Worldview Entertainment’s Cinematic Vision is Decidedly Global
By Bel Hernandez
Los Angeles, CA — Worldview Entertainment has closed a deal for the North American distribution rights for Academy Award winner Michel Hazanavicius’s drama, The Search, starring Academy Award nominees Bérénice Bejo and Annette Bening. Wild Bunch is handling international sales and is introducing to the film to buyers at AFM. CAA represented Worldview on the acquisition.
Buenos Aries born and Paris raised, Bejo impressed international audiences in the role of Peppy Miller in The Artist, for which she was nominated for an Oscar. The Search revolves around an NGO worker who forms a special relationship with a young boy in warn-torn Chechnya, is based on Academy Award winner Fred Zinnemann’s Oscar-winning 1948 film, with the same title, which is set in post-World War II Berlin.
The production is currently filming in the country of Georgia before moving to France. Screenplay is by Hazanavicius who is reuniting with Academy Award winning producer Thomas Langmann, and his award winning production team from The Artist. Worldview’s Christopher Woodrow, Molly Conners, Maria Cestone and Sarah E. Johnson will executive produce.
The Search is the second acquisition for Worldview this year following the pre-Cannes pick-up of the competition title, Jimmy P., starring Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, which was later sold to IFC Films.
Leading up to AFM, Worldview Entertainment announced plans to finance and produce the crime thriller, Candy Store, starring Robert De Niro, Jason Clarke and Omar Sy, which Academy Award winner Stephen Gaghan will direct; Takashi Miike’s crime thriller, The Outsider, starring Tom Hardy; Term Life for Universal Pictures, directed by Peter Billingsley and starring Vince Vaughn and Hailee Steinfeld; and Kim Farrant’s thriller, Strangerland, starring Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving.
Benicio del Toro (R) in Jimmy P.
Worldview’s already impressive 2013 slate include diverse creative voices: With two studio co-financing deals in place: Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s comedy, Birdman, with Fox Searchlight and New Regency, starring Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts, Zach Galifianakis and Academy Award nominee Edward Norton; and Daniel Espinosa’s crime thriller, Child 44, with Summit/Lionsgate, starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Academy Award nominee and Gary Oldman. The company also financed and produced Kate Barker Froyland’s drama, Song One starring Academy Award winner Anne Hathaway which just wrapped; Zach Braff’s drama, Wish I Was Here, starring Braff and Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson; will be reteaming this fall with David Gordon Green on the drama Manglehorn, starring Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Holly Hunter; and the horror thriller, Beyond the Green Inferno, the sequel to Eli Roth’s, The Green Inferno, which will be directed by Nicolas Lopez.
Worldview Entertainment is a leading independent motion picture studio that finances, produces and acquires theatrical quality feature films with budgets up to $50 million for worldwide distribution. The company is backed by a strong capitalization and represented by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Worldview was founded in 2007 and is based in New York City.
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