‘Being Flynn,’ ‘Seeking a Friend’ Get Release Dates

Paul Dano and Robert De Niro in 'Being Flynn'
Paul Dano and Robert De Niro in ‘Being Flynn’ (Photo © 2012 Focus Features)

Focus Features has unveiled their 2012 theatrical release calendar which includes Paul Weitz’ drama, Being Flynn, and Lorene Scafaria’s directorial debut, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

BEING FLYNN – March 2, 2012 (select cities)

Being Flynn is the new dramatic feature from Academy Award-nominated writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy). Adapted from Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bulls—t Night in Suck City, the movie explores bonds both unbreakable and fragile between parent and child. Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood) portrays Nick Flynn, a young writer seeking to define himself. He misses his late mother, Jody (four-time Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore), and her loving nature. But his father, Jonathan, is not even a memory, as Nick has not seen the man in 18 years.

Jonathan Flynn (two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro) has long defined himself as a great writer, “a master storyteller.” Suddenly facing eviction from his apartment, Jonathan impulsively reaches out to Nick and the two come face-to-face.

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – April 20, 2012 (wide)

The feature directorial debut of screenwriter Lorene Scafaria stars Golden Globe Award winner Steve Carell and Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley. Set in a too-near future, the movie explores what people will do when humanity’s last days are at hand. As the respective journeys of Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) converge, the two spark to each other and their outlooks – if not the world’s – brighten.

MOONRISE KINGDOM – May 25, 2012 (select cities)

The new feature from two-time Academy Award nominee Wes Anderson. Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, the film follows a young boy and girl (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) falling in love. When they are moved to run away together, various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down – which might not be such a bad thing. Bruce Willis plays the town sheriff; two-time Academy Award nominee Edward Norton is cast as a camp leader; and Academy Award nominee Bill Murray and Academy Award winner Frances McDormand portray the young girl’s parents.

PARANORMAN – August 17, 2012 (wide)

The new 3D stop-motion comedy thriller from animation company LAIKA, reteaming the company with Focus Features after the groundbreaking Academy Award-nominated Coraline. ParaNorman is, following “Coraline,” the company’s second stop-motion animated feature to be made in 3D. In ParaNorman, a small town comes under siege by zombies. Who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is able to speak with the dead.

In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse. But this young ghoul whisperer may find his paranormal activities pushed to their otherworldly limits.

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON – 2012

In June 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Academy Award nominee Bill Murray) and his wife Eleanor (Olivia Williams) host the King and Queen of England (Samuel West and Olivia Colman) for a weekend at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park on Hudson, in upstate New York – the first-ever visit of a reigning English monarch to America. With Britain facing imminent war with Germany, the Royals are desperately looking to FDR for support. But international affairs must be juggled with the complexities of FDR’s domestic establishment, as wife, mother, and mistresses all conspire to make the royal weekend an unforgettable one.

Seen through the eyes of Daisy (Academy Award nominee Laura Linney), Franklin’s neighbor and intimate, the weekend will produce not only a special relationship between two great nations but, for Daisy – and through her, for us all – a deeper understanding of the mysteries of love and friendship.

ANNA KARENINA – 2012

The third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with director Joe Wright, following the award-winning box office successes Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, is the epic love story Anna Karenina, adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love). The story unfolds in its original late-19th-century Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna (Keira Knightley) questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.