In today’s film news roundup, Focus gives a release date to Matthias Schoenaerts’ “The Mustang,” Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will finance and produce the comedy “Action,” and Strand buys Israeli hit “The Other Story.”
RELEASE DATE
Focus Features has given a March 15, 2019, release date to the Matthias Schoenaerts drama “The Mustang.”
Schoenaerts portrays a convict in a rural Nevada prison who struggles to escape his violent past and is required to participate in an “outdoor maintenance” program as part of his state-mandated social rehabilitation. He’s spotted by a no-nonsense veteran trainer (Bruce Dern) and helped by an outgoing fellow inmate and trick rider (Jason Mitchell), and accepted into the selective wild horse training section of the program, where he finds his own humanity in dealing with an especially unbreakable mustang.
Connie Britton, Gideon Adlon, and Josh Stewart also star. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre makes her feature directing debut with “The Mustang,” which is executive produced by Robert Redford and Molly Halam and produced by Légende Films’ Alain Goldman.
PROJECT LAUNCH
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Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will fully finance and produce the urban comedy “Action” with Robert Teitel (“The Hate U Give”) producing with 51 Minds’ Christian Sarabia and Mitchell Smith.
AGC’s Ford, Greg Shapiro, and Glendon Palmer and 51 Minds’ Lawrence Mott are on board as executive producers. “Action” reunites Ford and Palmer with Teitel, who worked together on “Beats,” currently in production for Netflix, and “Southside With You,” and with Sarabia and Smith when they worked together on “Beats.”
“Action” will be directed by Brennan Shroff from a script by Mike Grimm, marking his feature debut. The story follows two best friends as they’re about to graduate high school — one who is a model student and film fanatic and the other an injured football player.
AGC has recently announced several other urban audience projects: “The Perfect Find,” a romantic comedy that will star Gabrielle Union; the acquisition of the life rights to Lauren Simmons’ life story as a vehicle for Kiersey Clemons; and “We Are Cool,” an action comedy which AGC will finance and co-produce with producer Effie T. Brown.
ACQUISITION
Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Avi Nesher’s “The Other Story” from Foresight Unlimited.
The film is currently approaching $7 million at the Israeli box office and recently won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Israeli Film Festival with Nesher receiving the 2018 IFF Cinematic Achievement Award. The film originally had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The screenplay, co-written by Nesher and Noam Shpancer, centers on an estranged father who’s told by his ex-wife that their hedonistic daughter has become engaged to a devout musician and enrolled in an ultra-orthodox seminary. The cast includes Sasson Gabai, Joy Rieger, Yuval Segal, Maya Dagan, Avigial Harari and Maayan Bloom. The film was produced by David Silber, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Avi Nesher, and Davild Milch.