Neon Acquires Worldwide Rights to Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ at Venice Movie Pageant

A day earlier than its much-anticipated premiere on the Venice Movie Pageant, Ava DuVernay’s Origin has bought to Neon for worldwide distribution.

DuVernay wrote, produced and directed Origin and is breaking floor in Venice as the primary Black U.S. feminine director within the pageant’s 80-year historical past to have a function in competitors. (Watch the trailer, under.)

Neon described the gross sales course of as “aggressive” and mentioned it is going to launch the movie throughout the U.S. later this yr. The movie is getting a North American premiere in Toronto after Venice and forward of the theatrical launch. 

Origin is impressed by the exceptional life and work of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson — performed by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard) — as she pens her seminal e book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. Whereas grappling with large private tragedy, Isabel units herself on a path of world investigation and discovery. Regardless of the colossal scope of her venture, she finds magnificence and bravado whereas crafting one of many defining American books of our time.

Co-starring within the movie are Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Connie Nielsen. 

Paul Garnes and DuVernay produced Origin beneath her ARRAY Filmworks banner. Along with DuVernay and Garnes, the staff of artists behind Origin is led by cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd, ASC, manufacturing designer Ina Mayhew, editor Spencer Averick A.C.E, composer Kris Bowers, costume designer Dominique Dawson and casting director Aisha Coley. 

The distribution deal was negotiated by Neon CEO Tom Quinn and CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers. 

“I’ve identified Ava for a very long time and my love and admiration for her and her work goes again additional, even earlier than Center of Nowhere,” mentioned Quinn. “I’m actually humbled that it’s this film which has lastly introduced us collectively. She has all the time been a gifted storyteller, and her mastery of her craft shines via on this deeply private and impressed adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s e book, and dramatization of her exceptional life. Origin proves as soon as once more that Ava stays one of the groundbreaking and important filmmakers of her technology.”

DuVernay made historical past as the primary Black girl to direct a movie nominated for the Academy Award for finest image with Selma, chronicling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visionary management through the landmark 1965 civil proper marches. She was additionally nominated for the finest documentary function Oscar for thirteenth, an in-depth take a look at the U.S. jail system and the way it reveals the nation’s historical past of racial inequality. And her acclaimed restricted sequence When They See Us, for which she directed all episodes, was nominated for 16 Emmys in 2019. She was additionally the primary African American girl to win Sundance’s finest director award in 2012 together with her second function, Center of Nowhere.

Neon is having fun with a busy Venice pageant. The label additionally has rights to Michael Mann’s Ferrari, which premiered early within the fest and stars Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey, and Jack O’Connell. Neon will launch that movie in U.S. theaters on Christmas Day.