Bleecker Street announced today that they’ve acquired Rumours, featuring an ensemble cast including Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett (Tár, Carol), Academy Award-winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina) and Genie Award-winner Roy Dupuis (“La Femme Nikita,” Shake Hands with the Devil). The film was written and directed by Canadian auteur Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg), Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, all of whom most recently collaborated on The Green Fog.
Additional cast members include Charles Dance (“Game of Thrones,” Mank), Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Knock at the Cabin), Rolando Ravello (Perfect Strangers), Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo), and European Film Award-winner Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness). Bleecker Street is planning a 2024 theatrical release.
Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies at the annual G7 summit after they become lost in the woods and face increasing peril while attempting to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis.
The deal was negotiated by Kent Sanderson and Avy Eschenasy on behalf of Bleecker Street, with CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers. Rumours is a Canadian-German co-production, with financing from Telefilm Canada and Manitoba Film & Music, Orogen Entertainment Ltd. and Minnow Productions, in association with ZDF/ARTE. Producers are Liz Jarvis for Buffalo Gal Pictures, Philipp Kreuzer for Maze Pictures and Lars Knudsen for Square Peg. Executive producers include Andrew Karpen and Kent Sanderson for Bleecker Street, and Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) for Square Peg, Jörg Schulze for Maze Pictures and Phyllis Laing for Buffalo Gal Pictures. Executive Producers for Orogen Entertainment are Blair Ward, Anders Erden, Lauren Case and Eric Harbert.
Executive Producers also include Gillian Hormel, Mary Aloe and Stefan Kapelari. Laokoon Film Group’s Judit Stalter is Co-Producer along with Executive Producers Gábor Sipos and Gábor Rajna. Elevation Pictures is distributing in Canada, and Plaion Pictures in Germany. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales.
This marks the second collaboration between Bleecker Street and Square Peg, following David and Nathan Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg, which will have its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival this month.
Bleecker Street recently acquired the U.S. rights to James Hawes’ One Life, starring Academy Award®-winner Anthony Hopkins and Ezra from director Tony Goldwyn, both of which had their world premieres in TIFF; the U.S. rights to British comedy Fackham Hall starring Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, Thomasin McKenzie, Katherine Waterston, and Emma Laird; and the UK rights to Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, The Boy and the Heron, alongside Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content. Bleecker recently released Meg Ryan’s What Happens Later, starring Ryan alongside David Duchovny and Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Waitress: The Musical. The upcoming slate includes Out of Darkness, a Stone Age-set thriller which will be released February 9 and Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s space station-set thriller I.S.S, which is opening January 19.
