FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES CANNES OPENING NIGHT FILM EVERYBODY KNOWS STARRING PENÉLOPE CRUZ AND JAVIER BARDEM
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- Category: Newswire Announcements
- Published on 10 August 2018
- Written by Newswire
FOCUS FEATURES ACQUIRES CANNES OPENING NIGHT FILM EVERYBODY KNOWS STARRING PENÉLOPE CRUZ AND JAVIER BARDEM
CANNES, May 9th, 2018– Focus Features chairman Peter Kujawski announced today that Focus has acquired the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night film Everybody Knows (Todos Los Saben). Focus Features will distribute the film in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, select Asian territories and the Middle East, apart from Iran. Focus had previously acquired rights in Spain last year.
On the heels of his second Academy-Award® winner The Salesman following his first for A Separation, Asghar Farhadi wrote and directed this Spanish-language psychological thriller starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín. The film follows Laura (Cruz) on her travels from Argentina to her small home town in Spain for her sister’s wedding, bringing her two children along for the occasion. Amid the joyful reunion and festivities, the eldest daughter is abducted. In the tense days that follow, various family and community tensions surface and deeply hidden secrets are revealed.
“Asghar is a world-class filmmaker whose work transcends language,” said Focus chairman Peter Kujawski. “Matching his talents with these emotionally charged performances from Penelope, Javier and Ricardo will leave audiences captivated.”
Everybody Knows is produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy of Memento Films and Álvaro Longoria of Morena Films.
UTA Indie Film Group and Memento Films International negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmaking team. Farhadi is represented by UTA.
Focus Features acquires and produces specialty films for the global market, and holds a library of iconic movies from fearless filmmakers. Current and upcoming domestic releases from Focus include Jason Reitman’s new comedy Tully, starring Charlize Theron and written by Diablo Cody; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, director Morgan Neville’s documentary on Mister Rogers; Lenny Abrahamson’s atmospheric thriller The Little Stranger; Joel Edgerton’s coming-of-age and coming-out drama Boy Erased, about a boy’s true-life experience at a conversion therapy program, starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe; Mary, Queen of Scots with Saoirse Ronan as Mary and Margot Robbie as Elizabeth I; On the Basis of Sex, the real-life drama of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg staring Felicity Jones and Armie Hammer; Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s directorial debut Mustang; and Spike Lee’s new film BlacKkKlansman.
Focus is part of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG), which produces, acquires, markets and distributes filmed entertainment worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television and other distribution platforms, as well as consumer products, interactive gaming and live entertainment. UFEG’s global division also includes Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Brand Development, Fandango, DreamWorks Animation Film and Television and Awesomeness. UFEG is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.