J.A. Bayona to Direct 'A Monster Calls' Before 'World War Z' Sequel

River Road Entertainment, Participant Media, Lionsgate International, and Focus Features have teamed to finance and distribute Apache's production of acclaimed filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona's next film, A Monster Calls, based on the award-winning children's fantasy novel by Patrick Ness (the Chaos Walking trilogy), the companies announced today. The film will be produced by Belén Atienza (The Impossible, Pan's Labyrinth, The Orphanage) and is slated for a fall 2016 release. It will be distributed by Focus Features domestically, Universal Pictures International for its theatrical and home entertainment release in Spain and Lionsgate International throughout the rest of the world.

Bayona won Spain's equivalent of the Academy Award, The Goya, for his last film, The Impossible, which was distributed by Lionsgate's Summit label and grossed more than $180 million at the worldwide box office. The Impossible is the second highest-grossing film of all time in Spain.

A Monster Calls is a visually spectacular drama about a young boy who attempts to deal with his mother's illness and the bullying of his classmates by escaping into a fantastical world of monsters and fairy tales that deal with courage, loss and faith. Ness wrote the novel based on an original idea by the late Siobhan Dowd, and he and illustrator Jim Kay won Britain's prestigious Carnegie Medal and Greenaway Medal in 2012, presented to the year's best children's literature in the UK. Ness is adapting the screenplay from his novel. Executive Producers on the film are River Road's Bill Pohlad and Mitch Horwits, Participant's Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King, and Lionsgate Motion Picture Group Co-Chairman Patrick Wachsberger.

Here's what Juan Antonio Bayona had to say in a statement.

"It is an incredible privilege to bring Patrick Ness' exceptional book to the screen and I couldn't have imagined better partners joining me in this endeavor. After The Orphanage and The Impossible, A Monster Calls is the perfect final chapter in a trilogy centered on the extraordinary strength of the mother-child bond."

Lionsgate co-chairman Patrick Wachsberger had this to say in his statement.

"We're pleased to join with our friends at Participant, River Road and Focus Features in financing and distributing this cherished and compelling property that has already earned a tremendous following in the world of children's literature. We're delighted to reunite with the creative forces behind our worldwide hit The Impossible, and there is nobody better suited to creating the fantastical world of A Monster Calls than the visionary filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona."

River Road Entertainment's Founder and CEO Bill Pohlad added the following statement.

"River Road has collaborated to great success with Participant, Lionsgate International and Focus Features on several films, and we look forward to uniting for this distinguished project, which is in line with our effort to support captivating storytelling and incredibly talented filmmakers, like Juan Antonio Bayona."

Participant's EVP of Production Jonathan King offered his own statement.

"All of us at Participant are thrilled to be in such good company for this deeply moving tale about the power of storytelling, which could not be more perfectly aligned with our mission."

Focus Features CEO Peter Schlessel had this to say about working with the director.

"Juan Antonio Bayona is a filmmaker whose storytelling skills and stunning visuals are truly distinctive. He captures emotional truths amidst fantastical and terrifying situations, making him the ideal director to bring this acclaimed novel to a wide audience. I am pleased to make this our first co-production as CEO of Focus Features."

The deal was negotiated by Participant Media COO Jeff Ivers, River Road's Mitch Horwits, Lionsgate's Patrick Wachsberger, and Focus Features' Juan Antonio Bayona with CAA. Bayona is represented by CAA.

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Chris Pratt Calls Guardians of the Galaxy the Greatest Movie of the 21st Century!

Chris Pratt says Guardians of the Galaxy will be the greatest movie of the 21st century!Chris Pratt recently partook in an interview with IGN while on the set of NBC's hit comedy series Parks and Recreation and exclaimed that James Gunn's superhero project Guardians of the Galaxy will be the greatest movie of the 21st century.

Here he talks about his experience shooting the highly-anticipated film and what he thought of the footage that was debuted at this year San Diego Comic-Con.

"It's been really great. It's hard to even put into words, especially for someone like me who has the vocabulary of a sixth-grader. It's been a real trip. There's a lot of super talented people working on it - artists. That's what I always loved about comic books as a kid, the drawings. I didn't ever read them that much. I wasn't too big into the stories, but I loved the artwork and the covers. I'd like to draw a lot as a kid myself. So to see that, as they did making these comic books, they've hired the best artists in the world to do the concept artwork and to design these worlds. It's so imaginative and so unreal. We're working really hard and I'm in a bit of a daze, but I just can't wait for people to see what we're doing out there. I think that footage they showed at Comic-Con is very accurate to the movie that we're making. I thought that footage was pretty badass."

He went on to talk about the tone in the film and how it felt going from a comedic environment on Parks and Recreation to the drama of Guardians of the Galaxy.

"Yeah, I think tone is the major thing we have to accomplish, a consistent tone, going from silly and comedic to high-stakes drama and action, and everything in between. It's really up to James, and I trust everything that he's doing. I think we're getting good stuff. I don't know what to say about it other than it might be...Oh! It's the greatest movie of the 21st century! That's what I'll say. It'll be the Citizen Kane of movies other than Citizen Kane."

He wraps up by discussing the possibility of the project interweaving with other story from the Marvel universe.

"Man, that would be really cool. What's nice is that it is all the same universe. Because it falls under the Marvel umbrella, there is the possibility, just like in the comic books, that these stories could intersect."

Chris Pratt is playing Star-Lord. Also known as Peter Quill, the superhero is a human-alien-cyborg hybrid and member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

To read the rest of the interview:

Guardians of the Galaxy comes to theaters August 1st, 2014 and stars Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker, Ophelia Lovibond, Lee Pace, Glenn Close, Karen Gillan. The film is directed by James Gunn.

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