EXCLUSIVE: After we broke news of the studio acquiring Margot Robbie starrer Big Bold Beautiful Journey, we can reveal that Sony Pictures has boarded another of the European Film Market’s most in-demand projects: Past Lives director Celine Song‘s next movie, Materialists, which A24 is selling.
In what we understand to be an eight-figure deal, Sony has taken all of international excluding Russia, China and Japan. A24 will handle the U.S. release.
Coming off the Oscar Best Picture nominee Past Lives, Song’s next movie is a rom-com which is attracting A-list talent. Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are in talks to star.
Past Lives producers Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler of Killer Films and 2AM’s David Hinojosa are behind the movie, which Song also scripts and produces. The team is aiming to start as early as this spring.
Plot details have been kept under wraps, but we hear it deals with a professional matchmaker who gets involved with a wealthy man but still harbors feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind.
In Berlin, 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. One minor note: it’s called Materialists, not The Materialists, we hear.
We hear good things about the script, which EFM buyers had sparked to. Some saw the genre as a risky change of direction for the filmmaker after Past Lives, but distributors we spoke to about it were all into the project. Now Sony has taken most of international off the table on this one, the attentions of foreign buyers have already turned elsewhere. There are still plenty of good ones out there, as we detailed earlier this week in our market preview.
One project that is no longer available is Margot Robbie’s Barbie follow-up A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, which Sony also pre-empted, this time in a splashy worldwide deal.