Focus Features Acquires the Crime Drama The Outfit From Filmnation Entertainment

Details: Category: Entertainment News; Published on Tuesday, 23 February 2021 14:30; Written by Hildy Johnson

Focus Features and FilmNation Entertainment announced they will begin production on the crime drama The Outfit which marks the directorial debut of Academy Award® winner Graham Moore, who will direct from his own screenplay co-written with actor/writer Johnathan McClain.

Academy Award® winner Mark Rylance (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner series), Zoey Deutch (Set It Up) and Johnny Flynn (Emma) are set to star. Producers are Scoop Wasserstein, Ben Browning and Amy Jackson.

Production is set to begin in March in London. FilmNation Entertainment will finance the film and has sold rights to Focus Features to distribute the film worldwide with CAA Media Finance co-repping the US rights sale. The reteaming of FilmNation Entertainment and Focus Features follows the success of their partnership on critically acclaimed Promising Young Woman.

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Academy Award® nominee Dick Pope (Mr. Turner) will serve as Director of Photography. Academy Award® nominee Gemma Jackson (Aladdin) will serve as Production Designer. Academy Award® winner William Goldenberg (Argo) will serve as Editor. Zac Posen and Sophie O'Neill will serve as Costume Designers.

The film follows Leonard (Rylance), an English tailor who used to craft suits on London's world-famous Savile Row. But after a personal tragedy, he's ended up in Chicago, operating a small tailor shop in a rough part of town where he makes beautiful clothes for the only people around who can afford them: A family of vicious gangsters.

"A truly great film starts with fantastic writing, and we're thrilled to have Graham's talent drive this film to its full potential as a highly entertaining crime drama," said FilmNation Entertainment CEO Glen Basner. "We couldn't think of a better home for this film than with the talented and likeminded team at Focus and can't wait to gear up for yet another production during a time when our industry needs great films more than ever."

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Focus Features' chairman Peter Kujawski said, "Like so many, we were blown away by Graham's award-winning work in The Imitation Game and are thrilled to take part in his directorial debut. His storytelling talents seem limitless, and the caliber of artists he's sewn together both behind and in front of the camera for The Outfit will undoubtedly bring this thriller to life in an exciting way. We are looking forward to joining our friends at FilmNation in this endeavor."

Said Moore, "If you'd told me years ago, when Johnathan and I were first dreaming up this story, that I'd get to direct my first film with a cast as exquisitely talented as Mark, Zoey, Dylan and Johnny, I'd have said you were nuts. And honestly, if you'd said that back then, you might have been. This film is such a deep labor of love for me and our whole team, and I could not ask for better partners than our friends at FilmNation and Focus."

Graham Moore is a New York Times bestselling novelist and Academy Award® winning screenwriter. His novels ("The Holdout," "The Last Days of Night," "The Sherlockian") have been published in 24 countries and translated into 19 languages. His script for The Imitation Game won an Oscar® and a Writer's Guild Award and was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards.

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FilmNation Entertainment and CAA Media Finance negotiated the deal with Focus Features on behalf of the filmmaking team. The film will employ industry standard COVID safety protocols.

Moore is represented by CAA and Felker Toczek. McClain is represented by Innovative Artists, Trademark Talent, and Myman Greenspan. Wasserstein is represented by Sasha Levites of Frankfurt Kurnit. Rylance is represented by CAA and Peikoff and Mahan. Deutch is represented by CAA, Management 360 and attorneys Gretchen Rush and Huy Nguyen. O'Brien is represented by WME, Principal Entertainment, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark. Flynn is represented by CAA, United Agents, and Management 360.

About Filmnation Entertainment

FilmNation Entertainment is a leading producer, financier and distributor of independent films, television, theater, audio and new media. Since being founded in 2008, FilmNation has grown organically from its roots in independent film by leveraging its bold creative taste and experience entertaining global audiences. FilmNation has worked with many of the world's most renowned filmmakers and storytellers including Steven Soderbergh, Terrence Malick, Sofia Coppola, Pedro Almodóvar, Rian Johnson, Julie Taymor, Armando Iannucci, Emerald Fennell and Denis Villeneuve.

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Consistently ranked as one of the highest-grossing independent international film distributors, FilmNation has intensified its focus on content creation in recent years, bringing to life award-winning box office hits. Recent FilmNation productions include Greyhoung starring Tom Hanks, Sean Durkin's The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, Dominic Cooke's The Courier starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan, Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan, Armando Iannucci's The Personal History of David Copperfield starring Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton and Hugh Laurie, Lisa Joy's Reminiscence starring Hugh Jackman, Damian Szifron's Misanthrope starring Shailene Woodley, and The Good House starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.

About Focus Features

Focus Features acquires and produces specialty films for the global market and holds a library of iconic movies, with 129 Academy Award Nominations and 25 wins from fearless filmmakers. Upcoming and current releases from Focus include Promising Young Woman produced by LuckyChap Entertainment; Robin Wright's feature directorial debut Land starring Wright and co-star Demián Bichir; acclaimed filmmaker Morgan Neville's upcoming documentary on Anthony Bourdain; Edgar Wright's supernatural thriller Last Night in Soho from Working Title; Eddie Huang's directorial debut Boogie; Justin Chon's powerful drama Blue Bayou.

Focus is part of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (UFEG), which produces, acquires, markets, and distributes filmed entertainment worldwide in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television, and other distribution platforms. UFEG's global division also includes Universal Pictures, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, and DreamWorks Animation. UFEG 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 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.

For more information please visit www.focusfeatures.com