Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy's “The Revenant” finds financing

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy's “The Revenant” finds financing

PanARMENIAN.Net - With the fate of Leonardo DiCaprio's upcoming project The Revenant hanging in the balance, producer Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures is negotiating to come aboard as financial backer, The Hollywood Reporter said citing sources.

The move comes as New Regency, the project's principal backer, attempts to replace financing that was to have come from Worldview Entertainment, which has pulled back on film financing lately in the wake of CEO Christopher Woodrow's June exit amid claims of personal misconduct.

The film, to be directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel) and co-starring Tom Hardy and Will Poulter, is a harrowing survival story set in the early 19th century, based on the experiences of fur trapper Hugh Glass. Inarritu and Mark L. Smith wrote a screenplay based on Michael Punke's 2002 novel, The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge.

New Regency is said to have approached Fox unsuccessfully for financial backing. The company would have been on the hook for a big chunk of the budget if the movie fell apart because Hardy's deal is pay-or-play, according to sources, and DiCaprio's deal is all but pay-or-play.

In addition, sources say Inarritu, whose Birdman (also for New Regency) will open the Venice Film Festival in September, has been at odds with producers over the budget of the new film, which is aiming to begin shooting in September. Inarritu's desire to shoot The Revenant in sequence would add $7 million to the cost, according to a knowledgeable source.

"Alejandro has been threatening to walk off, but Alejandro will get his way, and everything will be fine," the source said.

 Top stories
American actor of Armenian descent Eric Bogosian has been cast in the upcoming TV adaptation of Anne Rice's "Interview with the Vampire".
Paris Center Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne will host the screening of Sergei Parajanov’s "Triptych" on December 15.
The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest.
She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech.
Partner news
---