Exclusive and Cross Creek Pictures sign co-production deal

Philip Seymour Hoffman (left) and George Clooney star in IDES OF MARCH.
Hammer owners Exclusive Media have entered into a a three year deal with Cross Creek Pictures to co-produce a minimum of two feature films per annum with budgets up to $65m. 

The partners will share funding for the projects on a 50-50 basis and all films developed under the deal will be released theatrically in the US through Cross Creek’s slate distribution deal with Universal Pictures.

Exclusive Media will retain and sell international rights to the titles.

The deal was announced by Exclusive Media Co-Chairmen Nigel Sinclair and Guy East and Cross Creek President, Brian Oliver.

The first film being produced and financed under the arrangement is the A Walk Among The Tombstones.

Written by Scott Frank, the film is based on the popular ‘Matt Scudder’ book series written by Lawrence Block and will star Liam Neeson.

Formerly a cop with the NYPD, now an unlicensed private eye and a recovering alcoholic haunted by past mistakes, Matt Scudder is hired to find the kidnapped wife of a drug dealer. 

Scudder operates just outside the law where the police don’t go to track down the kidnappers, who he discovers have been involved in multiple kidnappings and brutal murders.

Double Feature Films partners Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher are producing with Danny DeVito and his company, Jersey Films.  Principal photography is set to start in February 2013 on location in New York City.

“We feel like we won the trifecta by getting the one star who is perfect for Scott’s great script that he was born to direct,” said Shamberg and Sher.

“We have long enjoyed a fulfilling business partnership with Brian and his team at Cross Creek, creating success with The Ides of March, The Woman in Black and now Rush, among others.

“We feel very confident to formalise and strengthen our development, financing and production arrangement with Brian and we are thrilled to start this new chapter with such a commercial project,” commented Nigel Sinclair and Guy East.

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