Fox Searchlight Pictures Presidents Stephen Gilula and Nancy Utley announced today that the company has acquired North American rights to Youth, the new film from The Great Beauty‘s Paolo Sorrentino. The cast for the new film includes Academy Award winners Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz, and Jane Fonda as well as as the Oscar-nominated Harvey Keitel and Paul Dano.
Youth follows two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps. Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Weisz) and best friend Mick (Keitel), a renowned filmmaker. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. The two men reflect on their past, each finding that some of the most important experiences can come later in life.
Youth is written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino and produced by Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Carlotta Calori for Indigo Film in collaboration with Medusa Film. The film is coproduced by Fabio Conversi for Barbary Films, Jérôme Seydoux for Pathé, Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen for Number 9, David Kosse for Film4, and Anne Walser for C-Films. Youth will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and is scheduled to be released in 2015.
“I’m delighted and proud that Fox Searchlight has acquired my new film: Youth,” says Sorrentino. “As a movie lover, I have always appreciated Fox Searchlight’s choices which have given us the opportunity to see beautiful and unforgettable films. This time, as the auteur, I am honored with the faith they have placed in me and the film.”
“Paolo’s masterful film projects an extraordinary wisdom and grace,” add Utley and Gilula. “Anchored by Michael Caine’s emotionally riveting performance and buoyed by an exceptional supporting cast, ‘Youth’ is, simply put, a film about life and living told in the most cinematic of terms.”
“I am very happy that Fox Searchlight has picked up Youth,” says Giuliano. “To secure a North American distribution with such a prestigious company, which always chooses and promotes its films with the utmost care, is a very important signal for Italian Cinema.”
The deal was brokered by Fox Searchlight’s Senior Vice President of Acquisitions & Co-Productions Ray Strache and Executive Vice President of Business Affairs Megan O’Brien with Muriel Sauzay, Pathe’s Executive Vice President International Sales, who represented the film.
(Photo Credit: Ivan Nikolov / FayesVision / WENN.com)
