Editorial Staff
Oscar winner JK Simmons and Emile Hirsch will star in the comedy “The Runaway”, to be directed by Gavin Wiesen from a screenplay by Seth W. Owen, it was announced today by producers Spring Pictures’ Mandy Tagger Brockey and Adi Ezroni, American Film Production’s George Voskericyan and J.M.R. Luna, Wing and a Prayer Pictures’ Ron Perlman and Josh Crook and P. Jennifer Dana.
The Solution Entertainment Group is handling international rights to the comedy and will present it to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. The Gersh Agency and UTA are co-representing US rights.
Set to shoot in Los Angeles in July, the film is produced in association with Abbolita Films and Heretic Films.
When a globe-trotting, workaholic father (Simmons) trying to visit his daughter on a last minute layover in Los Angeles discovers that she’s disappeared, he forces her awkward, nervous ex-boyfriend (Hirsch), still nursing a broken heart, to help him find her over the course of one increasingly crazy night.
The financing for the film was arranged by The Gersh Agency and UTA Independent Film Group with the producers counsels: CDAS’ Marc Simon for Spring Pictures, Jonathan Gray for Wing and a Prayer Pictures and Elsa Ramo for American Film Production.
Wiesen’s feature film debut, “The Art of Getting By”, starring Emma Roberts and Freddie Highmore, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures worldwide.
Seth W. Owen’s 2014 Black List script, “Morgan”, has been greenlit at 20th Century Fox with Kate Mara to star in the psychological thriller. Ridley Scott is producing the project which starts shooting in June in Ireland.
“The producers have assembled a top-notch cast including JK Simmons who is on everyone’s wish list after wowing audiences everywhere with his Oscar winning performance in WHIPLASH, and the versatile Emile Hirsch on board. The script is a wildly entertaining ride from start to finish and we can’t wait to bring this film to audiences,” said Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, co-founders and partners of The Solution Entertainment Group.
