LIONSGATE AND ROADSIDE SCORE ARBITRAGE

News provided by

Jan 25, 2012, 06:52 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), a leading global entertainment company, and Roadside Attractions have together acquired U.S. distribution rights to Nicholas Jarecki's ARBITRAGE. The announcement was made jointly by Steve Beeks, President and Co-COO of Lionsgate, and by Roadside Attractions' Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff. The acquisition was made following the well-received world premiere of the film at the Sundance International Film Festival.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110919/LA70620LOGO)

ARBITRAGE is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta, and Nate Parker. The film was written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki, and is his first narrative feature. It was produced by Laura Bickford (Traffic, Duplicity), Kevin Turen, Justin Nappi, and Robert Salerno (A Single Man), and executive produced by Brian Young, Mohammed Al Turki, Lisa Wilson, Stanislaw Tyczynski, Lauren Versel, Maria Teresa Areda and Ron Curtis.

ARBITRAGE will be a Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions release, continuing the strong partnership between the two companies that led to the success of last year's MARGIN CALL, also released by both companies. Also acquired at Sundance, that film struck a chord in the zeitgeist and was a commercial success in both its theatrical and VOD release formats. It was also nominated for an Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay. The two companies have also jointly acquired EVERYTHING MUST GO and FRIENDS WITH KIDS.

"We are thrilled that we've found another film that is such a perfect fit for a Lionsgate / Roadside partnered release," said Lionsgate's President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Jason Constantine. "ARBITRAGE is an incredible directorial debut by Nicholas Jarecki. Richard Gere gives one of the best performances of his extraordinary career. Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Nate Parker, Brit Marling and Laetitia Casta all turn in incredible supporting performances. The film is an intense thriller set against the backdrop of a very specific time and place on Wall Street, but it's also more than that- it shows so poignantly how interconnected we all are, and how a series of choices by a few people can affect so many."

"This is a knockout performance by Richard Gere in Nicholas Jarecki's smart and twisty Wall Street thriller. Following our great experience on MARGIN CALL, Roadside is thrilled to partner again with Lionsgate on another zeitgeisty film for grownups," said Roadside Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d'Arbeloff.

Added director Nicholas Jarecki, "I am overjoyed to be working with Roadside and Lionsgate and their pioneering teams. From the first day of this film I've felt an invisible hand guiding our luck forward; it was the collective dedication of our actors, crew, and now our new releasing partners. I can't wait for people to see Richard and the cast's beautiful, hauntingly electric work on-screen."

Graham Taylor at WME Global negotiated deal on behalf of the filmmakers, with attorney Linda Lichter of Lichter Grossman Nichols Adler & Feldman. The deal was negotiated on behalf of Lionsgate by Beeks and Constantine with Eda Kowan, SVP of Acquisitions, Wendy Jaffe, EVP Business and Legal Affairs, and Ron Schwartz, General Manager and EVP of Home Entertainment Distribution.

About ARBITRAGE

ARBITRAGE, the feature directorial debut of writer Nicholas Jarecki, is a taut and alluring suspense thriller about love, loyalty, and high finance. When we first meet New York hedge-fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) on the eve of his 60th birthday, he appears the very portrait of success in American business and family life. But behind the gilded walls of his mansion, Miller is in over his head, desperately trying to complete the sale of his trading empire to a major bank before the depths of his fraud are revealed. Struggling to conceal his duplicity from loyal wife Ellen (Susan Sarandon) and brilliant daughter and heir-apparent Brooke (Brit Marling), Miller's also balancing an affair with French art-dealer Julie Cote (Laetitia Casta). Just as he's about to unload his troubled empire, an unexpected bloody error forces him to juggle family, business, and crime with the aid of Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a face from Miller's past. One wrong turn ignites the suspicions of NYPD Detective Michael Bryer (Tim Roth), who will stop at nothing in his pursuits. Running on borrowed time, Miller is forced to confront the limits of even his own moral duplicity. Will he make it out before the bubble bursts?

ARBITRAGE is written and directed by Nicholas Jarecki and stars Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta and Nate Parker. Stuart Margolin, Chris Eigeman and Bruce Altman co-star and Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter appears as James Mayfield. Laura Bickford, Kevin Turen, Justin Nappi and Robert Salerno produced the project, with Brian Young, Mohammed Al Turki, Lisa Wilson, Stanislaw Tyczynski, Lauren Versel, Maria Teresa Areda and Ron Curtis serving as executive producers. The Arbitrage creative team includes director of photography Yorick Le Saux (I Am Love, Carlos), production designer Beth Mickle (Drive), editor Douglas Crise (Babel), costume designer Joe Aulisi (Charlie's Angels, Taking Woodstock) and composer Cliff Martinez (Drive, Contagion).

About Lionsgate

Lionsgate is a leading global entertainment company with a strong and diversified presence in motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home entertainment, family entertainment, digital distribution. new channel platforms and international distribution and sales. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has 15 shows on more than 10 networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as the multiple Emmy Award-winning "Mad Men", "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" along with the comedy "Blue Mountain State," the Golden Globe-winning drama "Boss" and the syndication successes "Tyler Perry's House Of Payne", its spinoff "Meet The Browns", "The Wendy Williams Show" and "Are We There Yet?".

Its feature film business has been fueled by such recent successes as THE LINCOLN LAWYER, TYLER PERRY'S MADEA'S BIG HAPPY FAMILY, THE EXPENDABLES, MARGIN CALL, THE LAST EXORCISM and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS, which won two Academy Awards®. With the January 2012 acquisition of Summit Entertainment, the Company now has the two leading young adult franchises – the blockbuster TWILIGHT SAGA, which has grossed more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office, and the HUNGER GAMES franchise, whose first film will be released on March 23. Recent Summit hits include RED, LETTERS TO JULIET, KNOWING, the STEP UP franchise and the Academy Award winning Best Picture THE HURT LOCKER.

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 13,000 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.

About Roadside Attractions

Roadside Attractions is a film distribution company committed to championing independent films with a willingness to entertain. The company's 2009 release, THE COVE, captured the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary, and in 2010, its 6 Oscar® nominations -- four, including Best Picture, for Debra Granik's WINTER'S BONE, and two, including Best Foreign Language Film, for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's BIUTIFUL, solidified its major position on the distributor landscape. In 2011, Roadside Attractions released J.C. Chandor's Oscar®-nominated MARGIN CALL starring Kevin Spacey, Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany and Jeremy Irons; along with Robert Redford's THE CONSPIRATOR starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright; Oscar®-winning filmmaker James Marsh's PROJECT NIM; Miranda July's THE FUTURE and Maryam Keshavarz's CIRCUMSTANCE. Up next is the Academy Award® contender ALBERT NOBBS starring Glenn Close and Janet McTeer, which garnered three Oscar® nominations, three Golden Globe nominations and two SAG Award nominations; followed by FRIENDS WITH KIDS with a stellar ensemble cast including Adam Scott, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, ChrisO'Dowd, Megan Fox and Edward Burns.