It’s business as usual over at the American Film Market with deals made and announced in droves, and Lionsgate is in the thick of it as well. They’ve just snagged the Liam Neeson thriller, The Commuter, and Ewan McGregor’s latest, Our Kind Of Traitor, and I’ve been up on the first title much more than the latter, but both sound like very interesting titles to come.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. and PARIS, Nov. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF), a premier next generation global content leader, has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to two films from Europe’s leading studio STUDIOCANAL, the suspense thriller The Commuter, starring Liam Neeson, and the international thriller Our Kind of Traitor, starring Ewan McGregor, it was announced today by Lionsgate Co-COO and Motion Picture Group President Steve Beeks and STUDIOCANAL President of International Distribution & Marketing Rodolphe Buet.
The Commuter stars Neeson (the Taken series, Non-Stop, Star Wars Part 1: The Phantom Menace) as an ordinary businessman on his daily commute home – a commute that becomes anything but routine as he realizes a deadly plan is unfolding and he is unwittingly caught up in a criminal conspiracy that has life and death consequences. Written by Byron Willinger and Phil de Blasi, The Commuter is produced by The Picture Company’s Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman.
Our Kind of Traitor is an international thriller starring McGregor (Star Wars, Moulin Rouge, The Impossible), Stellan Skarsgard (The Avengers, Railway Man), Damien Lewis (Homeland) and Naomie Harris (Spectre, Skyfall, Pirates of the Caribbean). Based on the John Le Carre spy novel, it is directed by Susanna White and produced by The Ink Factory and Potboiler Productions.
“The Commuter and Our Kind of Traitor are two suspenseful, action-packed, star-driven additions to our film slate that we expect to continue our successful partnership with STUDIOCANAL dating back to our breakout hit The Last Exorcist,” said Beeks. “We look forward to working closely with Rodolphe and the entire STUDIOCANAL team as they continue to supply us with a commercially exciting roster of high-profile, branded event properties.”
“Lionsgate has emerged as a major creative force in the global marketplace with a deep pipeline of blockbuster franchises, star-driven event films and specialty releases,” said Buet. “We’re delighted to tap into their world-class marketing and distribution organization that has achieved success across a broad portfolio of films, and we look forward to continuing to partner with them on the distribution of our exciting line-up of movies.”
The two companies’ multi-faceted alliance already encompasses STUDIOCANAL’s distribution of Lionsgate films in Germany, Lionsgate’s distribution of the prestigious STUDIOCANAL library in North America and the Elevation Sales home entertainment joint venture in the UK.