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Myriad Pictures, Syrreal Entertainment, GMBH and Fast Draw Films, LLC announced today that award winning director Christian Alvart (Case 39, Pandorum), will direct Academy Award nominee John Sayles' (Lone Star, Honeydripper, Eight Men Out) original screenplay DJANGO LIVES! Legendary Italian star Franco Nero (Django, Django Unchained, Die Hard 2) will reprise the role he made famous as a young actor in Sergio Corbucci's DJANGO, the 1966 international cult classic, with top Hollywood names planned to star alongside him in the other main roles. Myriad Pictures will handle international sales and will introduce the project to buyers at this week's Cannes Film Festival.
The original DJANGO film had a profound impact in the world of film and was front and center of the Italian Spaghetti Western movement. DJANGO abandoned the romanticized view
of the Wild West, and for the first time featured a more complex, mysterious anti-hero at the forefront - laying the groundwork for the subsequent generation of westerns and even for other action films.
In the new film DJANGO LIVES!, DJANGO (Nero) will still be a mythical stranger, having lived through an adventurous life. But it's not just Django who has gotten older - time has moved on, and the Wild West is dying. Men like Django were once called "cowboys" and "free men'" - now they are just drifters. In DJANGO LIVES, it's 1914 and Django finds himself in California, where early Hollywood productions are now intersecting with the old towns of the Wild West. As Django travels to the small town of Matanzas, which calls itself "the whitest town in California," he soon finds himself face to face with an assortment of bad guys including the local KKK-like group. But Django still has a few aces up his sleeve, and will show us that he has some fight left in him yet.
About DJANGO LIVES!, director Alvart says "I'm excited and honored to be a part of this great project that will update us on one of the greatest archetype characters of movie history".
Franco Nero, one of international cinema's leading actors, remarked, "Having Christian direct Sayles powerful screenplay is a dream come true. Even Christian's third son is named Django. It was meant to be".
Berlin based Alvart has just completed directing two feature films in Germany, ABGESCHNITTEN (CUT OFF) and STEIG.NICHT.AUS! (RETRIBUTION). Both films are in post production. His earlier films include CASE 39 with Renee Zellweger, PANDORUM with Dennis Quaid and ANTIBODIES.
Producing for Syrreal Entertainment are Sigi Kamml, Josef Brandmaier and Christian Alvart; producing for Fast Draw Films' are Carolyn Pfeiffer, Louis Black, David Hollander and Nancy P. Sanders.
DJANGO LIVES! is scheduled to be released in 2018. Shooting takes place in Almeria, Spain and Berlin, Germany.
BIOGRAPHIES
CHRISTIAN ALVART (Director)
CHRISTIAN ALVART was born in 1974 near Frankfurt, Germany. At the age of 19, Alvart became an editor and layout designer with the X-TRO Film Magazine, soon working his way up to editor in-chief and eventually owning the special interest publication. In 1997, he moved to Berlin to make
 films with his company Syrreal Entertainment GbR. In 1998, he wrote, produced, and directed CURIOSITY & THE CAT, his first 35mm feature film. The film was nominated for the Max-Ophuls-Award and the Prize of the Minister President of the State Saarland. In 2005, Christian debuted ANTIBODIES at the Tribeca Film Festival and he was named one of "Five Directors to Watch" as well as the "German New Face of Cinema" at the AFI festival. The film was invited to the Edinburgh Film Festival as well as many others, winning numerous awards. Christian directed CASE 39 with Renee Zellweger and PANDORUM with Dennis Quaid. Following these international cinema-films, he directed the German TV-movie, 8 UHR 28 and TATORT: BOROWSKI UND DER COOLE HUND. Alvart has been working on the cinema adaptation of the cult series CAPTAIN FUTURE. In 2012, he directed two further TATORT movies. Alvart also directed the action thriller NICK OFF DUTY with Til Schweiger and the comedy HALF BROTHERS. This year he produced and directed the film adaptation of the German Thriller- Bestseller ABGESCHNITTEN (CUT OFF) by Sebastian Fitzek and Michael Tsokos and the action thriller STEIG. NICHT. AUS! (RETRIBUTION).
FRANCO NERO (Actor)
Franco Nero, a leading actor in international cinema, has appeared in more than 200 movies around the world. His career was launched with his role as Abel in John Huston's The Bible (1964) and a few months later, as Django in Sergio Corbucci's cult-classic spaghetti western. He has worked with Europe's top directors, such as Luis Bunuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claude Chabrol, Sergei Bondarciuk, Michael Cacoyannis, Elio Petri, Marco Bellocchio, just to mention a few. He has also played the role of leading national heroes such Garibaldi (Italy), Arpad (Hungary), and Banovic Strakigna (Former Yugoslavia). In the United States he has been seen in successful mini-series such as The Pirate (Warner Bros.), The Last Days of Pompei (CBS), Young Catherine (TNT), Bella Mafia (CBS), The Painted Lady, Saint Augustine, and movies such as The Legend of Valentino, 21 Hours to Munich, Force Ten from Navarone, Enter the Ninja, The Versace Murder, Die Hard 2, and recently Letters to Juliet. He has received many awards and, in 1992, for his artistic merits, a knighthood of the Italian Republic was bestowed on him by the President of Italy. In 2011 he was honored by Brunel University of London with the degree of doctor of Letters honoris causa and in Toronto (Canada) with a star on the walk of fame.
JOHN SAYLES (Writer)
John Sayles is a storyteller of renown. Beloved among his 18 films are EIGHT MEN OUT, THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH, and LONESTAR. Twice nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Sayles has been honored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Writers Guild of America (WGA), Modern Language Association (MLA), American Studies Association (ASA), and American Historical Association (AHA) for his authentic depiction of history and community. He is considered one of the godfathers of the
US Independent Film movement.
SIGI KAMML (Producer)
SIGI KAMML is CEO and Producer at Syrreal Entertainment. After three years in Hollywood, where
 he worked for UFA International Film Production, he moved to Berlin to work for several well-renowned German Film Productions like Wiedemann & Berg, Teamworx, Nostro Film and Producers at Work on films like THE GIRL ON THE OCEAN FLOOR, DAS GETEILTE GLUECK and MORDKOMMISSION BERLIN 1. With director Christian Alvart he produced WOLFF- KAMPF IM REVIER, BANKLADY, two TATORT movies, HALF BROTHERS, NICK OFF DUTY (starring Til Schweiger), ABGESCHNITTEN and STEIG. NICHT.AUS! He also produced THE FINAL JOURNEY (with Juergen Prochnow) and S.U.M.1 (with Iwan Rheon) - both films to be released in winter 2017.
Kamml has a German Masters of Arts in Communications and a French Diplome de l'Information. He studied producing, directing and screenwriting at the American Film Institute in Hollywood. In 2016 he received the GOLDEN ROMY Award for Best Producer of the year.
JOSEF BRANDMAIER (Producer)
JOSEF BRANDMAIER started his career as a relationship manager for Bayerische Vereinsbank in 1993. In 2007 he became ICO/department director film finance for the Media Team of UniCredit Bank AG. In 2015 Josef founded UniFinance Media GmbH. Josef has been involved in organizing structured finance for a range of international projects including the new version of THE THREE MUSKETEERS, IRONCLAD, LILY THE WITCH, WICKIE, CABIN IN THE WOODS, THE DOWNFALL, I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS, and EAGLE EYE. In addition to his film banking work, Josef represents a group of individual business angels who make investments in film and TV projects. Besides that he is a member of the board of BBF (Bayerischer Bankenfonds), several Expert Groups, the European Film Academy and Managing Director of Argentum Media GmbH.
CAROLYN PFEIFFER (Producer)
Carolyn Pfeiffer has produced over 20 feature films working with directors such as Alan Rudolph, Lindsay Anderson and Sam Shepard. She was founding president of indie production companies: Island Alive, Alive Films and Burnt Orange Productions. She is founding president of The Los Angeles Film School and former co-chair and master filmmaker in residence of American Film Institute Conservatory. She is the former president of IFP West now FIND and an active member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
LOUIS BLACK (Producer)
Co-founded The Austin Chronicle, where he is editor, South by Southwest, where he is a director, and was a founding Board Member of the Austin Film Society. He has written extensively on film, music and politics. Executive producer of Be Here to Love Me, A Film About Townes Van Zandt, he was a producer on the Peabody Award Winning The Order of Myths. Having produced documentaries and reissues of classic Texas films (Eagle Pennell's The Whole Shootin' Match and Tobe Hooper's Eggshells) he is currently working on a number of documentary and narrative films as well as more reissues of classic Texas independent films.
DAVID HOLLANDER (Producer)
Born in LA's San Fernando Valley, Hollander began his film career as a child actor in 1976, amassing a long list of credits that include appearances in Airplane, What's Happening, and Amazing Stories. Since 1999 David has focused on producing, and the innovative and critically acclaimed artist's projects he has overseen have been shown at The Museum of Modern Art, The Getty Museum, the Venice Biennale, the Tate Modern, and many other museums, galleries, and film festivals. His most recent project Scenario In The Shade, a collaboration with Jonah Freeman, Justin Lowe, and Jennifer Herrema, opened in September 2015 at Red Bull Studios in New York.
Currently splitting his time between San Antonio and Marfa, Texas, David is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the CineMarfa film festival, now in its 6th year.
NANCY P. SANDERS (Producer)
Nancy P. Sanders produced The Reading 2011, 2012, and 2013 with veteran filmmaker Carolyn Pfeiffer. The Reading was a fully staged presentation of an Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Nicholl Fellowship winning script, performed in Marfa, Texas under the auspices of Ballroom Marfa and in association with AMPAS. Sanders has written several screenplays which have placed in the top tiers of the Nicholl Fellowship and Austin Film Festival screenplay competitions. In addition to producer responsibilities on Django Lives!, she is executive producer of an untitled documentary, currently in production, featuring light and space artist, Robert Irwin.
Myriad Pictures
MYRIAD PICTURES is a leading independent entertainment company specializing in production, financing and worldwide distribution of feature films and television programming. Participating in top markets and festivals around the world, Myriad has garnered a strong reputation as a high-quality distributor of content for all formats. The company holds an impressive and diverse library of critically acclaimed art house and commercially successful mainstream filmed programming including Factory Girl, the Academy Award® nominated Margin Call, and the critically acclaimed The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. http://www.myriadpictures.com/
Myriad's current slate includes:
RED DOG: TRUE BLUE - The sequel to the hit film RED DOG, this is heartwarming story of family, friendship and adventure, between a young boy and a scrappy one-of-a-kind dog that would grow up to become an Australian legend. Directed by Kriv Stenders, the film premiered at Sundance 2017 and Berlinale 2017.
THE LAST WORD - Directed by Mark Pellington, Shirley MacLaine stars as Harriet, a retired businesswoman who wants to control everything around her, including her own obituary, so she hires a young writer (Amanda Seyfried) to ensure her life story is told her way. But when the writer decides to find out the truth about MacLaine's character things get complicated. Official Selection, Sundance 2017, and released theatrically in the US in March by Bleecker Street Films.
THE QUEEN OF SPAIN - Penelope Cruz stars as a sultry Spanish film star, who along with an eclectic cast of actors must rescue a long-time friend when he is kidnapped in the middle of the biggest American-Spanish coproduction of the year during the Golden Age of the Hollywood studio system. This sequel to the award winning and critically acclaimed film The Girl of Your Dreams and is directed by Academy Award Winner Fernando Trueba. Official Selection, Berlinale 2017- Special Gala Presentation.
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For more information contact:
Audrey Delaney, SVP Marketing & Acquisitions
MYRIAD PICTURES, 11900 West Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064
310-279-4050 audrey.delaney@myriadpictures.com www.myriadpictures.com
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