Latest in Peter Saraf

Director Marielle Heller describes convincing Tom Hanks to play Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood "the biggest miracle I’ve ever performed. I’ll never perform another miracle that good again!" She explained recently at Deadline’s annual The Contenders New York how the casting coup came about. "I know…

EXCLUSIVE: In a deal in the seven-figures, Netflix has acquired the animated feature White Fang. This marks the first deal by Netflix for a film that debuted at last month's Sundance Film Festival. Netflix will launch the film later this year in the US, Canada, Latin America, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, UK…

EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has acquired world rights to Puzzle, the directing debut of Big Beach principal Marc Turtletaub that stars Kelly Macdonald as a housewife whose life takes a turn when she enters the world of competitive jigsaw puzzling. Film premiered Tuesday evening at the Eccles Theater and the…

Big Beach, which made past memorable Sundance splashes with Little Miss Sunshine and Safety Not Guaranteed, today launches the first of three projects here at Sundance with its first foray into animation. The premiere of the 3D animated acquisition title White Fang happens this morning at 11:30 AM at the Prospector…

EXCLUSIVE: Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf’s New York-based indie production and finance company Big Beach is opening a Los Angeles office, to be led by executive Dani Melia. The new outpost will be headquartered at the Venice offices of Big Beach’s micro-budget producer Beachside, and the move will give the company…

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Mitnick has made his mark as co-writer on last year’s The Giver as well as two hot scripts currently in the works for movies: the 2011 Black List script The Current War (now at The Weinstein Company) and Pinocchio for Robert Downey Jr and Warner Bros. Now he is set to jump behind the camera for the…

Academy award winning filmmaker Irving Saraf died December 26 at his home in San Francisco. Saraf, 80, succumbed to ALS, which he battled for the last three years. He is the father of Peter Saraf, producer of such films as Little Miss Sunshine and partner with Marc Turtletaub in the film financier/production company…

EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt have signed on to star in an untitled comedy that will be directed by Todd Rohal and financed by Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf’s Big Beach Films. Knoxville and Oswalt will play battling brothers who attempt to honor their ailing father by taking a troop of boys on a…

EXCLUSIVE: The Weinstein Company has closed a deal for the Paul Rudd comedy My Idiot Brother that will amount to a minimum guarantee of $6 million-$7 million, and a $15 million P&A commitment for a wide theatrical release. That makes My Idiot Brother the biggest deal of the Sundance Festival so far, but there’s an…