FOCUS FEATURES TAKES NORTH AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS TO LIONSGATE UK PRODUCTION A LITTLE CHAOS

Studio Will Release Romantic Drama on March 27, 2015

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Focus Features has acquired North American distribution rights to A LITTLE CHAOS, directed by Alan Rickman from a screenplay he wrote with Alison Deegan and Jeremy Brock. The company also acquired distribution rights to the film, which is financed by Lionsgate UK and BBC Films, in Scandinavia. The romantic drama stars Academy Award® winner Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Mr. Rickman, Academy Award nominee Stanley Tucci, and Danny Webb. Focus Features will release the movie in North America on March 27, 2015.

A LITTLE CHAOS had its world premiere as the closing-night film of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The project is produced by Gail Egan and Andrea Calderwood via their Potboiler Productions banner, and Bertrand Faivre via The Bureau production banner. Executive Producers of the project are Zygi Kamasa, Guy Avshalom, Nick Manzi, Christine Langan, Ray Cooper, Norman Merry, and Richard Wolfe.

Peter Schlessel, CEO of Focus Features, said, "We are pleased to be in business with Alan Rickman and this sterling cast on such a crowd-pleasing movie. A LITTLE CHAOS is a great addition to Focus Features' 2015 slate."

Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate UK‎ commented, "We're delighted to be in partnership with Focus Features. They are the perfect home to give this beautiful drama the attention it needs in the US and Canada."

Director Alan Rickman added "I'm very proud of the fact that A LITTLE CHAOS found its North American home during its World Premiere at TIFF. It's encouraging to see that the film resonated with both audiences and the industry in Toronto, and I'm excited for its release next spring."

A LITTLE CHAOS follows Sabine (Winslet), a strong-willed landscape designer who challenges sexual and class barriers when she is chosen to build one of the main gardens at King Louis XIV's new palace at Versailles, causing her to become professionally and romantically entangled with the court's renowned landscape architect André Le Notre (Schoenaerts).

A LITTLE CHAOS is the third time in recent years that the UK division of Lionsgate has financed a British production from its UK base and sold North America rights during TIFF. SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN was sold to CBS in 2011, THE RAILWAY MAN was sold to The Weinstein Company in 2013, and now A LITTLE CHAOS to Focus Features. All deals were concluded during the festival.

The acquisition of A LITTLE CHAOS was negotiated on behalf of Focus Features by Lia Buman, President of Acquisitions, and Beth Lemberger, Executive Vice President of Business Affairs. CAA brokered the deal on behalf of Lionsgate UK and Potboiler Productions. Lionsgate International is handling foreign sales of the film. Lionsgate UK will release the film in the UK during the first quarter of 2015.

ABOUT FOCUS FEATURES

Focus Features (www.focusfeatures.com) makes, acquires, and releases movies from rising and established talent and filmmakers. The company is moving forward with a diverse slate of wide releases appealing to a range of moviegoers. Staying true to the company's roots, the slate will also include several specialty films each year.

Current and upcoming releases from Focus include The Boxtrolls, the new family event movie from LAIKA, directed by Anthony Stacchi and Graham Annable with a voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, and Tracy Morgan; the true-life dramatic thriller Kill the Messenger, starring Jeremy Renner; the romantic drama The Theory of Everything, directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh and starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as Stephen and Jane Hawking; Black Sea, the suspenseful adventure thriller starring Jude Law for director Kevin Macdonald; Tarsem Singh's Selfless, starring Ryan Reynolds and Ben Kingsley; Leigh Whannell's Insidious: Chapter 3, the newest chapter in the terrifying horror series; Sinister 2, directed by Ciaran Foy; Juan Antonio Bayona's visually spectacular drama A Monster Calls, starring Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, and Liam Neeson; and Stephen Hopkins' Race, starring Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis, and Stephan James as the legendary athletic superstar Jesse Owens.

Focus Features is part of NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a suite of leading Internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

ABOUT LIONSGATE

Lionsgate, home to The Hunger Games, Twilight and Divergent franchises, is a premier next generation global content leader with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, digital distribution, new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. Lionsgate currently has more than 30 television shows on over 20 different networks spanning its primetime production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning Mad Men and Nurse Jackie, the comedy Anger Management, the broadcast network series Nashville, the syndication success The Wendy Williams Show and the critically-acclaimed hit series Orange is the New Black.

Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as the blockbuster first two installments of The Hunger Games franchise, The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the first installment of the Divergent franchise, Now You See Me, Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain, Warm Bodies, The Expendables 2, The Possession, Sinister, Roadside Attractions' A Most Wanted Man and Pantelion Films' breakout hit Instructions Not Included, the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in the U.S.

Lionsgate's home entertainment business is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD and box office-to-VOD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 16,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company's core businesses. The Lionsgate and Summit brands remain synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.

www.lionsgate.com

CONTACT
Hans-Dieter Kopal
Principal Communications Group
[email protected] / 323-658-1555

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SOURCE Lionsgate