Lionsgate have announced ‘The Big Wedding’, a Nu Image / Millennium Films production that Lionsgate will be distributing in the U.S. and the U.K. The announcement was made jointly by Joe Drake, President of Lionsgate’s Motion Picture Group, Jason Constantine, Lionsgate’s President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, and Avi Lerner, Founder and Co-Chairman of Nu Image, who is handling international sales of the film.

The film, which boasts an all star cast including Robert De Niro, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Robin Williams, Ben Barnes and Topher Grace, is currently shooting in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Written and directed by Justin Zackham (‘The Bucket List’), the film centers around Don (De Niro) and Ellie (Keaton), a long divorced couple being forced to pretend that they are still happily married at their son’s wedding. Among all of their family and friends, the hoax snowballs into a poignant and raucously funny story about the ties that bind.

Nu Image’s Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort and Trevor Short are executive producing, with Justin Zackham, Clay Pecorin, Richard Salvatore and Harry Ufland producing.

“The Big Wedding is a charming, rollicking movie that promises to be an instant intergenerational family comedy classic,” explains Drake of the film’s appeal to the studio.  “We are thrilled to be in business once again with Avi and Nu Image,” adds Constantine.  “After our success together with action genre films like ‘The Expendables’ and the upcoming ‘Conan The Barbarian’, this film presented a wonderful opportunity to expand our collaborative horizons into the realm of broad comedy.”

“Our relationship with Lionsgate has always been mutually beneficial and one of great respect. A film like The Big Wedding only reinforces that idea and takes our relationship to the next level,” says Lerner. “We know that Lionsgate’s faith in us to deliver on all of the potential of this comedy is well placed.”

Negotiations on behalf of Lionsgate were overseen by Constantine along with Lionsgate’s SVP of Acquisitions Eda Kowan and EVP of Business & Legal Affairs Wendy Jaffe.

About Lionsgate 

Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution and new channel platforms.

The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming through Debmar-Mercury and an array of channel assets.

Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as “Mad Men”, “Weeds” and “Nurse Jackie” along with  the comedy “Blue Mountain State, ” the upcoming drama “Boss” and the syndication successes “Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne”, its spinoff “Meet The Browns”,  the upcoming “For Better or Worse,” ”The Wendy Williams Show” and “Are We There Yet?”.

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One of today’s busiest actresses, Amanda Seyfried has showcased plenty of excellent performances in the last couple of years. The 25-year-old starlet has starred alongside starts such as Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright and proved to many that she is worthy of her place among these profiles.

In the sci-fi action thriller In Time, she plays the part of rich girl Sylvia who’s encounter with Will Salas makes the explosive cocktail for one of the most exciting movies this winter. While Sylvia may become someone who inspires Will to take up the fight, she certainly does not start out that way.

The nascent darker side of Sylvia was something Seyfried could bring to the fore, says executive producer Andrew Z. Davis: “What I love about Amanda is there’s a sweetness about her but, at the same time, she has an edge. I don’t think audiences have really gotten to see her edge that much in movies.”

“Sylvia is the girl in the gilded cage,” seconds his co-executive producer Amy Israel, “trapped by her situation; she questions it because she isn’t sure everything is exactly the way it should be. But she’s kept in that system by her father and her circumstance, all the time yearning for more, wanting to take risks. But no one in New Greenwich takes risks.”

“Sylvia dreads her life every day,” reveals Amanda Seyfried. “She wants to have some kind of adventure. In a world like this, you spend so much time trying to protect your life that you don’t really end up living. Everybody has bodyguards. They all eat very well, but very little, they don’t drink or smoke; it’s mundane.

Sylvia just isn’t made for this kind of life. She gets her wish for a different life when Will takes her away.” Seyfried was attracted to many of the things that captured her on-screen partner Justin Timberlake’s imagination about the world Niccol had created. “Andrew’s one of a kind, and I wanted to be a part of this.

It’s so very different, but at the same time, it has so many parallels to the way we live, which is why it’s so smart. And I have to admit, getting to hold a gun and kick some butt also sounded like a blast.” Sylvia and Will are running for their lives – not just to find enough time to make it through another day, but from the Timekeepers out to capture the fugitive duo.

“Timekeepers keep the system running; they actually keep time,” says Niccol. “And our principal antagonist, Timekeeper Leon, is not really a villain. He is just a bureaucrat, an authority figure who has allegiance to no one, rich or poor. His only allegiance is to minutes and seconds.”

For the role of the Timekeeper Leon the filmmakers cast another versatile actor, Cillian Murphy. Murphy acknowledges the circumstances of his character – “he’s a cop charged with keeping this system going” – but the actor finds the deeper layers of Leon more compelling to play: “What’s great about the character is that he is a contradiction, because he’s actually from that same ghetto where Will lives.

Deep down, he knows that it’s a corrupt system, and yet he’s decided to accept that and pursue his goal of keeping time. He’s a very kinetic and focused character, and for him it’s just about constantly moving forward. I think he’s suppressed all of his past. What I liked about the writing is that Will and Leon, they’re the flip side of each other.

It’s just different paths having been taken. This is the path he’s chosen, and he suppresses all of the misgivings and issues he has with this system. He’s tried to leave them behind over the course of his life.”

As with the classic archetypal chase – the hunter and the hunted – so beautifully realized in, for example, The Fugitive, a bond forms as the chase quickens. Murphy adds, “Not only does Leon realize he’s from the same side of the tracks as Will, but there is a sense of history; Leon knew Will’s father. I think over the course of the story, they gain a respect for each other.”

Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com

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The upcoming movie In Time, featuring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, is written and directed by Andrew Niccol and will introduce audiences to a mind-blowing concept that makes reality out of the saying “time is money.”

In a future where time is literally money and aging stops at 25, the only way to stay alive is to earn, steal, or inherit more time. The main character, Will Salas, lives minute-to-minute, until a windfall of time gives him access to the world of the wealthy, where he teams up with a beautiful young heiress to destroy the corrupt system.

The story picks up the obsession with youth of our society. Billions of dollars are spent annually by the health and beauty industries, trying to find ways to halt the body’s aging process, feeding consumers willing to spend a cumulative amount that could erase a small country’s debt in exchange for their very own fountain of youth.

Science edges ever closer to finding the solution to combating the complex process, but in the meantime, one man may have found a way to keep human beings young forever — on paper, at least: future-realist filmmaker Andrew Niccol. Niccol’s skill in bringing together big action set pieces and big ideas in unexpected ways, in fantastical yet recognizable worlds is in full evidence in his new feature.

“In Time is an action thriller,” Niccol points out. “I think people can enjoy it on that level. They’ll go for the stunts, action, car chases and to see Amanda Seyfried wielding a gun, which she does brilliantly! But I think audiences will appreciate some of the ideas and themes we explore, because In Time does say something about our desire to stay young forever.

While we can’t turn off the aging gene, as we’re able to do in the film, we do go to a lot of extremes to stay young.” Niccol, a New Zealander, had honed his filmmaking skills in London directing commercials, before arriving in Hollywood with a splash as writer and director of Gattaca.

The following year, he penned The Truman Show, which garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Niccol’s ability to bring together bold, new ideas with instantly relatable ones resonated with producer Eric Newman. “Like all of Andrew’s work, his screenplay for In Time really transported me, and I found myself in a world he had created,” Newman recalls.

“It was a parable, a socially conscious work and yet, like all his work, it was incredibly entertaining, fast-paced and brilliant.” Executive producer Andrew Z. Davis was eager to work on a film that was both a great ride and a social commentary: “In Time has resonance. Everyone can relate to a story about haves and have-nots, which is essentially what the story’s about.

But, at the same time, it has action, romance, and a political message. And as everyone knows, a good thriller has to have a ticking clock, whether you’re waiting for a bomb to go off or a hostage to get rescued. In this movie, it is actually a clock; time is the great discriminator.”

Executive producer Kristel Laiblin was taken with the intricacies of Niccol’s work and the flourishes in his storytelling: “Andrew’s way with telling a story is economical and evocative. The world of our hero moves quickly; no one wastes time.  At the opposite end is the world of the wealthy, where you’d never see anyone timing out.

You can spend time however you want—a leisurely game, like cards, which no one would play elsewhere. They are completely different worlds and Andrew created them both vividly in a few pages.”

Amy Israel, an executive producer on In Time, was at New Regency Productions when Niccol brought in the project and she, like all of her colleagues, sharply remembers her first read: “Andrew’s script was original, had a big idea and had a compelling emotional story at its core. It was special, and we all knew that from the start.

And the story took place in a world not unlike our own, sort of an alternate reality. Here, time is currency, and everyone is born with a body clock embedded on the wrist. At the age of 25, when the frontal lobe of the brain and the body are considered fully matured, that clock starts ticking – and you have one year to live.

Either you’re born into time, and have no worries, or you begin working your life away, literally.” Producer Eric Newman notes the speed with which Niccol introduces this world in his script. “The biggest challenge in a movie like this is how do we sell the world?” Newman explains. “Andrew did it in the first three pages of the script.

Will Salas wakes up, walks into a room, and there is a beautiful 25-year-old woman and he says, ‘Hi, Mom.’ And he’s got this counter on his wrist, and it’s counting down. And his mother gives him 30 minutes for lunch. You understand immediately that Will has 22 hours to live [unless he can obtain more time].

And that’s his mother, even though they appear the same age, and she just gave him time to buy a decent lunch. That’s brilliance in economy, which is difficult to accomplish in a script.”

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How would you cast a movie where all characters is or remains 25 years of age on the outside — but could be in their 30s, 50s, 60s, or over 100 years old? The movie In Time had to deal with this very question when looking for actors who could convey the characters of writer and director Andrew Niccol’s script.

The production team elaborated on their choice of heartthrob Justin Timberlake as the main character. “All the actors had to look around age 25 because in the story, that’s when the aging gene switches off,” Niccol explained in the film’s production notes. That specific age was not chosen arbitrarily. “It’s the age we fully mature, when the frontal lobe of the brain fully develops,” the filmmaker continues.

“It is the part of the brain that controls impulse and reckless behavior. Rental car companies know this; they will not rent a car to somebody under age 25. There are characters in the film who are chronologically 100 years old, so I had to search for ‘old souls.’ Only certain young actors have the ability to play a senior citizen in a 25-year-old body.”

One actor who jumped at the chance to play an “old soul” was Justin Timberlake. It was Timberlake’s early rise to stardom that helped convince the filmmakers of his fit for the character of Will. “I love Justin’s work ethic, which is one of the important traits he shares with his character, Will Salas,” says Niccol. “It was actually very fitting that Justin plays Will.”

“Will has to wake up every day and go to work or die, and I don’t think Justin himself has taken a day off since he was 12 years old. There is no reason he won’t be a successful action hero [as Will] because he seems to be great at anything he turns his hand to.”

Producer Eric Newman continues, “Justin has been an adult since he was 17 years old, when he was a superstar. He didn’t have a conventional childhood, and he carries that with him. The character of Will is one who probably never had a childhood either because, in this world, you are born with a clock on your wrist, spending the first 24 years of your life waiting for that clock to start.”

“And when it does, you have less than a year to figure it out; you’re constantly faced with your own mortality. I think Justin has continually worked harder than everybody else, and he brings that to his acting as well. I think Justin and Will both have a similar ‘work or die’ ethic; they’re wired the same way.”

Timberlake, a longtime fan of action films, embraced the opportunity to play a character whose heroics are grounded in reality and a contextual richness. “When I was a kid, some of my favorite movies were action pieces like First Blood, The Fugitive, and Die Hard,” says Timberlake.

“The one thing I loved about those specific movies was that the protagonists were everyday people placed into extraordinary circumstances and doing extraordinary things.” Will’s heroics are triggered by an easily relatable factor. “Will has grown up with essentially nothing,” Timberlake notes.

“He wakes up every day and goes to work to stay alive. Through a series of events, he decides that he’s not going to take it anymore, and takes it upon himself to try and change the way things work in this world.”

“Will grows up in Dayton, which is somewhat of a ghetto. It’s kind of ironic that the word ‘day’ is in its name, because most of the citizens only walk around with a day to live. So the day-to-day life in Dayton is quick. People don’t have time to walk slowly, so they run, almost all of the time, to where they are going, and they’re constantly eating and drinking on the run. They don’t have time to spare or to waste.”

“Everything’s frenetic and alive, in a kind of dangerous yet beautiful way. When your back is up against the wall and you don’t have a choice, you make revisions and you live your life the way that it has to be, to survive.” Timberlake reserves special praise for Amanda Seyfried, who portrays Sylvia, his unwilling partner-in-crime.

“There are people that see the world the same way Will does. At the end of the day, I think he just wants what is fair. I think, through Sylvia, Will discovers that there’s something bigger he could be fighting for. It becomes kind of a Robin Hood tale at that point, once they pair up; like any young people put in high risk situations, they become enamored with each other.”

“And working one-on-one with Amanda has been great. I feel like we’ve really captured something special between those two characters.”

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Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Apparently many should be with this new adaptation.  But no fret this adaptation is not scary but visually intriguing. From the vivid mind of the Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke brings a new edgy turn to this 500 year old legend.  The adorable and amazingly talented Amanda Seyfried takes on the heroine role, Valerie, who is caught between the man she loves Peter, played by newcomer Shiloh Fernandez and wealthy Henry portrayed by newcomer and member of acting royalty Max Irons.

Basically, we are all familiar with the fairy tale about the girl who goes to visit her grandmother only to discover she has been eaten by an enormous, very scary wolf.  This adaptation is based loosely off the original folk tale and various other adaptations. But this film takes on more of a mystery spin and adds a bit of a ‘who done it’ to the story which actually makes it worth tuned.

Amanda Seyfried is by far a star on the rise and she gave her best damsel in distress performance in this film. But she also added strength and courage to the character, which was certainly needed. But this cast was not only filled with new comers but lots of well-known established actors. Gary Oldman, plays Father Soloman, a man brought to the town to get rid of the beast. The ultra-talented Julie Christie is in the film as well as Valerie’s grandmother and number one suspect of being the wolf. Virginia Madson plays Valerie’s worried mother while Twilight’s Billy Burke plays her always alcoholic father.

Also, Lucas Haas makes a cameo in the movie as well. We haven’t seen him in awhile and it makes you think that Hardwicke must be a good business woman is when she can get people who haven’t been seen in a long time to do her movie. That and Leonardo Dicaprio was one of the executive producers.

While the more prestigious actors bring the right amount of talent that is needed for a film like this, the younger actors for sure brought their own to the table. Fernandez, who weirdly enough was considered for the role as Edward in the Twilight films brings more than just his dashing good looks. His charm and leading man qualities shows that he is ready to do whatever comes his way. Irons, son of Jeremy, does a fine job as well playing the man who wishes he could have the girl. We can certainly see where he gets his talent from, we only hope that we can see more of his work in America.

The look of the film is absolutely beautiful. The scenic design and the costumes made it fill like they were really living in a medieval village. But, what was good about this story is that it was not looked at as the typical fairy tale. It has a rawness and edge that really makes it stand out but, with a director like Catherine Hardwicke that what you get.

It is a coming of age story but in a good way, not like an episode of Dawson’s Creek. Before you see this movie remember to forget everything you know about Little Red Riding Hood and be ready to see a more grown-up adaption with beautiful boys, much romance and of course a CGI wolf.

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