DIAMOND: Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Andy Garcia's Cannes Crime Drama
The cast includes Vicky Krieps, Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman.
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired worldwide rights, excluding France, Germany, Italy and the CIS, to DIAMOND, a crime drama written, directed and produced by Andy Garcia. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received a nine-minute standing ovation. DIAMOND is a contemporary noir with period sensibilities set in Los Angeles, starring Garcia as Joe Diamond, a man with an uncanny ability to solve crimes beyond the reach of the LAPD.
Photo Credit: Jessica Brooks
Sony Pictures Classics announced that it has acquired worldwide rights (excluding France, Germany, Italy, and the CIS) to award-winning Cuban-American actor and filmmaker Andy Garcia's crime drama DIAMOND. Premiering at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the film received a nine-minute standing ovation with critics raving about its nostalgic and star-driven tribute to the timeless appeal of classic detective films.
Written, directed and produced by Garcia, DIAMOND is a contemporary Noir with period sensibilities set in Los Angeles. The protagonist, Joe Diamond (Academy Award nominee Garcia), is a man out of time, an urban legend with an emotional traumatic past. He has the uncanny ability to solve crimes that even the LAPD cannot – armed only with the savvy and dry humor reminiscent of the gumshoe detectives of that genre. It is a love letter to Los Angeles and an homage to the great noir films of the past.
Along with designing all the music for the film, Garcia co-wrote the original score with his longtime collaborator Arturo Sandoval. Both are Grammy and Latin Grammy award winners.
'I've been working on this story for close to 20 years. This is not unusual for personal films in the independent world. Stories take time to unfold. They haunt you, as you continue to work on them. When they are ready, in their own time, the movie gods open the window of opportunity. Perhaps we exhaust them with our persistence and that great obstacle is overcome by the dream. So they give up and bless you with this extraordinary cast to tell your story. Dreams sometimes do come true. As Joe Diamond the protagonist in our story states. 'Dreams are a way of escaping your reality, unless those dreams are your reality,'' said Andy Garcia.
Sony Pictures Classics added, 'One of those great Phillip Marlowe private eye crime mysteries of the past, full of surprises, filled with colorful, rich characters, played to the hilt by a stellar cast led by Andy Garcia, Vicki Krieps, Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman. Director Andy Garcia's years in the making labor of love is finally here. Audiences will love it.'
Alongside Garcia, the cast also includes Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Corsage), Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale, upcoming Rental Family), Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land, Rachel Getting Married), Academy Award nominee Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, The French Dispatch), two-time Academy Award winner Dustin Hoffman (Rain Man, Kramer vs. Kramer), Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir (A Better Life, The Hateful Eight), Danny Huston ('Succession,' The Constant Gardener), LaTanya Richardson Jackson (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey), Yul Vazquez (Severance, The Outsider), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2), and Rachel Ticotin (The Act, Man on Fire).
A CineSon production (Garcia's Production Co), the film was produced by Jai Stefan for Shrink Media, Frank Mancuso Jr. for FGM Entertainment and Paul Soriano from Black Cap Pictures / TEN17P. Black Cap Pictures / Nexis Entertainment financed the film and will serve as executive producers led by Simon Heo and Nikki Romero, with Soriano also serving as producer. Executive producers include John Ahn, Wendy Lee, and Nino Cuccinello. For Oscura Film, Marco Vicini, and Fernando Tsai.
The deal was negotiated between Sony Pictures Classics and CAA Media Finance on behalf of the filmmakers, with The Veterans overseeing international rights.
ABOUT SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
Michael Barker and Tom Bernard serve as co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics—an autonomous division of Sony Pictures Entertainment they founded with Marcie Bloom in January 1992—which distributes, produces, and acquires independent films from around the world. Barker and Bernard have released prestigious films that have won 42 Academy Awards (38 of those at Sony Pictures Classics) and have garnered 192 Academy Award nominations (166 at Sony Pictures Classics), including two nominations this year for BLUE MOON for Best Actor (Ethan Hawke) and Best Original Screenplay, as well as Best Picture nominations for I'M STILL HERE, THE FATHER, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, WHIPLASH, AMOUR, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, AN EDUCATION, CAPOTE, HOWARDS END, AND CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON.
ABOUT Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production, acquisition, and distribution; television production, acquisition, and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services. http://www.sonypictures.com/corp/divisions.html.
Garcia also designed the film's music, co-writing the original score with longtime collaborator Arturo Sandoval. The cast additionally includes Vicky Krieps, Brendan Fraser, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Demian Bichir, Danny Huston, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Yul Vazquez, Robert Patrick and Rachel Ticotin. DIAMOND was produced under Garcia's CineSon banner, with Jai Stefan, Frank Mancuso Jr. and Paul Soriano also producing, and Black Cap Pictures and Nexis Entertainment financing the project.
Photo Credit: Jessica Brooks
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