News | Straight Up Films

‘Transcendence’ Outfit Straight Up, Author Tony Robbins & ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ Scribe Team On Holocaust Drama ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’

SourceDeadline - March 16, 2021

AuthorAndreas Wiseman

EXCLUSIVE: Transcendence outfit Straight Up Films has been joined by author Tony Robbins and screenwriter Angela Workman (The Zookeeper’s Wife) on feature project Man’s Search For Meaning about the experience of Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and author Viktor Frankl.

Frankl’s grandson Alex Vessely is also aboard for the film, which is being produced under Straight Up’s recently launched social impact banner Straight Up Impact.

Holocaust memoir Man’s Search For Meaning recounts Frankl’s life in Nazi death camps and lessons for spiritual survival. Frankl was captive in four camps including Auschwitz from 1942-45; his parents, brother and pregnant wife died during that period.

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Frankl’s grandson Alex Vessely is also aboard for the film, which is being produced under Straight Up’s recently launched social impact banner Straight Up Impact.

Born in Vienna in 1905, Frankl began counseling in the 1920s and corresponded with Sigmund Freud. After the war, he continued his work as a psychiatrist and neurologist in Vienna. With more than 16 million copies sold, Man’s Search for Meaning centers on the notion that people are motivated by finding meaning and purpose in their lives, rather than the pursuit of mere pleasure or happiness. In the book, Frankl posits that Nazi prisoners who were able to find meaning, even if only to help another person get through the day, were more likely to survive the camps.

Straight Up Impact founders Kate Cohen and Marisa Polvino, both producers on 2014 Johnny Depp sci-fi Transcendence, are producing the film in partnership with motivational speaker and bestselling author Robbins and Frankl’s grandson Vesely. Pam Roy, who is a co-founder of Straight Up Impact, will serve as executive producer of the film, which is in development.

Screenwriter Workman has scripted a string of studio-level development projects, including Roland Emmerich’s longtime passion project Maya Lord. Jessica Chastain starred in her 2017 Focus Features drama The Zookeeper’s Wife.

“We are honored that Viktor Frankl’s family has entrusted us to tell his incredible life story,” Cohen said. “Our mission is to share his teachings with the world in the hopes that more people find meaning in their lives.”

Robbins commented: “The ability to find meaning in the most difficult times, even in times of injustice or extreme stress is perhaps the most important skill we can develop in life. Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, provides the most compelling and triumphant account I have ever read of humanity’s ability to persevere through the unimaginable. I’ve long recommended to those in a rough place in life to read Frankl’s book. This film will allow the important life lessons contained in this timeless and significant work to reach and impact even more people.”

“When suffering is inevitable, the attitude we choose matters most,” said Vesely, a licensed logotherapist (the theory founded by his grandfather) and co-founder of the Viktor Frankl Institute of America. “Despite experiencing unspeakable horrors and loss, my grandfather continued to help others to find meaning in life, even when great adversity and tragedy are a part of it. I hope this film inspires anyone dealing with their own struggles.”

Straight Up Impact is aiming to produce a variety of media, including features, series, documentaries and short films, with budgets up to $20M.

Kornél Mundruczó To Helm Feature About The Elephant Man From ‘Black Swan’ & ‘Transcendence’ Producers

SourceDeadline - November 7, 2019

AuthorAmanda N'Duka

EXCLUSIVE: Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó has been tapped by Straight Up Films and Phoenix Pictures to direct a film about the life of Joseph Merrick, best known as The Elephant Man. The story will follow an unlikely love story between Joseph and the young woman assigned to his care at the Fawsley Hall Estate, where he’s been invited to experience nature and leisure in the final weeks of his life.

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The Elephant Man was a popular stage play originated in 1970s London by Bernard Pomerance. Bradley Cooper starred as Merrick in the most recent 12-week theater revival, a performance that earned him a Tony nomination. David Lynch also adapted a 1980 film version starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins that picked up multiple Oscar noms.

Co-CEOs and founders of Straight Up Films Kate Cohen and Marisa Polvino will produce the latest feature adaptation with Shutter Island and Black Swan producer Mike Medavoy for Phoenix Pictures and David Dobkin (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., King Arthur: Legend of the Sword). Straight Up has produced films like Transcendence, The Education of Charlie Banks, and Jane Got A Gun.

“We feel that Kornel is the perfect voice for this extraordinary project,” Cohen and Polvino said, “The passion, humanity and poetry he infuses into his filmmaking is exactly what this love story deserves.”

“The story of Joseph Merrick is one of enduring inspiration. Kornel has a very fresh take that we all feel will bring compassion, dignity, and a new cinematic life to one of history’s most fascinating figures” said Medavoy.

Mundruczó, the director behind the 2014 Cannes award-winning film White God as well as Jupiter’s Moon, was recently announced as the director of Pieces Of A Woman, an indie drama starring Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf.

“I’ve been attracted to the character of Joseph Merrick’s for a long time,” Mundruczo said, “Our film will pay tribute to this astonishing man whose short life was filled with extraordinary experiences and challenges, that audiences all over the world will relate to deeply. In nature, all creatures thrive and in this environment, the Elephant Man can finally become Joseph Merrick, his true self.”

Production is slated to commence June 2020.

Julie Bowen, Rosario Dawson, Nikki Reed and More Go Behind the Camera to Inspire Young Women

SourcePeople - April 27, 2019

AuthorReagan Alexander

Rosario Dawson, Julie Bowen, Nikki Reed, Lisa Edelstein and Ana Brenda Contreras debut short films aimed at empowering young girls.

The Power On Anthology showcased some “new” talent Wednesday evening with some well-known names making their directorial debut.

The series, created by Straight Up Films’ co-CEO Marisa Polvino (who also serves as a producer), is dedicated to inspiring young girls to pursue STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) featured five short films directed by Julie Bowen, Rosario Dawson, Nikki Reed, Ana Brenda Contreras and Lisa Edelstein.

Each film told a story, one that embraced each of the aspects of STEAM, that the directors found near and dear to their hearts, with all but Edelstein getting behind the camera for the first time. (more…)

Rosario Dawson, Julie Bowen, Nikki Reed, Lisa Edelstein and Ana Brenda Contreras debut short films aimed at empowering young girls.

The Power On Anthology showcased some “new” talent Wednesday evening with some well-known names making their directorial debut.

Each film told a story, one that embraced each of the aspects of STEAM, that the directors found near and dear to their hearts, with all but Edelstein getting behind the camera for the first time.

“I got asked to be in Nikki’s short, and I walk in and say, ‘Is this a thing?’” Dawson, 39, whose film was titled Boundless, recalls with a laugh. “So I was like, ‘Why didn’t you ask me [to direct]?’ And they said, ‘You want to do one, go on ahead.’ And I was like, ‘Oh no! Now I gotta do one!’”

Bowen, who has since gone on to direct an episode of Modern Family, was doing what she refers to as an “internship” with Ryan Murphy’s Half Foundation when she was offered the opportunity to helm her own short film, Girl Code.

“I was one of the later ones to the party,” the actress, 49, tells PEOPLE. “So that I knew that they had some more serious content, but I knew that my wheelhouse was definitely going to be lighter content.”

“I have a 14-year-old niece,” she adds, “And I thought, ‘I want to do something that will appeal to her. What would she watch, start to finish, and not click away from after 22 seconds, that didn’t feel preachy and was fun?’”

Nikki Reed, 30, the self-described “guinea pig” of the series, was the first to sign on to the project, and dove right in, bringing along Gina Rodriguez, and eventual fellow director Dawson.

“I seem to gravitate towards the inspirational, towards material that feels real,” says Reed. “To me, I wanted to tackle a subject that feels aspirational, and inspirational, with something that is very grounding and very real.”

And while Edelstein and Contreras’ pieces dealt with the heavier issues of personal loss and grief (Contreras’ film Wingbeat was dedicated to her father who had recently died), the mood of the evening was consistently buoyed by the passion of its participants and an audience packed with young female students who epitomize what Power On strives to be.

The producer of the series, Ngoc Nguyen summed up the night, which ended with a Q&A that had the directors peppered with poignant questions from the young and rabidly curious audience, by saying: “Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in shifting culture. When young kids see someone who looks like them on screen, presented in a positive manner, it evokes pride and confidence in immeasurable ways. We wanted the films to be truly representative of the world we live in, which is a world rich with diversity.”

Shorts Encourage Women to STEAM Careers

SourceVariety - April 26, 2019

AuthorDaniel Nissen

Straight Up Films created the anthology “Power/On” of five shorts focused on encouraging girls in STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math with the arts thrown in) directed by actresses Rosario Dawson, Julie Bowen, Ana Brenda Contreras, Lisa Edelstein, and Nikki Reed. With support from YouTube, the shorts premiered Wednesday at the Google campus in Playa Vista and will be available for streaming on YouTube on April 26.

Each film centers on women and girls working on and interacting with a different technological advancement.

Rosario Dawson told Variety at the anthology’s world premiere, “The point of this series is to show all the different ways people can show up for their family, their friends, their community by pushing themselves when they see a problem. Maybe a solution doesn’t exist, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be created.” She hopes that her work behind the camera will allow girls to see her as a role model, including her own daughter. (more…)

Each film centers on women and girls working on and interacting with a different technological advancement.

“Modern Family” actress Julie Bowen talked to Variety about her experience at an all-girls school. “The messaging at the time was, ‘you’re going to an all-girls school because when girls raise their hands in math and science class they call on the boys.’ We needs to just get rid of that message.” Bowen spent time shadowing directors on set of “American Horror Story” as a participant of Ryan Murphy’s Half Initiative, a program designed to increase women and minority directors. She said the initiative gave her “positive encouragement” and helped her take on directing her short “Girl Code.”

Jenna Ortega, who appears in Bowen’s short film, said, “I want people to get inspired by seeing themselves, of all different colors and backgrounds, on screen.” Ortega, 16, is outspoken on social issues and said her interest in politics began at 6 years old. She will star in the upcoming second season of “You.”

“The point of this whole event is to inspire young girls to follow their dreams and encourage them to use their imagination and let them know that that is their superpower,” said actress Lisa Edelstein, who directed the short “Lulu.” “We need more women stepping up and giving a hand to other women. Not to push men out the door, but there are a lot of stories to tell and they don’t all come from a male perspective.”

Ana Brenda Contreras directed the shot film “Wingbeat.” “Directing is something I wanted to do for a long time. It sends the message that you can do whatever you want to do in life,” she said. “Careers don’t have a gender.”

“We need to shatter the misconception in young girls that they are not as inherently good at math or engineering. These are learned skills,” said “Andy’s Song” director Reed. Reed recently started an environmentally conscious fashion company.

Straight Up Films, a female founded and run production company, produced the series in association with Cinema Giants. Straight Up Films co-CEO Marisa Polvino said, “When we came up with the idea for the series, it was important to us to champion women who had never had the opportunity to direct before and we also wanted to reach the widest possible audience of young girls who are our emerging leaders. YouTube was the perfect fit for our stories and we are grateful, not only for their support, but for their leadership’s shared vision.”

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…)

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.

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…)

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.

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…)

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.