Acclaimed Feature Directorial Debut of Actress Sarah Polley Acquired
Following Gala World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival
SANTA MONICA, CA
(September 13, 2006) - Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), the leading independent
filmed entertainment studio, has acquired U.S. distribution rights to
Sarah Polleys critically acclaimed and audience pleasing drama
AWAY FROM HER, it was jointly announced today by Lionsgates President
of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Peter Block and President of Theatrical
Films Tom Ortenberg. The studio plans a Spring 2007 release.
Said Ortenberg,
It is an honor to be working with Sarah on her wonderfully accomplished
feature writing and directing debut. AWAY FROM HER is a great, universal
love story which we feel will be an early awards contender in multiple
categories for next year. We are looking forward to working with Simone
Urdl and Jennifer Weiss while also reuniting with producer Danny Iron,
with whom we worked on THE RED VIOLIN.
Said Polley, We
were blown away by Lionsgate's enthusiasm for the film, and are completely
thrilled by the prospect of working with them.
Said Iron, It
is exciting to be back in business with Lionsgate, a studio with unrivaled
creativity, passion and intelligence. It is the perfect home for AWAY
FROM HER.
The deal was negotiated
for Lionsgate by Ortenberg, Block, Jason Constantine, Senior Vice President
of Acquisitions and Eda Kowan, Vice President of Acquisitions and by
William Morris Independent and producer Danny Iron on behalf of the
filmmakers.
HanWay Films are
handling the international sales and distribution for AWAY FROM HER
which has currently been sold in 26 other territories.
AWAY FROM HER is
the lyrical screenplay adaptation of celebrated author Alice Munro's
short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain. A beautifully moving love
story that deals with memory and the circuitous, unnamable paths of
a long marriage. Married for almost 50 years, Grant (Gordon Pinsent)
and Fionas (Julie Christie) commitment to each other appears unwavering,
and their everyday life is full of tenderness and humor. This serenity
is broken only by the occasional, carefully restrained reference to
the past, giving a sense that this marriage may not always have been
such a fairy tale. This tendency of Fionas to make such references,
along with her increasingly evident memory loss, creates a tension that
is usually brushed off casually by both of them. As the lapses become
more obvious and dramatic, it is no longer possible for either of them
to ignore the fact that Fiona is suffering from Alzheimers disease.
AWAY FROM HER also
stars Wendy Crewson, Michael Murphy, Kristen Thomson, and Alberta Watson.
A Film Farm and Foundry Films production in association with Capri Releasing,
HanWay Films and Echo Lake Prods. Produced by Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl,
Jennifer Weiss. Executive producer, Atom Egoyan, Doug Mankoff. Co-producer,
Victoria Hirst.
ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, winning
this year's Best Picture Academy Award® for CRASH, generating two
consecutive years of $300 million-plus domestic theatrical box office,
operating a $500 million-plus home entertainment business and producing
a broad slate of prime time television series for fiscal 2007. It is
a premier producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming,
home entertainment, family entertainment, and video-on-demand content.
Its prestigious and prolific library of more than 7,800 titles is a
valuable source of stable, recurring revenue and a foundation for the
growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous
with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.