Jonathan Levine has had big successes in recent years with 50/50 & WARM BODIES but his debut film, the horror ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE starring Amber Heard & Anson Mount, has for some reason been stuck in limbo ever since it sparked a big bidding war back at the Toronto Film Festival in 2006. The Weinstein Company snapped up the rights but after a horrible test screening they apparently got cold feet and sold the rights to an upstart company called Senator Entertainment US…who then went out of business before the film was released. Now it’s back at The Weinstein Company thanks to their subsidiary Radius-TWC and their presidents Tom Quinn and Jason Janego. Quinn explains:
It is one of my favorite horror films I’ve seen in the last decade, and if I could have afforded it at Magnolia [his old company], I would have bought it then. We were finally able to untangle the film’s rights at a time when a multi-platform release makes perfect sense for a film like this. Jonathan’s film Warm Bodies has grossed over $60 million, and to me this movie surpasses what is available to us on the open market.
The film centres around a group of high-schoolers who invite Mandy Lane, “a good girl” who becomes the object of everyone’s affection after returning from summer break, to a weekend party on a secluded ranch. Obviously this being a horror film, people start to drop dead one by one. Jonathan Levine himself commented on the new developments:
I am thrilled that Mandy Lane has been rescued and is back where it belongs with Harvey and Bob. Hard to believe it’s been seven years, but then again I’ve always perceived myself as a misunderstood artist who was light years ahead of his time, so I am thrilled the world has finally caught up. Seriously, I am incredibly proud of the film and of the hard work that my cast and collaborators put into it, and I am so happy the world will finally get a chance to see it.
The film will be released in the US in selected cinemas and on VOD in the late summer while it arrived in the UK February 2008. The twisted film might actually be pretty good, and with Levine’s other work having been stellar so far, this might not be a bad film to try and track down (you can get it on DVD for £3 on Amazon, so it won’t break your budget).
Source: Deadline
