Down and Dirty Pictures

Based on the book by: Peter Biskind

Director: Ken Bowser

Producers: Kevin Scott Frakes

Exec. Producers: Vivek Tiwary and Gary Kaplan

Status: Casting

Foreign Sales: Celsius Entertainment

Estimated Budget: $5 million

 

Summary:

Down & Dirty Pictures is an energetic, obscenely funny, unique story about the mavericks who helped to create, mold, and later reinvent the modern day independent film industry. Through the use of original, visually stimulating filmmaking techniques (including comic book inspired animation and claymation), combined with an inventive storytelling structure, this rich and layered film fuses the characters’ drama and intensity (worthy of a Greek tragedy) and brilliantly records and satirizes independent film’s golden era and its most controversial characters.

Writers Dean Craig and Joshua James have crafted a screenplay that cleverly introduces the complex legend of Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein. Known for his blinding charm, yet also known as the boisterous bully who tears phones off the walls, this celebrated studio honcho never waivers in displaying his tender affection for independent film. Pitted against the unstoppable commercial success of Miramax Films, Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky co-found October Films where they hope to nourish art-house cinema and compete against Harvey and his brother Bob, creating a grueling, emotional battle over the future of independent film that had never been witnessed before. Down & Dirty Pictures shows us that whatever the personal imperfections of both the heroes and villains in this screenplay, what stands out most is their courage, a deep, overwhelming love of film, and that indie conditions are “darker, dirtier and a lot smaller” than anyone ever imagined.

Reviews:

“Absurdly entertaining… [Biskind’s] tone is buoyant as he skims through the history of the last fifteen years of the independent-film movement…world-class dish; [Biskind] knows how to sprinkle the deep-fried nuggets along the trail to keep you happily moving along.”

–Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Peter Biskind deftly weaves money-shot quotes back into the story and has an eye for the perfect anecdote.”

–Christopher Carbone, New York Observer