New Line Cinema has acquired the North American distribution rights to Running Scared, a new crime thriller from director Wayne Kramer (The Cooler) which has been produced by Media 8 Entertainment. The deal was announced by New Line Production President Toby Emmerich and Media 8 President Jenna Sanz-Agero.
Written and directed by Kramer, Running Scared stars Paul Walker (Fast and the Furious) as low-level mobster Joey, an average guy who finds himself on a nightlong chase to recover a gun that was used in a mob hit. Joey's wife Teresa (Vera Farmiga) and son Nicky (Alex Neuberger) are also drawn into frantic chase, along with neighbor's kid Oleg (Cameron Bright – Birth). As the night goes on, Joey must race to stay one step ahead of both his mob associates and the cops, lead by dirty Detective Rydell (Academy Award-nominated Chazz Palminteri).
New Line previously partnered with Media 8 on the Sundance Film Festival hit The Upside of Anger, which stars Joan Allen and Kevin Costner and is scheduled for a March 11 release.
“We're extremely pleased to continue our strong working relationship with New Line,” said Sanz-Agero. “This film is representative of the kind of original, exciting, and innovative films that we are producing, and we believe it's a perfect fit with New Line's distribution and marketing sensibilities.”
Running Scared is being produced by Michael Pierce, Sammy Lee, Stewart Hall and Brett Ratner and is a co-production between Media 8 Entertainment and VIP Medienfonds. Andrew Pfeffer, Andreas Grosch, Andreas Schmid and Matt Luber serve as Executive Producers. New Line's Senior VP Acquisitions Guy Stodel is overseeing the project for the studio.
Media 8 Entertainment is principally engaged in the acquisition, financing, production and worldwide licensing of theatrical feature films in a variety of genres. Media 8's next release will be The Upside of Anger, a dramatic comedy written and directed by Mike Binder and starring Academy Award nominee Joan Allen and Academy Award winner Kevin Costner. New Line Cinema will release The Upside of Anger theatrically in North America on March 11, 2005. The film had its world premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. Previous Media 8 releases include the critically acclaimed drama Monster, for which Charlize Theron won the Academy Award for Best Actress. |
