September 5, 2000
FINE LINE FEATURES FALLS FOR SCHNABEL'S BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
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Los Angeles (September 5, 2000) - Fine Line Features President Mark Ordesky announced that the company has acquired the North American rights to Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls. The film is based on the extraordinary life of Cuban novelist and poet Reinaldo Arenas and features Javier Bardem in the title role. In addition to directing, Julian Schnabel co-wrote the script with Cunningham O'Keefe and Lázaro Gómez Carriles. Jon Kilik produced the film. Before Night Falls will have its world premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival and will also screen at the Toronto, New York and San Sebastian Film Festivals. Fine Line Features will release Before Night Falls in late Fall.
Based on Arenas' best-selling autobiography, Before Night Falls portrays this brilliant writer's life - from his childhood of both poverty and freedom in 1940s Cuba, to his persecution by Castro's regime as a political dissident and homosexual, and his life as an exile in New York City. Javier Bardem delivers an extraordinary performance as Arenas. Bardem has worked with most important Spanish directors (including Bigas Luna and Pedro Almodóvar) and will also be seen this year in John Malkovich's Dancer Upstairs. Before Night Falls features Olivier Martinez and Andrea DiStefano, and supporting performances by Johnny Depp, Sean Penn and Michael Wincott.
Julian Schnabel is one of the most important contemporary American artists whose paintings and sculptures have been exhibited all over the world. His first film was the story of fellow artist Jean Michel Basquiat, entitled Basquiat. Schnabel discovered Reinaldo Arenas three years after his death in 1990. "It is my privilege to bring Reinaldo's voice to film. It gives a voice to many Cubans we haven't heard, an outrageous voice full of humor that has turned suffering into great beauty and everything into beauty," says Schnabel.
"This is a sublime film with an unforgettable central performance by Javier Bardem," said Ordesky. "Julian's visualization of this moving, humanistic true story is so seamless. I was completely captivated and swept away."
The deal was negotiated by producer Jon Kilik (also producer of Basquiat and New Line Cinema's Spike Lee film Bamboozled) and Bart Walker (ICM) on behalf of the film, and by Mark Ordesky for Fine Line Features.
Fine Line Features currently has three films in release - Saving Grace starring Brenda Blethyn and Craig Ferguson, The Five Senses starring Mary-Louise Parker and Frédéric Fonteyne's An Affair of Love. Also scheduled for release this year are director Lars von Trier's Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or winner Dancer in the Dark starring Björk and Catherine Deneuve and David Mamet's State and Main featuring Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Patti Lupone, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, Rebecca Pidgeon and Julia Stiles. 2001 releases include Human Nature starring Patricia Arquette and Tim Robbins, The Sleeping Dictionary starring Jessica Alba and Hugh Dancy and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming's directorial debut, The Anniversary Party.