NEW YORK -- Producer-actor Josh Hartnett's dot-com drama August is being picked up by First Look Studios for a July release.
First Look is acquiring North American rights to the Sundance Film Festival premiere, which centers on a high-rolling Web startup founder (Hartnett) struggling to resuscitate his company and personal life on the eve of Sept. 11.
Austin Chick's New York-based feature also stars Naomie Harris, Adam Scott, Robin Tunney, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rip Torn and David Bowie, who plays a corporate raider.
August is one of several star-driven projects to slowly emerge with distributors from January's disappointing Sundance market.
Charles Corwin, Hartnett, Elisa Pugliese, David Guy Levy and Clara Markowicz produced the film, a 57th & Irving presentation of an Original Media production made in association with Periscope Entertainment. Howard A. Rodman wrote the screenplay.
First Look has tentatively set a limited July 11 theatrical release. CAA is repping the filmmakers in the deal.
First Look is acquiring North American rights to the Sundance Film Festival premiere, which centers on a high-rolling Web startup founder (Hartnett) struggling to resuscitate his company and personal life on the eve of Sept. 11.
Austin Chick's New York-based feature also stars Naomie Harris, Adam Scott, Robin Tunney, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Rip Torn and David Bowie, who plays a corporate raider.
August is one of several star-driven projects to slowly emerge with distributors from January's disappointing Sundance market.
Charles Corwin, Hartnett, Elisa Pugliese, David Guy Levy and Clara Markowicz produced the film, a 57th & Irving presentation of an Original Media production made in association with Periscope Entertainment. Howard A. Rodman wrote the screenplay.
First Look has tentatively set a limited July 11 theatrical release. CAA is repping the filmmakers in the deal.
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- August is another among this year's crop of features that demonstrates that having a cast with indie cred can sometimes do little to buoy a film's miscalculated execution.
The film's identifiable actors and the modest boxoffice performance of director Austin Chick's previous release, "XX/XY," might attract a buyer, but the film is unlikely to see salutary theatrical returns.
In mid-2001, Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) is riding the apogee of the dot-com bubble as CEO of New York-based Landshark, an Internet startup with a vaguely defined business model. While Tom hard-sells the company's services to dubious clients, his brother, Josh (Adam Scott), actually creates Landshark's broadband products.
Tom's life is full of the trappings of easy wealth -- a cash-green convertible Camaro, fancy restaurants, willing women and lavish spending. His obvious yearning for ex-girlfriend Sarrah (Naomie Harris) hints at his dissatisfaction with this extravagant lifestyle, but he's too focused on getting ahead to try to resuscitate their failed relationship.
When the cracks begin to show in Landshark's faulty business plan and the company's stock plummets, provoking a cash-flow crisis, Tom prefers to ignore the impending signs of catastrophic failure while his management team -- COO Melanie Hanson (Robin Tunney) and CFO Dylan Gottschalk (Andre Royo) -- scrambles to cover the mounting losses.
Despite the exigencies of his character's situation, Hartnett appears to be sleepwalking through the film, displaying a frustratingly narrow range of expression and emotion. Principal castmembers are broadly outlined and minimally motivated, and even a couple of intriguing supporting roles -- particularly Rip Torn as Tom's father and David Bowie as a supercilious corporate raider -- can't lift the performances out of the doldrums.
The actors are not well supported by Howard A. Rodman's self-satisfied script, which would rather tell than show, relying at several points on long, smug speeches that bring the narrative to a grinding halt. Chick appears confident that his cast plays convincingly enough without revealing much enthusiasm and neglects to lend a distinctive style on the technical side.
AUGUST
57th & Irving presents an Original Media production in association with Periscope Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Austin Chick
Screenwriter: Howard A. Rodman
Producers: Charlie Corwin, Elisa Pugliese, David Guy Levy, Clara Markowicz, Josh Hartnett
Executive producers: Patrick Morris, Austin Chick, Howard A. Rodman
Director of photography: Andrij Parekh
Production designer: Roshelle Berliner
Music: Nathan Larson
Costume designer: Erika Munro
Editor: Pete Beaudreau
Cast:
Tom Sterling: Josh Hartnett
Joshua Sterling: Adam Scott
Melanie Hanson: Robin Tunney
Morela Sterling: Emmanuelle Chriqui
Sarrah: Naomie Harris
Dylan Gottschalk: Andre Royo
David Sterling: Rip Torn
Cyrus Ogilvie: David Bowie
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- August is another among this year's crop of features that demonstrates that having a cast with indie cred can sometimes do little to buoy a film's miscalculated execution.
The film's identifiable actors and the modest boxoffice performance of director Austin Chick's previous release, "XX/XY," might attract a buyer, but the film is unlikely to see salutary theatrical returns.
In mid-2001, Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) is riding the apogee of the dot-com bubble as CEO of New York-based Landshark, an Internet startup with a vaguely defined business model. While Tom hard-sells the company's services to dubious clients, his brother, Josh (Adam Scott), actually creates Landshark's broadband products.
Tom's life is full of the trappings of easy wealth -- a cash-green convertible Camaro, fancy restaurants, willing women and lavish spending. His obvious yearning for ex-girlfriend Sarrah (Naomie Harris) hints at his dissatisfaction with this extravagant lifestyle, but he's too focused on getting ahead to try to resuscitate their failed relationship.
When the cracks begin to show in Landshark's faulty business plan and the company's stock plummets, provoking a cash-flow crisis, Tom prefers to ignore the impending signs of catastrophic failure while his management team -- COO Melanie Hanson (Robin Tunney) and CFO Dylan Gottschalk (Andre Royo) -- scrambles to cover the mounting losses.
Despite the exigencies of his character's situation, Hartnett appears to be sleepwalking through the film, displaying a frustratingly narrow range of expression and emotion. Principal castmembers are broadly outlined and minimally motivated, and even a couple of intriguing supporting roles -- particularly Rip Torn as Tom's father and David Bowie as a supercilious corporate raider -- can't lift the performances out of the doldrums.
The actors are not well supported by Howard A. Rodman's self-satisfied script, which would rather tell than show, relying at several points on long, smug speeches that bring the narrative to a grinding halt. Chick appears confident that his cast plays convincingly enough without revealing much enthusiasm and neglects to lend a distinctive style on the technical side.
AUGUST
57th & Irving presents an Original Media production in association with Periscope Entertainment
Credits:
Director: Austin Chick
Screenwriter: Howard A. Rodman
Producers: Charlie Corwin, Elisa Pugliese, David Guy Levy, Clara Markowicz, Josh Hartnett
Executive producers: Patrick Morris, Austin Chick, Howard A. Rodman
Director of photography: Andrij Parekh
Production designer: Roshelle Berliner
Music: Nathan Larson
Costume designer: Erika Munro
Editor: Pete Beaudreau
Cast:
Tom Sterling: Josh Hartnett
Joshua Sterling: Adam Scott
Melanie Hanson: Robin Tunney
Morela Sterling: Emmanuelle Chriqui
Sarrah: Naomie Harris
Dylan Gottschalk: Andre Royo
David Sterling: Rip Torn
Cyrus Ogilvie: David Bowie
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/30/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Adam Scott and Rip Torn have marked their calendars for August, joining Josh Hartnett and Naomie Harris in the indie feature being directed by Austin Chick.
The script, by Howard A. Rodman, follows an aggressive, young dot-com entrepreneur (Hartnett) in New York struggling to keep his head above water as the bottom of the market begins to fall out in the weeks leading to Sept. 11.
Scott will play Hartnett's brother, while Torn is their father.
Hartnett, David Guy Levy, Elisa Pugliese of 57th and Irving Prods. and Clara Markowicz of Original Media will produce alongside Original's Charlie Corwin.
August is being financed by Pugliese's 57th and Irving Prods. and was packaged by CAA. CAA is handling domestic sale.
The film will be shot on location in New York, with principal photography to begin April 16.
Scott, repped by Gersh and Untitled, next appears in Knocked Up opposite Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. He recently finished shooting The Great Buck Howard with John Malkovich and will be heard in the upcoming Pixar animated movie Ratatouille.
Torn most recently appeared on the big screen in Zoom and Marie Antoinette. He also appeared in a recent episode of NBC's 30 Rock.
The script, by Howard A. Rodman, follows an aggressive, young dot-com entrepreneur (Hartnett) in New York struggling to keep his head above water as the bottom of the market begins to fall out in the weeks leading to Sept. 11.
Scott will play Hartnett's brother, while Torn is their father.
Hartnett, David Guy Levy, Elisa Pugliese of 57th and Irving Prods. and Clara Markowicz of Original Media will produce alongside Original's Charlie Corwin.
August is being financed by Pugliese's 57th and Irving Prods. and was packaged by CAA. CAA is handling domestic sale.
The film will be shot on location in New York, with principal photography to begin April 16.
Scott, repped by Gersh and Untitled, next appears in Knocked Up opposite Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl. He recently finished shooting The Great Buck Howard with John Malkovich and will be heard in the upcoming Pixar animated movie Ratatouille.
Torn most recently appeared on the big screen in Zoom and Marie Antoinette. He also appeared in a recent episode of NBC's 30 Rock.
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