Moving On Reunites Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin
This weekend, Roadside Attractions will present the comedy Moving On with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on close to 800 screens in hopes of connecting with female audiences.
Additionally, Focus Features opens 350+ screens of Vasilis Katsoupis’ Inside, starring Willem Dafoe.
In the specialty market, there hasn’t been much movement. “There’s not much out there for this audience right now,” said Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions. “I think this is the opportunity that we felt — it’s right after the Oscars and before Sundance and summer movies.”
Fonda and Tomlin have an undeniable chemistry that has endured for decades. Their filmography includes 9 to 5 (1980), a seven-year Netflix sitcom run with Grace and Frankie, and their latest venture, 80 for Brady. Paul Weitz’s Moving On, a Toronto International Film Festival debut, features both McDowell and Roundtree in its cast. Deadline review here.
Cohen believes its success is reflected in the 7 million trailer views across social media platforms. Fonda and Tomlin have also been busy promoting the film on TV talk shows such as The View and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since the launch of the 80 for Brady trailer.
“We don’t have a flow like that in the indie world,” Cohen said. “There hasn’t been much for specialty audiences since the fall.” In part, if you build it, people will come. There needs to be a steady supply of movies [people] want to see. It’s regaining that habit.”
“We will be patient,” he said, echoing other independent distributors.
In the movie, Fonda and Tomlin play estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge against their recently deceased best friend’s husband and make peace with their past.
Katsoupis makes his directorial debut with the psychological thriller Inside. Dafoe plays Nemo, an art thief trapped inside a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t work out. Locked inside with only priceless art, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive. The film premiered in Berlin. Deadline review here.
Janus Films presents Louis Garrel’s The Innocent at the IFC Center in NYC. This comedy won a prestigious César award for both the director and his co-writers Tanguy Viel and Naïla Guiguet, as well as an award for best supporting actress from Tár star Noemie Merlant. Furthermore, the film led all nominations with 11 total. Garrel, Roschdy Zem, and Anouk Grinberg are featured in this amusing story about a suspicious young man who endeavors to destroy his mother’s burgeoning connection with someone fresh out of prison. It premiered at Cannes, so it is no surprise it has received rave reviews from Deadline. On April 7th it will be screening at Laemmle LA and then select theaters across the country afterwards.
A Chinese blockbuster, Full River Red by Yimou Zhang, is released in 150+ theaters in 50+ cities Niu Vision Media/Beyond Events. An ambassador is murdered in 12th century China, and a letter meant to reach the emperor is stolen. As search for the letter unfolds, alliances are formed, secrets revealed, and no one able stop truth that will leave its mark history.
