(Spotted on Tracksounds Now!)
Los Angeles, CA (June 30, 2008) — Academy Award® nominated composer David Newman (ANASTASIA, ICE AGE, The Phantom) has been brought on board to score The Spirit, a film written and directed by Frank Miller (creator of SIN CITY and 300) and based on the classic comic book series by the legendary Will Eisner. The announcement was jointly made today by Lionsgate’s President of Film Production, Mike Paseornek and producers Deborah Del Prete and Gigi Pritzker of Odd Lot Entertainment.
THE SPIRIT, which opens Christmas Day, stars Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Stana Katic, Dan Lauria, Jaime King, Paz Vega and Louis Lombardi. Odd Lot and Lionsgate are production partners on the film. Odd Lot’s Del Prete and Pritzker are producing along with Michael Uslan of Batfilm Productions Inc. Batfilm co-founder Benjamin Melniker and Steven Maier are executive producing, along with Odd Lot’s Bill Lischak and Lionsgate’s Michael Burns and Mike Paseornek. Odd Lot’s Linda McDonough and Batfilm/Comic Book Movies’ F.J. DeSanto are co-producing.
“Frank (Miller) and I feel that David Newman is the perfect composer for this movie and we are fortunate that he has joined our creative team,” said Del Prete. “David’s unique musical sensibilities combined with his passion for the subject matter and the timelessness of this film perfectly compliment our vision for The Spirit.”
Winner of 12 BMI Film Music Awards and an accomplished violinist and successful concert conductor, Newman served a four-year stint as the music director for the Sundance Institute, and has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra on several occasions. He was elected president of The Film Music Society in February of 2007. Newman’s numerous credits include the scores for SERENITY, OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY, ARE WE THERE YET?, THE CAT IN THE HAT, DADDY DAY CARE, HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, SCOOBY-DOO, DR. DOLITTLE 2, NUTTY PROFESSOR I and II, HEATHERS, THE FLINTSTONES, PARADISE, THE WAR OF THE ROSES and THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN, amongst many others. He is represented by First Artists Management.
The SpiriT is an action-adventure-romance story of a former rookie cop who returns mysteriously from the dead (Gabriel Macht) to fight crime from the shadows of Central City. His arch-enemy, the OCTOPUS (Samuel L. Jackson) has a different mission: he’s going to devastate the Spirit’s beloved city as he pursues his own version of immortality. The Spirit tracks this cold-hearted killer from Central City’s rundown warehouses, to the damp catacombs, to the windswept waterfront … all the while facing a bevy of beautiful women who either want to seduce, love or kill our masked crusader. Lionsgate is releasing the film in North America, the U.K. and Australia. Sony Pictures Releasing International is handling distribution in many European territories and Latin America. Odd Lot International is distributing to the rest of the world. Rof the world.
About Lionsgate
Lionsgate is a leading next generation filmed entertainment studio with a major presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company is leveraging its content leadership and marketing expertise through a series of partnerships that include the operation of the highly successful FEARNet branded VOD and Internet horror channel with Sony and Comcast, the recent announcement of the fall 2009 launch of a new premium entertainment channel with partners Viacom, Paramount Pictures and MGM, investment in the leading young men’s digital distribution platform Break.com, ownership of the premier independent television syndication company Debmar-Mercury LLC and an alliance with independent filmed entertainment production and distribution company Roadside Attractions. Lionsgate also has forged partnerships with leading content creators, owners and distributors in key territories around the world, including Televisa in the U.S. and Latin America, StudioCanal in the UK, Hoyts and Sony in Australia and Eros International in India.
The Company has generated more than $450 million at the North American theatrical box office in the past year and has released a string of hits, including THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM, TYLER PERRY’S MEET THE BROWNS, THE BANK JOB, RAMBO, THE EYE, SAW IV, TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED?, GOOD LUCK CHUCK, 3:10 TO YUMA and WAR, most of which have opened at #1 or #2 at the box office. The Company has also forged leadership positions in television and home entertainment with the production of such critically-acclaimed television series as “Weeds” and “Mad Men,” the distribution of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” “Family Feud,” “South Park,” “Trivial Pursuit” and “The Dead Zone,” among others, and approximately 9% market share and the industry’s leading box office-to-DVD conversion rate in home entertainment. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with entrepreneurial innovation and original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the globe.
About Odd Lot Entertainment
Founded in 2001 by producers Gigi Pritzker and Deborah Del Prete (producers of THE WEDDING PLANNER), Odd Lot Entertainment is a Los Angeles-based company that develops, finances, produces and arranges distribution for commercial film properties in the $5-$60 million range, both in the domestic and international markets. Its projects include SUBURBAN GIRL, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alec Baldwin and Maggie Grace; the SXSW Special Jury Award winner GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS; the Independent Spirit Award-winner MEAN CREEK; RICOCHET RIVER, starring Kate Hudson and directed by Del Prete; BURIED ALIVE, starring Tobin Bell; the zombie comedy UNDEAD OR ALIVE with Chris Kattan and James Denton; and creature feature LIVING HELL. Currently in post-production is THE SPIRIT, written and directed by Frank Miller based on the comic series by graphic novelist Will Eisner, starring Gabriel Macht, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson, Dan Lauria, and Samuel L. Jackson and writer/director Michael Meredith’s THE OPEN ROAD, starring Oscar-nominated Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Kate Mara and Mary Steenburgen. The company handles foreign sales through its Odd Lot International division.
