Neil LaBute

[MacGuffin]

Screen Gems signs LaBute
Director inks two-picture deal with studio
Source: Variety

Neil LaBute has inked a two-picture deal with Screen Gems. The first project will reteam the director with his "Nurse Betty" star Chris Rock for a remake of 2007 British comedy "Death at a Funeral."

LaBute, who most recently directed the Samuel L. Jackson starrer "Lakeview Terrace" for the genre label, has also signed on to helm the romantic comedy "Here Comes the Sun" for Screen Gems.

The American-set "Death at a Funeral," which was penned by Rock and Aeysha Carr, revolves around a dysfunctional family that gathers for the patriarch's funeral. Tensions rise and old conflicts are uncovered.

Sidney Kimmel is producing the film alongside former Sidney Kimmel Entertainment production topper William Horberg. Rock, Share Stallings and Laurence Malkin will also serve as producers. Jim Tauber is exec producing.

Nina Coleman wrote "Here Comes the Sun," whose plot details are being kept under wraps. Brad Epstein ("Dan in Real Life") is producing via his Panther Films shingle.

LaBute's film directing credits include "In the Company of Men." He also is an accomplished playwright, and his "Reasons to Be Pretty" will premiere on Broadway in March, marking the first Broadway debut of a LaBute play.

[modage]

remakeremakeremakeremake

[MacGuffin]

LaBute to adapt 'Burnt Orange Heresy'
Filmmaker re-teaming with Horberg on project
Source: Variety

Neil LaBute will write and direct an adaptation of "The Burnt Orange Heresy," Charles Willeford's crime novel set in the world of modern art, with William Horberg ("The Kite Runner") producing.

Project re-teams LaBute with Horberg after the duo worked on the remake of "Death at a Funeral."

"We had a great experience making 'Death at a Funeral' together for Screen Gems and were looking for something else to do together," Horberg told Daily Variety. "We discovered that we were both big Willeford fans."

Willeford's novel, set in Palm Beach, centers on a corrupt art critic's attempts to finagle an interview with a legendary but reclusive French painter.

Horberg noted that he was an associate producer on "Miami Blues," another Willeford adaptation, bringing the project to Jonathon Demme and George Armitage at the start of his career. He was an exec producer on "Milk" and is currently exec producing "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" for Miramax.

LaBute's directing credits include "In the Company of Men," "Nurse Betty" and "Lakeview Terrace."

[MacGuffin]

Jackson, LaBute team up for Showtime
Actor renews deal with CBS Paramount
Source: Variety

Samuel L. Jackson and Neil LaBute are shepherding a drama project for Showtime about a white supremacist family in the Pacific Northwest.

Jackson's Uppi TV production banner has also reupped a two-year production deal with CBS Television Studios.

Jackson will exec produce the Showtime project, which stems from his idea and will be written by LaBute ("The Wicker Man"). Jackson isn't planning on starring in the show, but he's not ruling it out, either.

"Sam has been very involved from outset on this creatively, with plenty of brainstorming," said Amanda Tracey, head of development at Uppi. "He's not just putting his name on this. He's been a huge part of it."

LaBute and Jackson tackled racism before in 2008's "Lakeview Terrace," in which LaBute helmed. Jackson played a cop who harasses his next-door neighbor.

In its previous two-year deal at CBS, Uppi saw medical drama "Hopkins Bridge" make it to the pilot stage at CBS, but never it reached the air; the same was true for a multicam comedy from producer Bob Kushell. On Spike, Uppi TV's animated skein "Afro-Samurai" ran one season, in 2007.

This promises to be a big week for Jackson. He co-stars as Nick Fury in Marvel-Paramount release "Iron Man 2," which opens Friday. He'll get plenty of mileage out of the comicbook character, playing him in other upcoming pics including "Captain America" and "The Avengers."

[Gold Trumpet]

Nothing makes me happier than the annoucement of a Neil LaBute project with hopefully the ambition and mentality of his great 90s movies. This project sounds good.




Neil LaBute and Aaron Eckhart could again find themselves in the company of one another
Source: 24 Frames
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/05/neil-labute-aaron-eckhart-ed-harris-geography-hope-new-movie-company-of-men-battle-los-angeles.html


Neil LaBute burst onto the film scene in 1997, when his provocative study in primal male behavior, "In the Company of Men," became a festival breakout and cultural talking point. Ditto for Aaron Eckhart, LaBute's Brigham Young University classmate who caught moviegoers' attention as a charismatic sharpie who toyed with a deaf female colleague while manipulating a male one.

LaBute's dark sensibility and Eckhart's charm proved an explosive combination, and the writer-director and actor would collaborate on three more films in the five years that followed.

It's been nearly a decade since they last worked together meaningfully on a film project (the 2002 A.S. Byatt adaptation "Possession"). But the two will reunite in an independent feature titled "The Geography of Hope," according to the film's producers.

LaBute will direct the movie from his own script, and Eckhart will be joined in the cast by Ed Harris, who starred in LaBute's one-man stage drama "Wrecks."

"Hope" has some similar themes to "Company." In the 1970s-set story, two crooks (Eckhart and Harris) flee to Baja, Mexico, after a robbery in a San Diego convenience store goes bad. There they encounter several American women, and they find themselves torn between the impulse to grift the ladies and romance them.

The script was written years ago by LaBute, before his film and theater career jumped to the next level; it stayed on hold while he worked on projects in both mediums. (His most recent movie was the dysfunctional-family comedy "Death at a Funeral.")

Collaborating with LaBute on "Hope" are the principals at Sundial Pictures, the producers behind Sundance hit "Pariah," who confirmed news of the LaBute project, and the sales company Preferred Content. The idea, the Sundial producers said, is to shoot as soon as this year in Puerto Rico, where there's a hotel of faded charm that will stand in for 1970s Mexico. Representatives for the film personalities could not immediately be reached for comments.

LaBute has remained unapologetic and controversial with much of his work in the years since "Company" first prompted a debate over whether he was critiquing despicable male behavior or glorifying it.

In the meantime, screen representations of masculinity have changed. "Company" came well before the emo male of indies like "(500) Days of Summer." Eckhart, too, has made some switches, sanding the edges with parts in commercial romances such as "Love Happens" and playing a heroic military man in "Battle: Los Angeles" and the likable, grief-stricken father in "Rabbit Hole." If anyone could sharpen those edges again, though, it's LaBute.

[MacGuffin]

Neil LaBute's 'Some Girl(s)' Is the First Live-Action Narrative to Self Release Via Vimeo-On-Demand
Source: IndieWire

The Neil LaBute-penned comedy "Some Girl(s)" will be the first live-action narrative feature to be released exclusively on Vimeo, as part of the site's new Vimeo-On-Demand program that they launched at SXSW, where the film also premiered. Leeden Media turned down distribution offers to release the film on Vimeo and in select theaters on June 28.

"The opportunity to go straight from artist to audience is the future and Vimeo is offering a fantastic new platform," producer and partner at Leeden Media Patty West said." We were inspired by Amanda Palmer and Shane Carruth, as well as, of course, one of the stars of our film, Kristen Bell, with her $5.7M Kickstarter campaign. These artists are doing it themselves and going directly to their audience. That's really exciting for filmmakers."

Based LaBute's play by the same name, "Some Girl(s)" stars Adam Brody as a successful writer who, on the eve of his wedding, travels across the country to make amends with his past lovers (played by Bell, Mia Maestro, Emily Watson, Jennifer Morrison and Zoe Kazan).

[MacGuffin]

Neil LaBute and Aaron Eckhart could again find themselves in the company of one another
Source: 24 Frames

Neil LaBute burst onto the film scene in 1997, when his provocative study in primal male behavior, "In the Company of Men," became a festival breakout and cultural talking point. Ditto for Aaron Eckhart, LaBute's Brigham Young University classmate who caught moviegoers' attention as a charismatic sharpie who toyed with a deaf female colleague while manipulating a male one.

LaBute's dark sensibility and Eckhart's charm proved an explosive combination, and the writer-director and actor would collaborate on three more films in the five years that followed.

It's been nearly a decade since they last worked together meaningfully on a film project (the 2002 A.S. Byatt adaptation "Possession"). But the two will reunite in an independent feature titled "The Geography of Hope," according to the film's producers, with Eckhart attached to play a lead role.

LaBute will direct the movie from his own script, and Eckhart will be joined in the cast by Ed Harris, who starred in LaBute's one-man stage drama "Wrecks" and is also attached.
"Hope" has some similar themes to "Company." In the 1970s-set story, two crooks (Eckhart and Harris) flee to Baja, Mexico, after a robbery in a San Diego convenience store goes bad. There they encounter several American women, and they find themselves torn between the impulse to grift the ladies and romance them.

The script was written years ago by LaBute, before his film and theater career jumped to the next level; it stayed on hold while he worked on projects in both mediums. (His most recent movie was the dysfunctional-family comedy "Death at a Funeral.")

Collaborating with LaBute on "Hope" are the principals at Sundial Pictures, the producers behind Sundance hit "Pariah," who confirmed news of the LaBute project, and the sales company Preferred Content. The idea, the Sundial producers said, is to shoot as soon as this year in Puerto Rico, where there's a hotel of faded charm that will stand in for 1970s Mexico. Representatives for the film personalities could not immediately be reached for comments.

LaBute has remained unapologetic and controversial with much of his work in the years since "Company" first prompted a debate over whether he was critiquing despicable male behavior or glorifying it.

In the meantime, screen representations of masculinity have changed. "Company" came well before the emo male of indies like "(500) Days of Summer." Eckhart, too, has made some switches, sanding the edges with parts in commercial romances such as "Love Happens" and playing a heroic military man in "Battle: Los Angeles" and the likable, grief-stricken father in "Rabbit Hole." If anyone could sharpen those edges again, though, it's LaBute.

[wilder]

DirecTV Orders 10 Neil LaBute Short Films
via Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: DirecTV is partnering with playwright-screenwriter Neil LaBute (The Shape Of Things) to produce a series of ten short films which will air on the satcaster's Audience Network. LaBute will write, direct and produce the stand-alone tales, each of them exploring human relationships. The deal comes a month before the premiere of DirecTV's limited series Full Circle, which was based on LaBute scripts. LaBute plans to be far more involved in the short films than he was in Full Circle, making the new project his first serialized TV effort. "I'm very excited to move forward on this new project, and there is not a better home than DirecTV for an ambitious series like this," he said. "Although I am incredibly proud of my scripts for Full Circle, I was disappointed I was not available to be a part of the production. That fact drove home for me how important it is, from an artistic standpoint, to roll up my sleeves and immerse myself in all aspects of the creative process on television." Chris Long, DirecTV's SVP Original Content and Production, stressed that LaBute will be given full creative control in making the short films. "We are proud that Neil has chosen DirecTV as the first place to write, produce and direct his own material," he said. "The films will be produced with a true auteur model; we're striving for the least possible distance between the artist's vision and the final product." DirecTV and ICM Partners-repped LaBute are aiming at a quick turnaround, with production set to begin in September and the films slated to begin airing in the late fall.