Sony Classics picks up Stanley Tucci’s drama “Final Portrait”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights in North America to Stanley Tucci’s drama “Final Portrait” from Riverstone Pictures, Variety said.

HanWay Films is handling international sales and distribution and is selling the remaining territories in Cannes.

The film had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February out of competition. The movie stars Geoffrey Rush, Armie Hammer, Clémence Poésy, Tony Shalhoub and Sylvie Testud and is produced by Gail Egan, Nik Bower and Ilann Girard and executive produced by Deepak Nayar, Fred Hogge and Ted Blumberg.

“Final Portrait” is the story of the friendship between American writer and art-lover James Lord (played by Hammer) and Alberto Giacometti, portrayed by Rush.

Set in 1964, while on a short trip to Paris, Lord is asked by his friend, Giacometti, to sit for a portrait. The process, promises Giacometti, will take only a few days and so Lord agrees — ultimately wondering “how much longer can it go on like this?”

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman gave the film a strong review at Berlin: “Rush and Tucci create a captivating portrait of an artist who’s at once elated, haunted, and utterly possessed….Rush makes Giacometti a winningly cranky scoundrel-egomaniac, the kind of celebrity artist who appears to treat fame as an afterthought (it doesn’t stop him from tormenting himself), yet who has constructed his entire existence around the freedom that fame brings.”

“Giacometti’s work and life and Lord’s poignant memoir have fascinated me for years,” Tucci said. “To finally bring my adaptation to the screen with this extraordinary cast and crew has been indeed a pleasure and to have Sony Classics distributing is a great honor.”

The deal was negotiated between CAA and Sony Pictures Classics.