OSCAR WINNER SAM MENDES’ NEAL STREET PRODUCTIONS IN 2-YEAR FIRST-LOOK DEAL AT FOCUS FEATURES

NEW YORK, June 18, 2009 – Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes’ production company Neal Street Productions, in which he is partnered with Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, has signed a two-year first-look deal with Focus Features. Focus will hold worldwide rights to any features that Neal Street produces. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
Mr. Mendes’ new movie Away We Go was released by Focus this month, and last weekend broke into the national boxoffice Top 20 while playing on only 45 screens; its per-screen average of $12,463 is the highest of any film in the Top 20. The picture will open in additional cities and theaters throughout the month. Directed by Mr. Mendes from an original screenplay by Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida, Away We Go stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph. Away We Go was produced by Edward Saxon, Marc Turtletaub, and Peter Saraf; Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda and Ms. Harris were the film’s executive producers.
Focus president of production John Lyons and senior vice president, international production Teresa Moneo will work on the Neal Street films. Among the projects in development by Neal Street at Focus are:
Butcher’s Crossing, an adaptation of the classic 1960 novel written by John Williams and described by The New York Times Book Review as “perhaps the first and best revisionist Western.” Gabe and Alan Polsky of Polsky Films are producing with Neal Street. The epic adventure set in 1870s America follows Will Andrews as he forsakes his Harvard education and lands in the small Kansas town of Butcher’s Crossing, where he is drawn into a sweeping hunt for one of the last great buffalo herds. No screenwriter is yet assigned to the project.
Middlemarch, an adaptation of George Eliot’s classic novel of the same name, which explores diverse lives and changing fortunes in a provincial 1830s English community. Screenwriter Andrew Davies has written the current draft.
Mr. Schamus commented, “After our extraordinary experience on Away We Go, we knew we would work together again with Sam. The range of Sam’s interests and skills as a filmmaker is limitless, and he is a magnet for top talent in front of and behind the camera.”
Mr. Mendes said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to be in partnership with Focus. I have long been a huge admirer of what they do, and my experience of working with James Schamus, John Lyons and the Focus team on Away We Go has been nothing but enjoyable. I know I speak for both myself and Pippa Harris when I say that we can’t wait to make some more movies with them, and soon.”
Founded in 2003 by Sam Mendes, Caro Newling, and Pippa Harris, Neal Street Productions has enjoyed a string of screen successes, including Revolutionary Road, Starter For Ten, Jarhead, Things We Lost in the Fire, and Away We Go. Neal Street is also prolific in the theater world, having recently received a total of 15 Tony nominations for Shrek The Musical and Mary Stuart. Neal Street Theatricals is currently represented on the London stage by Mr. Mendes’ Bridge Project – a double bill of The Winter’s Tale and The Cherry Orchard at The Old Vic. Ms. Newling comes to Neal Street from London’s Donmar Warehouse; Ms. Harris hails from the BBC, where she was Head of Drama Commissioning.
Focus Features and Focus Features International (FFI) together comprise a singular global company, dedicated to producing, acquiring, financing, selling, and distributing original and daring films from emerging and established filmmakers – films that challenge mainstream moviegoers to embrace and enjoy voices and visions from around the world. The company’s flexible and nuanced approach to distribution allows it to support a wide range of films, from those geared to a single local market to worldwide hits. The company operates as Focus Features domestically, and as Focus Features International overseas.
In addition to Away We Go, current and upcoming Focus Features movies include Shane Acker’s animated fantasy epic 9, starring Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov; the unique nonfiction feature Babies, directed by Thomas Balmès; Greenberg, the new film from writer/director Noah Baumbach, starring Ben Stiller; Academy Award-winning writer/director Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere; Academy Award-winning writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man; and Taking Woodstock, the new film from Academy Award-winning director Ang Lee.
Focus Features and Focus Features International are part of NBC Universal, 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. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal 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, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.