News

NEW YORK -- In something of a coup for producer-financier GreeneStreet Films and fellow producers Fugitive Films, MGM has nabbed all North American rights to the romantic comedy The Pleasure of Your Company. Writer-director Michael Ian Black's feature, which had its world premiere this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, centers on an unlucky guy (Jason Biggs) who dresses up like cupid to propose to his girlfriend and ends up scaring her to death. With some goading from a friend, he gives romance another try by spontaneously proposing to a waitress (Isla Fisher), only to experience more misadventures on the road to love. Edward Herrmann, Joe Pantoliano, Joanna Gleason, Margo Martindale and Rob Corddry round out the cast. Black created the TV series Stella and starred in The Baxter and Wet Hot American Summer. Pleasure and the Vietnam war thriller Rescue Dawn are the only two films in this month's Toronto fest to be picked up by a major distributor -- in both cases, MGM. After serving as a distribution arm for companies such as the Weinstein Co. and Bauer Martinez, MGM in its latest moves is acquiring more features of its own like Pleasure.

Holy Moses, the stars are lining up for The Ten. Per Variety, Jessica Alba, Paul Rudd, Amanda Peet, Adam Brody, Ken Marino and Justin Theroux have agreed to star in the independent parody of the Ten Commandments for director David Wain. City Lights Pictures and MEGA Films produce the project written by Wain ("Stella") and Marino ("The State"). Production is expected to start this July in New York.

NEW YORK -- GreeneStreet Films is financing writer-director Michael Ian Black's feature debut, the Jason Biggs starrer The Pleasure of Your Company, the company said Monday. Jamie Gordon and Courtney Potts of Fugitive Films and Sam Hoffman are producing the project with GreeneStreet for a little less than $7 million. The seven-week shoot is scheduled to begin in and around New York next month, with the company planning to take advantage of city and state tax incentives to save about 10% in budget costs. Biggs co-stars with Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) as an unlucky-in-love pessimist who's goaded into proposing to his waitress (Fisher) on a dare, leading to romance and comedy. The project came to GreeneStreet president John Penotti about two years ago but was delayed by Black's acting work on NBC's Ed and the latest in his longtime collaborations with Comedy Central, Stella.