D FILMS ACQUIRES CANADIAN RIGHTS TO CREATION
TIFF OPENING NIGHT GALA

FROM HANWAY FILMS

For immediate release


Toronto, September 8, 2009 – – D FILMS, the  Canadian distribution company recently formed by industry vets Jim Sherry and Tony Cianciotta, today announced it has acquired all Canadian distribution rights to  CREATION, the Charles Darwin drama starring Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side  of the World, The Da Vinci Code),  as Darwin and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, He’s  Just Not That  Into You) as his wife, Emma, from London-based sales company HanWay Films.  Directed by Jon Amiel (The Core, Entrapment) and produced by Jeremy Thomas,  CREATION  will have its world premiere on September 10 as the prestigious Opening Night Gala of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.  


The announcement was jointly made today by Jim Sherry, President for Toronto-based distribution company D FILMS and by Tony Cianciotta, Vice-President of Acquisitions, and by Tim Haslam, CEO for London-based HanWay Films. 

“We are proud to be associated with HanWay on a motion picture  of such exceptional quality,” said President Jim Sherry. “Through this first acquisition we have begun to implement our corporate objectives of associating our boutique operation with the most talented and recognizable industry labels and with the best in filmed entertainment from around the world.” 


Producer Jeremy Thomas added, “I’m excited that we have a vibrant distribution partner in D FILMS to share the Toronto Opening Night Film and the momentum that it can generate, for a film I believe will move audiences.”


“I’m absolutely thrilled to be associated with CREATION,” said D FILMS’ Vice-President of Acquisitions, Tony Cianciotta. “We couldn’t have asked for a better fit than CREATION as our first acquisition under the D FILMS banner. CREATION has an extraordinary cast, a great script, and is extremely well-made.  I fell in love with the script some time ago, but I was completely blown away by the finished film. It’s intelligent and thought-provoking and it’s also a beautiful and tender love story with brilliant performances by Bettany and Connolly. They and their director, Jon Amiel, as well as the creative team all deserve major recognition at awards season.”


Part ghost story, part heart-wrenching love story CREATION is the story of pioneering thinker Charles Darwin. His great, still controversial, book The Origin of Species depicts nature as a battleground. In CREATION the battleground is a man’s heart. Torn between his love for his deeply religious wife and his own growing belief in a world where God has no place, Darwin finds himself caught in a struggle between faith and reason, love and truth. 


The Darwin we meet in CREATION is a young, vibrant father, husband and friend whose mental and physical health gradually buckles under the weight of guilt and grief for a lost child. Ultimately it is the ghost of Annie, his adored 10-year-old daughter, who leads him out of darkness and helps him reconnect with his wife and family. Only then is he able to write the book that changed the world. 


Written by John Collee and based on the Randal Keynes book titled Annie’s Box, about the life of his great great grandfather, Charles Darwin, CREATION was co-developed by Recorded Picture Company with BBC Films and the UK Film Council, and includes Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones and Benedict Cumberbatch in its cast.


The deal was negotiated on behalf of D FILMS by Sherry and Cianciotta, and by Tim Haslam on behalf of Hanway Films. 


ABOUT D FILMS


D FILMS is a full service marketing and motion picture distribution company that acquires long term rights to films across all platforms, including theatrical, television, home entertainment and internet. It is headed by respected film distribution veterans Jim Sherry, former executive managing director of MDP at Alliance Atlantis Corporation for nearly ten years, and Tony Cianciotta, who played a key role in establishing Alliance Releasing (now Alliance Films) as a major force in Canadian distribution between 1992 and 1997. Sherry and Cianciotta formerly worked together at Motion Picture Distribution (MDP)  and  Maples  Pictures  and  reteamed  recently  to  launch  D  FILMS.    Their  combined marketing and distribution  credits include some of the world’s most successful independent films, such as Lord of the Rings, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love, Chicago, Trainspotting, Cinema Paradiso, Life Is Beautiful, Exotica,  David Cronenberg’s Crash, and many other titles.


ABOUT HANWAY FILMS


HanWay’s current slate includes the Toronto titles  Creation  starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly which opens the Festival, Lone Sherfig’s  An Education starring Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, Scott Hicks’ The Boys Are Back starring Clive Owen, Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and produced by MARV Films,  Perrier’s Bounty  starring Cillian Murphy and Jim Broadbent, and Danis Tanovic’s Triage starring Colin Farrell. Films in post include Sam Taylor Wood’s  Nowhere Boy, We Want Sex  starring Sally Hawkins from producer Stephen Woolley, and Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife. 


ABOUT RECORDED PICTURE COMPANY


Chairman Jeremy Thomas founded Recorded Picture Company in 1971, and has since produced more than forty films, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s nine-time Academy Award winner  The Last Emperor. RPC’s body of work is characterised by its intimate director relationships. Film greats such as David Cronenberg, Nic Roeg, Stephen Frears, Bernardo Bertolucci, Terry Giliam and Takeshi Kitano, amongst others, have longstanding relationships with the company. RPC has also fostered a new generation of film talent in Jonathan Glazer and David Mackenzie. Notable recent productions include Sexy Beast, Crash, Young Adam and The Dreamers. RPC’s slate includes upcoming films from David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam and Phillip Noyce.