PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS ON LIONSGATE AND ODDLOT ENTERTAINMENT’S ACTION COMEDY MORTDECAI STARRING JOHNNY DEPP
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- Category: Newswire Announcements
- Published on 10 November 2013
PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY BEGINS ON LIONSGATE AND ODDLOT ENTERTAINMENT’S ACTION COMEDY MORTDECAI STARRING JOHNNY DEPP
SANTA MONICA and CULVER CITY, CA October 21, 2013 – Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) and OddLot Entertainment announced today that principal photography has begun in London on the action comedy MORTDECAI. Based on the popular three-novel anthology by Kyril Bonfiglioli, which has amassed a significant cult following, the film features an all-star cast including Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Paul Bettany and Olivia Munn. Guy Burnet, Michael Byrne, Michael Culkin, Jonny Pasvolsky, Ulrich Thomsen, and Paul Whitehouse have also joined the cast of the film which David Koepp is directing from a script written by Eric Aronson. Andrew Lazar, Johnny Depp, Christi Dembrowski and OddLot’s Gigi Pritzker are producing the project.
Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairs Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said, “Kyril created a rich, immersive world with fresh characters, and we are thrilled to bring his beloved story to life with our friends and partners at OddLot. With David Koepp at the helm and a brilliant all-star cast, MORTDECAI will captivate audiences and keep them on the edge of their seats.”
OddLot’s Gigi Pritzker added, “The teams at OddLot and Lionsgate have been eager to start production of MORTDECAI. The cast of this film is phenomenal and the storyline is hilarious. It will be incredible to see it all captured over the coming weeks and we look forward to sharing it with fans of Kyril’s novels worldwide.”
Juggling some angry Russians, the British Mi5, his impossibly leggy wife and an international terrorist, debonair art dealer and part time rogue Charlie Mortdecai (Depp) must traverse the globe armed only with his good looks and special charm in a race to recover a stolen painting rumored to contain the code to a lost bank account filled with Nazi gold.
MORTDECAI marks the first project under Lionsgate and OddLot’s multiyear, multipicture co-financing and distribution deal which the companies announced last month.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has 30 television shows on 20 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show and the critically-acclaimed new series Orange Is The New Black.
Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first installment of The Hunger Games franchise, The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Now You See Me, Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, Warm Bodies, Snitch, Texas Chainsaw 3D, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, Arbitrage and Pantelion Films’ breakout hit Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever in the U.S.
Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 15,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
About OddLot Entertainment
OddLot Entertainment is a Los Angeles-based film and television production company that develops, produces, finances and arranges distribution for quality, commercial properties for both the domestic and international markets.
OddLot’s next production to be released is Ender’s Game, written and directed by Gavin Hood, and starring Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, Viola Davis, Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Asa Butterfield as “Ender.” Summit Entertainment is co-financing the film and will release it domestically November 1, 2013. OddLot also produced The Way, Way Back, a comedic drama from Academy Award®-winning writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, which was acquired by Fox Searchlight at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and was released in theatres on July 5, 2013. The film stars Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Sam Rockwell, Allison Janney, Maya Rudolph, AnnaSophia Robb, Amanda Peet and Liam James.
The company is currently producing Ivan Reitman’s Draft Day starring Kevin Costner which will be released by Summit Entertainment, and Jon Stewart’s upcoming directorial debut Rosewater. OddLot’s other credits include producing the critically-acclaimed Drive, Rabbit Hole and From Prada to Nada. Past credits for Gigi Pritzker, OddLot’s CEO, include The Wedding Planner, Green Street Hooligans and Mean Creek.
In March of 2011, OddLot expanded its footprint into foreign distribution partnering with Nick Meyer to create the foreign sales company Sierra/Affinity. This year OddLot commenced a multiyear, multipicture co-financing and distribution deal with Lionsgate which provides both companies a committed framework to co-produce and distribute films.