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    Fox Searchlight Buys Sundance Hit “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2018 Views
    In this Jan. 26, 2015 photo, Olivia Cooke poses for a portrait to promote the film, "Me & Earl & the Dying Girl", at the Eddie Bauer Adventure House during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Victoria Will/Invision/AP)

    By Ryan Pearson, Entertainment Writer

    PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --

    The tale of a loner who befriends a fellow high school student with leukemia has become the breakout hit of the Sundance Film Festival.

    Fox Searchlight bought "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl" after its well-received premiere Sunday for a reported $12 million, a record price for a Sundance movie.

    The film stars Thomas Mann as the Greg Gaines — the "me" in the title, and British actress Olivia Cooke is the "dying girl," while newcomer RJ Cyler is "Earl" — Gaines' best friend. The audience at Sundance's Eccles theatre gave the film a five-minute standing ovation as credits rolled.

    "It was really emotional. We had seen the movie before but obviously it's a really different experience seeing it with a huge group of people who have no idea what they're about to see. And then the credits start rolling and everyone stands up and starts clapping. I mean, you start bawling. It's overwhelming," Mann said.

    Cooke said she was sobbing.

    "Molly Shannon was next to me and her stomach kind of crumpled and she was like, 'huh huh,' bawling her eyes out," she said. "I couldn't. I was a wreck. That was embarrassing."

    The film reportedly drew a bidding war from various potential distributors — likely mindful of the massive success of last summer's "The Fault in our Stars," a romance that similarly revolves around young people and cancer, which grossed nearly $325 million worldwide.

    But the actors say there aren't many similarities between that movie and theirs, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Jesse Andrews, who adapted his own novel.

    "'Fault in our Stars' wasn't really a thing when we auditioned for it. When we started making the movie, that's when there was all this hype around it. The movie, you really can't compare them. I mean, they've got cancer in them. And I guess that's one comparative," Cooke said. "You wouldn't compare 'Titanic' and 'Battleship' because they've both got ships."

    Mann, a 23-year-old in demand in Hollywood with several movies set for release this year, said "Earl" spoke to him like no other film.

    "This has been the most personal project for me. I've really had to pour myself into this movie. No other script has asked as much of me as this movie has. And I don't know that it ever will. I hope it will but yeah it's going to be hard to beat a juicy role like this," he said.

    Fox Searchlight said it will release the film sometime this year.

    Category:News
    Tags:Fox SearchlightMe and Earl and the Dying GirlSundance



    A Closer Look At Proposed Measures Designed To Curb Google’s Search Monopoly

    Thursday, November 21, 2024

    U.S. regulators are proposing aggressive measures to restore competition to the online search market after a federal judge ruled Google maintained an illegal monopoly for the last decade.

    The sweeping set of recommendations filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice could radically alter Google's business, including possibly spinning off the Chrome web browser and syndicating its search data to competitors. Even if the courts adopt the blueprint, Google isn't likely to make any significant changes until 2026 at the earliest, because of the legal system's slow-moving wheels.

    Here's what it all means:

    What is the Justice Department's goal?
    Federal prosecutors are cracking down on Google in a case originally filed during near the end of then-President Donald Trump's first term. Officials say the main goal of these proposals is to get Google to stop leveraging its dominant search engine to illegally squelch competition and stifle innovation.

    "The playing field is not level because of Google's conduct, and Google's quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired," the Justice Department asserted in its recommendations. "The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages."

    Not surprisingly, Google sees things much differently. The Justice Department's "wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court's decision," Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, asserted in a blog post. "It would break a range of Google products — even beyond search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives."

    It's still possible that the Justice Department could ease off on its attempts to break up Google, especially if President-elect Donald Trump... Read More

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