The EFM market has lift off! In the first major worldwide pact done on the ground here in Berlin, Sony Pictures has tied up a deal in the $50M range for Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Colin Farrell (The Batman) package A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which is one of the market’s hottest scripts.Plot details are under wraps, but the romantic fantasy from director Kogonada (After Yang) is being described as “an imaginative tale of two strangers and the emotional journey that connects them”. The film is due to shoot this spring in California.Oscar nominee Robbie is red-hot coming off box office smash Barbie, which she starred in and also produced through her LuckyChap banner. The film is up for eight Oscars including Best Picture. She had her pick of scripts to choose from following the movie’s massive success and in recent weeks landed on Big Bold Beautiful Journey as her next film.Killers of the Flower Moon outfit Imperative Entertainment is producing. 30West is financing. Pachinko and After Yang director Kogonada will helm from an original script by The Menu scribe Seth Reiss.Deal just closed with financier-producer 30West and CAA Media Finance. We understand there is a wide theatrical commitment.Tom Rothman, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures’ Motion Picture Group just told us: “Every once in a great while in this job you read a script so special and original, that you fly to the last page, inspired and uplifted. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, by Seth Reiss, is such a script and together with the superb director Kogonada, the perfect cast of Colin and Margot, and top flight producers Bradley Thomas, Dan Friedkin, and Ryan Friedkin, it is a project from heaven. We believe the audience is desperate for originality and we feel honored and grateful to all involved to have won out for it.”“We are thrilled to partner again with our good friend, Tom Rothman, and the great team at Sony. We are big believers in the theatrical experience, which is Sony’s specialty, and we’re excited Kogonada’s creation will be enjoyed on the big screen,” added Imperative Entertainment.Sony Pictures’ Joe Matukewicz, President, Worldwide Acquisitions and his team Virginia Longmuir, EVP, Business Affairs, Katie Anderson, VP, Worldwide Acquisitions, Elan Kovo, VP Business Development brought the package to the studio and made the deal in Berlin.Many of the independent buyers wanted this one but the studios came in strong with bidding across multiple days. In the end it came down to Sony and a couple others, with Tom Rothman’s studio winning out. There are a slew of buzzy packages with A-list talent at the EFM this year, but deal-making is being slightly held up by some U.S. studio bosses and acquisitions chiefs having stayed back in the U.S. The lack of studio movies in the festival lineup hasn’t helped in getting them over into the European time zone, especially when there’s a U.S. holiday on Monday. But this is the first major pact to get over the line and the hope is that it’s a catalyst for healthy deal-making across a stellar crop of pre-sales titles. A lot of the big projects are understood to have offers on them.As for Farrell and Kogonada, the film marks a reunion after they worked together on the drama After Yang, which premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. Oscar nominee Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) is currently in production on HBO Max’s anticipated series The Penguin, in which he reprises his role from WB and DC’s The Batman. He will soon be seen in the private-eye drama series Sugar, which premieres April 5 on Apple TV+.Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Ryan Friedkin will produce A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, along with Reiss and Youree Henley. Executive producers include Kogonada, Ilene Feldman and Original Films’ Ori Eisen. 30West is financing. Neon was handling international sales.
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