The Irishman sarà distribuito da STX dopo una lunga guerra per i d(i)ritti
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 16: Director Martin Scorsese attends the EE British Academy Film Awards 2014 at The Royal Opera House on February 16, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/Getty Images)
Da Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Martin Scorsese’s mob picture The Irishman has landed at STX Entertainment in a huge deal for international rights that could be a recent record for Cannes. We’re hearing the deal could be worth as much as $50 million. The deal was struck very late Saturday night L.A. time after lengthy negotiations that went through the night. It comes after Fabrica de Cine closed a deal end of this week with Paramount to finance The Irishman -in a similar deal structure that was put in place for Scorsese’s Silence last year at Cannes- to the tune of some $100 million. Paramount will retain domestic on the picture, which it is is hoped will reunite Scorsese with Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel, as well as team Al Pacino with Scorsese for the first time in their glorious careers.
This is by far the biggest deal of this Cannes and the project the marketplace has been waiting for. Leading up the festival, all the talk had been of how this was Amazon’s festival with the major disrupter’s five titles, including fest opener Cafe Society. Now, with this deal and the Molly’s Game deal, which Deadline also broke, one can argue this Cannes reps STX’s coming of age as a genuine global player.
“We could not be more excited or privileged to have secured the international rights to this incredible motion picture,” said STX intl president David Kosse. “Fabrica de Cine’s vision and support in putting together this film is incredible. Martin Scorsese is one of the world’s most accomplished filmmakers and The Irishman is precisely the kind of premier tentpole programming that will help distinguish STX as we continue to build our studio and especially our infrastructure overseas.”
STX announced the opening of its international division earlier this year and named highly respected veteran David Kosse at its helm, but truly launched it with this year’s Cannes by making a splash with these two big buys. STX Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson and Kosse had previously worked together at Universal. After Kosse arrived, they hired Shyama Friedenson who had worked in international marketing at Paramount, StudioCanal and Lionsgate. So they are well-equipped to launch The Irishman.
“We value STX’s passion and belief in this project,” said Fabrica chairman and chief exec Gaston Pavlovich. ” Seeing the dynamism of their team, the experience of their senior executives, and their shared vision for creating powerful content, we decided to entrust STX Entertainment with The Irishman as the best possible partner to handle the international distribution for this project. They are passionate about film and were excited to be such an important part of creating this long-awaited collaboration between the legendary actors and director, which will be a milestone in film history. The Irishman is an event on a global scale, and Adam and David are innovative and entrepreneurs with one of the best executive teams working in the business today.”
While at Universal, Kosse oversaw international efforts on Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, which pulled in $275.1M internationally marking the biggest opening ever for Scorsese and company abroad.
The bidding war in the days running up to and during Cannes had almost everyone kicking the tyres. The final bids came down to Universal, Fox and STX going toe-to-toe with Lionsgate along with Stuart Ford’s IM Global and Alex Walton’s Bloom also in the mix. This is a massive get for STX and will energise what has been a modest sales market to date. The ambitious new studio now has a major tentpole film to feed through its output deals and also a major title to self-distribute in the UK once it has launched its new distribution outfit under the helm of new international chief David Kosse.
A number of the companies have long-standing relationships with Scorsese. Universal has produced other Scorsese’s films over the years (and years ago), including Casino, Cape Fear, and The Last Temptation of Christ. IM Global sold Silence while Fox were the studio behind Scorsese’s 1982 (very) black comedy The King of Comedy. But STX, which has consistently chased the title, has won the day.
The Irishman, which is a big-budgeted ($100M) period drama, will now move full-steam ahead with Paramount — the studio that produced The Godfather — distributing domestically and STX selling and distributing abroad. The architect of the deal is Mexican financier-producer Fabrica de Cine, led by chairman and chief exec Gaston Pavlovich. Fabrica first approached Paramount in February about taking the long-gestating project out of turnaround and financing. Their approach was met with some initial skepticism by the marketplace, dubious over the film’s price tag. One early positive respondent was Alex Walton and his partner Ken Kao at Bloom. Sources close to the deal tell Deadline that they stepped up almost immediately to tell Fabrica execs they would support them with the project. At one point, the minimum guarantee Bloom was offering was higher than that of some of the studio bids. That gave Fabrica execs the confidence to pursue the deal.
Buoyed by their experience working with Scorsese on Silence, another long-gestating project, Fabrica continued to chip away at Paramount until a deal was eventually struck. By that time, all the early doubters had become believers and clamouring to do a deal with Fabrica for the type of event film rarely available on the indie market.
“This is a cinematic event that is likely never going to be repeated,” a Fabrica exec told Deadline. “It’s Scorsese back with De Niro. It’s Scorsese with Pacino for the first time. We strongly believe in the filmmakers’ ability. The decision about who to go with really has come down to who shared our vision for the film and really believed in it.”
It has been a complex decision for Fabrica execs, who have had to decide between studio model and legacy profile offered by the likes of Fox and Universal, the promise of an ambitious aspiring studio like STX, a mini-major like Lionsgate or playing the indie sales market through an IM Global or Bloom.
The film will star Scorsese’s longtime collaborator Robert De Niro and most likely Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel. The Irishman was adapted for the screen by one of the best screenwriters working today — Steve Zaillian — from the Charles Brandt book I Heard You Paint Houses which is the deathbed story from mob hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran about the disappearance and death of the former Union boss Jimmy Hoffa. Zaillian previously scripted Scorsese’s Gangs of New York and his credits range from Schindler’s List to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He’s been nominated for four Oscars (including Gangs) and won for Schindler’s List.
The film is a marketer’s dream with all the biggest names from the most iconic mob movies of all time. If the deal should close with Pacino, it will be the first time he and De Niro have shared the screen since Righteous Kill in 2008 and before that it was Michael Mann’s 1995 film Heat and (of course) The Godfather, Part II in 1974.
This picture, even before one frame is filmed, has Oscar written all over it.
