The Orchard has acquired (Cannes 2017) all North American rights to drama Kings, which is set against the backdrop of the 1992 L.A. riots and stars Halle Berry and Daniel Craig.
The film was written and directed by Academy Award nominee Deniz Gamze Erguven (Mustang), marking her first English-language feature.
Maven Pictures co-founders Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray and Charlotte Ubben executive produced alongside Wei Han of Bliss Media. Maven and Bliss also co-financed the film. It is produced and co-financed by Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema. Vincent Maraval’s Insiders is handling international sales, with Maraval also serving as an executive producer. The Orchard is planning a fall release for the film.
Mavi Boncuk |
This year, TIFF offers a refreshed, more tightly curated Festival, with a renewed commitment to bold, director-driven programming, continued support of female filmmakers, and enough star power to fuel 400,000 festival-goers.
Today’s announcement cements that the future is female (and so is TIFF’s programming), with Gala films from emerging and established filmmakers that include Kings[1] set against the backdrop of the 1992 L.A. riots and starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, whose 2015 Festival feature Mustang earned an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Film; Mary Shelley by Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female Saudi director; Dee Rees’ Mudbound, an adaptation of Hillary Jordan’s novel about racial tensions in the Jim Crow South; Susanna White’s Woman Walks Ahead, starring forever-favourite Jessica Chastain; and a big must-watch for every Canadian: Long Time Running, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier’s documentary on The Tragically Hip’s emotional and powerful 2016 final tour.The sprawling Toronto Film Festival knows it has an annoying problem: It's gotten too big for its own good.
And that's overwhelming film buyers and sellers, publicists, journalists and some among the 400,000 ordinary filmgoers that attend the annual September event. So fest organizers plan to take the high road and cut the 2017 lineup by 20 percent, or around 60 movies.
A leaner TIFF will shed its Vanguard and City to City sections to retain in all 14 programs, and no longer screen movies at the Isabel Bader and Hot Docs cinemas to better concentrate the festival downtown around its year-round Bell Lightbox venue.
Toronto is also taking note of Oscar picture winners increasingly launching in Venice and Telluride, where breakout movies are quickly talked about on social media, leaving Toronto as less of the great discoverer it once was. TIFF's traditional axis of convenience, which allows studio and other star-driven American movies to build buzz in Venice or Telluride before arriving here, in recent years has undermined its reputation as the official award season launchpad.
It's not lost on TIFF programmers that recent Oscar picture winners like Gravity, Birdman and Spotlight world premiered on the Lido, as did this year's Oscar frontrunner, La La Land. So TIFF now boasts having the most must-see movies and red-carpet moments for its industry and public audiences, rather than the first crack at seeing Oscar best picture contenders as a key selling point.
All of your favourite filmmakers' new films are playing at TIFF this year, including Darren Aronofsky’s mother!; Alexander Payne’s Downsizing; Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird; Mahamat Saleh-Haroun's A Season in France; George Clooney’s Surburbicon; Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father; Anurag Kashyap's The Brawler; Andy Serkis’ Breathe; Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour; Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Wim Wenders’ Submergence; and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water.
[1] Erguven’s English-language Debut "Kings"
Depending on who eventually gets the US rights should determine the theatrical release date, as the presence of Berry and Craig will most likely demand an awards consideration push. Erguven’s [*]English language debut is a passion project for the director, which may push this into a 2018 release if she’s not ready for the Fall festival cycle.
[*] She was born in Ankara (Turkey) in 1978, and received her cosmopolitan education in France, Turkey and the United States. She is a film buff and studied filmmaking at La Fémis in Paris after finishing her higher education of Literature and African History in Johannesburg. Her short film for graduation, 'Bir Damla Su', which she starred in, was shown at the Cinéfondation of the Cannes Festival and won a Leopardo del Mañana Award at the Locarno Festival. After graduating from La Fémis, she starting preparing for her debut with a feature film set in South Central Los Angeles and the riots in 1992. The project, entitled 'Kings', was selected by 'Emergence', the Cinéfondation workshop, and by the Sundance Script Laboratory, although it is was beaten by 'Mustang', a film whose script was created by this Turkish director herself and Alice Winocour during the summer of 2012. Filmography. 2006: "Bir damla su" (short), "Mon trajet préféré" (short). 2015: "Mustang". (Catalogue Valladolid International Film Festival 2015)
Mavi Boncuk |
Oscar-nominated (Mustang) French-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Erguven’s English-language debut "Kings", set against the Los Angeies riots[1] and starring Halle Berry and Daniel Craig, could be ready in time, although it would be a fast turnaround from its announcement last Cannes. This has been a passion project for Ergüven for years, dating back to her graduation from the French Fémis film school. She almost made it as her debut, but instead put it on hold to focus on Mustang.
At first, Turkish-born, Paris-based director Deniz Gamze Erguven feared that she wouldn’t be able to make “Mustang,” simply because the material felt too close (the girls were inspired by one of her cousins back in Turkey). She actually started with an equal rowdy, but far less personal feature. Shortly after graduating from France’s La Femis film school, she traveled to Los Angeles to research the L.A. riots. She spoke to citizens, rode in police helicopters, and poured all she had into the script, which she called “Kings.” The project was invited to Cannes’ Cinefondation workshop, where she met future co-writer Alice Winocour, but baffled investors, who couldn’t understand why a French-Turkish helmer might be pitching such a story. “It was so obvious to me,” she says. “I was drawn to the tragedy, and the fact that it was five days in L.A. without laws.”
When the project cratered, Erguven’s confidence was shot. “I was ready to move to Australia and sell ice cream, and Alice was the one who lifted me back up when I was really flat on the ground,” she says. “She made me write 20 hours a day.” Miraculously, some of the more anarchic moments from “Kings” found their way into “Mustang”: The scene where the woman breaks the electrical transformer, for example, or throwing burning pots out the window came from “Kings.” “One reason I was attracted to the L.A. riots, there was an amazing amount of raw energy, and also being a very dark story with a lot of potential for comedy,” she says.
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Erguven began working on the screenplay in 2004 and has spent years working with the South Central neighborhood. After the success of Mustang, Erguven was able to revisit the project and snagged Halle Berry and Daniel Craig in lead roles. -
At first, Turkish-born, Paris-based director Deniz Gamze Erguven feared that she wouldn’t be able to make “Mustang,” simply because the material felt too close (the girls were inspired by one of her cousins back in Turkey). She actually started with an equal rowdy, but far less personal feature. Shortly after graduating from France’s La Femis film school, she traveled to Los Angeles to research the L.A. riots. She spoke to citizens, rode in police helicopters, and poured all she had into the script, which she called “Kings.” The project was invited to Cannes’ Cinefondation workshop, where she met future co-writer Alice Winocour, but baffled investors, who couldn’t understand why a French-Turkish helmer might be pitching such a story. “It was so obvious to me,” she says. “I was drawn to the tragedy, and the fact that it was five days in L.A. without laws.”
When the project cratered, Erguven’s confidence was shot. “I was ready to move to Australia and sell ice cream, and Alice was the one who lifted me back up when I was really flat on the ground,” she says. “She made me write 20 hours a day.” Miraculously, some of the more anarchic moments from “Kings” found their way into “Mustang”: The scene where the woman breaks the electrical transformer, for example, or throwing burning pots out the window came from “Kings.” “One reason I was attracted to the L.A. riots, there was an amazing amount of raw energy, and also being a very dark story with a lot of potential for comedy,” she says.
China’s Bliss Media and Maven Pictures[2] have come on board to finance “Kings,” the independent drama set against the backdrop of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Principle photography began on December 27, 2016 in Los Angeles. Filming lasted until mid February 2017.
The film has sold to the UK (Studiocanal), France (Ad Vitam), Italy (BIM), Spain (Vertigo)., Turkey (Fabula) and ex-Yugoslavia (Blitz). Charles Gillibert who produced Mustang as well as Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper was producing.
The film has sold to the UK (Studiocanal), France (Ad Vitam), Italy (BIM), Spain (Vertigo)., Turkey (Fabula) and ex-Yugoslavia (Blitz). Charles Gillibert who produced Mustang as well as Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper was producing.
[1] A South Central recluse helps a woman's working-class mother during the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles. Craig portrays the loner who lives in South Central Los Angeles and falls in love with Berry’s character. When the riots erupt, he will help Berry in protecting her children from the violence.