Latest in Teddy Schwarzman

Matthew McConaughey has been set to lead crime thriller The Rivals of Amziah King, written and directed by Andrew Patterson (The Vast of Night). Black Bear International will launch offshore sales in Cannes with WME Independent repping U.S. rights. Although specific plot details are being kept under…

Teddy Schwarzman, founder and CEO of independent studio Black Bear Pictures, is joining the board of directors of the Gotham Film & Media Institute (formerly IFP), while Mark D'Arcy, Facebook's former chief creative officer, is stepping down to become the organization's first Director Emeritus. Black Bear, the company…

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear Televison has partnered with Crazy Heart writer-director Scott Cooper to develop a limited dramatic series Angels & Demons. Making his television debut, Cooper will write and direct all the episodes. The drama is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning St. Petersburg Times article by Thomas French, a…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has taken its fourth major title in the 2020 Toronto Film Festival Market with a deal for I Care a Lot, the J Blakeson-directed dark comic satire that stars Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Eiza Gonzalez and Chris Messina. I’m told the deal is near $10 million for U.S. rights and the rights to select…

Faced with the most adversity since this exact day 19 years ago when the 2001 Toronto Film Festival was upended by the tragic terrorist attack on 9/11 that left nearly 3,000 dead, organizers and buyers and sellers of films head into the weekend with uncertainty over a mostly virtual TIFF 2020 that is severely hobbled…

Leigh Kittay has joined Black Bear as Head of Film. She most recently served that role for Noah Hawley's 26 Keys, and was exec producer of Lucy in the Sky. Before that she worked at Parkes+MacDonald Productions and Bad Robot. Ben Stillman, who has been at Black Bear since the company's inception, will transition from…

EXCLUSIVE: IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights to The Rental, the thriller that marks the directorial debut of Dave Franco. The film stars GLOW‘s Alison Brie, Downton Abbey‘s Dan Stevens, Jeremy Allen White (Shameless) and Sheila Vand (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night). Pic will be released July 24. Scripted by Franco…

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Franco is set to make his directing debut with the horror thriller The Rental, and Alison Brie and Dan Stevens will star with Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White. The film will be fully financed by Black Bear Pictures, which is producing along with Franco’s Ramona Films. Shooting begins April in…

EXCLUSIVE: Scott Free and Black Bear have set Jason Segel, Dakota Johnson and Oscar-winner Casey Affleck to star in The Friend, a fact-based touching drama that STX International will launch for offshore sales at the European Film Market. Directing is Gabriela Cowperthwaite, whose Blackfish was a BAFTA nominee for…

EXCLUSIVE: In competitive bidding, Black Bear Pictures has won the rights to Remission, a science fiction pitch that Michael Lloyd Green is scripting as his next project. Green most recently sold the sci-fi pitch The Revisionist to eOne with Hutch Parker producing. His previous script, I Am Mother, made the 2016 Black…

When it comes to an independently-financed movie, is it meant for a theatrical release or streaming? It’s a question that The Imitation Game Oscar-nominated producer and Black Bear Pictures CEO/President Teddy Schwarzman assesses frequently in the current climate, and he expounded on that at Winston Baker’s Script to…

EXCLUSIVE: Black Bear Pictures has partnered with Under the Shadow director Babak Anvari and Two & Two Pictures to develop an untitled feature drama set in the deadly Syrian crisis zones. Christian Contreras is set to write the untitled project, which Anvari will direct. The drama is based on true stories about female…