Ten Thousand Saints Archives - Studio Mao

NOMINATION SEASON: 10,000 SAINTS (★★★)

STM — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 11:16:04 +0000

Nomination Season Begins Now!

NEW YORK, NY – August 15, 2015- The film Ten Thousand Saints in theaters and available OnDemand and iTunes is reviewed by Awards Circuit staffer Joey Magidson who sees some 300+ movies a year. Awards season is upon us in September. Will dark horse Ten Thousand Saints garner a nomination? See the film now and experience New York City in the 1980’s with Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield, Emile Hirsch, Avan Jogia and Emily Mortimer.

LINK TO REVIEW: http://www.awardscircuit.com/2015/08/15/ten-thousand-saints-%E2%98%85%E2%98%85%E2%98%85/

If you’re a fan of strong supporting characters, then the coming of age period pieceTen Thousand Saints (or10,000 Saints if you prefer) is basically manna from heaven. The film is basically full of them, to the point where our lead character is almost too bland by comparison. That’s sort of the situation throughout Ten Thousand Saints, as filmmaking teamShari Springer Berman andRobert Pulcini alternate between these fully realized supporting players and a lead who’s frustratingly passive, even in dynamic situations. They save themselves due to their attention to the period and setting of the story, as well as with some of the performances that get turned in. This adaptation potentially could have been something that Oscar voters would pay attention to, had some of the rougher edges been smoothed and a more even keeled feel been established. That’s not the case, but the acting and details on display wind up making all the difference. Oftentimes in an indie you’re lucky to get one or maybe even two supporting turns of real note, but here the movie is basically littered with them. That makes this an ultimately enjoyable and fulfilling flick, even if there’s some unrealized potential here as well. Ten Thousand Saints gets a recommendation/thumbs up from me, though with the small-ish caveat that this is a good film that had the ingredients to be downright great. Make of that what you will.

The film takes place in the 1980’s (1987, I believe…the year of my birth, in case anyone wants random trivia), both in Vermont and the changing landscape that was New York City (specifically Manhattan’s East Village) during that turbulent time for the Big Apple. Our protagonist is Jude (Asa Butterfield), a drug loving slacker teenager who has moved from suburbia to the city in an effort to re-connect with his pot dealer father Lester (Ethan Hawke), who believes he’s rescuing the boy. Jude’s best friend Teddy (Avan Jogia) overdosed after a friendly visit from the daughter of Lester’s girlfriend. The teen girl is Eliza (Hailee Steinfeld), and she also has taken something back to NYC with her…a pregnancy courtesy of an encounter with Teddy. In Manhattan, Jude begins to see his father in a new light, get to know Eliza, who now has this budding connection to his lost friend, as well as Teddy’s straight edge brother Johnny (Emile Hirsch), who introduces them all to the hardcore punk rock straight edge scene that rejects alcohol, drugs, and sex. A bit ironic, no? The machinations of the plot are a little bit much at times, but the feel for the city is so genuine that it adds plenty of personality to a movie that’s already chock full of it due to these characters.

I feel bad for Asa Butterfield, who’s far from bad in the lead role, but is asked to play by far the least interesting character in the flick. He’s the simplest, the quietest, and honestly the one you’d least like to spend extended time with. Butterfield does his best, but a decision to not get high is not inherently cinematic. The other characters have so much more to do, it’s a real shame. For one, Hailee Steinfeld gets her best material since True Grit and perhaps turns in her best performance to date since then. She’s a realistic and complicated teen, caught between two guys she cares about who want her to honor the memory of someone she remembers far less than they do. At times, Steinfeld threatens to break your heart. Obviously, Ethan Hawke is his reliably good self, with this role more or less being a stoned version of who he played in Boyhood. That might sound reductive, but in the quieter moments he shares with Butterfield, Hawke’s talents for subtle emotion really shine through. Emile Hirsch has the showiest role of the lot, but he’s as memorable as the others. There’s more to his character than initially meets the eye, but both Hirsch and the script wisely save him from ever being simply a caricature. He’s as fully developed as the rest. Also on hand in solid supporting roles are Emily Mortimer and Julianne Nicholson (both of whom are a bit underused, but more than make the best of their time on the screen), while the cast is rounded out by the aforementioned Avan Jogia as well as the likes of Nadia Alexander, Thomas Hettrick, and more. Hawke, Hirsch, and Steinfeld steal the show though, if you haven’t already guessed as much.

The writer/director duo of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini can be hit or miss sometimes, but this might be their most successful work overall since they burst on the scene with the Oscar nominated American Splendor. This won’t contend for Academy Award nominations, but Ten Thousand Saints is still effective. Berman and Pulcini get up close and personal with their visuals, while the screenplay periodically attempts to bite off more than it can chew. For example, it’s a great touch when they have Hawke’s character explaining what the changes to come for the East Village are, but when they’re more overtly depicted, it’s a bit on the nose. Still, they capture the feel of the place (I was almost reminded of Inside Llewyn Davis in terms of how this section of Manhattan is brought back to life) as well as some top notch performances, and that’s really something.

Overall, Ten Thousand Saints maanges to do plenty more right than it does wrong, so this isn’t a particularly hard recommendation for me to make. This is well worth seeing just for Hawke, Hirsch, and Steinfeld, so the rest is just an added bonus of sorts. Berman and Pulcini never quite reached that next level that some expected out of them, but if this is where they’re at now, that’s good enough for me. This coming of age story more than suffices. If you seek out Ten Thousand Saints, I have a feeling that you won’t be disappointed by what you find.

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10,000 Saints Theater Listings and Release Dates

STM — Mon, 20 Jul 2015 11:09:53 +0000

NEW YORK, NY., July 20, 2015– The film Ten Thousand Saints opens August 14th in select theaters throughout North America with additional release dates throughout the month of August. The movie about a family coming of age in 1980’s Lower East Side New York stars Ethan Hawk, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield, Emile Hirsch, Emily Mortimer and Julianna Nicholson. It is distributed by Screen Media and is based on the novel of the same name by Eleanor Henderson.

In addition to the theatrical release, Ten Thousand Saints will release day-and-date with the film being available for digital download and live streaming on the same date as the theatrical release. Viewing may be accessed via Apple iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Instant Video, VDU and cable OnDemand Pay-Per-View. Ten Thousand Saints was produced by Archer Gray and Maven Pictures.

August 14, 2015

New York, NY | Village East Cinemas

Los Angeles | Laemmle Royal

Boston, MA | The Coolidge Center

San Francisco, CA | Osio

Salt Lake City, UT | Broadway Centre Cinemas

Minneapolis, MN | Mall of Americas

Amherst, MA | Amherst Cinemas

Ithaca, NY | Cinemapolis

Daytona, FL | Cinematheque

August 21, 2015

Washington, DC | Angelika Pop-up/Union Market

Chicago, IL | Gene Siskel Film Center

Sante Fe, NM | The Screen

Dallas, TX | AMC Grapevine Mills 30

Kansas City, MO | AMC Barrywoods 24

Houston, TX | AMC Gulf Pointe 3

Denver, CO | AMC Highlands Ranch 24

Detroit, MI | AMC Star Gratiot 21

San Diego, CA | Reading Cinemas Gaslamp 15

Atlanta, GA | AMC Colonial 18

Tampa, FL | AMC Veterans 24

Oklahoma City, OK | AMC Quail Springs Mall 24

Cinciannati, OH | Newport Levee 20

Columbus, OH | AMC Lennox Town Center 24

West Palm, FL | AMC Indian River 24

Tempe, AZ | Valley Art

August 28, 2015

Seattle, WA | Sundance Sunset

About Maven Pictures

Maven Pictures is a New York-based film development, production and financing company co-founded by Oscar-nominated producer and veteran film executive CelineRattray and BAFTA-nominated producer, filmmaker, actress and activist Trudie Styler. Maven finances development and provides equity for films across a wide range of budgets and for distribution across all platforms. Maven Pictures produced GIRL MOST LIKELY, starring Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening, Darren Criss and Matt Dillon. The film premiered In Toronto and was released by Lionsgate Films. Maven also produced FILTH, starring James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, and Jamie Bell, recently released in the UK, and becoming the country’s second highest grossing R-rated film of the year. Maven’s also produced, BLACK NATIVITY is a modernized take on Langston Hughes’ classic musical and stars Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson, Tyrese Gibson and Mary J Blige. Fox Searchlight released wide.

About Archer Gray

Archer Gray is an independently inspired, commercially focused production, finance and investment company driven by passion for innovation, integrity and results. The company produces and finances film, theater and television of maximum artistic and commercial quality, and builds on the latest technological and financial innovations to do so. Archer Gray was founded by NY-based venture capitalist and producer Amy Nauiokas, who credits include The Inevitable Defeat of Mister And Pete and Little Accidents. Archer Gray endeavors to celebrate original voices of distinction – literary, theatrical, or otherwise – by supporting these stories with the financial resources, production expertise and the distribution models that will lead to exposure and success. Anne Carey serves as President of Production at Archer Gray, which she joined in May. Carey’s credits include The American directed by Anton Corbijn, starring George Clooney. Adventureland, written and directed by Greg Mottola, starring Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Wiig; The Oscar nominated The Savages, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. Archer Gray’s most recent production includes the 2014 Sundance Premiere of Sara Colangelo’s Little Accidents starring Elizabeth Banks, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland, Josh Lucas and Chloe Sevigny, which will have its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

For more information visit archergray.com

About Screen Media

Screen Media acquires the rights to high quality, independent feature films for the US and Canada. Recent acquisitions include Jake Paltrow’s “Young Ones,” starring Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning, and “About Alex,” starring Aubrey Plaza, Max Greenfield, Maggie Grace and more. Recent theatrical releases include festival favorites “The Lifeguard”, starring Kristen Bell; Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s “C.O.G.”, the first film adaptation of famed author David Sedaris; “A Birder’s Guide to Everything”, starring Ben Kingsley, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Katie Chang. Previous theatrical releases include “The City of Your Final Destination”, starring Anthony Hopkins, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Laura Linney; “Lymelife”, starring Alec Baldwin, Emma Roberts and Cynthia Nixon; “Sherrybaby”, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal; and “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee”, starring Robin Wright and Keanu Reeves.

For more information about Screen Media, please visit www.screenmedia.net

About Studio Mao

Studio Mao is a premiere global content management company founded in 2006 with a strong focus on motion picture production, development and distribution. The company produces feature films, including the critically-acclaimed award winning film Filth by the author of Trainspotting Irvine Welsh in which James Mcavoy won Best Actor awards at the Scottish BAFTA’s, British Independent Film Awards, Empire Awards and London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film’s director Jon S. Baird also won the London Critics Circle Breakthrough British Filmmaker award and the film was nominated on multiple occasions for Best Feature Film. Filth was the highest grossing independent film in England in 2013 and was produced in collaboration with industry leaders Maven Pictures (Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray) and Steel Mill Pictures (Ken Marshall).

The Studio Mao brand is synonymous with high quality, original and bold content that is distributed to markets around the world. The company is actively involved in developing its proprietary HD content management and video streaming platform “STP” designed to securely deliver content worldwide and on multiple platforms. Subscribers will be able to view Studio Mao movie releases and content utilizing STP technology that will further permit an interactive experience with dynamic and live HD feeds.

The company’s open source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:
Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
(212) 961-6882

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Ten Thousand Saints Opens August 14

STM — Tue, 05 May 2015 17:23:43 +0000

New York, NY., May 5, 2015– Ten Thousand Saints opens in theaters August 14, 2015 and is based on Elanor Henderson’s novel starring Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Emile Hirsch, and Ethan Hawke with a 25-major market theatrical release and day-and-date VOD release. Hailee Steinfeld is back with Asa Butterfeld in this 1980’s coming of age movie that’s part teen romance, part awkward love triangle, in a classic clash of generations. Ethan Hawke delivers a great performance as the hippie dad and the film is backed up by a great selection of music compiled by Music Supervisor Linda Cohen from Replacements to the Feelies, the Cure, R.E.M. and Sting (whose wife, Trudie Styler, perhaps not coincidentally is one of the producers).

1980’s New York City is recreated by production designer Stephen Beatrice and costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb who take the film from CBGB’s on the Lower East Side (LES) to the 1988 riots in Thompkins Square Park. “Ten Thousand Saints” captures New York at a moment of change, running parallel to the rise of AIDS, the yuppie invasion and gentrification, and exploring a shift in the counterculture through Jude (named after the Beatles song), who finds a way to rebel against his laid-back, pot-dealing dad in the straight-edge movement (no drugs, no alcohol, no promiscuity).

The film was produced by Maven Pictures, Archer Gray and Luca Borghese, in association with Bad Medicine Films, Raptor Films, and Tashtego Films.

‘Ten Thousand Saints’ Running time: 106 MIN.

Production

A Maven Pictures and Archer Grey presentation. Produced by Anne Carey, Amy Nauiokas, Luca Borghese, Trudie Styler, Celine Rattray. Executive producers, Charlotte Ubben, Shari Springer Berman, Pamela Hirsch.

Crew

Directed, written by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, based on the novel by Eleanor Henderson. Camera (color, Super 16), Ben Kutchins; editor, Pulcini; music, Garth Stevenson; music supervisor, Linda Cohen; production designer, Stephen Beatrice; set decorator, Kara Torney-Zeigon; costume designer, Suttirat Anne Larlarb; sound, Antonio Arroyo; supervising sound editor, Tony Volante; re-recording mixers, Volante, Steve “Major” Giammaria; visual effects, Phosphene; stunt coordinators, Manny Siverio, Elliot Santiago; associate producers, Shani Geva, Nic Marshall, Christopher Keogh, Merlin Merton, Cyrus Trafford; assistant director, Tom Fatone; casting, Ann Goulder.

With

Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Ethan Hawke, Emile Hirsch, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Avan Jogia, Nadia Alexander, Henry Kelemen, Thomas Hettrick.

About Studio Mao

The company’s open source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:
Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
(212) 961-6882

The post Ten Thousand Saints Opens August 14 appeared first on Studio Mao.

Ten Thousand Saints Acquired at Sundance by Screen Media

STM — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 17:26:20 +0000

PARK CITY, UT., January 30, 2015 — U.S. rights for Ten Thousand Saints acquired by Screen Media in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s new film which stars Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Emile Hirsch and Ethan Hawke.

“Ten Thousand Saints” recently premiered at Sundance and Screen Media Films will release the movie in late summer 2015 with a 25-market theatrical and day-and-date VOD release.

After certain events lead Jude (Butterfield) to withdraw from school and his family, his mother sends him to live with his estranged pot-dealing father (Hawke) in New York City. There, in the crime-riddled East Village of the late 1980’s, Jude forms an unlikely bond with his best friend’s brother (Hirsch) and the daughter (Steinfeld) of his father’s girlfriend (Mortimer). As the three dive deep in to the hardcore punk scene, they protect a secret that threatens to spoil their adolescence.

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini adapted the novel by Eleanor Henderson. The film was produced by Anne Carey, Amy Nauiokas, Luca Borghese, Trudie Styler and Celine Rattray, and executive produced by Charlotte Ubben, Shari Springer Berman, and Pamela Hirsch.

The film was made by Maven Pictures, Archer Gray and Luca Borghese, in association with Bad Medicine Films, Raptor Films, and Tashtego Films. The Solution is handling international rights and will be selling the film at next week’s EFM in Berlin.

“This film was one of our favorites at Sundance and we immediately knew we wanted to add the film to our 2015 summer line-up,” said Suzanne Blech, president of Screen Media. “On top of the stellar performances from the ensemble cast, we have been looking for a way to work with this talented filmmaking team, as we have been fans from afar for many years, and this opportunity just seemed like the right time.”

“This is a very personal movie for us and we wanted to make sure it found a home that would give it a lot of love. Screen Media had so much passion that we are certain we made the right choice,” directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini said in a joint statement.

“’Ten Thousand Saints’ is a great testament to the vibrant film community in NYC,” producers Carey and Rattray said in a joint statement. “We producers jokingly referred to it as our ‘walk to work movie’ made during the polar vortex. We tapped into an amazing NYC talent pool and brought other talent to NYC to celebrate the city with us. ‘Ten Thousand Saints’ is a love letter to the city in which we all live and work. It celebrates that NYC offers everyone the ability to find themselves, define themselves, find love and connect.”

The deal was negotiated by Blech and Seth Needle, director of acquisitions & marketing at Screen Media, with CAA on behalf of the filmmakers.

About Screen Media

For more information about Screen Media, please visit www.screenmedia.net

About Studio Mao

The company’s open source mantra is “Leave no creative stone unturned”.

For more information about Studio Mao, please visit www.studiomao.com

Contact:
Steve Kent
asst@studiomao.com
(212) 961-6882

The post Ten Thousand Saints Acquired at Sundance by Screen Media appeared first on Studio Mao.