Flawless, XYZ Films, and Tea Shop Productions Acquire English Speaking Distribution Rights to Michel Gondry’s Directors’ Fortnight title ‘The Book of Solutions’
LOS ANGELES & LONDON – May 23, 2024 — Flawless, XYZ Films, and Tea Shop Productions have acquired director Michel Gondry’s Directors’ Fortnight world premiere THE BOOK OF SOLUTIONS for all English-speaking territories. Directed and written by Gondry, the French-language comedy is the first film in seven years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep filmmaker and premiered at Cannes to stellar reviews. It stars Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Francoise Lebrun and Vincent Elbaz and was produced by George Bermann at Partizan.
In the film, Marc (Niney), a bipolar and paranoid filmmaker, is having trouble with his latest project. With his editor as an accomplice, he manages to spirit away the rushes to his aunt’s place in the Cévennes, to finish the film as he envisions it. Instead, its completion is constantly postponed, as he creates endless diversions and impasses, which alternate between the comic and the downright disturbing.
Flawless launched a partnership with XYZ Films and Tea Shop Productions last Cannes to acquire rights to foreign-language films, converting them to English for distribution in relevant markets.
Flawless will implement its TrueSync technology to create perfectly lip-synced visual translations of acquired titles, while XYZ will leverage its world-class distribution and sales resources to maximize each title’s theatrical, VOD, and OTT opportunities in English-speaking markets. The partnership unlocks the vast potential of foreign-language films that until now could not reach a mainstream audience due to immersion-breaking subtitles and out-of-sync dubs.
James Emanuel Shapiro, EVP of US Distribution for XYZ Films, Ryan Black, Head of Acquisitions for Flawless, and James Harris of Tea Shop negotiated the deal with Kinology on behalf of the filmmakers.
“There is no greater privilege than working on a Michel Gondry film. He is a true artist and BOOK OF SOLUTIONS is a personal journey which allows audiences a glimpse directly into his thinking and his process. Grateful to him, Kinology and Flawless for giving XYZ the opportunity to share the film with film lovers,” said XYZ’s Shapiro.
Flawless’ Black added, “At Flawless, our goal is to make great films global, and no filmmaker is more deserving of a global audience than Michel Gondry. We are eager to bring this film to English-speaking markets, and to continue to expand our portfolio with many more similarly great films.”
Flawless, XYZ Films, and Tea Shop Productions’ upcoming slate of releases includes Victor Danell’s UFO Sweden, the sci-fi adventure that earned three nominations at the 2023 Guldbagge Awards®, Sweden’s equivalent of the Academy Awards® later this year, followed by Stéphan Castang’s VINCENT MUST DIE. Other recent acquisitions for the initiative include Ryoo Seung-wan’s SMUGGLERS and Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Erahimi’s TATAMI.
Today’s announcement follows Flawless’ announcement that it has expanded with the launch of a first-of-its-kind production company, Flawless Productions, alongside its continued work as a technology partner to studios. The new company, which launches with an initial $100 million film production fund, will partner with ascendent film banner Tea Shop Productions and use Flawless’ cutting-edge, responsible film technology tools, which enable filmmakers to streamline production while ensuring proper consent and compensation for all artists and rights holders. Flawless Productions aims to produce and finance up to 10 films in its first year.
XYZ Films recently announced the global acquisition of THE RITUAL starring Al Pacino and Dan Stevens and the TIFF acquisition BACKSPOT starring Devery Jacobs and Evan Rachel Wood releasing later this month. Additional sales and production titles from the XYZ Films studio include FLESH OF THE GODS, directed by Panos Cosmatos and starring Kristen Stewart and Oscar Isaac, RECKONER starring Noomi Rapace, HE BLED NEON with Joe Cole and Rita Ora, KILL ME with Allison Williams and Charlie Day, FREE FALL starring Zachary Levi and directed by Zoë Bell, Sundance title SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY, which sold to Netflix, BLACKBERRY starring Gotham and Independent Spirit-award nominee Glenn Howerton, which was released by IFC Films, Atom Egoyan’s TIFF selection SEVEN VEILS starring Amanda Seyfried, ASH starring Eiza González and Aaron Paul and directed by Flying Lotus, the Netflix Original HAVOC, directed by Gareth Evans and starring Tom Hardy and Forrest Whitaker and DANIELA FOREVER directed by Nacho Vigalondo and starring Henry Golding and Beatrice Grannó. Other recent releases include the Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead film SOMETHING IN THE DIRT which premiered at Sundance 2022.
About Flawless
Flawless is pioneering the next generation of entertainment, empowering filmmakers and actors by revolutionizing the production process, maximizing global audience, and ensuring directors and actors’ best work makes the final cut. Flawless combines a suite of world-first film technology tools, designed alongside industry labor groups to strengthen, and protect filmmakers; its Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.), a groundbreaking rights management system guaranteeing protection and ownership of personal training data and proper consent and compensation for all parties; and Flawless Productions, the company’s tech-powered film financing and production division. Flawless technology, which has been honored among TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions, enables filmmakers to create perfectly lip-synced visual translations of films (TrueSync™), transfer an actor’s best performance from one angle to another (DeepEditor™), visually replace filmed dialogue (AI Reshoot™), and more — with all Flawless technology built entirely with legitimately sourced clean data. To see Flawless’ tools in action and learn more about how it is ethically revitalizing the global film industry, visit flawlessai.com.
About XYZ Films
XYZ Films is an independent studio whose mission is to empower visionary storytellers from every corner of the planet. As a producer, financier, and distributor, the company is uniquely suited to identify talented filmmakers and bring their stories to life. XYZ recently expanded into talent management, working with a global roster of filmmakers. XYZ was founded in 2008 by Nate Bolotin, Nick Spicer, and Aram Tertzakian. The company’s classic titles include THE RAID franchise, 2017 Sundance winner I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE, Panos Cosmatos’ psychedelic revenge thriller MANDY, and Karyn Kusama’s THE INVITATION.
About Tea Shop Productions
Prolific genre outfit TEA SHOP PRODUCTIONS is a UK-based production company with a focus on bold, authored, and commercial films from compelling filmmakers. The Tea Shop producing team (James Harris, Mark Lane and Leonora Darby) has produced scores of feature films and has enjoyed both commercial and critical successes, including the shark thriller 47 METERS DOWN, one of 2017’s highest-grossing indies which spawned a franchise, and vertigo-inducing thriller FALL that held the No.1 on Netflix in 2023 and grossed $22M. In total, films produced by the Tea Shop team have grossed over $150 million in worldwide box-office receipts.
Upcoming releases include THE WASP directed by Guillem Morales and starring Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer, THE CUT directed by Sean Ellis starring Orlando Bloom, John Turturo and Caitriona Balfe, and TORNADO directed by John Maclean starring Tim Roth, Jack Lowden, Takehiro Hira and Kōki. Tea Shop’s latest feature, THE SURFER directed by Lorcan Finnegan and starring Nicolas Cage, will have its World Premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival as part of Official Selection.
