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EXCLUSIVE: Tate Taylors noir-comedy Breaking News In Yuba County starring Allison Janney and Laura Dern has been one of the American Film Markets most in-demand packages.
Stuart Fords AGC has inked widespread pre-sales on the movie including with marquee buyers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with Constantin Film; France with TF1; Italy with Lucky Red; Scandinavia with Svensk; Australia & New Zealand with Roadshow; Benelux with The Searchers; Latin America with Sun Distribution; CIS with Volga Films; Eastern Europe with Vertical Entertainment; Greece with Odeon; Spain with Sun Distribution; and Japan with Kino Films.
Additionally, Portugal is with Sun Distribution; Taiwan with Applause; Indonesia with Cinema 21; Israel with United King; Middle East with Salim Ramia; Hong Kong with Intercontinental; and worldwide airlines with Cinesky. Negotiations are ongoing over remaining international territories as the market enters its final days in Santa Monica.
Buyers sparked to a Saturday morning AFM presentation for the movie by Taylor. The director, who previously directed Oscar-winner Janney in The Help, hosted the private presentation with Ford, screenwriter Amanda Idoko, and producers John Norris and Franklin Leonard. The feature is due to go into production in mid-2019.
Janney will portray a pencil pusher who catches her husband in bed with another woman, which causes him to die of a heart attack. She buries his body and takes advantage of the growing celebrity status that comes from having a missing husband — but finds herself in over her head, dodging cops and criminals, all while trying to keep the truth from her sister (Dern), a local news anchor whos chasing a scoop.
In a positive trend, Yuba County is one of a number of buzz projects here with strong female characters and casts. AGC CEO Ford told us, “Female-driven adult comedy is really in demand in the market right now. We could see from an early stage that this project would sell very well.”
Taylor will direct from the 2017 Black List script by Idoko. The noir comedy, which AGC is financing, is being produced along with Taylor by Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker via their Nine Stories banner, Leonards The Black List, and Norris Wyolah Films. On board as executive producers are Ford and AGCs Head of Film Greg Shapiro, Nine Stories Annie Marter, and Idoko. Additional casting is underway.
AGC is in post-production on Roland Emmerichs Midway and in production on Laikas Missing Link. It also handled Michael Moores hot seller Fahrenheit 11/9.
After a slow start, AFM dealmaking has picked up in the past 48 hours.
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