Exclusive: Venezuelan Filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz, best known for Resistance and Hands of Stone, has signed on to direct the feature Cottonwood for Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures.
The film will be produced by Paquette, Aaron Barnett, and The Exchange’s Brian O’Shea, with Claudine Jakubowicz serving as executive producer. The Exchange will be handling worldwide sales and arranging financing.
The story follows a single dad who left his troubled past behind but must confront his dark history when his former mentor, a dangerous gangster, resurfaces. As the mentor’s loyalty to him is tested, he becomes the target of the gangster’s own bloodthirsty son, forcing him to protect his 13-year-old son from a relentless killer.
Jakubowicz was the winner of the German Film Peace Prize 2020 for his film Resistance. His film Secuestro Express was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the British Independent Film Awards, and Hands of Stone premiered at Cannes.
The film will be produced by Paquette, Aaron Barnett, and The Exchange’s Brian O’Shea, with Claudine Jakubowicz serving as executive producer. The Exchange will be handling worldwide sales and arranging financing.
The story follows a single dad who left his troubled past behind but must confront his dark history when his former mentor, a dangerous gangster, resurfaces. As the mentor’s loyalty to him is tested, he becomes the target of the gangster’s own bloodthirsty son, forcing him to protect his 13-year-old son from a relentless killer.
Jakubowicz was the winner of the German Film Peace Prize 2020 for his film Resistance. His film Secuestro Express was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the British Independent Film Awards, and Hands of Stone premiered at Cannes.
- 5/2/2024
- by Zac Ntim and Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
AGC Studios and Meridian Pictures has sold U.S. and Canada as well as Asia pay TV rights for the Brad Anderson-directed thriller “The Silent Hour,” starring “Suicide Squad’s” Joel Kinnaman, “1917’s” Mark Strong, “New Amsterdam’s” Sandra Mae Frank and “8 Mile’s” Mekhi Phifer, to the newly revitalized Paramount label Republic Pictures.
In the film, Kinnaman plays a Boston police detective who suffers an on-the-job accident that leaves him hearing impaired. Sixteen months later, he and his friend and partner (Strong) must battle Lynch (Phifer) and a team of corrupt cops attempting to eliminate a deaf murder witness (Frank) in the apartment building where she lives.
“The Silent Hour” was shot in Malta and Toronto last year and is produced by Eric Paquette of Meridian Pictures and written by Dan Hall. Executive producers include Stuart Ford, Miguel Palos, Michael Ewing, Aaron Barnett, Anderson, Blair Ward and Anders Erdén.
In the film, Kinnaman plays a Boston police detective who suffers an on-the-job accident that leaves him hearing impaired. Sixteen months later, he and his friend and partner (Strong) must battle Lynch (Phifer) and a team of corrupt cops attempting to eliminate a deaf murder witness (Frank) in the apartment building where she lives.
“The Silent Hour” was shot in Malta and Toronto last year and is produced by Eric Paquette of Meridian Pictures and written by Dan Hall. Executive producers include Stuart Ford, Miguel Palos, Michael Ewing, Aaron Barnett, Anderson, Blair Ward and Anders Erdén.
- 2/15/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
When Los Angeles voters head to the polls March 5 and again in the November general election, President Biden won’t have to sweat the results here and across the state. Nearly twice as many Californians are registered Democrat as they are Republican. In 2020, 71 percent of L.A. County voters picked Biden.
But Los Angeles remains popular for Democrats for reasons beyond ballot counting — it’s a fountain of campaign cash, much of it spouting from the entertainment industry. Consider that clutch of December fundraisers where co-hosts and attendees included such glossy names as Steven Spielberg, Shonda Rhimes, Jon Hamm and Barbra Streisand. The events may have taken place amid some grumbling over lagging poll numbers and questions about whether the octogenarian commander-in-chief can woo young voters, but ultimately the wallets opened wide. Media reports put the take from the soirees at about $15 million, a hefty part of the $97 million the campaign on Jan.
But Los Angeles remains popular for Democrats for reasons beyond ballot counting — it’s a fountain of campaign cash, much of it spouting from the entertainment industry. Consider that clutch of December fundraisers where co-hosts and attendees included such glossy names as Steven Spielberg, Shonda Rhimes, Jon Hamm and Barbra Streisand. The events may have taken place amid some grumbling over lagging poll numbers and questions about whether the octogenarian commander-in-chief can woo young voters, but ultimately the wallets opened wide. Media reports put the take from the soirees at about $15 million, a hefty part of the $97 million the campaign on Jan.
- 1/18/2024
- by Jon Regardie
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Netflix is going through some more changes on the corporate side.
Deadline understands that four members of its business affairs and legal team including Bryony Gagan are leaving as part of a restructure.
Bryony Gagan, Amy Paquette and Tim Mizrahi, who are all VP, business and legal affairs, and Stephen Zager, VP and Associate General Counsel, Corporate Legal are all exiting.
These are senior executives with Gagan, in particular, having been with the company since 2008, before it moved into original series and films.
It is the latest raft of personnel changes at the company, coming days after Jeremi Gordon, who spearheaded its move into advertising, left, to be replaced by Amy Reinhard, who is now president of advertising.
Gagan joined Netflix in 2008 and oversees all of its content deals, including content production, acquisition, and distribution, as well as overseeing its labor relations, music business and legal affairs, and intellectual property groups.
Deadline understands that four members of its business affairs and legal team including Bryony Gagan are leaving as part of a restructure.
Bryony Gagan, Amy Paquette and Tim Mizrahi, who are all VP, business and legal affairs, and Stephen Zager, VP and Associate General Counsel, Corporate Legal are all exiting.
These are senior executives with Gagan, in particular, having been with the company since 2008, before it moved into original series and films.
It is the latest raft of personnel changes at the company, coming days after Jeremi Gordon, who spearheaded its move into advertising, left, to be replaced by Amy Reinhard, who is now president of advertising.
Gagan joined Netflix in 2008 and oversees all of its content deals, including content production, acquisition, and distribution, as well as overseeing its labor relations, music business and legal affairs, and intellectual property groups.
- 10/5/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Production start scheduled for early 2023.
Mark Strong has joined Joel Kinnaman on AGC Studios’ action thriller and AFM sales hour The Silent Hour.
AGC will finance and produce with producer Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures the story of a Boston Police detective (Kinnaman) who suffers an on-the-job accident which leaves him hearing-impaired.
Sixteen months later he is an interpreter for the department and with his friend and partner (Strong) must battle a team of corrupt cops attempting to eliminate a deaf murder witness in the apartment building where she lives.
Brad Anderson from an original screenplay by Dan Hall. Paquette...
Mark Strong has joined Joel Kinnaman on AGC Studios’ action thriller and AFM sales hour The Silent Hour.
AGC will finance and produce with producer Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures the story of a Boston Police detective (Kinnaman) who suffers an on-the-job accident which leaves him hearing-impaired.
Sixteen months later he is an interpreter for the department and with his friend and partner (Strong) must battle a team of corrupt cops attempting to eliminate a deaf murder witness in the apartment building where she lives.
Brad Anderson from an original screenplay by Dan Hall. Paquette...
- 11/2/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Brad Anderson to direct Boston-set story anticipated to start production in early 2023.
AGC Studios has dropped an early hot title into the AFM and announced it will finance and produce with Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures action thriller The Silent Hour to star Joel Kinnaman.
Brad Anderson, whose credits include Beirut, The Call, The Machinist, will direct from an original Boston-set screenplay by Dan Hall.
The Silent Hour stars Kinnaman as a Boston detective who suffers an accident on the job which leaves him hearing-impaired. Sixteen months later he is now an interpreter for the department and must battle a...
AGC Studios has dropped an early hot title into the AFM and announced it will finance and produce with Eric Paquette’s Meridian Pictures action thriller The Silent Hour to star Joel Kinnaman.
Brad Anderson, whose credits include Beirut, The Call, The Machinist, will direct from an original Boston-set screenplay by Dan Hall.
The Silent Hour stars Kinnaman as a Boston detective who suffers an accident on the job which leaves him hearing-impaired. Sixteen months later he is now an interpreter for the department and must battle a...
- 10/20/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Former MGM and Sony Pictures exec Eric Paquette’s film and TV company Meridian Pictures has struck a partnership deal with Saudi Arabian production house and literary management company Hakawati Entertainment.
The exclusive partnership aims to bring Hollywood talent to the Saudi entertainment sector and develop stories for regional and international audiences, in alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and its goal to create a vibrant society that benefits from high-quality entertainment, knowledge transfer, and job creation to contribute to the country’s strong future.
“Hakawati is really dialed into the local market. We will combine our various expertise to make content, not only local language but also English-language movies for audiences all over the world,” said Paquette.
“Since I left Sony a year and a half ago, I have 35 projects in development. Many of them could shoot there,” continued the exec, who officially launched Meridian Pictures in 2021.
Meridian...
The exclusive partnership aims to bring Hollywood talent to the Saudi entertainment sector and develop stories for regional and international audiences, in alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, and its goal to create a vibrant society that benefits from high-quality entertainment, knowledge transfer, and job creation to contribute to the country’s strong future.
“Hakawati is really dialed into the local market. We will combine our various expertise to make content, not only local language but also English-language movies for audiences all over the world,” said Paquette.
“Since I left Sony a year and a half ago, I have 35 projects in development. Many of them could shoot there,” continued the exec, who officially launched Meridian Pictures in 2021.
Meridian...
- 10/5/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is set to be the latest center of crime fighting.
Fox is developing a drama series set in that world from Madam Secretary creator Barbara Hall and Criminal Minds writer Erik Stiller.
The untitled series is set amongst the Port Authority Police Department, which is responsible for all threats and criminal activity at New York and New Jersey’s bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and the World Trade Center.
It will follow the Papd’s first female chief as she leads its elite major crimes unit and also must contend with the mafia, governors from two states, the NYPD, the FBI and her own powerful police union — all while managing the tangled, messy lives of her team.
Hall, who has worked on series including Homeland and Army Wives, will serve as showrunner and executive producer, with Stiller writing and exec producing.
Fox is developing a drama series set in that world from Madam Secretary creator Barbara Hall and Criminal Minds writer Erik Stiller.
The untitled series is set amongst the Port Authority Police Department, which is responsible for all threats and criminal activity at New York and New Jersey’s bridges, tunnels, airports, seaports and the World Trade Center.
It will follow the Papd’s first female chief as she leads its elite major crimes unit and also must contend with the mafia, governors from two states, the NYPD, the FBI and her own powerful police union — all while managing the tangled, messy lives of her team.
Hall, who has worked on series including Homeland and Army Wives, will serve as showrunner and executive producer, with Stiller writing and exec producing.
- 9/23/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
Producer Eric Paquette and Culture House Media co-founder Carri Belinda Twigg are among Joe Biden’s entertainment industry appointments to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.
Members serve as representatives in their own communities for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The committee was established in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Paquette is the CEO of Meridian Pictures and founder and CEO of the co-viewing start-up LetScreen. He previously was senior vice president of production at Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Screen Gems and, before that, worked at CBS News & Sports and was in senior executive positions at MGM and Phoenix Pictures. He is an advisory board member for The Johns Hopkins School of Education and is the former president and current commissioner of The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Twigg is co-founder and head of development for Culture House Media, which specializes in storytelling about urgent cultural questions.
Members serve as representatives in their own communities for the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The committee was established in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower.
Paquette is the CEO of Meridian Pictures and founder and CEO of the co-viewing start-up LetScreen. He previously was senior vice president of production at Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Screen Gems and, before that, worked at CBS News & Sports and was in senior executive positions at MGM and Phoenix Pictures. He is an advisory board member for The Johns Hopkins School of Education and is the former president and current commissioner of The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Twigg is co-founder and head of development for Culture House Media, which specializes in storytelling about urgent cultural questions.
- 9/17/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Meridian Pictures’ Eric Paquette will produce The Last Executioner, a new project from director Vadim Perelman that he co-wrote with Andrii Khokholkin.
Khokholkin, who has been a writer on several projects in Ukraine, is currently in the Ukrainian army, having joined the armed forces following the Russian invasion.
The Last Executioner tells the story of Henri-Clément Sanson who held the position of Royal Executioner of Paris, serving King Louis-Philippe I from 1840 to 1847. Sanson was from a long time of executioners. His father was the city’s chief executioner for 47 years, and his grandfather Charles-Henri Sanson also was the executioner of royal figures and those trying to spark revolution.
“The job was passed on, grandfather to father to son, and so it was a whole family of outcasts who were feared, they were almost like supernatural creatures,” said Perelman.
He said that the project...
Khokholkin, who has been a writer on several projects in Ukraine, is currently in the Ukrainian army, having joined the armed forces following the Russian invasion.
The Last Executioner tells the story of Henri-Clément Sanson who held the position of Royal Executioner of Paris, serving King Louis-Philippe I from 1840 to 1847. Sanson was from a long time of executioners. His father was the city’s chief executioner for 47 years, and his grandfather Charles-Henri Sanson also was the executioner of royal figures and those trying to spark revolution.
“The job was passed on, grandfather to father to son, and so it was a whole family of outcasts who were feared, they were almost like supernatural creatures,” said Perelman.
He said that the project...
- 7/22/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
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