Angelina Jolie and Christoph Waltz to star in "Every Note Played" film adaptation for STX (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/ImQDXoVUZ6
— Variety (@Variety) October 9, 2020
They’re officially attached! Every Note Played starring Angelina Jolie and Christoph Waltzhttps://t.co/XGhqdl7X6f
— LisaGenova (@LisaGenova) October 9, 2020
Angelina Jolie and Christoph Waltz are in talks to star in “Every Note Played,” an adaptation of Lisa Genova’s contemporary romance novel. STX Films has acquired global rights to the movie.
Jolie will play Karina, the ex-wife of an accomplished concert pianist named Richard (portrayed by Waltz). He has suffered many losses, including the estrangement of his daughter, when he gets diagnosed with ALS in his hands. As the disease worsens and Richard can no longer play the piano or live on his own, Karina reluctantly steps in to be his caregiver.
Michael Sucsy, whose resume includes “13 Reasons Why” and “The Vow” starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, is set to direct. Richard Barton Lewis is producing “Every Note Played,” along with Gabrielle Jerou-Tabak and Monet Clayton of Southpaw Entertainment.
“We’re thrilled to be bringing this exceptional filmmaking team together for this emotional, powerful, and ultimately uplifting story,” said STXfilms Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson.
Up next for Jolie is “The Eternals,” Marvel’s superhero epic with Richard Madden, Gemma Chan and Kumail Nanjiani. The comic-book adventure about a super-powered alien race has been delayed multiple times due to the pandemic. Jolie will also appear alongside David Oyelowo in “Come Away,” a fantastical drama based on characters from “Alice in Wonderland” and Peter Pan.”
Waltz, who won Oscars for “Inglourious Basterds” and “Django Unchained,” is starring next in Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and will reprise his role as Blofeld in the James Bond sequel “No Time to Die.”
UTA and ICM represented the financing and arranged the distribution deal. Jolie is represented by WME and Waltz is represented by ICM.
From Amazon
From neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice comes a powerful exploration of regret, forgiveness, freedom, and what it means to be alive.
An accomplished concert pianist, Richard received standing ovations from audiences all over the world in awe of his rare combination of emotional resonance and flawless technique. Every finger of his hands was a finely calibrated instrument, dancing across the keys and striking each note with exacting precision. That was eight months ago.
Richard now has ALS, and his entire right arm is paralyzed. His fingers are impotent, still, devoid of possibility. The loss of his hand feels like a death, a loss of true love, a divorce—his divorce.
He knows his left arm will go next.
Three years ago, Karina removed their framed wedding picture from the living room wall and hung a mirror there instead. But she still hasn’t moved on. Karina is paralyzed by excuses and fear, stuck in an unfulfilling life as a piano teacher, afraid to pursue the path she abandoned as a young woman, blaming Richard and their failed marriage for all of it.
When Richard becomes increasingly paralyzed and is no longer able to live on his own, Karina becomes his reluctant caretaker. As Richard’s muscles, voice, and breath fade, both he and Karina try to reconcile their past before it’s too late.
Poignant and powerful, Every Note Played is a masterful exploration of redemption and what it means to find peace inside of forgiveness.
Relativity Media acquires #AngelinaJolie, #DavidOyelowo fantasy adventure ‘Come Away’ (exclusive) https://t.co/X3CwSeTB9C pic.twitter.com/eQ9B6Rf5B3
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 9, 2020
Come Away is the first commercial release for the new Relativity Media.
Why choose the Angelina Jolie and David Oyelowo-starrer as your first title brought to market?
We first looked at Come Away at Sundance. It plays right into one of our big differentiators at Relativity, as a company. We focus on people, we focus on principles and we focus on our partners. And with that we attempt to solve complicated problems with creative solutions. And with Come Away, we have great relationships and they had some needs that were a little bit complicated and we were able to be flexible -- on top of really liking the film.
Words like "complicated" and "being flexible" suggests you were looking for a wider theatrical release initially for Come Away, but the pandemic led you to a hybrid film launch, with a day and date indie theatrical and premium $19.99 VOD launch. How did that release strategy evolve?
We recognize that the world is changing. It's always changing, we're just feeling it more today because the pace of change is so magnified by COVID and social distancing and things we can do and can't do. We had to be flexible. This takes us back to our core culture. We have our relationships, our principles and our spirit of partnership. And we solved a complicated problem by getting this into the world on as many screens as we could. We can't predict as normally as we could how many people will show up at theaters. There just isn't enough data. But we have a terrific set of partners for the premium VOD release and we're going to have as successful campaign with this film had we been theatrical.
The simultaneous theatrical-PVOD release for Come Away means your exhibition and online partners will share in the movie's revenues, so it's a win-win for all involved?
We have partners and constituents. In this case, it's our shareholders, it's our partners in the film, Come Away. And it's our distribution partners, whether they be exhibitors or online platforms. And we will make this available to as many theaters as we can. Theatrical releases are a big part of our business plan going forward. But given the world we're in, there's a lot of uncertainty around that. We want to make sure we've got good partners all round. We don't think we're harming anyone's economics. We think it's a win-win all round.
Come Away is a family-friendly film. And by going both theatrically and to online platforms, you're confident you'll get as broad an audience as possible beyond the local multiplex?
We think Come Away is a terrific family film. It's the origin story of Alice and Peter. And today there's not a lot that's new that's geared towards families. We love the talent in the film. And we want to make it as accessible as we could to everyone. Regardless of whether someone wants to sit in a theater, or not, we wanted to make it accessible and everybody will have their own feelings about that.
Part of rebuilding Relativity Media was monetizing its content library. Tell us about that revenue-generating effort.
We haven't just put our library on sale. When we made the Relativity acquisition, one of the key assets of the company was the film library. It has 40-plus titles, and we're up to around 100 now as we've acquired another 30 titles in the last couple months to represent. We're not just walking in and saying will you buy some of this, please. It's working closely with the buyers and the programmers to make sure that we have product that they need and product that they want, and we're in constant conversation to ensure we're relevant to them.
A big question for the industry is whether streaming giants can continue releasing content, given the production disruption caused by the global pandemic. How do you see Hollywood's content market shaping up into next year and beyond?
Like everybody in the industry, we're watching closely what the largest players are doing -- whether it's Comcast or Disney or Netflix or Hulu, which is some combination of the above. They're going to shape the future of the industry, and we want to make sure that we're not chasing the puck around the ice. We want to skate to where we believe the puck will be. Everybody in the industry is being very attentive and observant, and to some extent we're very analytical people. We don't have all the answers today, but we have great relationships across the board, and that positions us well to be terrific partners to everybody in the industry in five years.
We recognize that the world is changing. It's always changing, we're just feeling it more today because the pace of change is so magnified by COVID and social distancing and things we can do and can't do. We had to be flexible. This takes us back to our core culture. We have our relationships, our principles and our spirit of partnership. And we solved a complicated problem by getting this into the world on as many screens as we could. We can't predict as normally as we could how many people will show up at theaters. There just isn't enough data. But we have a terrific set of partners for the premium VOD release and we're going to have as successful campaign with this film had we been theatrical.
The simultaneous theatrical-PVOD release for Come Away means your exhibition and online partners will share in the movie's revenues, so it's a win-win for all involved?
We have partners and constituents. In this case, it's our shareholders, it's our partners in the film, Come Away. And it's our distribution partners, whether they be exhibitors or online platforms. And we will make this available to as many theaters as we can. Theatrical releases are a big part of our business plan going forward. But given the world we're in, there's a lot of uncertainty around that. We want to make sure we've got good partners all round. We don't think we're harming anyone's economics. We think it's a win-win all round.
Come Away is a family-friendly film. And by going both theatrically and to online platforms, you're confident you'll get as broad an audience as possible beyond the local multiplex?
We think Come Away is a terrific family film. It's the origin story of Alice and Peter. And today there's not a lot that's new that's geared towards families. We love the talent in the film. And we want to make it as accessible as we could to everyone. Regardless of whether someone wants to sit in a theater, or not, we wanted to make it accessible and everybody will have their own feelings about that.
Part of rebuilding Relativity Media was monetizing its content library. Tell us about that revenue-generating effort.
We haven't just put our library on sale. When we made the Relativity acquisition, one of the key assets of the company was the film library. It has 40-plus titles, and we're up to around 100 now as we've acquired another 30 titles in the last couple months to represent. We're not just walking in and saying will you buy some of this, please. It's working closely with the buyers and the programmers to make sure that we have product that they need and product that they want, and we're in constant conversation to ensure we're relevant to them.
A big question for the industry is whether streaming giants can continue releasing content, given the production disruption caused by the global pandemic. How do you see Hollywood's content market shaping up into next year and beyond?
Like everybody in the industry, we're watching closely what the largest players are doing -- whether it's Comcast or Disney or Netflix or Hulu, which is some combination of the above. They're going to shape the future of the industry, and we want to make sure that we're not chasing the puck around the ice. We want to skate to where we believe the puck will be. Everybody in the industry is being very attentive and observant, and to some extent we're very analytical people. We don't have all the answers today, but we have great relationships across the board, and that positions us well to be terrific partners to everybody in the industry in five years.
