September 19, 2006, New York – In a preemptive buy negotiated at the Toronto Film Festival, IFC Films announced today that it has acquired all North American rights from ICM to Code Entertainment's mob comedy YOU KILL ME. The film is directed by John Dahl (Red Rock West, The Last Seduction) and stars Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni and Luke Wilson. Also starring are Dennis Farina, Philip Baker Hall, Bill Pullman, and Marcus Thomas. The film is in post-production with a 2007 nationwide release planned.
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers), YOU KILL ME is the story of a Frank, a hit-man from Buffalo (Kingsley) whose drinking is getting in the way of his killing. He's sent to the west coast to dry out where he lands a job at a mortuary and meets Laurel (Tea Leoni), smart-talking and dangerously devoid of boundaries. Code Entertainment financed the film and produced with Ben Kingsley's BiPolar Productions, Carol Baum, Inc., and Mike Marcus' Echo Lake Productions. Code's Al Corley, Bart Rosenblatt and Eugene Musso produced with Carol Baum, Mike Marcus, and Zvi Howard Rosenman. Tea Leoni and Jonathan Dana are Executive Producers. The film was originally brought to Code by ICM.
IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring commented, "This is a film with enormous commercial potential. It is a big movie with a great cast and this acquisition signifies an aggressive new direction for IFC Films. With our First Take label providing a lucrative option for smaller, critically acclaimed indie and foreign fare, IFC Films is in the position to acquire and release movies of a much larger scale. YOU KILL ME is hugely appealing and exactly what we've been looking for over the past several months to launch us in this new direction."
Code Entertainment Partner Bart Rosenblatt added, "We're excited about what IFC is doing. We think this is a perfect fit for the movie."
The deal was negotiated with Jonathan Sehring and lawyer John Sloss on behalf of IFC with ICM and Endeavor representing the film and Jonathan Dana representing the producers with lawyer Mark Halloran.
IFC has acquired two films at the Toronto Film Festival, Requiem and ..So Goes the Nation, both for the IFC First Take label.
ABOUT IFC ENTERTAINMENT
IFC Films is the theatrical distribution company of IFC Entertainment, which also consists of the new IFC Center in Greenwich Village and the day and date label, IFC First Take. IFCE is a Rainbow Media company.
Recent IFC films include Patrick Creadon's Wordplay, Lou Pepe and Keith Fulton's Brothers of the Head, Bent Hamer's Factotum (with Matt Dillon and Lili Taylor) and Sherrybaby, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. IFC Films executive produced The Night Listener with Hart Sharp.
Notable IFC Films include Me And You And Everyone We Know, the Academy Award winning Boys Don't Cry, Touching the Void which broke box office records to become among the top ten grossing documentaries of all time, 2003 Oscar-nominated My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien. IFC Films co-distributed Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the award winning Transamerica.
ABOUT RAINBOW MEDIA HOLDINGS LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media creates and manages some of the country's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands including popular national and regional television channels AMC, fuse, The Independent Film Channel (IFC), WE tv, and two FSN affiliated regional sports networks managed by Rainbow Sports Networks. The company also manages Mag Rack and sportskool, two original on-demand networks; VOOM HD Networks, the largest and most diverse suite of high definition channels available anywhere; IFC Entertainment, its film distribution, production and exhibition division; Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division; and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.
ABOUT CODE ENTERTAINMENT
Code Entertainment is an independent feature film production, finance and management company whose partners are Bart Rosenblatt, Al Corley, Rick Berg, Larry Kennar, Rogers Hartmann, and Eugene Musso. The company operates with a $40 million revolving equity fund with the goal to produce and finance 2-3 mid budget range films per year.
On the production side, Code's projects currently in production include "You Kill Me", directed by John Dahl with Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni and Luke Wilson and The Warner Bros. film "Spring Breakdown" directed by Ryan Shiraki with Rachell Dratch, Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Amber Tamblyn. Code's recent films include, the David Mamet film "Edmond" and the upcoming "Behind The Mask: The rise of Leslie Vernon" and Mike Mendez's supernatural thriller "The Gravedancers".
On the management side, the company represents writers and directors of film and television.