Broad Green Pictures Acquires Rights to The Intouchables Directors’ New Film, SAMBA

LOS ANGELES (September 18, 2014) – Broad Green Pictures (BGP) announced today that they have acquired the US distribution rights to Samba, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s follow-up to their 2012 smash-hit The Intouchables. BGP plans to release the film in the second half of 2015 in theaters across the United States and build upon the incredible box-office success of its predecessor.

 

The film stars a French powerhouse trio with Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Tahar Rahim in the latest offering from Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano whose The Intouchables broke box office records in France and was the top grossing French-language film in the U.S. in the last decade. The duo directed and adapted the film from Delphine Coulin's book "Samba pour la France."  Gaumont produced SAMBA with Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun and Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky from Quad Productions.

Samba (Omar Sy) has worked day and night for the last ten years, trying to support his family back in Senegal while making a life for himself in France. Thrown into detention, he meets a reclusive immigration worker, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), who’s warned to keep a safe distance from the people she is helping. Desperate for excitement and meaning in her own life, Alice lets her guard down when the charming Samba is ordered to leave France. Fumbling through bottom-rung jobs with his new friend Wilson (Tahar Rahim) while trying to stay off the radar, Samba finds himself returning to the awkward solace of Alice.

 

Cécile Gaget, Head of Gaumont International noted. “I am very glad that Broad Green Pictures totally understood the perspective that Eric and Olivier wanted to offer with this enjoyable social romance, and we are very excited to start working all together, I trust their new vision of the market and the great team they’re putting together will bring SAMBA to a great US success”.

 

BGP founders and brothers, CEO Gabriel Hammond and Chief Creative Officer Daniel Hammond said, “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with such talented filmmakers whose work we so admire- we’ve been waiting for this opportunity. The remarkable performances in this film bring its themes to life in such a visceral way, and will resonate with such a diverse group of audiences. We believe that this film should reach an even larger audience than their first.”

 

The deal for SAMBA was negotiated by CAA, Cécile Gaget Head of Gaumont International and Gabriel Hammond for Broad Green Pictures.

 

About Broad Green Pictures

 

Broad Green Pictures is building a studio infrastructure with a private company’s dexterity, providing it with an unparalleled creative palette and platform for innovation. With offices in Los Angeles and New York City, Broad Green provides filmmakers with a long-term creative home from script to screen making movies across budgets and genres. The company’s upcoming release and production slate includes the critically acclaimed 99 HOMES, TIFF 2014 audience favorite LEARNING TO DRIVE, Carlos Marques-Marcet's award winning 10.000 KM, and Jeremy Saulnier’s GREEN ROOM.


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