'America' calls Kline, Jovovich
Pair go to 'America'
Nov 7, 2005
Kevin Kline and Milla Jovovich are poised to star in the sex trafficking drama "Welcome to America," which will be released by Lions Gate Films in North America, producer Centropolis Entertainment said Sunday.
Based on "The Girls Next Door," a January 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Landesman about sex slavery, "America" was developed by Centropolis partner Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow") and producer Rosilyn Heller ("The Beans of Egypt Maine") with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries") and up-and-coming German director Marco Kreuzpaintner, who directed the festival hit "Summer Storm," which will be released in 2006 by Regent Entertainment. The film is scheduled to start filming in Mexico City in late November, said Centropolis partner Michael Wimer.
After the $12-million movie's original German backing from VIP fell apart, Emmerich felt so strongly about making the movie that he is cash-flowing the movie himself with his own funds; foreign rights are being sold by London equity investor Brass Hat and Hyde Park Entertainment. Centropolis is retaining German rights. "It is very important to tell this story from the victims' point-of-view," said Emmerich, who will direct "10,000, B.C." in March. "I realized that with independent financing, somebody has to be the locomotive. So I'm putting my own money into it."
Kline will play a Texas cop who finds out that he may have had a daughter who was trafficked some years ago. In the course of his investigation, he meets a young boy (Mexican actor Cesar Ramos) from Mexico City whose 13-year-old sister (Mexican actress Paulina Gayton) has been kidnapped. They go on a quest to save the Mexican girl, who is befriended by Jovovich, a young Russian woman who thinks she is coming to the U.S. to become a nanny, but is instead enslaved in Mexico.
Produced by Centropolis Entertainment's Emmerich and Rosilyn Heller, "America" is executive produced by Michael Wimer, Ossie Von Richtofen, Peter Landesman, Robert Leger and Lars Sylvest. Amanda DiGiulio is co-producer.
Kline is repped by CAA, and Jovovich is repped by ICM.
Based on "The Girls Next Door," a January 2003 New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Landesman about sex slavery, "America" was developed by Centropolis partner Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow") and producer Rosilyn Heller ("The Beans of Egypt Maine") with Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jose Rivera ("The Motorcycle Diaries") and up-and-coming German director Marco Kreuzpaintner, who directed the festival hit "Summer Storm," which will be released in 2006 by Regent Entertainment. The film is scheduled to start filming in Mexico City in late November, said Centropolis partner Michael Wimer.
After the $12-million movie's original German backing from VIP fell apart, Emmerich felt so strongly about making the movie that he is cash-flowing the movie himself with his own funds; foreign rights are being sold by London equity investor Brass Hat and Hyde Park Entertainment. Centropolis is retaining German rights. "It is very important to tell this story from the victims' point-of-view," said Emmerich, who will direct "10,000, B.C." in March. "I realized that with independent financing, somebody has to be the locomotive. So I'm putting my own money into it."
Kline will play a Texas cop who finds out that he may have had a daughter who was trafficked some years ago. In the course of his investigation, he meets a young boy (Mexican actor Cesar Ramos) from Mexico City whose 13-year-old sister (Mexican actress Paulina Gayton) has been kidnapped. They go on a quest to save the Mexican girl, who is befriended by Jovovich, a young Russian woman who thinks she is coming to the U.S. to become a nanny, but is instead enslaved in Mexico.
Produced by Centropolis Entertainment's Emmerich and Rosilyn Heller, "America" is executive produced by Michael Wimer, Ossie Von Richtofen, Peter Landesman, Robert Leger and Lars Sylvest. Amanda DiGiulio is co-producer.
Kline is repped by CAA, and Jovovich is repped by ICM.
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