Category: Passengers

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Rachel drops out of “Passengers”

Movie News, Passengers

THR is reporting that Rachel dropped out of her upcoming movie “Passengers“. The US distribution company TWC also pulled out. Rachel was expected to start filming in April in Berlin, Germany.

Keanu Reeves’ space romance Passengers won’t hit theaters on April 3, 2015 after all. The independent project is also in the process of finding a new female lead after Rachel McAdams dropped out.

The Weinstein Co. acquired U.S. rights to the movie in one of the biggest deals of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival but pulled Passengers from its release calendar in recent days. Wayfare Films is financing and producing the movie alongside Company Films, the production shingle run by Reeves and Stephen Hamel.

With McAdams’ departure and the resulting production delay, The Weinstein Co. withdrew from the project, according to sources. CAA, which packaged the film and is handling domestic rights, will now shop Passengers to other U.S. distributors. Exclusive Media is representing international rights.

Insiders say Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire director Brian Kirk was set to start shooting Passengers in Germany on April 7, but the start date has been pushed back by at least several weeks, if not more.


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“Passengers” to film at Babelsberg Studios

Movie News, Passengers

THR is reporting that “Passengers” will be filmed at the Studio Babelsberg and will be part of the Berlin Film Festival market for the international buyers in February. It has been reported before that the movie will start filming in April.

Keanu Reeves’ much-hyped upcoming sci-fi feature Passengers has landed at Germany’s Studio Babelsberg.

The big-budget space romance – which features Reeves and Rachel McAdams as a futuristic “Adam and Eve” – is deep into pre-production. It is scheduled to begin shooting at Babelsberg, just outside Berlin, this spring.

The plot has Reeves as space colonist Jim Preston, on board a colony ship carrying 5,000 sleeping passengers to a new world, who accidentally awakens. Lonely, he wakes up Aurora (McAdams), and they fall in love. They eventually realize it is up to them to save the entire ship.

Developed by Reeves and Stephen Hamel at their Company Films, the script was written by Jon Spaihts (Prometheus). The film will be the feature directing debut of Irish TV director Brian Kirk (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire). Passengers has already received $1.35 million (€1 million) in financing from German state subsidy agency Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

The Weinstein Company has picked up Passengers for a U.S. release. Exclusive Media is handling international sales. Exclusive first presented the project to buyers in Cannes last year and will be pushing sales at Berlin’s European Film Market, which kicks off Thursday.

The Weinstein Company has set the US release date for April 3, 2015.


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“Passengers” to start filming in April

Movie News, Passengers

MEW is reporting that “Passengers” will start filming in April in Berlin, Germany. Thanks to Jord for the heads up! It was reported before that they were aiming for a late February/early March start date but it looks like they pushed back the production a few weeks. The movie will be entirely shot at the Sound Stages at Pinewood Studio Berlin and is expected to be released April 3, 2015.

PASSENGERS – April, 2014 – Berlin, Germany; STORY: The film is set in the future and it is about Jim Preston, a mechanic on a 120 year journey to a distant colonized planet in another galaxy is prematurely thawed from a cryogenic slumber a century before anyone else. (Posted: October 29, 2013. Revised: January 9, 2014)

Rachel is expected to finish filming the winter scenes for “Every Thing Will Be Fine” in Montreal in February. The production will return to Montreal after a break of a few months. They already filmed part of the movie last year. She will star alongside James Francor and Wim Wenders is directing.


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News Round Up: “About Time”, AMWM & “Passengers”

A Most Wanted Man, About Time, Movie News, Passengers

Rachel is enjoying her time off after wrapping up filming the still Untitled Cameron Crowe Project in Hawaii so there is not much news to update on. We will round-up come news tidbits in this update.

• The Box Office reported that “About Time broke a box office record in South Korea after debuting #1 in the box office. The movie already grossed over 82 million world wide to date according to Box Office Mojo.

South Korean audiences have been falling in love over and over again with About Time. The film became the biggest foreign romantic comedy of all time in South Korea and is Universal’s biggest release of the year in the market with an 18-day $14.2 million cume. About Time finished its third weekend in South Korea in third place with a $2.9 million take from 289 dates. The romantic comedy enjoyed a limited release in Brazil to the tune of $200k from 122 dates to place eigth in the weekend chart. About Time has grossed a total of $59.7 million overseas and $74.9 million worldwide

“About Time” will be released February 3 (UK) and February 4 on DVD/Blu-Ray. The Digital HD US release date is already next week on January 21. The Itunes Extras are the same as the DVD/Blu-Ray ones.

• The Salt Lake Tribute is reporting that Rachel and her co-stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Willem Dafoe and Robin Wright are expected to attend the Sundance Film Festival premiere of “A Most Wanted Man“. The festival runs from January 16-26 in Park City, Utah. The movie is selected for the premies selection (out of competition) and will have it’s first screening Sunday, January 19.

Rachel McAdams » “About Time,” “The Notebook” » “A Most Wanted Man” (Premieres)

• “Passengers” screenwriter John Spaiths revealed on his official twitter account that will be entirely shot on Sound Stages at Pinewood Studio Berlin, Germany. It was previously reported that the movie is expected to start filming late Feburary/early March but no exact date has been announced. Rachel and Keanu Reeves are currently attached to start and The Weinstein Company set the release to April 3, 2015.


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“Passengers” gets 2015 release

Movie News, Passengers

The Box Office Mojo is reporting that The Weinstein Company set the release for “Passengers” to April 3, 2015. It was previously reported that they were aiming for a 2014 release. It has been reported that the movie will start filming late February/early March of next year in Germany and possibly Montreal. The script is written by Jon Spaihts and the movie will be directed by Brian Kirk. Keanu Reeves will star opposite Rachel.


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“Passengers” Confirmed at AFM

Passengers

THR is reporting that it was announced to (international) buyers that Rachel is confirmed to play the female lead in “Passengers” during the American Film Market. Director Brian Kirk is set to direct the movie and Jon Spaihts wrote the screenplay. Production is expected to start late February/early March in Germany next year and the aim is for a (late) 2014 release.

In May, distributors rushed to buy sci-fi epic Passengers when Witherspoon became attached to star opposite Keanu Reeves. The Weinstein Co. struck a multiterritory deal with Exclusive Media. But then Witherspoon dropped out. On the eve of AFM, it was announced that Rachel McAdams is now the female lead.

We should note that, like THR article mentions, Reese Witherspoon was attached and confirmed for the movie back in May at the Cannes market but later dropped out. Deadline broke the news that Rachel was in talks a few weeks ago and Rachel later confirmed herself the project was in talks/in the works. The production company Exclusive Media has a more in-depth plot description (with some possible spoilers!) of the movie on their official site.

On a colony ship carrying 5000 sleeping passengers to a new world, a malfunction awakens passenger Jim Preston (Reeves) ninety years too soon. Unable to get back into hibernation, Jim is doomed to live out his life alone on the massive ship.

After he’s tried every means to save himself, and exhausted the entertainments of the ship, Jim seeks solace among the hibernating passengers. There he sees the sleeping Aurora (McAdams), a beautiful writer whose books he finds in the ship’s library. Jim finds himself falling in love – and a terrible possibility presents itself: he could wake Aurora up.
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“About Time” Los Angeles Press Junket Round-Up

About Time, Interviews, Media Archive, Passengers

Over the last few days a lot of new interviews were released of Rachel during the Los Angeles press junket for “About Time” last Sunday. We added the first batch of released video interviews in our media archive and the text interviews in our press archive. Many thanks to my friends Amanda and Jasmine for helping out.

Rachel confirmed to HitFix and Entertainment Tonight Canada that the recent “Passengers” rumors with Keanu Reeves are true but that the project is still “in the works”/”in talks” so it’s not official yet. Some excerpts of the (text) interviews can be found below:

On Going to Theater school: “It was good for me. I really enjoyed that and I really thrived in that. I finally found a place where I felt like I belonged.”

On comparing “About Time” to “The Time Traveler’s Wife”: “When I read this script, I really didn’t think about Time Traveler’s Wife at all, because that we dealt with very differently. [In About Time], it’s a much lighter touch. [The time travel is] less of an affliction and more of a fantasy.”

On prefering love stories: “I love stories with love in them. I just prefer those films. Every so often, I come across a film where there’s no love story. It doesn’t have to be romantic, but there’s a lack of love, and I don’t get that. I’m like, ‘Something’s missing.'”

“About Time” is currently playing in selected theaters and will go nationwide next week on November 8th in the US. We expect more (video) interview additions later on so keep checking back!

Media links:
About Time > Last Uploads


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Rachel in talks for “Passengers”

Movie News, News & Rumors, Passengers

Deadline is reporting that Rachel is in talks to join Canadian actor Keanu Reeves in the upcoming sci-fi movie “Passengers” with Brian Kirk set to direct. Variety also confirms the news. Thanks to my friend Carmel for the heads up!

Rachel McAdams is in talks to join Keanu Reeves in Passengers, the science fiction film that The Weinstein Company bought in one of the biggest deals of the last Cannes. The film, scripted by Prometheus scribe Jon Spaihts and to be directed early next year by Game Of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire helmer Brian Kirk, was sold with Reese Witherspoon as the female lead. Because they will shoot the movie in Germany, she was unable to work out the schedule, and that opened the door for McAdams, whose deal is in the process of being negotiated right now.

What a fortuitous time it is for this film, prepping for production in the wake of the grosses of the Alfonso Cuaron-directed Gravity. Like that film, this is set in space, and it is primarily the interaction between two lead characters. The plot: A spacecraft transporting thousands of people to a distant colony planet has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger (Reeves) is awakened 90 years before anyone else. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger (McAdams), marking the beginning of what becomes a unique love story. I read the script back when buyers were bidding on it, and it was east to see why the bidding got heated among three distributors. TWC won it, committing to a multimillion-dollar minimum guarantee and a P&A commitment in the $25 million range, and at the time they were looking at a 2014 wide release late next year.

Wayfare Entertainment is financing and producing the pic. The script was developed by Stephen Hamel and Reeves at their production shingle Company Films. Hamel is producing with Wayfare CEO Ben Browning. Start Media’s Michael Maher and Lynwood Spinks are executive producing. CAA brokered the domestic sales rights; Exclusive Media will rep the international rights at the upcoming AFM. McAdams is repped by Magnolia’s Shelley Browning.