News

The Movie Partnership has debuted a trailer for the affecting drama inspired on true events ‘Foster Boy’.

Based on writer Jay Paul Deratany’s experiences as a trial lawyer fighting for child welfare in Chicago, the film follows the trial of a for-profit Foster care agency, who puts a known sex offender into the same foster home as a lawyer’s young client, Jamal, with catastrophic results. Each man heals the other in the pursuit of justice, as they expose the horrifying corrupt agency.

Executive Producer Shaquille O’Neal says, “A lot of what you see in that film, actually happened in the courtroom and Shane shows us the trauma and crushing emotional baggage foster kids carry for the rest of their lives.”

A firm festival favourite, the film is produced by Peter Samuelson; founder of First Star, a charity that gives academic support to young adults in the care system...

Exclusive: Gravitas Ventures is adding to its growing acquisition slate with the lastest pick-up, Foster Boy, a courtroom drama starring Matthew Modine, Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr., Julie Benz, and Shane Paul McGhie. Gravitas has the North American distribution rights and is planning a theatrical and on-demand release on September 25.

Brenda Bakke, Amy Brenneman, Michael Beach, and Greg Germann also star in the film, which has played at a number of festivals including the International Black Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival, and Woodstock Film Festival.

Directed Youssef Delara, the pic follows Michael Trainer, a hardened corporate lawyer unwittingly dragged into an ominous trial in which a for-profit foster care agency put a known sex offender into the same foster home as his young client Jamal, resulting in catastrophic trauma and immediately altering Jamal’s future. He wants nothing to do with Jamal’s case until a Judge forces him to represent him.

Matthew Modine, Shane Paul McGhie, Amy Brenneman star.

Jason Moring’s Toronto-based sales agent Double Dutch International (Ddi) has boarded worldwide rights to Foster Boy starring Matthew Modine and will launch sales at the Cannes virtual market in June.

Modine plays a high-powered corporate attorney who rediscovers his humanity when he represents a young man let down by a corrupt foster care system.

Shane Paul McGhie also stars alongside Julie Benz, Amy Brenneman, Michael Beach, and Greg Germann.

Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal served as executive producer on the film directed by Youssef Delara from a screenplay by Jay Paul Deratany,...

It’s no secret that I have suffered some losses lately. For better or worse, my pain and grief are public. But I understand the opportunity to face the pain, learn from it, and model a behavior. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

But there are hundreds of thousands of kids across the U.S. — 30,000 just in Los Angeles County – who struggle, suffer, and grieve every day, too often alone, usually unnoticed, and without much public understanding and support. They are foster kids.

Life has challenges and, as a kid, I faced my fair share. But there was someone in my life who, along with my parents, was always there for me. His name is Michael Parris, whom I affectionally call “Uncle Mike.”

Mike was a police officer in my hometown of Newark, N.J. He was a mentor and role model, and it is hard for me...

In today’s film news roundup, buyers take rights to “The Song of Names” and “Chain of Death” while and Shaquille O’Neal becomes an executive producer for legal thriller “Foster Boy.”

Acqusitions

Sony Pictures Classics has bought U.S. rights to the music drama “The Song of Names,” starring Tim Roth and Clive Owen.

The film is directed by “The Red Violin” helmer François Girard and is produced by Robert Lantos, Lyse Lafontaine and Nick Hirschkorn. Jeffrey Caine wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Norman Lebrecht. The original score is by Howard Shore.

The film unfolds at the start of World War II and centers on 9-year-old violin prodigy who is a Polish-Jewish refugee in London. The prodigy’s brother is devoted to him. Hours before his debut concert performance at the age of 21, he vanishes without a trace. Years later, the prodigy’s brother recognizes a...

It’s a case of art imitating life and vice versa. This month, a legal thriller about the abuse of an African-American kid in the foster system from producer Peter Samuelson (Arlington Road) is in post-production and readying for festivals. But just last week, the screenwriter for the film Foster Boy won a $45M judgment against a social services agency — the largest award in the history of the state of Illinois in a case involving the death of a toddler in the foster system.

It was a case the producer/screenwriter/lawyer Jay Paul Deratany handled himself.

But a year before Deratany even knew about the the death of 2-year-old Lavandis Hudson in the foster system, the attorney was writing a screenplay about an African-American boy who is abused by a private social services company. Deratany has been practicing law for about 30 years — 16 of them handling cases involving foster care negligence and child neglect.

Sex and the City and Californication alum Evan Handler has joined Foster Boy, the Youssef Delara-directed indie drama based on a script by Jay Paul Deratany. The film stars Matthew Modine as Michael Trainer, whose life as a condescending, elitist corporate attorney is turned upside down when he's ordered to take on a pro bono case representing a 19-year-old African-American youth who was victimized when a known sexual predator was placed into his foster home. Handler will…...

Breaking Glass Pictures is partnering with Jay Paul Deratany’s new distributor as they work together to build a slate.

Reel Red Films plans to release four films in 2015 and will make its market debut on the Croisette scouring the ground for content.

Chicago native Deratany (pictured) has practiced law for more than 20 years and earned a 2001 GLAAD nomination for theatre screenplay for Haram Iran.

“I believe there is a fine balance between law and art and am excited to see how they both can symbiotically blend together as I continue to work with Breaking Glass,” said Deratany.

Breaking Glass will release Deratany’s first feature, the Lgbt family comedy Saugatuck Cures starring Glee’s Max Adler, this summer theatrically, on VOD and DVD.

“It’s a true honour to work alongside a multi-talented professional such as Jay,” said Breaking Glass Pictures CEO Rich Wolff. “I am confident this partnership will be very successful.”...

The distributor has acquired a quartet of titles including re-release of S&M fetish film The Pet and screwball comedy Such Good People.

Such Good People (pictured) follows a young gay couple that discovers a secret room filled with cash while house-sitting for friends.

Michael Urie, Randy Harrison, Ana Ortiz, Scott Wolf and Lance Bass star. The film will open on DVD and VOD on April 14.

Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff negotiated the deal with Jordan Yale Levine of Yale Productions.

The Pet tells of a young woman in dire financial straights who accepts an offer to be a wealthy aristocrat’s human “pet” for six months.

The film arrives on DVD and VOD on March 10 following a deal with Strath Hamilton of TriCoast World Wide.

Wolff negotiated a deal with Jay Paul Deratany of Permoveo Productions for worldwide rights to the gay family comedy Saugatuck Cures starring Max Adler. The film will...