Category Archives: American Ultra

Perhaps the biggest news this year in terms of acquisitions, Lionsgate bought Kristen and Jesse Eisenberg’s American Ultra, penned by Max Landis, for a whopping $7 million. American Ultra is set to begin filming in Louisiana mid-April.

The appetite for scripts and partially finished films is soaring. Lionsgate is tying up a deal today to pay $7 million to pre-buy U.S. distribution rights to American Ultra, the action comedy that begins shooting in New Orleans in five weeks with Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart starring for Project X director Nima Nourizadeh. In the script by Chronicle writer Max Landis, Eisenberg plays a stoner whose small-town life with his live-in girlfriend (Stewart) is upended when his past catches up with him, putting him the crosshairs of a government operation bent on wiping him out. It’s a co-production between A Likely Story and Circle Of Confusion, with Anthony Bregman, David Alpert and Britton Rizzio producing, and Kevin Scott Frakes of Palmstar Media Capital and Raj Brinder Singh of Merced Media Partners exec producing.

Source: Deadline

Here’s a production update for Kristen’s American Ultra! Seems that it’s a nice, healthy 3-month shoot in New Orleans!

AMERICAN ULTRA
STATUS: April 14 – June 10
LOCATION: New Orleans
A LIKELY STORY
PRODUCER: Anthony Bregman – David Alpert – Britton Rizzio – Kevin Frakes – Raj Brinder Singh
WRITER: Max Landis
DIRECTOR: Nima Nourizadeh LP: Ray Angelic
CAST: Kristen Stewart – Jesse Eisenberg
PALMSTAR MEDIA CAPITAL
CIRCLE OF CONFUSION
FILMNATION ENTERTAINMENT

Eisenberg will play an unmotivated stoner named Mike, who lives with his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart), in a small, sleepy town. One night, their lives take an unexpected turn when Mike’s past comes back to haunt him, and he becomes the target of a government operation set to wipe him out.

Via: Twitter / Mel452
Source: Production Weekly

He quickly burst onto the scene as a YouTube sensation with his accurate, low-budget and hilarious retelling of “The Death of Superman” and “Drunk Comic Book History: The Robins.” In 2012, he made his professional screenwriting debut with Chronicle. It introduced the talented 28-year-old screenwriter to the mainstream audience and cemented him as a writer on the rise in Hollywood. Now, Max Landis is ready to embark upon a new chapter in his life. In April, filming will begin on American Ultra. A film that Max Landis penned about Mike, an unmotivated stoner (Jesse Eisenberg) living in a small, sleepy town with his girlfriend (Kristen Stewart). When Mike’s past catches up to him, a government organization is hot on their tail with plans of wiping Mike out. Then there’s this new Frankenstein movie that he wrote starring James McAvoy (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as the doctor and Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter”) as Igor. It’s being directed by Paul McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin”) and the story is told from the unique perspective of Victor Von Frankenstein’s assistant, Igor. If that wasn’t enough, Landis just wrapped filming on Me Him Her. The film marks his directorial debut. He describes it as “Reality Bites on acid.” The indie-comedy will tackle issues like: sex, love and friendship.

CBM: What do you think of the casting of Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart for American Ultra?

Max Landis: SO [frick]ING EXCITING. They’re perfect; both of them essentially play “a character and a half” in the movie in an interesting way, and they were actually both my first choices. I think both of them are associated with iconic roles, and that excites me for the same reason Heath Ledger’s casting in Dark Knight excited me. Not to compare my movie or my actors to that one, but it’s the same sort of “VERY different characters than you’re used to seeing these people in” situation.

Max Landis is the screenwriter for Kristen’s upcoming project with Jesse Eisenberg, American Ultra, set to film April 2014.

Source: Comic Book Movie

According to THR, Kristen is set to star in American Ultra, alongside her Adventureland co-star, Jessie Eisenberg! I cannot wait to see Kristen and Jessie together again on the big screen … and doing promo! They make a great team!

Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg are teaming up for American Ultra, an action comedy from Nima Nourizadeh, the director of the surprise hit comedy Project X.

Max Landis, who wrote the hit sci-fi found footage movie Chronicle, penned the script for Ultra, which is being produced by Anthony Bregman for Likely Story, and by David Alpert and Britton Rizzio for Circle of Confusion.

Eisenberg will play an unmotivated stoner named Mike, who lives with his girlfriend Phoebe (Stewart), in a small, sleepy town. One night, their lives take an unexpected turn when Mike’s past comes back to haunt him, and he becomes the target of a government operation set to wipe him out.

“Simply put, American Ultra will be the most fun you can possibly have in a movie theater without the use of drugs, fireworks, or canola oil,” said Bregman, the prolific indie producer whose most recent credit is Enough Said, the James Gandolfini-Julia Louis-Dreyfus dramedy

FilmNation Entertainment will handle international sales for all territories, including Canada. CAA will represent domestic rights on the film.

Executive producers are Kevin Frakes of PalmStar Media Capital and Raj Brinder Singh of Merced Media Partners.

Ultra is set to begin shooting in April 2014.

Stewart (Gersh, McKuin Frankel) has been working in the indie world since making theTwilight movies and Snow White and the Huntsman, having recently wrapped Camp X-Ray and Sils Maria.

Eisenberg (CAA, Felker Toczek) was one of the stars in Now You See Me, Summit’s hit heist movie that now has a sequel in the works.  He also has indie dramas The Double andNight Moves in the can.

The two starred opposite each other in 2009′s Adventureland.

Landis, whose Chronicle grossed more than $126 million worldwide on a budget of $12 million, is repped by WME, Circle of Confusion, and Behr & Abramson. Nourizadeh, whose comedy Project X had a similar budget and grossed $102 million worldwide, is repped by CAA.

Source: THR