Jacques Audiard’s ‘The Sisters Brothers’ To Annapurna With Strong Group Of Acting Talent

Annapurna will co-produce and co-finance award-winning filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers with Why Not Productions, and Megan Ellison’s indie also has domestic distribution rights for the film. Page 114 also is on board as a producer.

The film is Audiard’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or-winning Dheepan, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. It also will be his first shot completely in English. John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Riz Ahmed are set to star in the noir Western, written by Audiard and Thomas Bidegain. Production will start this summer.

Based on Patrick deWitt’s acclaimed novel, The Sisters Brothers follows brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters, who are hired to kill a prospector who has stolen from their boss. The story, a genre-hybrid with comedic elements, takes place in 1851 Oregon.

Reilly originally optioned the novel and will produce alongside Michael De Luca, Rosa Attrab and Alison Dickey. Annapurna’s Ellison will serve as an executive producer for the project. The international rights are being handled by IMR International.

This is yet another possible film on the marketing/distribution slate of the growing Annapurna Pictures. The company also just picked up its second film for its release schedule in Mike White’s comedy Brad’s Status starring Ben Stiller. Annapurna and Amazon Studios are co-distributing the Sidney Kimmel Entertainment film.

CAA negotiated the deal on behalf of Why Not and Audiard. Chris Corabi negotiated the deal on behalf of Annapurna.