NEON today announced they are partnering with STUDIOCANAL and Blueprint Pictures to co-develop the narrative remake of their lauded documentary The Painter and the Thief from Benjamin Ree. Following the film’s word-of-mouth success and increasing awards momentum, NEON sparked a bidding war for the buzzed about project, ultimately won by STUDIOCANAL and Blueprint Pictures. NEON had acquired remake rights along with the documentary following its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won for “Creative Storytelling”. It has gone on to earn multiple awards across the festival circuit, most recently taking the “Best Documentary Feature” award out of the BFI London Film Festival, and received two Critics’ Choice Awards Nominations for Best Documentary Feature and Best Director. STUDIOCANAL and Blueprint Pictures will develop and package the feature, with Blueprint producing and NEON and STUDIOCANAL executive producing. NEON and STUDIOCANAL will finance the development and production. A writer, director and cast are yet to be attached. The Painter and the Thief follows a Czech artist who, desperate for answers about the theft of her 2 paintings, seeks out and befriends the career criminal who stole them.
NEON released the documentary to critical acclaim, with Variety calling it “incredible” and IndieWire saying it is a “nuanced and beguiling new documentary”, and New York Magazine emphasizing the “strange, delicately made film, which manages to defy expectations about both of its subjects and the power balance between them.”
The deal was negotiated by Jeff Deutchman for NEON, with Shana Eddy, Rachel Henochsberg and Vanessa Saunoi on behalf of STUDIOCANAL and Diarmuid McKeown on behalf of Blueprint Pictures.
This is the latest foray for NEON into development and production on the heels of their Best Picture win for Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, a film they boarded at script stage, as well as Alex Gibney’s Totally Under Control which was recently released on Apple TV. NEON has several projects at various stages of development and production, including Pablo Larrain’s Spencer.
About NEON
In just three years, NEON has garnered 12 Academy Award® nominations, 5 wins, including Best Picture, and has grossed over $150M at the box office. The company continues to push boundaries and take creative risks on bold cinema such as Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which made history winning four Academy Awards®, becoming the first non-English-language film to claim Best Picture. The film, which also unanimously won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, has amassed over $53M at the domestic box office and broke multiple records including highest per screen average of the year and highest per screen average for a foreign language film of all time. NEON has amassed a library of over 50 films with noteworthy releases including: Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov’s award-winning and record-breaking Honeyland, which is the first non-fiction feature to land Academy Award® nominations for Best Documentary and Best International Feature Film in the same year; Todd Douglas Miller’s Apollo 11, 2019’s highest grossing documentary with a worldwide gross of $16M; Tim Wardle’s Three Identical Strangers, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling which surpassed $13M at the box office; and Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya, which garnered multiple Academy Award® nominations, one win for Allison Janney and amassed over $30M in domestic box office.
The company continues to be an impressive force, with recent acquisitions such as: Venice’s Grand Jury Prize Winner Michel Franco’s New Order; Night of Kings, Philippe Lacôte’s Ivory Coast Oscar Submission; Pablo Larraín’s Spencer starring Kristen Stewart; Pig, starring Nicolas Cage; Francis Lee’s romantic drama Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria with Tilda Swinton; and the documentary Gunda directed by Victor Kossakovsky and executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix. Recent releases include: Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor; Justin Simien’s Bad Hair; Max Barbakow’s sought after Palm Springs starring Andy Samberg, which NEON acquired with Hulu; Amy Seimtz’s SXSW critical sensation She Dies Tomorrow; Josephine Decker’s Shirley starring Elisabeth Moss; Matt Wolf’s highly acclaimed Sundance documentary Spaceship Earth; The Painter and the Thief directed by Benjamin Ree; and the critically acclaimed Cannes hit Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes® and Independent Spirit Awards.
After their successful collaboration on I, Tonya in January 2018, 30WEST (Dan Friedkin’s and Micah Green’s strategic venture) partnered with NEON’s Tom Quinn (Founder & CEO) and Tim League (Co-Founder) to become majority investors in the company.
About STUDIOCANAL
STUDIOCANAL, a 100% affiliate of CANAL+ Group held by Vivendi, is Europe’s leader in production, distribution and international sales of feature films and TV series, operating directly in all three major European markets – France, the United Kingdom and Germany – as well as in Australia and New Zealand.
STUDIOCANAL owns one of the most important film libraries in the world, boasting more than 6,000 titles from 60 countries. Spanning 100 years of film history, this vast and unique catalogue includes among others the iconic Terminator 2, Rambo, Breathless, Mulholland Drive, The Pianist and Belle de jour.
STUDIOCANAL has fully financed box office hits Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Paddington 1 and 2, The Commuter and Shaun The Sheep Movie. Upcoming films backed by STUDIOCANAL include Marc Munden’s The Secret Garden produced with Heyday Films (Paddington 1 & 2) starring Colin Firth and Julie Walters.
STUDIOCANAL is actively developing and distributing high-end TV series through its network of award-winning European production companies, including TANDEM in Germany (Shadowplay), the UK’s RED Production Company (Years and Years), Spain’s BAMBÚ PRODUCCIONES (On Death Row) and France’s STUDIOCANAL ORIGINAL (Mouche). STUDIOCANAL is also an associate of Danish-based SAM Productions founded by Søren Sveistrup and Adam Price (Ride Upon The Storm) as well as of UK-based GUILTY PARTY PICTURES; Benedict Cumberbatch’s production company SUNNYMARCH TV (Patrick Melrose) and URBAN MYTH FILMS (War of the Worlds).
About BLUEPRINT PICTURES
London based Blueprint Pictures was founded in 2005 by Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent.
Upcoming films include A Boy Called Christmas – based on the best-selling children’s book by Matt Haig, and directed by Gil Kenan, its cast includes Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Sally Hawkins and Kristen Wiig. Production has also just finished on The Last Letter From Your Lover – based on the novel by best-selling author Jojo Moyes, it stars Felicity Jones and Shailene Woodley, and is directed by Augustine Frizzell. Both films will be released worldwide by StudioCanal and Netflix in 2021.
Blueprint Pictures most recent film in cinemas was Emma – a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel. It was directed by Autumn de Wilde, and starred Anya Taylor-Joy alongside Johnny Flynn, Callum Turner, Miranda Hart and Bill Nighy. It was released worldwide by Focus Features.
In 2021 Blueprint Pictures will produce Academy Award-winning filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s as-yet-untitled new feature, for Searchlight Pictures. The film will star Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and shoot on the West Coast of Ireland. It will be Blueprints fourth collaboration with Martin McDonagh. Their longstanding relationship began with the Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated, and BAFTA-winning In Bruges in 2008. Most recently they produced Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – which won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes awards, and five BAFTA awards.
Blueprint Pictures also developed and produced BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and its sequel The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in 2015. Between them, the two Best Exotic films have taken over $230m at the box office.
Blueprint Television’s A Very English Scandal was first broadcast on the BBC and Amazon in 2018. It starred Hugh Grant and Ben Whishaw, and was directed by Stephen Frears, and won multiple awards including four BAFTAs, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and Critics Choice award.