FOCUS FEATURES TO RELEASE WORKING TITLE PRODUCTION DOMESTICALLY IN NOVEMBER 2015, UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTERNATIONAL TO RELEASE OVERSEAS
Working Title Films’ The Danish Girl, directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Misérables) and starring Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything, Les Misérables) and Alicia Vikander (A Royal Affair, Anna Karenina), will be released domestically by Focus Features in exclusive engagements in New York and Los Angeles beginning Friday, November 27th, 2015, and by Universal Pictures International overseas. Focus CEO Peter Schlessel made the announcement today.
The Danish Girl is the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Einar and Gerda Wegener (being portrayed, respectively, by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander), whose marriage and work are cast into the unknown when Einar begins a groundbreaking journey to become one of the world’s first transgender women, Lili Elbe. The Danish Girl has been adapted into a screenplay by BAFTA Award nominee Lucinda Coxon, based on the novel of the same name by David Ebershoff. The film’s cast also includes Matthias Schoenaerts (The Drop), Ben Whishaw (Skyfall), and Amber Heard (The Rum Diary). The film’s producers are Gail Mutrux (Kinsey) through her Pretty Pictures production company, Anne Harrison (Two Family House) through her Harrison Productions, Working Title co-chairs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, and Tom Hooper. Linda Reisman is executive-producing The Danish Girl with Ulf Israel of Senator Global Productions.
Mr. Schlessel commented, “In the tradition of Focus’ history of epic and moving love stories, The Danish Girl promises to be unforgettable. Tom Hooper is an extraordinary storyteller who always elicits beautiful performances from his actors. We are so pleased to be working with Eddie Redmayne again after our shared success with Working Title on The Theory of Everything.”
Working Title’s The Theory of Everything, for which Mr. Redmayne last month won the Best Actor Academy Award and which last month won three BAFTA Awards including Best Actor, was released by Focus domestically in November 2014 and subsequently by Universal Pictures International overseas. The movie was nominated for four additional Academy Awards including Best Picture, and has grossed over $100 million worldwide.
Universal and Working Title’s Les Misérables, for which Mr. Hooper was a Directors Guild of America Award nominee and in which Mr. Redmayne costarred, won three Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway) and was nominated for five more including Best Picture. Mr. Hooper won the DGA Award and the Academy Award as Best Director for The King’s Speech, which won three more Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor (Colin Firth), and was nominated for eight additional Academy Awards.
Working Title Films, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies. Founded in 1983, Working Title has made over 100 films that have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide. Its films have won 11 Academy Awards, 38 BAFTA Awards, and prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals.
Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com) makes, acquires, and releases movies from rising and established talent and filmmakers. The company is moving forward with a diverse slate of wide releases appealing to a range of moviegoers. Staying true to the company’s roots, the slate will also include several specialty films each year.
In addition to The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl, current and upcoming releases from Focus include Leigh Whannell’s Insidious: Chapter 3, the newest chapter in the terrifying horror series; Tarsem Singh’s Self/less, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley; Sinister 2, directed by Ciaran Foy; London Has Fallen, the sequel to the worldwide smash hit Olympus Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler and directed by Babak Najafi; Juan Antonio Bayona’s visually spectacular drama A Monster Calls, starring Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, and Liam Neeson; Kubo and the Two Strings, the new family event movie from animation studio LAIKA, directed by Travis Knight with a voice cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Rooney Mara, Ralph Fiennes, Brenda Vaccaro, and Art Parkinson; and Stephen Hopkins’ Race, starring Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis, and Stephan James as the legendary athletic superstar Jesse Owens.
Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
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