Catherine Hardwick To Direct ‘Dissonance’ Adaptation With Andrea Seigel Scripting
SourceDeadline - October 10, 2018
AuthorAmanda N'Duka

Catherine Hardwick, who has directed such films as Twilight, Red Riding Hood, and Thirteen, has signed on to direct the fantasy film Dissonance for Straight Up Films and Envision Media Arts. Andrea Seigel (Laggies) is adapting the screenplay for the film, which is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Erica O’Rourke. (more…)

Catherine Hardwick, who has directed such films as Twilight, Red Riding Hood, and Thirteen, has signed on to direct the fantasy film Dissonance for Straight Up Films and Envision Media Arts. Andrea Seigel (Laggies) is adapting the screenplay for the film, which is based on the 2014 book of the same name by Erica O’Rourke.

The story centers around Del, a young woman who has the ability to walk between these alternate realities and is entrusted with keeping the dimensions in harmony. When she secretly starts to investigate other dissonant worlds, Del uncovers a secret that threatens the survival of the entire multiverse.

Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen of Straight Up (Transcendence) are producing the project with Lee Nelson and David Tish from Envision (Celeste and Jesse Forever). Exec producers are Tim Degraye and Liliane Huguet of White Knight Pictures, Beaux Carson, and David Buelow.

Hardwicke, who directed Sony’s upcoming Miss Bala remake, starring Gina Rodriguez, is repped by CAA and Manage-Ment. Seigel is repped by UTA and Writ Large.

Stephen Dorff To Star In ‘Embattled’ Indie Film From Blitz Films and Straight Up Films
SourceDeadline - October 5, 2018
AuthorAmanda N'Duka

Stephen Dorff, best known for starring opposite Wesley Snipes in Blade, has signed on to star in Embattled, an indie pic which will mark Georgia-born director Nick Sarkisov’s English-language debut. Written by David McKenna (American History X, Get Carter), the film holds sentimental value as McKenna’s son, Colin, who was born with Williams Syndrome, will be featured in a supporting role.

(more…)

Stephen Dorff, best known for starring opposite Wesley Snipes in Blade, has signed on to star in Embattled, an indie pic which will mark Georgia-born director Nick Sarkisov’s English-language debut. Written by David McKenna (American History X, Get Carter), the film holds sentimental value as McKenna’s son, Colin, who was born with Williams Syndrome, will be featured in a supporting role.

The story follows a high school judo prodigy who steps into the MMA cage to face the ultimate rival in a battle for recognition and retribution – his father.

Dorff, who will next co-star in the third season of HBO’s True Detective, is set to play the father in the film which is slated to go before cameras this September in Alabama.

Sarkisov will produce for Blitz Films, alongside Kate Cohen for Straight Up Films, and Scott LaStaiti, with Blitz co-founder Sergey Sarkisov and Dorff serving as executive producers. Eryl Cochran from Blitz Films will oversee production.

Dorff is repped by Paradigm and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman.

Darren Mann, Elizabeth Reaser, Karrueche Tran, Saïd Taghmaoui Join Stephen Dorff In Indie Drama ‘Embattled’
SourceDeadline - October 5, 2018
AuthorAmanda N'Duka

EXCLUSIVE: Darren Mann is set to star opposite Stephen Dorff in Embattled, an indie film that follows a high school judo prodigy (Mann) who steps into the MMA cage for a vicious battle of retribution against the ultimate rival – his father (Dorff). Elizabeth Reaser, Karrueche Tran, and Saïd Taghmaoui are also attached to co-star in the pic, which is being directed by Nick Sarkisov.

Straight Up Films, Google and YouTube Partner on Film Initiative to Inspire Girls in Computer Sciences
SourceVariety - December 2, 2017
AuthorMalina Saval

On 50/50 Day, Straight Up Films, in partnership with Google and YouTube, announced an initiative that pairs prominent men and women working together to inspire girls in computer sciences. The short film series will raise awareness towards the need for gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The first group of directors for the “Girls in Tech” short film series includes Dev Patel, Diane Kruger, John Cho, Ana Brenda Contreras, Norman Reedus, Gina Rodriguez and Octavia Spencer. (more…)

On 50/50 Day, Straight Up Films, in partnership with Google and YouTube, announced an initiative that pairs prominent men and women working together to inspire girls in computer sciences. The short film series will raise awareness towards the need for gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. The first group of directors for the “Girls in Tech” short film series includes Dev Patel, Diane Kruger, John Cho, Ana Brenda Contreras, Norman Reedus, Gina Rodriguez and Octavia Spencer.

Male directors will be paired with a female writing team and female directors will be paired up with a male writing team. Each filmmaker will choose an idea from a talented writer’s room that showcases a variety of diverse voices, genres and writing styles from emerging scribes including Eshom and Ian Nelms, Sofia Passik, Scotty Crowe, Jen and Sylvia Soska, Kim Nuesch and Reilly Smith among others.

Filmmakers will also collaborate with YouTube Creators throughout the entire production to help craft the stories, play significant on and off screen roles and use their expertise to ensure the film series will be engaging and authentic to its audience. There will also be specifically designed opportunities for students from underserved, non-profit organizations to participate and be mentored by filmmakers.

“It’s important to have men engaging in the conversation on women’s equality, and the power of this series stems from men and women working together. Kids learn best when they can see it, when led by example, so we wanted to create something impactful and inspiring by championing one another,” saya Marisa Polvino, Co-CEO and Founding Partner of Straight Up Films.

“Google’s research shows that perceptions are the primary drivers that motivate women to pursue Computer Science and other technical fields,” said Courtney McCarthy, Google CS in Media Women’s Lead Strategist. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Straight Up Films and some of entertainment’s leading voices to showcase diverse portrayals of engineers and inspire the next generation of technologists.”

Producers on the project are Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen, Sandra Condito, and Ngoc Nguyen. The Executive Producers are Adam Stone and Cat Stone.

Louis Leterrier To Helm ‘Alex’; Pierre Lemaitre Novel Adaptation Launches Financier/Producer Eclipse Pictures
SourceDeadline - December 2, 2017
AuthorMike Fleming Jr.

EXCLUSIVE: Louis Leterrier will direct Alex, an adaptation of the bestselling crime novel by French author Pierre Lemaitre. The script is being written by David Birke, who’s coming off the Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle, the drama that bought an Oscar nomination for Isabelle Huppert.

Alex launches Eclipse Pictures, a production, financing and sales company formed by Benedict Carver and Daniel Diamond. Straight Up Films’ Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen, who acquired the novel rights, will produce with Carver and Diamond. Eclipse will fund development and production, and will handle worldwide sales. (more…)

EXCLUSIVE: Louis Leterrier will direct Alex, an adaptation of the bestselling crime novel by French author Pierre Lemaitre. The script is being written by David Birke, who’s coming off the Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle, the drama that bought an Oscar nomination for Isabelle Huppert.

Alex launches Eclipse Pictures, a production, financing and sales company formed by Benedict Carver and Daniel Diamond. Straight Up Films’ Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen, who acquired the novel rights, will produce with Carver and Diamond. Eclipse will fund development and production, and will handle worldwide sales.

The novel has franchise potential: It is the second of a book trilogy by Lemaitre known as The Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy, with both Alex and its follow-up, Camille, winning the CWA International Dagger Award. Leterrier is eyeing a start late this year or early next. The novel follows French detective Camille Verhoeven as he pursues clues and suspects following the brutal kidnapping of a young woman, Alex Prévost, on the streets of Paris. He soon learns that Alex – beautiful, resourceful, and tough – is no ordinary victim. The novel’s set in Paris, but the film will be English-language and set in an international location.

Best known for helming the films Now You See Me and Transporter, Leterrier read the book after a friend recommended it, finished it in one sitting and searched out the rights that were controlled by James B Harris. “I’ve done big Hollywood action movies and comedies and this was not a genre I was looking for, but the tone is so interesting and it plays against the typical female protagonist trope,” Leterrier told Deadline. “It’s edgy and kinetic and it has taken me four years to get to this point. It could be the French Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but is also reminiscent of Chan-wook Park movies like Oldboy in the unexpected twists and turns. Benedict and Daniel will take it to Cannes, we’ll find the actor and actress and off we go. This is my passion project.”

Harris, Patrice Theroux and Tracey Bing will be the exec producers. Letterier’s repped by CAA, Management 360 and attorney Robert Offer; Birke, who most recently scripted the Sylvain White-directed Screen Gems thriller Slender Man, is with Paradigm, Madhouse and attorney Bruce Gelman. Attorneys Bob Wyman and Richard Rapkowski negotiated for Straight Up and Eclipse, respectively.

Diane Kruger to Star in, Produce Hedy Lamarr Miniseries (Exclusive)
SourceThe Hollywood Reporter - December 2, 2017

Diane Kruger is teaming with Straight Up Films to tell the story of silver-screen and communications technology pioneer Hedy Lamarr.

Kruger is producing with the intent to star in what is envisioned to be a TV miniseries adaptation of the Richard Rhodes book Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

Google and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are also collaborating on the development of the project. (more…)

Diane Kruger is teaming with Straight Up Films to tell the story of silver-screen and communications technology pioneer Hedy Lamarr.

Kruger is producing with the intent to star in what is envisioned to be a TV miniseries adaptation of the Richard Rhodes book Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World.

Google and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation are also collaborating on the development of the project.

Lamarr, who first began acting in her native Austria, lit up American cinema in the late 1930s and 1940s, starring in Comrade X with Clark Gable, Tortilla Flat with Spencer Tracy and Samson & Deiliahwith Victor Mature. Her career fell into a sad decline in the 1950s and '60s, but it was in her pre-war life that she made a lasting impact that would only be recognized decades later.

Lamarr first married when she was 18, to a wealthy Austrian munitions manufacturer with ties to both governments in Nazi Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. And while her husband was a man who ruled their marriage with an iron fist, he introduced her to scientists working in the military. This nurtured her latent curiosity and she worked on inventions in her off-hours even when she made her way to America.

While most of her inventions didn’t go far, during World War II and while under contract with MGM, Lamarr and a friend invented a frequency-hopping radio signal that they patented. They approached the military, who at the time turned them away. It was only a generation later that the military began looking at it and using it. The technology, called Spread Spectrum Technology, now underpins Bluetooth and WiFi use.

Her technological contribution was recognized very late in life, and in 2014 she was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“I am fascinated by Hedy Lamarr,” said Kruger in a statement. “She was a smart, witty, visionary inventor, way ahead of her time, who also happened to be a major movie star. I cannot wait to tell her story to make sure her legacy will live on forever and inspire others.”

Kruger picked up the rights to Pulitzer Prize-winner Rhodes’ book and will produce with Marisa Polvino, Kate Cohen and Sandra Condito of Straight Up Films, which counts Jane Got a Gun andTranscendence among its credits. Abi Harris and Jason Weinberg of Untitled Entertainment will also produce.

Gene Kelly and Rose Ganguzza will executive produce with the collaboration of biographer Rhodes and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the philanthropy organization that has focus on science and technology. The foundation has been quietly celebrating Lamarr, giving Rhodes a book grant, a production grant for the documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, and will now support Kruger with a screenwriting development grant.

Kruger, who won the best actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year for the German-language drama In the Fade, recently wrapped a JT Leroy film opposite Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern. She next shoots an untitled Robert Zemeckis drama opposite Steve Carell for Universal.

Kruger is repped by Untitled Entertainment, UTA and Altitude Management.

Shot! Poster Puts David Bowie’s Official Photographer In The Frame
SourceEntertainment Weekly - March 24, 2017
AuthorClark Collis

For decades, British photographer Mick Rock has been one of the best known visual chroniclers of the music scene — and not just because his name could hardly be more a propos.

Rock has photographed everyone from Queen to Lou Reed to Iggy Pop to Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett to David Bowie, for whom he worked as official photographer back in the ’70s. Now, the “snapper” is himself in the frame thanks to the new, Barnaby Clay-directed documentary, Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock, which is released in theaters, and via VOD, Amazon Video, and iTunes,  April 7.

Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ in the Works as Movie
SourceVariety - March 24, 2017
AuthorDave McNary

Straight Up Films has acquired the movie rights to Viktor Frankl’s memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning” and is launching development. (more…)

Straight Up Films has acquired the movie rights to Viktor Frankl’s memoir “Man’s Search for Meaning” and is launching development.

SUF co-founders Marisa Polvino and Kate Cohen will produce with Kevin Hall. The company and Hall have acquired the rights from the Frankl estate.

Marlene Siskel will executive produce. Producers are currently out to potential screenwriters to adapt the non-fiction book into a narrative feature film.

“This is a memoir that has actually changed lives, including ours, and has impacted generations in the way we look at the world and how we navigate its sometimes treacherous pathways,” said Cohen and Polvino. “It will be our absolute honor and privilege to bring this classic story to the screen. We are thankful to Mr. Frankl’s heirs for entrusting us with his story.”

Film Adaptation Of ‘Thief’ Video Game Series Coming From Straight Up Films
SourceDeadline - March 24, 2017
AuthorRoss A. Lincoln

Straight Up Films is getting into the video game movie business and is producing a feature adaptation of the Square Enix video game series Thief, with Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh also producing. Lee is producing under his Vertigo Entertainment banner. Sandra Condito, President of Production at Straight Up Films will exec produce alongside Khalid Jones of Source Rock and Square Enix, and Adam Mason and Simon Boyes have been tapped to write the script. (more…)

Straight Up Films is getting into the video game movie business and is producing a feature adaptation of the Square Enix video game series Thief, with Roy Lee and Adrian Askarieh also producing. Lee is producing under his Vertigo Entertainment banner. Sandra Condito, President of Production at Straight Up Films will exec produce alongside Khalid Jones of Source Rock and Square Enix, and Adam Mason and Simon Boyes have been tapped to write the script.

First launched by Looking Glass Studios in 1998, the Thief series consists of several stealth-based first person perspective games set in a fantasy steampunk world that resembles a cross between the late Middle Ages and the Victorian era. Ownership of the franchise passed hands several times before ending up at Square Enix subsidiary Edios Montreal. The series received a reboot in 2014 that may serve as the inspiration for the film.

Mason and Boyes are repped by WME, Luber Roklin, and George Davis.

How Mick Rock, Music Photographer, Spends His Sundays
SourceNew York Times - March 24, 2017
AuthorShivani Vora

There is no slowing down for the British photographer Mick Rock, who has spent some 50 years capturing images of pop and rock stars like David Bowie, Ellie Goulding, Janelle Monáe and Lou Reed. Between shoots, Mr. Rock, 68, edits his photography books and travels all over the world to attend his exhibition openings. A documentary about his life, “SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock,” will be released on April 7 by Magnolia Pictures. Mr. Rock lives in Livingston, Staten Island, with his wife, Pati, who works in real estate, and their two Maine coon cats, Bellini and Razor. (more…)

There is no slowing down for the British photographer Mick Rock, who has spent some 50 years capturing images of pop and rock stars like David Bowie, Ellie Goulding, Janelle Monáe and Lou Reed. Between shoots, Mr. Rock, 68, edits his photography books and travels all over the world to attend his exhibition openings. A documentary about his life, “SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock,” will be released on April 7 by Magnolia Pictures. Mr. Rock lives in Livingston, Staten Island, with his wife, Pati, who works in real estate, and their two Maine coon cats, Bellini and Razor.

AN EXTRA HOUR I’m usually up by 10. It’s an hour later than usual, but I can do it on a Sunday, and it’s a nice indulgence. Pati wakes up an hour or two before me.

SHAKE IT UP I head downstairs to make a protein shake. I never used to eat breakfast, but Gabrielle Francis, this amazing woman on Grand Street who is a chiropractor, acupuncturist, massage therapist and nutritionist all in one, and who I’ve been seeing for three years, has gotten me into the habit of having this shake first thing in the morning.

MORNING MANTRAS A big benefit of living in Staten Island is the amount of space Pati and I have. This includes a huge bedroom, and I use the floor area in there to do a 75-minute yoga routine. I start with meditation, then stand on my head for about 10 minutes and then go through various postures. I finish with chanting mantras I’ve learned over the last 18 years that I’ve been practicing Kundalini yoga.

CHILL Right after yoga, I take a hot shower, but I always end with a cold rinse which gives me a boost of energy. I wear jeans and either a black T-shirt, denim shirt or black sweater, depending on the weather, and I’m dressed for the day. I head back downstairs and have a cup of coffee.

TURN BLUE Around 2, we get out of the house for a late brunch. Normally, we go to this place called Blue. I haven’t eaten meat for over 40 years. I may get a veggie burger with sweet potato fries, cereal, a salad or an egg white omelet with toast. Pati eats everything, so she may get bacon and eggs or sausage with pancakes and maybe a glass of wine. There’s no wine for me because I don’t drink alcohol.

STROLL AND SHOOT We like going on a long walk when we’re done with brunch and tend to head to Snug Harbor Cultural Center to get our fix. It’s near our house and used to be a home for sailors but now has a beautiful Chinese garden, a theater, a gallery and tons of areas for walking. I like taking pictures during our stroll. Tree shots are a favorite, but I also take snaps of ponds, bridges, plants or anything else that catches my eyes. Sometimes, I’ll take the pictures with my iPhone camera or else I’ll carry my Canon G1 X.

COUCH TIME We’ll watch football when it’s in season and watch movies, too, like black-and-white film noir, documentaries or anything with Humphrey Bogart. Bellini and Razor sit with us while we watch. They like to be petted.

MAN AT WORK I hit work again in the early evening. Rock photography is a big deal compared with when I started, and the art of it is much more appreciated, both from a monetary and artistic perspective. This is good for me, but it means that I rarely get a full day off.

JAZZY DINNER Pati will cook for us. There’s some fish for me and maybe chicken or red meat for her. Pasta is sometimes on the menu, and she gets jazzy with vegetables; it could be roasted brussels sprouts or heirloom carrots with ginger.

NIGHTTIME NEWS Sunday evenings are for reading, usually The New York Times. Pati reads the entire paper, and I read the Book Review, Sunday Review, Sports and Arts & Leisure. She heads to bed at 11, and I wander upstairs around midnight. Two decades ago, I used to stay up all night, but, considering I’m in my late 60s, I still think of myself as a night owl.