LIONSGATE Dives Into the RABBIT HOLE With Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart

TORONTO, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), the leading next generation studio, today announced that it has acquired North American distribution rights to RABBIT HOLE, starring Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, directed by John Cameron Mitchell (HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH), which made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this week.  RABBIT HOLE is adapted by David Lindsay-Abaire from his Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winning play of the same name, and produced by Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech for Olympus Pictures; Nicole Kidman and Per Saari for Blossom Films; and Gigi Pritzker for Odd Lot Entertainment. The announcement was jointly made today by Joe Drake, Lionsgate Chief Operating Officer and Motion Picture Group President, and Jason Constantine, Lionsgate President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions.  

RABBIT HOLE made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, September 13.  Lionsgate plans a Winter 2010 release.  The film is the first release from Kidman's Blossom Films.

Said Constantine, "We are proud to be the home of RABBIT HOLE, a drama that not only has great pedigree, but passion, humor, emotion, and profound insight.  We are very much looking forward to working with Nicole, Aaron, John and David to bring their extraordinary work to North American audiences."

Said producer Saari, "Nicole and I are elated.  From the beginning, RABBIT HOLE has been a dream collaboration, and it continues here with Lionsgate."

"It was a joy to have worked with such a talented director and a brave and brilliant cast led by Nicole and Aaron," added producers Urdang and Vanech.  "We couldn't be more excited to find a home at Lionsgate - their marketing and distribution team have long impressed us with their innovative approach to films that take creative risks," they added.

The deal was negotiated for Lionsgate by Constantine, Eda Kowan, Lionsgate Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions, and Wendy Jaffe, Executive Vice President Business & Legal Affairs, Acquisitions and Co-Productions.  CAA, which represents Mitchell, Kidman, Eckhart and Teller, brokered the deal on behalf of Odd Lot, Blossom Films and Olympus Pictures.

SYNOPSIS – RABBIT HOLE

The screen adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire, RABBIT HOLE, directed by John Cameron Mitchell, is about a husband and wife who fight to save their marriage after the deepest form of loss.  The film is a vivid, honest and unexpectedly funny portrait of a family searching for what remains possible in the most impossible of situations. 

ABOUT LIONSGATE

Lionsgate is the leading next generation studio with a strong and diversified presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming through Debmar-Mercury 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 Emmy Award-winning "Mad Men", "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" along with new series such as "Blue Mountain State" and "Running Wilde" and the syndication successes "Tyler Perry's House Of Payne", its spinoff "Meet The Browns", "The Wendy Williams Show" and the recently announced "Are We There Yet?".

Its feature film business has generated such recent hits as THE EXPENDABLES, which was #1 at the North American box office for two weeks, THE LAST EXORCISM, TYLER PERRY'S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?, KICK ASS and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS, which won two Academy Awards(R).  The Company's home entertainment business has grown to more than 7% market share and is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD revenue conversion rate.  Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 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 brand remains synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.

ABOUT OLYMPUS PICTURES

Olympus Pictures was founded in 2007 by Leslie Urdang and Dean Vanech to finance and produce low budget films and to finance the development of feature films at all budget levels.  Olympus provides an extremely supportive environment for filmmakers and quality entertainment in a wide range of genres.

Olympus' first feature Adam, written and directed by Max Mayer, starring Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Frankie Faison and Amy Irving, was released by Fox Searchlight in 2009.  In addition to Rabbit Hole, Olympus produced and financed Mike Mills' Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer and Melanie Laurent that is also premiering at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.  Olympus recently wrapped production, alongside Likely-Story, on The Oranges, a comedy directed by Julian Farino, written by Jay Reiss & Ian Helfer, starring Hugh Laurie, Catherine Keener, Leighton Meester, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Adam Brody, and Alia Shawkat.  The company is currently developing a film with Hwy61, inspired by the life of Sal Masekela, Peony, an adaptation of Pearl S. Buck's novel, Wendy and the Lost Boys, with Michael Hoffman by Jon Robin Baitz, and Spin with Rob Morrow, adapted from the book by Robert Charles Wilson.

Olympus Pictures is affiliated with Olympus Theatricals, LLC, an independent commercial theater production company.  Both companies are subsidiaries of Olympus Productions, LLC which is owned by Olympus Holdings, LLC, an independent firm engaged through its various subsidiaries and affiliates in energy, commercial finance, and entertainment.

ABOUT BLOSSOM FILMS

Blossom Films, a Los Angeles-based film production company founded by Nicole Kidman and run by Per Saari, is dedicated to supporting and nurturing the artistic visions of screenwriters and filmmakers.  Blossom encourages creative risk-taking while seeking out entertaining stories that have strong points of view and meaningful things to say about the world.

In addition to Rabbit Hole, Blossom developed and produced Tom Bezucha's Monte Carlo for Twentieth Century Fox.  Kidman and Saari are also developing Simon Kinberg's The Eighth Wonder and a remake of How to Marry a Millionaire for Fox, Lasse Halstrom's Danish Girl, an adaptation of the best-seller Little Bee for BBC Films in conjunction with Pretty Pictures, and a biography of singer Dusty Springfield, The Look of Love, currently being written by Hours author Michael Cunningham.

ABOUT ODD LOT ENTERTAINMENT

Founded in 2001 by Gigi Pritzker, producer of The Wedding Planner, Green Street Hooligans and Mean Creek, Odd Lot Entertainment is a Los Angeles-based company that develops, finances, produces, and arranges distribution for commercial film properties in the $5-$60 million range, both in the domestic and international markets. On its upcoming slate is Marc Platt's Drive, now in pre-production and which starts filming in September 2010, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and From Prada to Nada, to be released theatrically by Lionsgate in early 2011, starring Camilla Belle, Alexa Vega and Adriana Barraza. For more information, visit www.oddlotent.com

SOURCE Lionsgate