Exclusive: Mark Subias, UTA partner and head of theater, is exiting the agency to take a newly created job at production company Smuggler.
Subias, who has headed UTA’s Theater department for the past decade, will join Smuggler as Managing Partner of a new management arm at Smuggler, an international commercial, theater and film production company. Subias also will be developing and producing projects across theater, TV and film for the company.
“Mark helped plant UTA’s flag in the theater community and we are grateful to him for building out the business and the wonderful team of agents he helped hire, promote and mentor,” said UTA President David Kramer. “We’re excited to see what Mark does, and to continue to collaborate with him in his new endeavor.”
As Managing Partner, Subias will oversee the development and growth of the newly created Smuggler Management. He’ll be tasked with...
Subias, who has headed UTA’s Theater department for the past decade, will join Smuggler as Managing Partner of a new management arm at Smuggler, an international commercial, theater and film production company. Subias also will be developing and producing projects across theater, TV and film for the company.
“Mark helped plant UTA’s flag in the theater community and we are grateful to him for building out the business and the wonderful team of agents he helped hire, promote and mentor,” said UTA President David Kramer. “We’re excited to see what Mark does, and to continue to collaborate with him in his new endeavor.”
As Managing Partner, Subias will oversee the development and growth of the newly created Smuggler Management. He’ll be tasked with...
- 2/17/2023
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Film and TV lit manager Britton Rizzio is opening the doors to Curate Management, a boutique management firm that will focus on creators in film and TV.
With recent megamergers in the agency space, Curate will offer its creative roster a hands-on, specific, and tailored approach in representation.
With Curate, Rizzio becomes one of a small group of leading female literary managers to start their own company. She brings with her some of the most sought-after creatives in the industry, her clients including WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer, Oren Uziel, Emily Carmichael (Jurassic World), Our Lady J, and Emily St. Mandel whose acclaimed novel Station Eleven‘s TV adaptation will premiere on HBO Max this month.
There’s also Cody Heller who created Dummy, which stared Anna Kendrick as well as Laura Eason –showrunner for the upcoming show Three Women for Showtime,...
With recent megamergers in the agency space, Curate will offer its creative roster a hands-on, specific, and tailored approach in representation.
With Curate, Rizzio becomes one of a small group of leading female literary managers to start their own company. She brings with her some of the most sought-after creatives in the industry, her clients including WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer, Oren Uziel, Emily Carmichael (Jurassic World), Our Lady J, and Emily St. Mandel whose acclaimed novel Station Eleven‘s TV adaptation will premiere on HBO Max this month.
There’s also Cody Heller who created Dummy, which stared Anna Kendrick as well as Laura Eason –showrunner for the upcoming show Three Women for Showtime,...
- 12/6/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Just when you thought it was safe to go to the theater again without suffering through plays about straight couples caught up in parenting issues of interest to no one but themselves, along come liberated gay couples to rehash the old dilemmas in playwright Jordan Harrison’s “Log Cabin,” now playing at Off Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons.
Do we want a baby? Yes? No? Boy? Girl? What shall we name it? Will it ruin our social life? Our sex life? Will we even be decent parents? Will the kid grow up to be as screwed up as we are? And if we do take the plunge, whose sperm should we use? Whose womb? “It’s the thing to ask gay people now,” someone observes about the protocol of bringing up the subject of baby, “after ‘Are you getting married?’”
As a committed couple, Ezra and Chris have stability going for them,...
Do we want a baby? Yes? No? Boy? Girl? What shall we name it? Will it ruin our social life? Our sex life? Will we even be decent parents? Will the kid grow up to be as screwed up as we are? And if we do take the plunge, whose sperm should we use? Whose womb? “It’s the thing to ask gay people now,” someone observes about the protocol of bringing up the subject of baby, “after ‘Are you getting married?’”
As a committed couple, Ezra and Chris have stability going for them,...
- 6/26/2018
- by Marilyn Stasio
- Variety Film + TV
Tickets go on sale to the general public starting today, Wednesday, May 9, for the Playwrights Horizons Tim Sanford, Artistic Director Leslie Marcus, Managing Director world premiere production of Log Cabin, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at Playwrights Orange Is the New Black. Directed by Tony Award and Obie Award winner Pam MacKinnon Clybourne Park, The Qualms at Playwrights Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Parisian Woman, Log Cabin is the sixth and final production of the theater company's current 20172018 Season.
- 5/9/2018
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
On this episode, writercomposer Richard Thomas visits with actors Terrence Mann and Will Swenson from Thomas' controversial work Jerry Springer -The Opera, which created a sensation in the UK 13 years ago, but was considered so outrageous that it only now premieres in NYC. They discuss the spectacular production by The New Group at The Pershing Square Signature Center, with Michael Musto of NewNowNext.com and Susan Haskins. Next, playwright Jordan Harrison, director Oliver Butler and actor Michael Cyril Creighton talk about their production of Harrison's highly-original and thought-provoking play, The Amateurs, at the Vineyard Theatre, about a theater troop fleeing The Black Death in the Middle Ages and how these actors contributed to the modern dramatic concepts of character and individuality.
- 3/5/2018
- by Theater Talk
- BroadwayWorld.com
When it comes to collecting recent accolades like Windsor International Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award, Lois Smith, who made her film debut in 1955’s East of Eden opposite James Dean and has had notable roles in Twisterand on True Blood, says it’s mostly a matter of longevity. “Those words,” she tells Et, referring to lifetime achievement, “are a little alarming.” But all the recent fuss, as she describes it, comes as the longtime actress is earning the best reviews of her career for Marjorie Prime, a sci-fi film directed by Michael Almereyda based on the Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by Jordan Harrison.
“It’s not why one does the work, but it’s nice when it happens,” Smith says ever-so-diplomatically as she’s perched on a sofa in the lobby of the Thompson Hotel, just outside the Loop neighborhood of downtown Chicago.
Marjorie Prime, which was released in August after premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival...
“It’s not why one does the work, but it’s nice when it happens,” Smith says ever-so-diplomatically as she’s perched on a sofa in the lobby of the Thompson Hotel, just outside the Loop neighborhood of downtown Chicago.
Marjorie Prime, which was released in August after premiering at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival...
- 12/14/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
On Broadway and beyond, a curtain can rise as quickly as it can fall; a star can be swapped as easily as Bernie Telsey can say, “That’s enough.” Theater is the beating heart of New York show business and, if you want to make it here, it’s crucial you’re up to date on incoming projects, latest castings, and other industry news. Don’t worry, Broadway baby, Backstage has your back. Every week, we’re rounding up the can’t-miss stories no thespian should live without, so you can focus on important matters like hitting your high F. Curtain up and light those lights! “Chicago” gains a high-profile Billy Flynn.Following his stint earlier this year in the long-running hit “Kinky Boots,” Todrick Hall is wasting no time getting back to Broadway. Beginning Nov. 30, Hall will step into the teflon production of “Chicago,” playing smooth-talking Billy Flynn in a limited engagement through Jan.
- 11/23/2017
- backstage.com
This story about Lois Smith first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine. This fall, Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater played a double feature that represented bookends in the film career of underrated acting treasure Lois Smith. The first film was her feature debut, “East of Eden,” the James Dean classic directed by Elia Kazan. The second was one of her latest, “Marjorie Prime,” an intriguing and chilly sci-fi drama from Michael Almereyda. Marjorie is a role Smith can’t seem to get rid of — she workshopped the Jordan Harrison play before it premiered Off Broadway and became a Pulitzer.
- 11/22/2017
- by Matt Donnelly
- The Wrap
Better than ever, now in its seventh year, the spectacular program with its filmmaking guests and a committed community of dedicated and intellectually alive filmgoers invigorates the mind and activist tendencies already in play.
Take for instance, University of Arizona Professor Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world, speaking with Regents’ Professor Toni Massaro about social justice and the environment. Here he is, in person, being honored as every word he speaks is treated as a jewel. Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Chomsky has written more than 100 books, his most recent being Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power. An ardent free speech advocate, Chomsky has published and lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy, Mideast politics, terrorism, democratic society and war. Chomsky, who joined the UA faculty this fall, is a laureate professor in the Department of...
Take for instance, University of Arizona Professor Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world, speaking with Regents’ Professor Toni Massaro about social justice and the environment. Here he is, in person, being honored as every word he speaks is treated as a jewel. Considered the founder of modern linguistics, Chomsky has written more than 100 books, his most recent being Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power. An ardent free speech advocate, Chomsky has published and lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy, Mideast politics, terrorism, democratic society and war. Chomsky, who joined the UA faculty this fall, is a laureate professor in the Department of...
- 11/13/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
An eightysomething woman with dementia lives with a ghost-like hologram of her late husband in this affecting meditation on memory and mortality
Marjorie Prime is an affecting and audacious chamber piece: a futurist meditation on memory, mortality and the self. There is a certain sci-fi strangeness that doesn’t preclude an audience being moved, and the continuous thread of Mica Levi’s orchestral score maintains a heightened sense of awareness and even exaltation.
Michael Almereyda directs his own adaptation of a play by Jordan Harrison, and 87-year-old Lois Smith gives a tremendous performance in the lead, having originally played the part in the theatre. You can only imagine the tumultuous curtain call Smith must have received every night, and my slight reservation is that the authentic physical presence of actors on stage might have made this drama’s themes even more effective.
Continue reading...
Marjorie Prime is an affecting and audacious chamber piece: a futurist meditation on memory, mortality and the self. There is a certain sci-fi strangeness that doesn’t preclude an audience being moved, and the continuous thread of Mica Levi’s orchestral score maintains a heightened sense of awareness and even exaltation.
Michael Almereyda directs his own adaptation of a play by Jordan Harrison, and 87-year-old Lois Smith gives a tremendous performance in the lead, having originally played the part in the theatre. You can only imagine the tumultuous curtain call Smith must have received every night, and my slight reservation is that the authentic physical presence of actors on stage might have made this drama’s themes even more effective.
Continue reading...
- 11/8/2017
- The Guardian - Film News
“I probably have never been as excited about a new play as I was when I read that,” veteran actress Lois Smith said of Marjorie Prime, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Jordan Harrison play on which Michael Almareyda’s film of the same name is based. Breaking out at Sundance, where the indie auteur won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, the film stars Smith as Marjorie, an elderly woman who has a holographic version of her younger husband (Jonn Hamm) created to keep her…...
- 10/31/2017
- Deadline
Playwrights Horizons announced today that stage and screen star Jesse Tyler Ferguson 'Modern Family,' Fully Committed, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee has joined the cast of Log Cabin, the world premiere of a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Jordan Harrison Marjorie Prime, Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at Playwrights 'Orange Is the New Black'.
- 10/13/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Acting for the stage and screen for six decades—and sharing the screen with James Dean in East of Eden, her first big gig—Lois Smith may have found the role of a lifetime in Michael Almereyda's Sundance-premiering indie, Marjorie Prime. But to be clear, the actress' first experience with the material was on stage in both Los Angeles and New York. Based on Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play of the same name, the compelling sci-fi drama boasts a unique…...
- 10/8/2017
- Deadline
There are no spaceships or otherworldly creatures in “Marjorie Prime,” but the sci-fi drama isn’t lacking in big ideas. Michael Almereyda‘s film is based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-prize winning play which takes place in a not-so-distant future, where artificial intelligence has advanced to such a degree, that digital versions of deceased loves ones can be created. And it’s from this simple premise that a story about memory and truth begins to unfold.
Continue reading Exclusive ‘Marjorie Prime’ Clip: Jon Hamm Talks ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Exclusive ‘Marjorie Prime’ Clip: Jon Hamm Talks ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ at The Playlist.
- 8/25/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
How much of our personality, our reactions to situations, our relationships with our loved ones, determined by our memories, of them and ourselves? (A somewhat rherotical question, as I think the answer is quite a lot). As we age, and our memories fade or adjust, how we view those from our past changes; sometimes we just remember them as we want, and that can be both good and bad. Michael Almareyda's film Marjorie Prime, adapted from the Pulitzer-prize nominated play by Jordan Harrison, looks at the effects of age and memory on a mother-daughter relationship. Intimate, loving, strange and highly effective, it watches the negotiations between the family members with calculated caution, exploring very large philisophical questions in a specific and haunting story. Marjorie (an...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/17/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Sci-fi effects extravaganzas are a dime a dozen, but bona-fide sci-fi films—that is, movies that exemplify the so-called literature of ideas and not just the sci-fi aesthetic—are rare. Marjorie Prime, the offbeat indie stalwart Michael Almereyda’s thoughtful adaptation of a Pulitzer-nominated play by Jordan Harrison, isn’t interested in futuristic, high-tech backdrops, even though it seems to be set sometime in the 2040s. The most stylish thing about it is the eerie original music by Mica Levi, the art-damaged noise-popster-turned-composer who previously scored Under The Skin and Jackie. But aside from that, the movie lacks ostentation; it appears so simple and unworldly and unhip that one wants to protect it. This is business as usual for Almereyda (Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story, Hamlet), a brainy misfit kind of filmmaker who works with that mostly forgotten credo that indie films should give viewers something that doesn’t...
- 8/17/2017
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
“We got drunk in a bar last year and talked a lot about holograms.” – Michael Almereyda on his conversation with playwright Jordan Harrison.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 8/16/2017
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
“We got drunk in a bar last year and talked a lot about holograms.” – Michael Almereyda on his conversation with playwright Jordan Harrison.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 8/16/2017
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Based on Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize-nominated play of the same name, Marjorie Prime tells the story of an elderly woman (Lois Smith) who avails herself of a service which provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones as their survivors would like them remembered. With her health and memory failing, Marjorie begins to piece together her past with a computerized version of her deceased... Read More...
- 7/29/2017
- by Kevin Fraser
- JoBlo.com
The new emotional and unsettling trailer for FilmRise’s Marjorie Prime evokes some Black Mirror vibes and has drawn comparisons to Spike Jonze’s Her. Even so, the film based on the acclaimed Jordan Harrison play stands on its own as it has received high marks when it bowed earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The story follows the titular 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) as she spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband…...
- 7/26/2017
- Deadline
Michael Almereyda has two films this year, the curiously rhyming duo of Marjorie Prime and Escapes. The former, as I wrote from Sundance, is “a heavily modified adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s play, customized to fit the ever-adventurous Almereyda’s tastes and frames of reference. The premise is both simple and tricky: in the future, your deceased loved ones can be brought back as holograms for company. Marjorie (Lois Smith), aging and losing her memory, has her late husband Walter (Jon Hamm), eternally in his 40s, for company, a development which makes her daughter Tess (Geena Davis) a little nervous. From this low-key sci-fi […]...
- 7/26/2017
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Tony Sokol Jul 27, 2017
Lois Smith reprises her stage role as Marjorie Prime, Jon Hamm plays her dead husband’s loving hologram.
“You’re still too old for me,” 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) tells the still-young living memory of her dead husband, who promises the age isn’t a concern, so long as they go through it together. In a romantic twist on the current slate of Artificial Intelligence movies, this is a healing hologram. Played by Jon Hamm, Walter is a therapeutic tool programmed to bring memories back to life with more care than any human can. Writer-director Michael Almereyda adapted Jordan Harrison’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated stage play Marjorie Prime which starred Smith as the title character.
The hologram at the center of the story helps Marjorie connect with her past as she begins to lose her mental stability to age.
According to the official synopsis:
“In the near future,...
Lois Smith reprises her stage role as Marjorie Prime, Jon Hamm plays her dead husband’s loving hologram.
“You’re still too old for me,” 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) tells the still-young living memory of her dead husband, who promises the age isn’t a concern, so long as they go through it together. In a romantic twist on the current slate of Artificial Intelligence movies, this is a healing hologram. Played by Jon Hamm, Walter is a therapeutic tool programmed to bring memories back to life with more care than any human can. Writer-director Michael Almereyda adapted Jordan Harrison’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated stage play Marjorie Prime which starred Smith as the title character.
The hologram at the center of the story helps Marjorie connect with her past as she begins to lose her mental stability to age.
According to the official synopsis:
“In the near future,...
- 7/26/2017
- Den of Geek
Director Michael Almereyda’s follow-up to his acclaimed 2015 film Experimenter is twofold: his documentary on Hampton Fancher, Escapes, opens today at the IFC Center, and his latest fiction feature entitled Marjorie Prime, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and received the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, is set to open on August 18.
An adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s 2014 play, the science-fiction drama concerns the eponymous Marjorie (Lois Smith) who uses hologram technology to recreate her late husband (Jon Hamm). The result appears to be a contemplative gaze upon memory and mortality, bolstered by the presence of Marjorie’s daughter and son-in-law (Geena Davis and Tim Robbins, respectively), which you can get a taste of in a new trailer.
“Played out in a calm, low-key manner, Marjorie Prime can be most compelling in the ways it prompts contemplation about one’s own life experience,” we said in our review.
An adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s 2014 play, the science-fiction drama concerns the eponymous Marjorie (Lois Smith) who uses hologram technology to recreate her late husband (Jon Hamm). The result appears to be a contemplative gaze upon memory and mortality, bolstered by the presence of Marjorie’s daughter and son-in-law (Geena Davis and Tim Robbins, respectively), which you can get a taste of in a new trailer.
“Played out in a calm, low-key manner, Marjorie Prime can be most compelling in the ways it prompts contemplation about one’s own life experience,” we said in our review.
- 7/26/2017
- by Ryan Swen
- The Film Stage
The first trailer has been released for Jon Hamm's new film Marjorie Prime, which is kind of a sci-fi film with a Black Mirror-esque vibe to it. The fascinating and eerie story is set in a future where technological advances have allowed humans to reconnect with computerized versions of their departed loved ones.
The film also stars Lois Smith, who plays "an ailing widow who, with the help of an artificially intelligent rendering of her late husband, played by Jon Hamm, ponders her own mortality as she revisits events from the past with her new companion." I'm sure you can see why I compared its story to the kinds of things we'd see on Black Mirror.
When talking about the film Smith tells EW:
"I’ve been acting for many decades now, I’ve had deeply interesting roles to play both on stage and screen, this one is particularly precious I suppose,...
The film also stars Lois Smith, who plays "an ailing widow who, with the help of an artificially intelligent rendering of her late husband, played by Jon Hamm, ponders her own mortality as she revisits events from the past with her new companion." I'm sure you can see why I compared its story to the kinds of things we'd see on Black Mirror.
When talking about the film Smith tells EW:
"I’ve been acting for many decades now, I’ve had deeply interesting roles to play both on stage and screen, this one is particularly precious I suppose,...
- 7/26/2017
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
If you ever wanted to see an episode of “Black Mirror” on the big screen, “Marjorie Prime” might be the perfect indie movie for you this summer. The latest from Michael Almereyda (“Experimenter”) is an adaptation Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play of the same name.
‘Marjorie Prime’ Review: Jon Hamm as a Hologram Can’t Save This Lifeless Adaptation
Set in the future, “Marjorie Prime” tells the story of an elderly woman (Lois) who uses a service that creates holographic projections of late family members in order to reconnect with her deceased husband (Jon Hamm). The two revisit their most intimate memories, but the relationship between human and artificial intelligence creates surprising results for all involved, including the women’s children. Geena Davis, Tim Robbins, and Stephanie Andujar co-star.
“Marjorie Prime” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. FilmRise will be releasing the movie in New York...
‘Marjorie Prime’ Review: Jon Hamm as a Hologram Can’t Save This Lifeless Adaptation
Set in the future, “Marjorie Prime” tells the story of an elderly woman (Lois) who uses a service that creates holographic projections of late family members in order to reconnect with her deceased husband (Jon Hamm). The two revisit their most intimate memories, but the relationship between human and artificial intelligence creates surprising results for all involved, including the women’s children. Geena Davis, Tim Robbins, and Stephanie Andujar co-star.
“Marjorie Prime” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. FilmRise will be releasing the movie in New York...
- 7/26/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
This month’s BAMcinemaFest isn’t just for New York cinephiles, as the annual festival routinely rolls out a slate that includes the year’s best indie offerings, giving many of them a major boost before they roll out theatrical runs. This year is no different, as the Brooklyn-based event will play home to a slew of festival favorites, including a hefty dose of Sundance’s buzziest titles and some big-time SXSW winners and everything in between, most of them bound for a release in a theater (hopefully) near you.
Read More: Richard Linklater’s ‘The Last Detail’ Sequel ‘Last Flag Flying’ to Open New York Film Festival
As we look ahead to the rest of the year in indie cinema, these 20 titles stand out as some of the best and the brightest still left on the calendar. Fortunately, we’ve got plenty of information on each of them to satiate you.
Read More: Richard Linklater’s ‘The Last Detail’ Sequel ‘Last Flag Flying’ to Open New York Film Festival
As we look ahead to the rest of the year in indie cinema, these 20 titles stand out as some of the best and the brightest still left on the calendar. Fortunately, we’ve got plenty of information on each of them to satiate you.
- 6/14/2017
- by Kate Erbland and Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Author: Linda Marric
Adapted by Michael Almereyda from Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-shortlisted 2014 play, Marjorie Prime deals with themes relating to Memory, ageing, and mortality within a stunningly understated sci-fi setting. Presented as part of Sundance London, this beautifully complex, yet thoroughly engaging production is sure to delight as much as bewilder its audiences. Set in a near-future (think extended Black Mirror episode, only way more cerebral and far less preachy), Marjorie Prime presents a highly philosophical look into the human condition in a world ruled by technical advancement and scientific innovation.
Play-to-screen adaptations have seldom been given an easy ride by critics and audiences alike. It’s clear that managing to keep the same ethos attached to the original source material is near impossible to achieve, but in the case of Marjorie Prime, It suffices to say that none of the usual pitfalls are anywhere to be found. Reprising her role from the play,...
Adapted by Michael Almereyda from Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-shortlisted 2014 play, Marjorie Prime deals with themes relating to Memory, ageing, and mortality within a stunningly understated sci-fi setting. Presented as part of Sundance London, this beautifully complex, yet thoroughly engaging production is sure to delight as much as bewilder its audiences. Set in a near-future (think extended Black Mirror episode, only way more cerebral and far less preachy), Marjorie Prime presents a highly philosophical look into the human condition in a world ruled by technical advancement and scientific innovation.
Play-to-screen adaptations have seldom been given an easy ride by critics and audiences alike. It’s clear that managing to keep the same ethos attached to the original source material is near impossible to achieve, but in the case of Marjorie Prime, It suffices to say that none of the usual pitfalls are anywhere to be found. Reprising her role from the play,...
- 6/5/2017
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Fox Searchlight has bought the rights to “The Spy With No Name,” an ebook written by Jeff Maysh and published by Amazon Kindle Single, Deadline reports. Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert of Emjag Productions will produce alongside “Argo” executive producer David Klawans.
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: Grasshopper Film Gets ‘Escapes,’ Amazon and IFC Films Date ‘City of Ghosts’ and More
The true story centers on Erwin van Haarlem, a Cold War secret agent who stole the identity of a Dutch man whose mother had given him up for adoption. The Communist spy pretended to be Johanna van Haarlem’s long lost son for 11 years before being caught.
– FilmRise has acquired the U.S. rights to Michael Almereyda’s “Marjorie Prime,...
– Fox Searchlight has bought the rights to “The Spy With No Name,” an ebook written by Jeff Maysh and published by Amazon Kindle Single, Deadline reports. Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert of Emjag Productions will produce alongside “Argo” executive producer David Klawans.
Read More: Film Acquisition Rundown: Grasshopper Film Gets ‘Escapes,’ Amazon and IFC Films Date ‘City of Ghosts’ and More
The true story centers on Erwin van Haarlem, a Cold War secret agent who stole the identity of a Dutch man whose mother had given him up for adoption. The Communist spy pretended to be Johanna van Haarlem’s long lost son for 11 years before being caught.
– FilmRise has acquired the U.S. rights to Michael Almereyda’s “Marjorie Prime,...
- 3/31/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
FilmRise has acquired U.S. rights to Sundance winner “Marjorie Prime” and is planning a mid-summer release and a fall awards push for star Lois Smith, the distributor announced Tuesday. “Marjorie Prime” is a sci-fi drama that stars Smith as Marjorie, an 86-year-old widow who spends time with a holographic likeness of a younger version of her deceased husband, Walter (Jon Hamm). The hologram version of Walter provides companionship and stimulates Marjorie’s memory as she lives with dementia. Michael Almereyda adapted the film from Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play of the same name. Uri Singer of Passage Pictures produced.
- 3/28/2017
- by Matt Pressberg
- The Wrap
Golden ExitsDear Lawrence,“How was your day?” you ask. Hmm. Well, we’ve just past the halfway mark of the festival, and I’m only now in step with its routine and rhythm: wake up at 6:45, drive through the blizzardy Canyon between Salt Lake City and Park City, run to the press office, sprint from the headquarters to the first screening of the day, and so on, and so on. Film festivals are hardly work yet they’re hardly a vacation either, and at this point, I’ve lost almost all the ecstatic anticipation I had on the first day. My Sundance has been a constant negotiation of two competing impulses: gratefulness and cynicism, excitement and exhaustion, depression and fulfillment. So, to answer your question, it’s complicated. Alex Ross Perry’s Golden Exits is one of the festival’s most perceptive films about the ambivalence of human behavior (the most would be,...
- 1/31/2017
- MUBI
Generally speaking, this year’s Sundance Film Festival was a very healthy marketplace that guaranteed many of its highlights will make it to audiences beyond the festival circuit soon. From heavy hitters like “The Big Sick” and “Mudbound” to discoveries like “Thoroughbred,” there was plenty of buyer interest spread throughout the lineup. As usual, though, plenty of worthy titles ended the festival with uncertain futures.
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Here are a few memorable ones that deserve distribution.
“Bitch”
There are plenty of stories about domestic housewives who grow tired of their oppressive routines, but none quite like Marianna Palka’s vicious feminist satire “Bitch,” in which the writer-director-star plays a woman who assumes the identity of a wild dog. It’s a blunt metaphor, but Palka transforms the absurd premise into a chilling look at the destruction...
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Here are a few memorable ones that deserve distribution.
“Bitch”
There are plenty of stories about domestic housewives who grow tired of their oppressive routines, but none quite like Marianna Palka’s vicious feminist satire “Bitch,” in which the writer-director-star plays a woman who assumes the identity of a wild dog. It’s a blunt metaphor, but Palka transforms the absurd premise into a chilling look at the destruction...
- 1/31/2017
- by David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn and Jude Dry
- Indiewire
“I will remember that now.” Such is the repeated reply from the various “primes” — holograms, and damn fine ones — who populate Michael Almereyda’s “Marjorie Prime,” a big-screen adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play about artificial intelligence and the 85-year-old Marjorie, whose handsome companion is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. Starring acting legend and multiple Tony nominee Lois Smith (reprising the role she originated on stage in 2014) with Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins, Almereyda’s feature is rich in acting talent, but this stagey, flat drama can’t match the wattage of its leads.
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Awkward pacing and questionable narrative choices pepper the feature, which starts strong and raises bigger questions to which it will return during its otherwise lumpy run. Now in her twilight years,...
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Awkward pacing and questionable narrative choices pepper the feature, which starts strong and raises bigger questions to which it will return during its otherwise lumpy run. Now in her twilight years,...
- 1/25/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Humanity’s most invaluable asset is our memory. It fuels our imagination, ignites conversations, and can unite us. It can also be distorted, reshaped, and forgotten altogether. Marjorie Prime, a micro-scale sci-fi chamber drama, fascinatingly explores the perception and dissolution of what we remember throughout our lives. Michael Almereyda’s contemplative new film, which could double as the best-written episode of Black Mirror yet, most poignantly serves as catalyst for a personal self-reflection on the part of the viewer.
Adapted by Almereyda himself from Jordan Harrison’s play, it opens on the 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) — presumably around the year 2050, based on a pop-culture calculation courtesy of My Best Friend’s Wedding — talking to a man on her couch (Jon Hamm). With his cold, calculated manner of response, we soon learn he’s actually a hologram of her late husband. (Think the most advanced version of Alexa.) Presumably purchased by her child,...
Adapted by Almereyda himself from Jordan Harrison’s play, it opens on the 86-year-old Marjorie (Lois Smith) — presumably around the year 2050, based on a pop-culture calculation courtesy of My Best Friend’s Wedding — talking to a man on her couch (Jon Hamm). With his cold, calculated manner of response, we soon learn he’s actually a hologram of her late husband. (Think the most advanced version of Alexa.) Presumably purchased by her child,...
- 1/25/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of my least favorite ways to describe a movie is as a “meditation on” love/time/memory/death/etc. (It’s always some heavy abstract thing, never, say, “a meditation on Doritos.”) I guess Michael Almereyda is on the same page, per his introduction to this morning’s screening of Marjorie Prime. “It’s been described as a meditation,” he cracked. “I hope it’s not. It’s a movie.” Specifically, it’s a heavily modified adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s play, customized to fit the ever-adventurous Almereyda’s tastes and frames of reference. The premise is both simple and tricky: in the future, your deceased loved ones can be brought back […]...
- 1/24/2017
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Though the end of the year is already upon us, the Sundance Film Festival is just around the corner, which will feature new work from Alex Ross Perry, Marti Noxon and Michael Almereyda, who will premiere his latest sci-fi film “Marjorie Prime.”
Read More: ‘Marjorie Prime’ Exclusive Teaser: Lois Smith And Jon Hamm Star In New Sci-Fi Drama About Artificial Intelligence
Based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by the same name, the film focuses on a futuristic service that creates holographic projections of deceased family members. In the film, the elderly Marjorie (Lois Smith) spends time with a younger version of her late husband (Jon Hamm) only for complications to arise when she tries to peace her life together. It co-stars Tim Robbins (“The Shawshank Redemption”), Geena Davis (“Thelma and Louise”) and Stephanie Andujar (“A Walk Among The Tombstones”). See an exclusive photo from the film below.
Almereyda...
Read More: ‘Marjorie Prime’ Exclusive Teaser: Lois Smith And Jon Hamm Star In New Sci-Fi Drama About Artificial Intelligence
Based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by the same name, the film focuses on a futuristic service that creates holographic projections of deceased family members. In the film, the elderly Marjorie (Lois Smith) spends time with a younger version of her late husband (Jon Hamm) only for complications to arise when she tries to peace her life together. It co-stars Tim Robbins (“The Shawshank Redemption”), Geena Davis (“Thelma and Louise”) and Stephanie Andujar (“A Walk Among The Tombstones”). See an exclusive photo from the film below.
Almereyda...
- 12/16/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Jordan Harrison’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play “Marjorie Prime” explores what happens when artificial intelligence enters the home and tries to aid us. It follows the 86-year-old Marjorie (played by Lois Smith in the first production), whose mind routinely falls into confusion and fading memories. But then she acquires a handsome new companion who resembles her late husband and is programmed to tell her the story of her life. The question is, “What would you remember, if given the chance?” Now director Michael Almereyda (“Experimenter”) will adapt Harrison’s play to the screen with Smith reprising the title role and Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”) as Marjorie’s new companion. The film also stars Geena Davis (“The Accidental Tourist”) and Tim Robbins (“Mystic River”). Watch an exclusive teaser for the film below.
Read More: 6 Career Paths Jon Hamm Should Consider After ‘Mad Men’
Smith is best known for his long, illustrious theatrical career,...
Read More: 6 Career Paths Jon Hamm Should Consider After ‘Mad Men’
Smith is best known for his long, illustrious theatrical career,...
- 9/13/2016
- by Annakeara Stinson
- Indiewire
Jordan Harrison’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play “Marjorie Prime” explores what happens when artificial intelligence enters the home and tries to aid us. It follows the 86-year-old Marjorie (played by Lois Smith in the first production), whose mind routinely falls into confusion and fading memories. But then she acquires a handsome new companion who resembles her late husband and is programmed to tell her the story of her life. The question is, “What would you remember, if given the chance?” Now director Michael Almereyda (“Experimenter”) will adapt Harrison’s play to the screen with Smith reprising the title role and Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”) as Marjorie’s new companion. The film also stars Geena Davis (“The Accidental Tourist”) and Tim Robbins (“Mystic River”). Watch an exclusive teaser for the film below.
Read More: 6 Career Paths Jon Hamm Should Consider After ‘Mad Men’
Smith is best known for his long, illustrious theatrical career,...
Read More: 6 Career Paths Jon Hamm Should Consider After ‘Mad Men’
Smith is best known for his long, illustrious theatrical career,...
- 9/13/2016
- by Annakeara Stinson
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Jon Hamm, Lois Smith, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins star in the sci-fi drama.
Los Angeles-based Fortitude International will introduce Marjorie Prime to international buyers in Berlin next month.
Michael Almereyda, whose Experimenter premiered in Sundance 2015, directs the adaptation of last year’s Pulitzer prize-nominated play by Jordan Harrison starring Smith in the title role.
Uri Singer of Experimenter producer Bb Film Productions produced the film, which is currently in post-production.
Marjorie Prime centres on an aging violinist with deteriorating memory who hires a service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones.
In this way she is able to spend time with her daughter and son-in-law and an imperfect copy of her late husband as he looked in his 30s and 40s. John Sloss of Cinetic Media handles Us rights.
“The cast of Marjorie Prime – Tim Robbins, Geena Davis, Jon Hamm and Lois Smith – deliver exceptional performances in this film,” said Fortitude...
Los Angeles-based Fortitude International will introduce Marjorie Prime to international buyers in Berlin next month.
Michael Almereyda, whose Experimenter premiered in Sundance 2015, directs the adaptation of last year’s Pulitzer prize-nominated play by Jordan Harrison starring Smith in the title role.
Uri Singer of Experimenter producer Bb Film Productions produced the film, which is currently in post-production.
Marjorie Prime centres on an aging violinist with deteriorating memory who hires a service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones.
In this way she is able to spend time with her daughter and son-in-law and an imperfect copy of her late husband as he looked in his 30s and 40s. John Sloss of Cinetic Media handles Us rights.
“The cast of Marjorie Prime – Tim Robbins, Geena Davis, Jon Hamm and Lois Smith – deliver exceptional performances in this film,” said Fortitude...
- 1/28/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Playwrights Horizons presents the New York premiere of 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist Marjorie Prime, a new play by Jordan Harrison Maple and Vine, Doris to Darlene at Ph Amazons and Their Men Kid-Simple 'Orange is the New Black'. Commissioned byPlaywrights Horizons and directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman Detroit, Maple and Vine, Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra at Ph Belleville This Wide Night The Thugs, the play opens tonight, December 14, at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater 416 West 42nd Street, and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, January 3. Let's see what the critics had to say...
- 12/15/2015
- by Review Roundups
- BroadwayWorld.com
There’s something slightly off about Walter, one of four (or is it six?) characters in Marjorie Prime, the startling and profound new drama by Jordan Harrison now at Playwrights Horizons. Walter’s recall is prodigious and he’s unflaggingly kind, but his social rhythm is a bit geeky. When he hears something new, he says, “I’ll remember that fact.” When he can’t answer a question, he says, “I’m afraid I don’t have that information” as if he were a tech-support agent trying to help you with your phone bill. Marjorie, his wife, doesn’t mind. At 85, with her own memory mostly shot, she is grateful to have Walter’s to remind her of the old days: how they met and married, had children, survived tragedy. But that’s odd, too, because Walter appears to be a glossy young man of 30. (He’s played, with perfectly calibrated artificiality,...
- 12/15/2015
- by Jesse Green
- Vulture
Experimenter director Michael Almereyda Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Michael Almereyda's thrilling Experimenter with Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram, Winona Ryder as his wife Sacha, Jim Gaffigan as the "Learner", "Teachers" including John Leguizamo and Tom Farrell, and Ned Eisenberg as social psychology pioneer Solomon Asch, is a storytelling experiment on its own.
Busy preparing his new film, starring Lois Smith and Jon Hamm, based on Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize nominated play, Marjorie Prime, Michael met me at a café in the East Village to discuss Experimenter with a quick glance back at Sam Shepard directing The Late Henry Moss in Almereyda's This So-Called Disaster (starring Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Sheila Tousey and Cheech Marin), and a move forward to more Italo Calvino folktales.
Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram: "My admiration for him just deepened as I went."
Experimenter jumps straight into the obedience experiment, which over half a century later,...
Michael Almereyda's thrilling Experimenter with Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram, Winona Ryder as his wife Sacha, Jim Gaffigan as the "Learner", "Teachers" including John Leguizamo and Tom Farrell, and Ned Eisenberg as social psychology pioneer Solomon Asch, is a storytelling experiment on its own.
Busy preparing his new film, starring Lois Smith and Jon Hamm, based on Jordan Harrison's Pulitzer Prize nominated play, Marjorie Prime, Michael met me at a café in the East Village to discuss Experimenter with a quick glance back at Sam Shepard directing The Late Henry Moss in Almereyda's This So-Called Disaster (starring Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Sheila Tousey and Cheech Marin), and a move forward to more Italo Calvino folktales.
Peter Sarsgaard as Stanley Milgram: "My admiration for him just deepened as I went."
Experimenter jumps straight into the obedience experiment, which over half a century later,...
- 10/2/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Already boasting the acting skills of Lois Smith and recently Emmy winner (finally!) Jon Hamm, play adaptation Marjorie Prime is adding another great performer. Geena Davis will join the pair in the sci-fi story.Hamlet and Cymbeline director Michael Almereyda is in the director’s chair for this one, overseeing the adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated stage work that featured Smith in the lead role. She’s back here to play Marjorie, an 85-year-old violinist with concerns that her memory is failing her. She invests in a service that allows people to see holographic recreations of deceased loved ones as we’d want them to be remembered, which means she interacts with a younger version of her late husband, Walter (Hamm), who is not exactly how she recalls him. She also spends time with her (living) daughter Tess (Davis) and son-in-law Jon. Almereyda will start the cameras rolling in the Hamptons next month.
- 9/30/2015
- EmpireOnline
Exclusive: Geena Davis has joined the cast of Marjorie Prime, the sci-fi dramedy being directed by Michael Almereyda based on the 2014 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play by Jordan Harrison. This is the pic that newly crowned Emmy winner Jon Hamm recently boarded along with Lois Smith, who will star as Marjorie as she did onstage in La and soon in New York. Marjorie is an aging violinist and a clever, wry woman who, at age 85, finds that her memory is failing her. Availing…...
- 9/30/2015
- Deadline
With Mad Men having drawn to a close, all eyes are inevitably on its star, Jon Hamm, to see where his interests will take him next. His choices have always been both surprising and rewarding, with forays into comedy (Bridesmaids, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp) proving as successful as his dramatic projects (The Town, Black Mirror, Million Dollar Arm). His next choice may well be a combination of the two genres, with a little science fiction mixed in, as it seems the actor is currently in talks to star in the upcoming film, Marjorie Prime.
The movie will be an adaptation of the 2014 play of the same name, which was written by Orange Is The New Black writer, Jordan Harrison. It was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and its adaptation is set to be written and directed by Michael Almereyda (Cymbeline...
The movie will be an adaptation of the 2014 play of the same name, which was written by Orange Is The New Black writer, Jordan Harrison. It was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and its adaptation is set to be written and directed by Michael Almereyda (Cymbeline...
- 8/28/2015
- by Sarah Myles
- We Got This Covered
If you already miss seeing Jon Hamm's mug on a weekly basis, fear not as it looks like you'll have a very Hamm-filled 2016 to look forward to! The man is filling up his schedule with movies to shoot, now that his TV commitments are done, and this next one takes him into the science fiction realm. Based on the 2015 pulitzer prize finalist for drama by Jordan Harrison, Marjorie Prime would see Hamm... Read More...
- 8/28/2015
- by Sean Wist
- JoBlo.com
"Mad Men" star Jon Hamm is in talks to co-star in the science fiction dramedy "Marjorie Prime" based on Jordan Harrison's novel which was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
The story follows an elderly, arthritic former violinist staring headlong into the decline of old age as her memories begin to fail. She engages a service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones as their survivors would like them remembered.
Hamm is circling the role of Walter, an imperfect copy of her deceased husband as he looked in his 30s and 40s with whom she spends time.
Michael Almereyda ("Experimenter") wrote and will direct the adaptation which begins shooting in October.
Source: Deadline...
The story follows an elderly, arthritic former violinist staring headlong into the decline of old age as her memories begin to fail. She engages a service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved ones as their survivors would like them remembered.
Hamm is circling the role of Walter, an imperfect copy of her deceased husband as he looked in his 30s and 40s with whom she spends time.
Michael Almereyda ("Experimenter") wrote and will direct the adaptation which begins shooting in October.
Source: Deadline...
- 8/28/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
After spending several years in the 1960s playing Don Draper (and not taking home any hardware yet), Jon Hamm is kind of like, Well, I guess I could maybe play a hologram? Sure, why not? Deadline reports that the actor is in talks to co-star in an adaptation of the sci-fi dramedy Marjorie Prime, the story of an ailing violinist enduring the rest of her existence in an assisted-living facility with a therapeutic, holographic companion. The holograms from the original play, which was written by Jordan Harrison and was a 2015 Pulitzer finalist, take the form of predeceased loved ones. Hamm would reportedly play (if the movie is to be anything like the source material) the hologram of the titular Marjorie's husband — but probably in his 30s or 40s — there to either revisit or rewrite memories with her, so as to prevent her mind from atrophying before death.When...
- 8/28/2015
- by Sean Fitz-Gerald
- Vulture
Exclusive: Mad Men star Jon Hamm is in talks to costar in science fiction dramedy Marjorie Prime, an adaptation of the 2015 pulitzer prize finalist for drama by Jordan Harrison. The story delves into themes of accepting loss and growing older, following an elderly, arthritic former violinist named Marjorie, staring headlong into the decline of old age as her memories begin to fail her. Availing herself of a service that provides holographic recreations of deceased loved…...
- 8/28/2015
- Deadline
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