Haim Saban announced today that after launching Saban Films last week the company has acquired North American distribution rights to Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman, starring Jones and Academy Award winner Hilary Swank, with a supporting cast featuring Grace Gummer, Miranda Otto, Sonja Richter, Academy Award nominee Hailee Steinfeld, James Spader and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep.
The new venture, which is headed by President Bill Bromiley, came to Cannes with an aggressive acquisitions strategy and targeted the highly-regarded competition title, finalizing negotiations with majority owner of the North American rights, Brian Kennedy. EuropaCorp is the international distributor of the picture. This is the first acquisition for Saban Films and the second collaboration between Bromiley, Tommy Lee Jones and Michael Fitzgerald following 2008’s In the Electric Mist.
The Homesman, which premiered Sunday, May 18th in competition in Cannes, is a Tommy Lee Jones/Michael Fitzgerald production, directed by Tommy Lee Jones and produced by Peter Brant, Brian Kennedy and Luc Besson. The screenplay was written by Jones, Kieran Fitzgerald and Wesley A. Oliver, based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout.
Saban Films is planning a 2014 theatrical release.
