In today’s film news roundup, “Apollo 13” gets a three-day re-release, “Calm With Horses” gets a home, and Malin Akerman’s action-comedy “Chick Fight” rounds out its cast.
ANNIVERSARY RELEASE
“Apollo 13” will be re-released to 600 North American theaters on April 5, 6 and 8, nearly 50 years after the liftoff of the ill-fated 1970 space mission.
Fathom Events, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment made the announcement Wednesday.
“Apollo 13” starred Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. The film, directed by Ron Howard, received nine Academy Award nominations and grossed $355 million worldwide.
The movie recounts the three astronauts dealing with the aftermath of an on-board explosion, reported with the line, “Houston, we have a problem.” With their spacecraft depleted of most of its oxygen supply and electrical power, they looped around the Moon with an improvised plan to returned to earth in the pre-digital age.
“Apollo 13 may have been deemed a ‘successful failure,’ but the movie is a brilliant reminder that it was anything but, and we are honored to commemorate the 50th anniversary of such an extraordinary human accomplishment – and the 25th anniversary of the movie – by bringing back ‘Apollo 13’ back to movie theaters, where its vision and scope can be best appreciated,” said Fathom’s Tom Lucas.
Popular on Variety
ACQUISITION
Saban Films has acquired North American rights to Nick Rowland’s feature film debut “Calm With Horses.”
The Irish crime drama stars Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar and Ned Dennehy and centers on the feared enforcer for drug dealers who is also trying to be a good father to his autistic five-year-old son.
Michael Fassbender is an executive producer. Jonathan Saba negotiated the deal for Saban Films along with Altitude Film Sales and CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers.
Saban Films’ Bill Bromiley said, “Nick Rowland’s debut shines through its cast of rising stars. Each actor connects deeply with their roles as Nick’s direction pulls audiences into the West Ireland drug scene.”
CASTINGS
Fortune Feimster, Dominique Jackson and Dulce Sloan have joined the cast of the action comedy “Chick Fight,” starring Malin Akerman, Bella Thorne and Alec Baldwin.
Paul Leyden is directing “Chick Fight” from a script by Joseph Downey. Akerman produces the project along with Yale Productions’ Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman, Idiot Savant Pictures’ Anne Clements, and Ash Christian.
The movie centers on Akerman’s characters as she navigates a particularly challenging juncture in her life as she deals with the death of her mother, discovering her father is gay and accidentally burning down her uninsured coffee shop. She rediscovers herself at an all-women underground fight club.
Feimster plays a fearsome yet maternal leader of the fight club and Jackson plays one of the club’s most dangerous fighters.