Glen Basner: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: As the FilmNation Entertainment team gathered in Santa Monica this week for AFM, some reflection is in order. It has been 15 years since Glen Basner peeled off from Good Machine to start the venture. Despite the hardships facing everyone in the market with strikes and uncertainty, what a different a decade and a half makes. The launch happened in 2008, not the most fortuitous time to launch an indie film finance and production company with global ambitions.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Neon, the Oscar-winning distributor of “Parasite,” is getting back in business with “Titane” director Julia Ducournau. In one of the first big rights deals of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the studio announced it has acquired North American territories for Ducournau’s “Alpha.” Plot details were not immediately disclosed, except that the film will be “genre-defying.” Neon previously released Ducournau’s acclaimed “Titane,” which won Cannes’ highest honor, the Palme d’Or, in 2021. She is only the second woman director to do so, following Jane Campion for “The Piano.” “Alpha” will star Golshifteh Farahani (“The Patience Stone,” “Paterson”) and Tahar Rahim (“The Mauritanian,” “A Prophet”).

After serving as the U.S. distributor for Julia Ducournau‘s Palme d’Or-winning 2021 body horror Titane, Neon is getting back into business with the filmmaker as the North American distributor for her next genre-bending feature, Alpha.

Focus Features has firmed up release plans for Conclave, the papal thriller marking filmmaker Edward Berger‘s follow-up to his 2022 Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front. An adaptation of Robert Harris’ same-name bestseller, penned by Peter Straughan, the film releases in theaters in New York and L.A. on November 1st, before expanding on the 8th.

EXCLUSIVE: FilmNation Entertainment has hired television producer Robin Schwartz as President of Television.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Neon has acquired North American rights to Sean Baker‘s new romantic comedic drama, “Anora.” Plot details have been kept under wraps for the movie, which is currently in post-production and is aiming to release in theaters in 2024. It was filmed in Brooklyn and stars Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yuriy Borisov, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan.

Brent Lang Executive Editor FilmNation Entertainment has acquired worldwide rights to Sean Baker’s new romantic dramedy film “Anora.” Following the acquisition, FilmNation sold rights internationally to Le Pacte in France, Lev in Israel, Kismet in Australia and New Zealand and Focus Features and Universal Pictures International in the rest of the world, excluding North America. The film was written and directed by Baker, who is best known for directing “Tangerine” and “The Florida Project.” It shot on location at the beginning of the year in Brooklyn and stars Mikey Madison, who appeared as Manson Family follower Susan “Sadie” Atkins in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Caroline Brew editor Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White and Riz Ahmed find themselves caught in a love triangle in the new Apple film “Fingernails,” which debuted its first trailer Tuesday morning. Directed by Christos Nikou and produced by Cate Blanchett, the sci-fi film is set in a not-so-distant future. The story follows Anna (Buckley) and Ryan (White) who use a mathematical, machine-determined proceudre to determine if they are truly in love.

In his 16th weekly installment of the Deadline Strike Talk Podcast, Billy Ray continues to explore ways that the shifting sands of the entertainment business can settle in a manner that pleases shareholders of the corporations paying for content, and the talent responsible for creating it with the traditional understanding they share in the upside of success. Joining him are two titan producers who make films and TV on independent and blockbuster levels. Gale Anne Hurd’s credits range from the universes of The Walking Dead and Terminator, and many others. Glen Basner’s FilmNation has been a cornerstone catalyst of independent and studio films and TV. Also, Billy Ray has decided that the word “producer’ no longer belongs in the AMPTP, because these cohorts in content creation are not the ones he and other writers and actors are striking against. He explains why, from now forward, the collection of signatories should be called something else.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Variety and Gotham Film and Media Institute kicked off the Cannes Film Festival in style, bringing together entertainment industry insiders and festival attendees for a welcome party at the newly revamped Carlton Hotel. The outdoor courtyard was filled with producers, executives and financiers and other Hollywood players, including Tom Bernard and Michael Barker, Martin Scorsese’s daughter Francesca, FilmNation’s founder Glen Basner, Cinetic Media boss John Sloss, CAA’s Ben Kramer and Black Bear International’s John Friedberg.  At the event, Leonine Studios was honored with the International Achievement in Film Award, a recognition designed to spotlight the honoree’s recent achievements. The German production, licensing and distribution company was formed by Fred Kogel in 2019 and established itself as one of Europe’s biggest movie buyers. It’s picked up more than 40 feature films, such as “Hunger Games,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Knives Out.”

Cannes Film Festival rapidly approaches, workers have been racing to finish the job, with city officials confident that the Croisette will be back in glittering form in time for the red-carpet rollout on May 16. Other problems facing Cannes, though, won’t be as easily paved over. With the Writers Guild of America on strike, film and TV production is expected to taper off. If the Directors Guild or the Screen Actors Guild follow the WGA when their contracts expire in June, that slowdown could become a shutdown. And since Cannes doesn’t just highlight the latest films but is also a thriving marketplace where companies buy scripts, hawk finished movies for distribution and put together big deals, one wonders how that uncertainty will impact sales.

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Browning is returning to FilmNation Entertainment as President of Production. He comes aboard at month’s end.

EXCLUSIVE: FilmNation Entertainment and ZQ Entertainment have finalized a multi-year feature film development fund deal.

EXCLUSIVE: Vertical Entertainment has picked up U.S. rights to Misanthrope, a psychological thriller marking the first English-feature from BAFTA-winning Argentinian director Damián Szifron (Wild Tales). The indie distributor has slated the film starring Emmy nominee Shailene Woodley (Big Little Lies), Emmy winner Ben Mendelsohn (The Outsider) and Emmy nominee Jovan Adepo (Babylon) for release exclusively in theaters nationwide in the first half of 2023.

Joaquin Phoenix and his fiancée Rooney Mara will star alongside each other in the upcoming thriller, The Island.The Hollywood Reporter reports The Joker star, 47, and the actress, 37, will play a wealthy 1930s couple who move to a deserted island with the intention of living off the land.The pair, who have appeared alongside each other on several occasions in the past, have been engaged since 2016 and share a son named River Lee, aged two. Working together: Joaquin Phoenix and his fiancée Rooney Mara will star alongside each other in the upcoming thriller, The Island ; they are seen in 2020The on-screen couple's escape from society is interrupted by the arrival of the press and a rich countess who begins planning to build a luxury resort on the island itself.

Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara are set to star in Pawel Pawlikowski’s next feature The Island (working title), a dramatic thriller scheduled to start shooting next year. FilmNation Entertainment will launch international sales next month at the American Film Market. 

EXCLUSIVE: Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has acquired North American rights to Baby Ruby, the TIFF thriller starring Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) and Kit Harington (Game Of Thrones).

FilmNation Entertainment today announced the launch of Infrared, a new film production label that will look to finance and produce mainstream films with franchise potential, producing three to four mid-to-high level budget films each year across the action, thriller, comedy and sci-fi genres.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer“Promising Young Woman” and “Arrival” production company FilmNation Entertainment and Range Media Partners have set a partnership to co-produce, co-finance, develop and sell a broad-ranging slate of feature films across a variety of genres and budget-sizes, the companies said Thursday.Under the co-production pact, FilmNation Entertainment and Range Media Partners expect to produce four to six films per year, “with the capacity for more as needed.”The deal will offer Range Media’s talent “the platform and tools needed to get their films made via both independent and worldwide buyers, while driving greater ownership in their own projects – both creatively and financially.” In turn, FilmNation “will further expand its production, sales and financing slates as the leading independent studio continues to serve as a global destination for the world’s best storytellers.” FilmNation and Range expect to give the green light to multiple projects “imminently.” Per the two companies, “The combination of FilmNation’s top tier production capabilities and world class distribution platform with Range Media’s access to high-end material and world-renowned talent, underpinned by both companies’ deep financial resources, will bring to market some of the most compelling, highly anticipated film projects available to an array of buyers.”“We at FilmNation are always looking for inventive ways to give the world’s most talented creators an avenue to use our powerful production, sales and finance platform, particularly as a tool to make their creative visions come to life,” FilmNation Entertainment CEO Glen Basner said.

Representation and production outfit Range Media Partners is teaming with production and sales company FilmNation Entertainment to co-produce and co-finance a slate of feature films.

Rose Byrne is set to play New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in upcoming title They Are Us. Andrew Niccol will write and direct the project, which focuses on the week following the 2019 Christchurch attacks on New Zealand’s Muslim community.