Rob heads to the gym again.. which can only be considered a wonderful thing!
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Megan Ellison made a serious splash last year as a major Hollywood player with “Zero Dark Thirty” and “The Master” through her Annapurna Pictures. She’s remained on the radar this year thanks to “Spring Breakers,” Spike Jonze’s “Her,” David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” and Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher.” A less-noticed component of Annapurna has been Panorama Media. Launched at Cannes last year to move into the foreign sales arena, it’s enabled Ellison to using foreign pre-sales to cover part of the production costs and be a player in the increasingly vital international market. Panorama, headed by industry vets Marc Butan and Kim Fox, comes to AFM with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” Jessica Chastain’s “The Zookeeper’s Wife” and James Gray’s “Lost City of Z,” starring Robert Pattinson and Benedict Cumberbatch. Butan said Panorama started with a skeleton staff of three. “We formally launched in Cannes last year before we really up to speed, but Megan and Annapurna had such a fantastic slate already.” The execs say they’re laser-focused on adjusting to evolving markets. “The marketplace always changes so 12 months later, it’s always going to be different,” Butan said. “The softness in Europe is making life difficult in every market, whether its consolidation, TV or the economy.” Fox said the evolution of digital platforms has not gained at a fast enough clip to make up for the decline in DVD. “Zookeeper’s Wife” is shooting next year and advance sales have been made in 90% of world markets and “Lost City of Z” is shooting this summer. And Panorama will be starting sales on John Hillcoat’s crime thriller “999.”If you missed the initial announcement, click HERE to catch up! This is a great gig for Rob and he's working with a director he dreamed to work with and no doubt was on his bucket list of directors he MUST work with.
In 1925, Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world's largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humans. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions inspired Conan Doyle's The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions round the globe, Fawcett embarked with his son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization--which he dubbed Z--existed. Then his expedition vanished.Benedict Cumberbatch is listed on IMDB as playing Lt. Col. Percival Fawcett. Nothing mentioned for Rob yet but he could be playing Fawcett's son Jack or Jack's friend Raleigh both of whom went with Percy to the jungle. We will update if/when there's anymore news/confirmation about this and if you want to read more about Percy click HERE
Inferno Entertainment has come aboard as international sales agent on James Gray’s red-hot adventure project The Lost City Of Z to star Brad Pitt.MORE Details from Deadline (head over there for the full article)
Buyers have been flocking to the project, which is being styled in the vein of Lawrence Of Arabia and is based on Gray’s adapted screenplay of David Grann’s recent bestseller.
The true story takes place in the early twentieth century and charts 30 years in the life of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, a former decorated British soldier turned explorer.
Fawcett developed an obsession for the Amazon and became convinced that an advanced civilisation lived within the interior after several adrenaline-fuelled expeditions where he narrowly escaped death from tribal encounters, deadly animals and devastating diseases.
He eventually lost backing for the trips and self-funded a final trek into the Amazon with his son from which neither returned.
It is understood Pitt’s Plan B will produce. Inferno’s Bill Johnson and Jim Siebel declined to comment, however they would most likely come aboard as executive producers.
The film is based on the David Grann bestselling book. Cumberbatch is in talks to play Percy Fawcett, who in 1925 headed into the depths of the Amazon jungles in Brazil. Fawcett was there to map the jungle and, hobbled by malaria, he discovered a mythical city he called The Lost City Of Z. Scorned by peers who claimed that this ancient kingdom was a fraud, Fawcett headed back into the jungle with his son and one other, braving the dangers of disease, insects, snakes, poison darts and other hazards to reinforce his discovery. None of them were ever seen again and it remains one of the great exploration mysteries of the 20th Century.
Plan B‘s Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Anthony Katagas (who worked with Cumberbatch on 12 Years A Slave) will produce. Plan B has been developing the project for several years, and it initially seemed like Pitt would be heading into the jungles.This report is from ThePlaylist confirming Rob's attachment to the movie:
Last month when we chatted with director James Gray, he cautioned that the fate of his long developing "The Lost City Of Z" depended on how things panned out at this weeks American Film Market. He already put a good foot forward, landing Benedict Cumberbatch for a starring role in the film, and it hopefully this latest bit of casting can put it over the top.And another confirmation from The Wrap:
Screen Daily reveals in their print issue from the floor of AFM, that Robert Pattinson is also on board the movie, that Panorama Media is financing and selling rights for as well. The movie is being produced by Brad Pitt's shingle Plan B (he was going to star in a previous iteration of the film before it fell apart at Paramount) and is an adaptation of David Grann's book tell the story of English soldier-turned-explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, whose obsession with the Amazon and belief that an ancient civilization resided there led him on many expeditions where he narrowly escaped death. After financing eventually dried up, Fawcett self-funded one last adventure into the Amazon with his son, from which neither returned. We presume Cumberbatch will play Fawcett, and while there's no word yet on Pattinson's role, perhaps he'll play the son?
As for the tone of the picture, Gray had said to us he's aiming for the epic scale of David Lean but with a “slightly more hallucinogenic feel. Because [the protagonist] went to the jungle and sorta went mad.” So yes, fingers crossed this gets rolling in 2014.
Meanwhile, in case you were worried, Pattinson is still attached to Werner Herzog's "Queen Of The Desert." Recent trade reports about the movie notably didn't have his name among the cast of Nicole Kidman, James Franco (yes, he's confirmed now according to Screen Daily) and Damian Lewis, but rest assured he'll be there. And 2014 spent working with Herzog and Gray? Nicely done, RPatz.
Robert Pattinson will join Benedict Cumberbatch in James Gray’s “The Lost City of Z,” an individual familiar with the long-gestating project has told TheWrap.James Gray was interviewed by AllocinĂ© and spoke about "The Lost City Of Z" (Translation Thanks To Pattinson Art Work):
Brad Pitt was initially attached to star in the adaptation of David Grann’s acclaimed book, though he’s now strictly producing the film through his Plan B banner along with Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Anthony Katagas.
“Lost City of Z” follows Percy Fawcett, a British colonial who disappeared in the 1920s while searching for a mythical city in the Amazon jungles of Brazil that he believed he discovered on a prior expedition.
Pattinson’s role remains unclear at this time.
Panorama Media will finance “Lost City of Z” and handle foreign sales.
The film continues Pattinson’s streak of working with talented filmmakers. He recently wrapped David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars” and next stars opposite Guy Pearce in David Michod’s thriller “The Rover.” Pattinson is also attached to star in Werner Herzog’s “Queen of the Desert” and Anton Corbijn’s “Life.” He’s represented by WME and 3 Arts Entertainment.
"This is the kind of movie that starts, is about to be made, then collapses," explains James Gray when we approach one of his sea snakes, which dates back a few years ago. Originally planned for Brad Pitt, the film will finally be lead by Benedict Cumberbatch. The popular English will embody Percy Harrison Fawcett, "a man sent in the Amazon jungle. First, for professional reasons, until he went in search of a lost city to prove its existence. Everybody thought he went mad, but he embarked with his son into the jungle to help him find it.
"Adapted from David Grann's the novel by James Gray himself, the script offers the possibility to stage "a wonderful story about a man driven by his obsession." And the filmmaker to add that he puts "huge hopes in this project. This will be an historical drama that will become hallucinogenic and psychedelic at various points. The combination between drama and history and the madness born from the solitude in the jungle has a tremendous dramatic potential."