MadRiver Pictures to Finance & Produce James Gray's Sci-Fi Epic "AD ASTRA"

JAMES GRAY TO WRITE AND DIRECT
THE SCI-FI EPIC “AD ASTRA”

MadRiver Pictures to finance and produce together with RT Features and Anthony Katagas

LOS ANGELES (May 12, 2016) — MadRiver Pictures announced today that they will finance and produce James Gray’s (The Lost City of Z, The Immigrant, Two Lovers) Ad Astra, a sci-fi epic whose longline is currently being kept under wraps.  Gray, Keep Your Head Productions’ Anthony Katagas, RT Features’ Rodrigo Teixeira and MadRiver’s Marc Butan are producing. RT Features Lourenco Sant' Anna and Sophie Mas are executive producing. Casting is currently underway and expected to be announced shortly, with production eyeing an early 2017 shoot.

MadRiver’s Kim Fox will handle international sales, while CAA, which represents Gray, packaged and arranged the financing for the film, and will represent its domestic rights.

Gray is currently in post-production on Lost City of Z starring Charlie Hunnam, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson and Sienna Miller, which is also produced by Butan and Katagas. Frequent collaborators, the trio has also worked on Two Lovers starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, and We Own the Night, starring Mark Wahlberg, Phoenix and Eva Mendes.

MadRiver’s Marc Butan said:  “I’m incredibly excited to be teaming up with James and Anthony again and to be working with RT Features.  James wrote a fantastic script and continues to raise the bar – I look forward to working on this film.”

MadRiver Pictures is a film finance, production and international sales company. The company finances and produces 3-4 director and star-driven films per year in the $15-50 million budget range for global wide release.  MadRiver Pictures recently expanded its operations by launching an international sales arm, which handles sales and distribution on all MadRiver films, Annapurna Pictures titles, and third party projects.  The company is in production on Peter Landesman’s Felt starring Liam Neeson and Diane Lane.

RT Features has been producing films and TV series in Brazil since 2005 and ventured into the U.S. market in 2008, financing development and producing such ambitious pics as Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha as well as Robert Eggers’ The Witch. Recently, the company produced Gaspar Noe's Love and James Schamus Indignation. RT’s slate includes The King’s Speech’s scribe David Seidler-penned The Games of 1940. RT Features is currently working on a feature film adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks.”