LEAN ON New film by award-winning writer-director ANDREW HAIGH
International sales companies The Bureau Sales and Celluloid Dreams have secured the international rights to distribute the hotly anticipated new film by award-winning writer-director ANDREW HAIGH, LEAN ON PETE.
The production will be backed by both the BFI and Film4, with shooting set for summer 2016 in Pacific Northwest, to be completed in Spring 2017. Casting has started and sales will begin in Berlin.The project has been developed with the support of Film4. The film will be produced by TRISTAN GOLIGHER from The Bureau.
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by WILLY VLAUTIN, LEAN ON PETE follows 15-year-old Charley as he embarks on a perilous journey in search of his long lost aunt and a possible home. Charley's quest carries him from the horse-racing track at Portland Meadows, through the sagebrush of the Oregon desert, to the city streets of Denver, his sole companion the stolen racehorse Lean on Pete. The story of Charley is never sentimental but always compassionate, a heartbreaking and unadorned portrait of American life.
ANDREW HAIGH's most recent film, 45 YEARS, also backed by the BFI and Film4, premiered in Main Competition at Berlinale 2015, where it won two Silver Bears, for the lead performances of Charlotte Rampling, and Tom Courtenay. It won the Michael Powell Award for Best British film at Edinburgh International Film Festival, and is BAFTA nominated in the Outstanding British Film Category. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best Actress for Charlotte Rampling. 45 Years has been sold to over forty territories.
Haigh's previous film, WEEKEND, premiered at SXSW where it won the Emerging Visions Audience Award. WEEKEND went on to win 2 awards (Most Promising Newcomer and Best Achievement in Production) at the 2011 British Independent Film Awards; Best Screenplay at the Evening Standard Film Awards; and saw Andrew selected as the 2011 Breakthrough British Filmmaker at the London Critics Circle Film Awards. The film has been sold in about twenty territories.
In 2008 he was named as one of Screen International's 'Stars of Tomorrow', and was then selected as one of Variety's 2011 'Ten Screenwriters to Watch'. In 2014 he was featured in the New York Times article on 20 Directors to Watch.
