"God’s Pocket" stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Eddie Marsan (photo by Lance Acord.)
"God’s Pocket" and "Infinitely Polar Bear" will compete in Dramatic Competition
NEW YORK --
Park Pictures Features’ latest narrative feature film offerings, the John Slattery-directed drama God’s Pocket and the dramatic comedy Infinitely Polar Bear (written and directed by Maya Forbes) have been chosen for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival’s prestigious Dramatic Competition. With Park Pictures Features’ debut film Robot & Frank a Sundance award winner in 2012, this marks the Manhattan studio’s second and third film at the festival.
God’s Pocket, with screenplay by John Slattery and Alex Metcalf, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Richard Jenkins, Christina Hendricks and John Turturro. The film follows Mickey (Hoffman), whose stepson Leon is killed in a construction “accident.” Mickey tries to bury the bad news with the body, but when the boy’s mother demands the truth, Mickey finds himself stuck between a body he can’t bury, a wife he can’t please, and a debt he can’t pay.
The film was produced by Park Pictures Features in association with Hoffman’s Cooper’s Town and Slattery’s Shoestring Pictures. Producers are Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman Bisbee, Lance Acord, John Slattery, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Emily Ziff.
Infinitely Polar Bear marks Forbes' directing debut . The film stars Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana. Set in the ‘70s, the story follows a manic-depressive mess of a father who tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two spirited daughters. Paper Street Films co-produced the film with Park Pictures Features in association with Bad Robot. The film was produced by Wally Wolodarsky, Benji Kohn, Bingo Gubelmann, Sam Bisbee and Galt Niederhoffer and its executive producers include JJ Abrams, Bryan Burk, Austin Stark and Park’s Jackie Kelman Bisbee.
Park Pictures, the commercial production house founded in 1998 by director and cinematographer Acord and executive producer Jackie Kelman Bisbee, formed narrative feature company Park Pictures Features with film producer Sam Bisbee in 2011. Park Pictures Features first film, Robot & Frank, won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize (shared with the feature Valley of Saints) at Sundance in 2012. The Alfred P. Sloan honor is bestowed on films that “explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways.” Robot & Frank also marked the feature directorial debut of Jake Schrier, who is on Park Pictures’ directors roster for commercials and branded content. Christopher Ford was nominated for a 2013 Film Independent Spirit Award in the Best First Screenplay category on the basis of Robot & Frank.
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More