Author: Josan

The co-presidents of the company responsible for two New York Film Festival titles explain their thinking behind the varied projects they’re tackling at the moment.

Brad Pitt has a famous face, but these days, his name is even more ubiquitous on projects that he doesn’t star in.
Plan B, the production company Pitt co-founded with Brad Grey and Jennifer Aniston in 2001, has gained traction in recent years as one of the most significant entities supporting auteur-driven work in the United States. In 2013, the company helped bring Steve McQueen’s Oscar-dominating “12 Years a Slave” to fruition. Over the next two years, the company’s highlights included Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” both of which struck a marked contrast to more traditional studio offerings. Earlier this fall, the company unveiled “The Voyage of Time,” Terrence Malick’s cosmic documentary about the origins of the universe.

But there may be no better demonstration of Plan B’s current focus than the two films it produced that screened this month at the New York Film Festival: Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” a decade-spanning look at the life of a young gay black man in Miami, and James Gray’s ambitious “The Lost City of Z,” a rough-hewn adventure drama about British explorer Percy Fawcett’s lifelong attempt to discover a mythical city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. (A24, which co-produced “Moonlight,” will release the film on October 21; “The Lost City of Z” will be released by Amazon and Bleecker Street next year.) Both movies couldn’t have been made by the traditional Hollywood studio system; they’re singular works that reflect the creative freedoms of their directors, and Plan B provided a crucial foundation for them to exist.

Read more. Interesting interview, I recommand!

It’s been quite the rough go for director Andrew Dominick’s Marilyn Monroe biopic. The film, regrettably, has been stuck in development hell for the past eight years now. It’s also seen several high-profile actresses, namely Naomi Watts and Jessica Chastain, attached to the project, but both eventually dropped out due to commitments set elsewhere. It appears, however, through the divine intervention of a streaming giant that the film has finally caught its big break. And unlike Marilyn, this film’s first exposure will be set in the stage of one of the most innovative media companies of the modern age.

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Amazon is negotiating with CAA to distribute its clients’ drama The Lost City of Z from James Gray. The period adventure based on the David Grann book stars Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller. It’s being produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, and is also slated as the closing night picture of the New York Film Festival on October 15.

The project, based on a true story, is set in the Amazon rainforest and is about the mystery surrounding British explorer Colonel Percival Fawcett who disappeared while searching for the lost city of Z. Sources said no deal is done, but they are working to close it.

CAA, who arranged the film’s financing, reps Gray, Pitt and Hunnam while Sierra/Affinity has been handling international sales.

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