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DEVELOPMENT & PRODUCTION The following four films are part of a film financing package currently being prepared for Cypress by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Should you have an interest in reviewing our prospectus, please send an email by clicking on the Mail Guy at the bottom of the page.
Premonition
An
original screenplay written by William Jack Sibley It’s 1957 in the sleepy town of West Bend, Texas. Andreas Castillo is the town drunk and a hopeless romantic. His obsession with the Mexican film star, Pedro Infante, plays out in the local theater, where he talks to the screen, sings and is generally a pain in the ass to the other patrons. Then he goes to the local watering hole, makes a ruckus and gets kicked out. Pissing on the courthouse steps, passed out on the town square -- he's a mess. Dominga Vargas is a hot, slightly past-her-prime Mexican-American woman. She arrives in town to care for her ailing mother but wastes no time in setting up shop at the local tavern as a self-employed call girl. She’s sexy and charming, but trouble seeks her like water seeking its level. It's only later that we discover that Andreas is actually the best cowboy on Jeff Martin's ranch. But, his weekly binges test the patience of Jeff and, especially, Roy, the local sheriff. Finally, Roy has no choice but to send Andreas to the slammer. There, we also find Dominga, who has been arrested for soliciting one too many times. They’re both destined for the state lock-up. But moments before the two are to be shipped off to their respective trips up the river, the Sheriff comes up with a hair-brained scheme that just might work: he suggests that if Dominga is willing to marry Andreas, they can both avoid jail time. Roy knows Andreas will be thrilled at the prospect. Dominga is harder to persuade, but in the end, anything is better than the State lock-up, so she agrees. The hopelessly romantic Andreas does all he can to make the deal work, but for Dominga this is just another scam to enable her to throw in her lot with Narciso, the sneaky scheming schoolteacher. Finally, Jeff's wife, Alberta, cooks up a literacy contest that brings everything to a head and a happy ending for the embattled couple. Even Jeff's son, Tommy, gets his girl, with the help of Andreas' romantic advice: "Tell her her love is like a ripe peach, waiting to be plucked." Aimed at the burgeoning Latino market, Amor is at once a classic romantic comedy and a tale of bittersweet redemption. Its magic realism will appeal to the art-house audience, while its broad themes of life and love will bring in the boomers. Time
and Place
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original screenplay written by Annie Nocenti Set to a backdrop of civil unrest, Escalate is the story of a young woman, Racine Walker, who works at a hip urban animation studio. She is creative and successful in a world of innovative super-heroes and over-the-top violence. At ease with the currency of casual carnage, Racine is unexpectedly confronted with the real thing. What at first appears to be an intimate argument between a serviceman and his companion escalates into an intensely violent confrontation. Racine intervenes, instinctively attempting to protect the woman. Her compassion backfires in the worst possible way, however, when the serviceman turns his rage fully on her. Stunned, then angry, Racine attempts to track down her assailant, all the while wrestling with her fragmented and shifting recollections of the incident. But, what could easily be a conventional revenge story becomes instead a visually striking and inventive personal journey, fueled both by Racine’s imagination and her uncertainty. Reminiscent of Rashômon in its shifting points of view, Escalate charts one woman's journey as she questions her beliefs and struggles with her fears. Escalate offers a densely layered role for a leading actress in her twenties. Hollywood, ever-reluctant to risk a leading role on relatively untested talent, prefers to offer the same roles to the same faces. But today, the Oscar more often than not goes to the daring indie unknown -- Hillary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry. Visually complex, sexy and surprisingly funny, Escalate will deliver a drama with a gut-punch to a sophisticated young audience. With a central role sure to garner tremendous attention for its leading actress and a script perfectly suited to an economical film shoot, Escalate is well positioned to inject new energy into the indie film world. Time
and Place
Annie Nocenti, the Escalate screenwriter, has just returned from a trip to Baluchistan, where she was filming a documentary about Baluchistan's nascent struggle for independence. The Brooklyn Rail has published an article she wrote about her experiences there: LETTER FROM BALUCHISTAN A Call to Resistance: The Khan of Kalat Gathers the Tribes. Annie's credit's include the soon-to-be-released Patriotville. (12/06)
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original screenplay written by Jon Glascoe History: Fifteen years ago, a Scottish college student broke through a damp, crumbling closet wall in her dorm room and opened a portal to a huge underground maze of tunnels and vaulted chambers, thereafter called the Lost City of Edinburgh. These massive caverns were built in the Middle Ages, under the heart of Europe’s most crowded city. They became a refuge for the poor and dispossessed, forced underground to escape the certain torture that awaited them at the hands of the Church above. Murderers and body snatchers roamed freely, “harvesting” product, in the lucrative practice of selling fresh corpses to medical colleges for study and dissection. At the height of the Inquisition, furious at even the most pathetic dissent, city officials finally set fire to the entire network of catacombs and sealed the exits, praying righteously as thousands of souls were roasted alive. Fact: The walls of the Lost City still seep a carbon-based protoplasm. * * * * * * * * * * * * Today: while their European classmates rush home for Spring Recess, a group of American foreign exchange students are left to their own devices inside the venerable halls of the University of Edinburgh Medical College. Ancient History and Young Americans: always a terrifying combination… What begins as a great, lusty adventure into the tunnels quickly becomes a desperate, clawing fight for survival, as the innocent co-eds learn that the sadistic cruelty of the past is still alive and unwell. The spirits of the catacombs are merciless, and the lesson is written in blood: When these walls run, so should you!TM Ooze combines the thrilling horror of immensely popular franchises like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, with the supernatural suspense of international screamers like The Others and The Ring. Like those hits, our film will draw on a cast of likeable, recognizable television faces to appeal to the young adult audience.
Time and Place
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original screenplay written by Tim Bohn Summer Games is a comedic coming-of-age story set in the cut-throat world of Hamptons Real Estate. As any good summer story must, it includes a charming and sexy romance. Danny O’Brien, 22, dedicates one last summer to his family’s failing real estate agency, and to his father Joe’s seemingly obsolete values: poetry, integrity, and community. The O’Briens are challenged - endangered - by heartless capitalist modernism, as practiced by the liars and cheaters at Pavlovian Properties, realtors to the Ultra-Wealthy and Über-Fabulous. Danny complicates the game by falling in love with Clare, a beautiful and suspiciously sophisticated Pavlovian summer intern. All is framed by the mad swirl of “summer people” who party, sleep around and generally amuse themselves (and us) as they indulge in “The Season.” And everyone chases the grand prize: the open auction, on Labor Day, of The Point - the last great parcel of virgin land on the East Coast. Do the rich really get to play by different rules than the rest of us? Will Danny go to the dark side to get the big sale and save his father? And will Clare help him, or break his heart? A hint: Summer Games celebrates summer love and the enduring tradition of the triumphant underdog. Summer Games will star up-and-coming young actors, with strong supporting roles for veteran character actors. Most of its scenes are economical exteriors in beautiful East Hampton and the rest are set on location in the same town. The engaging characters and poignant relationships will appeal to moviegoers of all ages. Elements of broad comedy, class satire, and the youth and beauty of its stars all pander wonderfully to the 13-to-25 year old demographic who spend the most on movies and generate repeat business. Summer Games is a classic genre comedy, happily commercial in its themes and structure. It is timeless and elemental, poised to join the list of enduring comedy favorites. Time and
Place New York State has recently enacted significant financial incentives to filmmakers, including the Film Production Tax Credit (for details see www.nylovesfilm.com/tax.asp) and increased local government and union cooperation (see www.nylovesfilm.com).
12/03/03 Duo get 'Premonition' By CATHY DUNKLEY Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's production shingle Bedford Falls has paid low-six against mid-six figures to acquire the spec script "Premonition" penned by Jon Glascoe. Shingle acquired pic out of its discretionary fund under its exclusive four-year producing deal with indie producer-financier-distributor Alliance Atlantis. Herskovitz and Zwick will produce pic with Alliance Atlantis; it is a potential directing vehicle for Herskovitz. Pic is described as a psychological drama in a somewhat similar vein to "The Sixth Sense" about an acutely agoraphobic man who finds he can see into the future. Glascoe is repped by the Gersh Agency and manager Adrian Loudermilk. Zwick and Herskovitz most recently produced the upcoming Tom Cruise starrer "The Last Samurai" with Radar Pictures and Cruise-Wagner which Zwick also directed for Warner Bros.
3/21/04 Bedford Falls into place at Warners By CATHY DUNKLEY After teaming with Warner Bros. on Tom Cruise starrer "The Last Samurai," Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's Bedford Falls shingle has inked a two-year first-look production deal with the studio. Bedford Falls, which produced the Zwick-helmed film with Radar Pictures and Cruise/Wagner, will remain in its Santa Monica offices rather than relocating to studio-based offices in Burbank. Shingle previously had a four-year first-look production deal with Canadian
indie producer-financier-distributor Alliance Atlantis, which recently ended.
Before that it was housed at Fox 2000 under a producing deal.
"Samurai" marked Bedford Falls' first pic teamed with
WB, though Herskovitz's "Dangerous Beauty" was
distribbed by the studio when Regency had its production deal at
the studio.
Though no projects have yet been identified under the deal,
Bedford Falls is developing the psychological thriller
"Premonition," penned by Jon Glascoe, which Herskovitz
may helm.
An original dramatic screenplay by Jon Glascoe, now completed, revised and in active development. The true story of El Cordobés, Spain's greatest bullfighter. More to come.
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