In today’s film news roundup, the Winklevoss twins are coming to Hollywood via a Bitcoin movie, the Newport Beach Film Festival announces its opener and Mutiny Pictures becomes a distributor.
PROJECT LAUNCH
The Winklevoss Twins — Cameron and Tyler — are teaming with Greg Silverman’s Stampede Ventures on a feature film adaptation of “Bitcoin Billionaires,” the 2019 book by Ben Mezrich.
Jon Berg will also produce with Silverman and the twins, who became famous in Mezrich’s bestseller “The Accidental Billionaires,” the basis for the movie “The Social Network.” The brothers alleged that Mark Zuckerberg briefly worked for them and stole part of the code from them to launch Facebook, which reached a settlement of $65 million with the brothers.
“Bitcoin Billionaires” details the twins’ efforts to finance Bitcoin payment processor BitInstant. Mezrich also wrote “Bringing Down The House,” which was adapted into the movie “21.” Stampede is backed by former Facebook CFO and San Francisco 49ers co-owner Gideon Yu. The news was first reported by Deadline.
FILM FESTIVAL
Popular on Variety
The 21st Annual Newport Beach Film Festival will launch Aug. 6 with the world premiere of Dana Brown’s “A Life of Endless Summers: The Bruce Brown Story” as its opening night film, Variety has learned exclusively,
The festival, which was originally scheduled for late April, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Screenings will will take place at The Lot on Fashion Island. “The Endless Summer” was released in 1966. Dana Brown is the late Bruce Brown’s eldest son.
“The film is a tribute to my father,” Dana Brown said. “Dad started the whole action sports film genre. He broke the mold; he broke the rules; he broke open the film category. There will never be another one like him. We could not think of a better fit for our world premiere then The Newport Beach Film Festival which places such a strong focus on action sports programming and continually acknowledges Dads legacy in the Southern California community.”
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the festival said it is taking extra precautions to ensure the health and safety of filmmakers and patrons. In addition to abiding by California’s current social distancing guidelines, every festival attendee will receive no-contact temperature checks, sanitizing stations will be placed throughout, theaters will be thoroughly sanitized after every screenings and food will be served in single use containers.
DISTRIBUTOR LAUNCH
Mutiny Pictures is announcing the launch of its new distribution and development company with the release of “Queen of the Capital.”
The company was formed by veteran producer Ben Yennie and development executive Colleen Butler. Following the release of “Queen of the Capital,” Mutiny Pictures will continue with over 12 projects that are completed or in development.
“Queen of the Capital” tells the story of D.C. bureaucrat by day/drag queen by night Muffy Blake Stephyns. The documentary follows her dream of leading a group of performers on a crusade.
Alamo on Demand will exclusively play the film digitally starting June 20 followed by a release at drive-ins and traditional theaters a few weeks later.
