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Hamlet 2 Was Biggest Sale Ever at Sundance

Chris Abraham — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 05:11:17 +0000

Leonid Rozhetskin, David Arquette, and L+E Productions got some great news this week when his Sundance movie, Hamlet 2, was bought for $10 million making it one of the biggest deals at the festival ever! Congrats! Via Pop Sugar.

Focus Gets “Hamlet 2? for $10 Million – highest Acquisition ever achieved at Sundance!
Andrew Fleming’s “Hamlet 2” has been acquired by Focus Features in a $10 million worldwide deal swiftly sealed within 12 hours of the film’s world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was produced by L+E Pictures‘ Eric Eisner & Leonid Rozhetskin and Aaron Ryder, from an original script by Fleming and Pam Brady. In the words of a description, “In the irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama teacher (Steve Coogan) rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages a politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Cast joining Coogan include David Arquette, Melonie Diaz, Catherine Keener, Amy Poehler and Elisabeth Shue (appearing as herself). Calling the film “an amazing New Year’s present,” in a statement, Focus’ James Schamus and Andrew Karpen, added, “We can’t wait to share this riotously inventive movie with the whole world.” [Eugene Hernandez] Via indieWIRE

More information on the Hamlet 2 sale made at Sundance

Sundance BuzzCheck™: The festival’s top seller, ‘Hamlet 2′ January 24th, 2008 From EW.com Popwatch Blog The raucous comedy had been the subject of tremendous buzz coming into Sundance…before it was even completed, and without a mere mention in the event’s catalogue. Indeed, the unfinished film was such a late entry into the festival that Park City’s primary premiere location, the Eccles Center, was fully booked. But that didn’t stop Hamlet 2 from knocking Sundance out of its mid-festival doldrums with a rowdy debut screening Monday night at the Library Center theater. The room erupted in hysterics about two minutes into the show, and things stayed that way for nearly two hours. Read the whole post Sundance, Day 7: Why Hamlet 2 Is Hot, Hot, Hot From E! Online, Reel Girl Blog Read the whole post. ‘Hamlet 2′ is big buy at Sundance Fest January 24th, 2008 From The Miami Herald By Ryan Pearson Read the whole story. Studios cautiously open their wallets for Sundance films

Read the whole story. Trio of deals wakes up Sundance ‘Hamlet 2,’ ‘Henry Poole’ and ‘Choke’ reap big sales From The Hollywood Reporter By Steven Zeitchik and Gregg Goldstein Read the whole story.
PRINCELY SUM NETS ‘HAMLET’From The New York Post By Lou Lumenick

A late entry to the Sundance program, “Hamlet 2,? produced by Leonid Rozhetskin, was described by several distributors as the first indie this year to have commercial crossover possibilities like “Little Miss Sunshine.”Read the whole story.What a piece of workFrom The Hollywood Reporter, Risky Biz Blog By Gregg Goldstein and Steven Zeitchik

Throughout Sundance, distributors have been asking “Indie hit, wherefore art thou?”
The answer may have come Monday evening with “Hamlet 2,” Andrew Fleming’s frequently hilarious story of an overly dramatic high school drama teacher (played by Steve Coogan) who attempts to salvage his department by putting on a controversial musical sequel to Shakespeare’s play. Produced by Leonid Rozhetskin
The late addition to the fest had intermitent lulls, but it also had every top film exec unreservedly gushing outside the Library screening room. The Weinstein Co., Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Focus, ThinkFilm, Paramount Vantage and other execs all openly agreeing about how funny it was.
“I heard before I came that it needed a lot of work, but it doesn’t need that much work,” said one buyer. Others said some judicious cutting could bring it big success. At a “Hamlet” dinner afterwards, veteran studio director Fleming (”Threesome,” “Nancy Drew”) said he’d be open to working with a distributor on a refined edit, despite saying he avoided the development process initially. “It”s nothing I haven’t been through before,” he deadpanned.
The film’s satirical take on theater types, modern musicals, high school and high school movies like “Dangerous Minds” resonated with the audience, as did top notch performances by Coogan and Catherine Keener (pictured above), Amy Poehler and the amazing newcomer Skyler Astin, who plays a budding drama student many will recognize.
(Full disclosure: after seeking out Astin to speak with him at the dinner, I realized he currently stars in the Tony-winning best musical “Spring Awakening,” co-produced by an old friend, Amanda Dubois. — Gregg Goldstein)
“Hamlet 2? came together thanks to producers Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin as well as “Little Miss Sunshine” producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger.” Editors were still cutting the movie as late as December with the possibility that it wouldn”t have made into the festival.
But the filmmakers finished it and got it into the festival just under the wire, not unlike the way the fall’s big indie hit, “Juno,” snuck into Telluride at the last minute.
CAA is selling the title, and top distributors began gathering at their Park City house immediately after the film ‘Hamlet 2′ Sells After All-Night Bidding War From The Wall Street Journal By Lauren Schuker, January 22, 2008

This just in: After receiving an uproarious reaction from crowds last night, “Hamlet 2” provoked the first major bidding war of the festival. After an all-night battle, the film sold early this morning, according to producer Eric Eisner and Leonid Rozhetskin who only arrived home at 7:30 a.m.
The comedy, which stars Steve Coogan as a failed actor turned high school drama teacher, tells the unpredictable, charmingly offensive tale of a high school drama class that stages a sequel to Hamlet. The film is complete with time machines and a modern-day version of Jesus Christ — with sex appeal and a cell phone. Equal Opportunity Insults, In Five Acts From The New York Times, The Carpetbagger By David M. Halbfinger

Sundance looks to have its first unqualified hit, and a Cinderella story at that, in “Hamlet 2.” A late addition to the film festival, this bawdy romp, starring Steve Coogan as a failed actor-turned-pathetic high-school drama teacher — who stages a musical sequel to “Hamlet,” with a “sexy Jesus” Christ in a starring role — enjoyed a riotous reaction at its premiere in Park City’s library Monday night.
One of the festival’s running themes has been hope and optimism, as most evident in films about people facing down death, among them Amy Redford’s drama “The Guitar” (which didn’t wow audiences on Friday) and Mark Pellington’s lighter-hearted “Henry Poole Is Here” (which played quite well Monday afternoon and immediately drew interest from several buyers).
But “Hamlet 2,” even as it made sure to insult Christians, gays, Latinos, Jews, the A.C.L.U., Hollywood movies about inspiring teachers and one of its lead actresses (Elisabeth Shue), also managed to puncture the death-defying optimism that has hovered over Park City.
As the acquisition teams from Focus Features, Fox Searchlight, Lionsgate, Miramax and the Weinstein Company, among others, filed out into the night – some of them, presumably, to huddle and come up with offers – the non-buying audience hung around for a quick Q-&-A with Andrew Fleming, the director of “Hamlet 2,” and several members of his cast.
Mr. Fleming said he and his writing partner, Pam Brady, had been working on the script for five years, but the idea of a “Hamlet” sequel was much more recent, and the actual play-within-the-movie was written on deadline. “It was this kind of panicked, last-minute thing – ‘let’s write some songs and put on a show,’” Mr. Fleming said. The film was produced by Leonid Rozhetskin.
In the movie Ms. Shue plays herself, oddly enough – or a version of herself that could be so smitten by Mr. Coogan that she’d lick his face (as she did again onstage, for good measure). Why’d she take the role? “I just got the script and it said ‘a famous actress who’s a has-been, lives in Tucson and is a nurse,’” she said. “It was hilarious and I had to do it.”

Industry watching for strike-inspired bidding wars, hot films at Sundance

Hamlet 2 is cited as a movie title “that could sneak up under the radar.” Produced by Leonid Rozhets

Tweeterboard is Pretty Darn Cool

Chris Abraham — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:16:43 +0000

I spend a lot of time Twittering over at twitter.com/chrisabraham. I have journaled my first days in Berlin and my continuing experiences in Berlin on Twitter. Well, I just discovered Tweeterboard and am not surprised by the rankings. Chris Brogan, Jim Long, and Robert Scoble dominate, of course. I am not nearly as impressed by my Twitterings, alas. You can see how I get love and how I give love, too. Very intense and a little spooky. The Tweeterboard is yet another top-100 list I am not on. Tweeterboard even tracks all of the links that I have dropped into Twitter:

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Sundance Selects L+E Productions’ Hamlet II

Chris Abraham — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:57:57 +0000

You know I have been rubbing shoulders with Hollywood producer Leonid Rozhetskin. Well, it looks like Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions does a fine job of selecting scripts and projects because I got some breaking news: the Sundance Film Festival selected L+E Productions’ Hamlet II in its premiers category.

“The Sundance Film Festival nomination of Hamlet II is not up on the Sundance website, but here’s some information about the Premiers Category: To showcase the diversity of contemporary cinema, the Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program offers a selection of the latest work from established directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films. This is not a competitive category. It’s L+E Production‘s first Sundance selection.” (More about Hamlet II)

Rubbing Shoulders with Hollywood Producer Leonid Rozhetskin

Chris Abraham — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 06:44:03 +0000

Being a Very-Minor-Almost-Imperceptible-Celebrity, I sometimes get to hang out with Very-Major-Totally-Obvious-Celebrities such as the Hollywood mogul and movie producer Leonid Rozhetskin of L+E Productions. What a cool dude. Via Chris Abraham Online

Leonid Rozhetskin was born August 4th, 1966 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Leonid Rozhetskin is an international financier and lawyer credited with bringing significant financial and legal advances to modern Russia. Leonid Rozhetskin currently co-owns L+E Productions, a movie production company in Los Angeles, California.

Early Life and Education of Leonid Rozhetskin

Leonid Rozhetskin was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1966. Leonid Rozhetskin’s family immigrated to the United States in 1980. Leonid Rozhetskin attended high school in New York City.

In 1987, Leonid Rozhetskin received a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University with distinction. In 1990, Leonid Rozhetskin graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Legal Career of Leonid Rozhetskin

From 1990 to 1991, Leonid Rozhetskin was a law clerk for Judge Stephen V. Wilson, a federal judge in Los Angeles, California. From 1992 to 1994, Leonid Rozhetskin worked as an attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell and White & Case, both U.S. law firms. In 1992, Leonid Rozhetskin returned to Russia to open his own law firm, representing clients such as the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank), Credit Suisse, Morgan Grenfell, and The Moscow Times.

Career in Investments, Mining and Media of Leonid Rozhetskin

In 1995, Leonid Rozhetskin’s focus shifted from the law to financial ventures. Leonid Rozhetskin was part of a group that founded Renaissance Capital, Russia’s largest and most successful domestic investment bank. While with Renaissance Capital, Leonid Rozhetskin led the firm’s participation in listing the first Russian company on the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1998, Leonid Rozhetskin left Renaissance Capital to co-found the independent venture capital firm, LV Finance. The advisory clients of LV Finance included international financier George Soros and founder of CNN Ted Turner. The company invested in a number of highly successful start-up ventures in the media and telecommunications industry, most notably, MegaFon, the third largest mobile phone operator in Russia. Leonid Rozhetskin sold his interest in LV Finance in 2003.

From October 2001 until January 2005, Leonid Rozhetskin served as Executive Vice Chairman of Norilsk Nickel, Russia’s largest mining company and the world’s largest miner of nickel and palladium metals. Leonid Rozhetskin led the company’s efforts on transparency, corporate governance and external investment, including the acquisition of a controlling interest in Stillwater Mining Company, a U.S. miner of platinum and palladium metals. Leonid Rozhetskin also pioneered an investment of $1.2 billion to acquire a 20 percent interest in Gold Fields of South Africa. Leonid Rozhetskin currently serves on the Board of Directors of Norilsk Nickel.

Leonid Rozhetskin is also a board member and founding shareholder of City A.M., London’s first free daily business newspaper which covers news on the markets, global and local business as well as contemporary lifestyle features. City A.M. is read by over 100,000 professionals throughout London.

Movie Production by Leonid Rozhetskin

In 2007, Leonid Rozhetskin co-founded a movie production company, L+E Productions, with Eric Eisner. Eisner is the son of Michael Eisner, the former Chief Executive Office of The Walt Disney Company. Leonid Rozhetskin and L+E Productions‘ mission is to finance and develop feature-length films.

Personal Life of Leonid Rozhetskin

Leonid Rozhetskin has one son and divides his time between London and Los Angeles.

Awards Won by Leonid Rozhetskin

Leonid Rozhetskin was awarded for the 1989-90 academic year, a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University for his special contribution to teaching the undergraduates of Harvard University and Radcliffe Colleges.