Anti-terrorism lawyer Flatow flick in the work at AG Capital – ‘New Odyssey’ tale of refugee crisis

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LOS ANGELES/LONDON, March 4, (RTRS): Colin Callender’s production company Playground has secured the rights to Guardian journalist Patrick Kingsley’s book “The New Odyssey — The Story of Europe’s Refugee Crisis”. The company is developing the property as a major TV drama series though its UK office, which is headed by managing director Louise Pedersen and creative director Sophie Gardiner. Kingsley, who was named foreign affairs journalist of the year at the British Journalism Awards last year, was appointed in 2015 by the Guardian as its migration correspondent — the first newspaper to create such a post — and the book is the result of his work.

Throughout last year, Kingsley travelled to 17 countries along the migrant trail, meeting hundreds of refugees making their journey across deserts, seas and mountains to reach Europe. His book is an account of those travellers’ stories — explaining who they are, what keeps them going, and how they do it. But it is also an account of all those who help or exploit them along the way. Kingsley sought to humanize the crisis by telling the story from the inside. His wrote about riding trains with Hashem al-Souki, as he travelled from Syria to Sweden; drinking illicit moonshine with the kingpin smuggler Hajj, an obese Libyan law graduate who makes millions from his new trade; or walking with Fattemah Abu al-Rouse, the pregnant Syrian teacher who fears losing her baby as she treks through the Balkans.

Gardiner said: “‘The New Odyssey’ is an epic piece of journalism that provides an intimate account of the people caught up in one of the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War 2. We believe this can be television at its best — powerful, emotional and compelling storytelling that explores the complexities and human dimensions of the biggest story of our time.” Playground is a New York- and Londonbased film, television and theater company that was founded in 2012 by Callender. Playground set up its London office in 2015 to expand the company’s presence in the UK Recent productions include the Emmynominated and Golden Globe winning sixpart miniseries adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall”, starring Mark Rylance, Damian Lewis, Claire Foy and Jonathan Pryce for the BBC and Masterpiece, and the television adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s “The Dresser”, starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Richard Eyre for the BBC and Starz. Playground is in pre-production in the UK on Kenneth Lonergan’s four-part miniseries adaptation of the classic novel by E.M. Forster “Howards End” for the BBC.

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AG Capital has partnered with Scott LaStaiti on a movie based on the life of Stephen Flatow, whose daughter Alisa was murdered by terrorists during a suicide bombing attack in 1995. Flatow successfully sued the government of Iran as a state sponsor of terror in connection with the attack on a bus, carried out by militants belonging to the Islamic Jihad Movement in the Gaza Strip in 1995. He also uncovered an international conspiracy exposing corruption within the world’s banking system. LaStaiti has acquired the exclusive life rights to the story and will produce the feature film alongside Alex Garcia and Laura Walker of AG Capital, who will fully finance the picture. Producers are currently in talks with writers and directors. “Stephen’s story is truly extraordinary, the very heart of which is a father’s unwavering love for his daughter,” LaStaiti said.

“In his relentless pursuit of justice for his daughter’s murder, he uncovered a much deeper conspiracy which reveals systemic injustices still in place today.” Flatow fought for what is now called the Flatow Amendment, which allows a US citizen to sue foreign nations for damages in cases of state-sponsored terrorism. In the suit that followed, he was awarded a judgment against the Islamic Republic of Iran and discovered that some of the world’s largest banks were falsifying documents and laundering money for the Iranians. The banks included Credit Suisse, Lloyds, BNP, Barclays Bank, ING, Standard Chartered and HSBC.

LaStaiti has also acquired the rights to Flatow’s manuscript and asserts there is “strong interest” at several major publishing houses. AG Capital is a division of Alex Garcia’s AG Studios, which launched in Cannes and is run by Garcia and former CAA film finance agent Laura Walker. AG Studios operates Itaca Films, Lemon Films, BN Films, Bazooka Films, Altavista Films, and its distribution arm, Latam Pictures. LaStaiti and Gregory Bailey recently launched Palantir Group as an entertainment fund established to acquire and develop high-profile intellectual property for film and television. Current Palantir projects include Emma Donoghue’s “Frog Music”, which she is also adapting with LaStaiti producing alongside Alison Owen and her Monumental Pictures.

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The board of the European Film Academy has backed the Polish Directors’ Guild and more than 90 Polish film journalists in their protest against the treatment of Oscar and European Film Award winner “Ida” by Poland’s public broadcaster TVP. News of the Polish Directors’ Guild protest was first published in Variety on Monday. Pawel Pawlikowski’s film, which won the awards for European film, director, screenwriter, cinematographer and the People’s Choice Award at the 2014 European Film Awards, as well as the foreign-language film Oscar last year, was screened on TVP2 on Thursday, following a 12-minute editorial program claiming the film to be inaccurate, alleging that it won an Oscar only because of its pro-Jewish point of view, and adding title cards in such a way that they could have been thought to be part of the film itself.

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