One of the most high-profile titles at the recently-concluded Sundance Film Festival was Jake Scott's Welcome to the Rileys. The film boasts an all-star cast including James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and the ubiquitous Kristen Stewart. The World Premiere was held at the 603-seat Racquet Club in Park City, Utah, which was filled to capacity. The audience was left stunned in amazement at this awesome achievement (see his review here).One would be hard pressed to be unaware of Ms. Stewart given her presence in the record-shattering Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, the latter currently at over $700 million in worldwide box office. Welcome to the Rileys would most certainly have generated buzz regardless, but Scott told me after the Sundance screening that they certainly don't mind the added attention from Kristen Stewart's international notoriety.
Ridley and Tony Scott (Jake's father and uncle, respectively) were producers on the film. Partnering with the Scotts' Scott Free Productions was Argonaut Pictures, whose Giovanni Agnelli has been uncharacteristically approachable to fans on the film's IMDb message board.
A press conference was held Monday morning from the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), where the film is screening for the first time since Sundance. On the panel were director Jake Scott and producers Scott Bloom of Argonaut and Michael Costigan of Scott Free. Scott was asked how he came to find star Kristen Stewart. He explained that he knew Sean Penn well, and the two of them went out drinking one night. Penn, who directed Stewart in Into the Wild, told Scott about the talented young actress he'd had the pleasure of working with. Scott checked out the film and knew he had his star. "We shot this in 2008, so Twilight came out when we'd wrapped," Scott said. "I saw her in Into the Wild. We got lucky... As a director I was attracted to [the story] because I'm a father and I made a film really about fatherhood... It took 10 years because no one would let me do a film. I tried really hard. I've literally been trying for 10 years to make a film."
Video of the Press Conference is here - but have **SPOILERS**
The team announced that the film has been picked up for distribution in the United States for a fall release. Details will be announced shortly and this post will be updated.
[Larry Richman aka @larry411]
1 comment:
yay!
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