Richard Gere Set For English Remake Of Israeli Movie ‘Longing’:

EXCLUSIVE: Richard Gere is starring in the English remake of 2017 Hebrew language movie Longing.

Savi Gabizon, who wrote and directed the original movie, is returning to helm. The movie is currently shooting in Hamilton, Ontario.

In Longing, Gere plays a bachelor who is forced to evaluate his life choices when he discovers that an ex-girlfriend had given birth to his son twenty years ago. The original movie premiered at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF in 2017. Gabizon won the BNL People’s Choice Award at Venice for the original film.

Daniel Bekerman (The Witch, Falling) produces under his Scythia Films banner along with Current Flow Entertainment’s Alexander Vinnitski, with Anamorphic Media Inc’s Sara Shaak and Matthew Lyons providing lead financing.

The Solution Entertainment’s Myles Nestel and Lisa Wilson executive produce and are handling global sales.

“I am looking forward to working with Richard, having such a great and special actor in my film is a dream come true for me,” says Gabizon.

Wilson adds, “I am thrilled to be working with Richard Gere for the third time after Arbitrage and Norman. When I read the script of Longing I knew immediately that this would be perfect casting and thankfully Richard concurred.”

Global box office star Gere starred in Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Shall We Dance, The Jackal, An Officer and a Gentleman among others. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor – Musial or Comedy for his turn in 2002’s Chicago and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries/Special in 1994 for And the Band Played On. Gere is represented by WME and attorney Barry Hirsch at Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman.

Scythia Films is behind Netflix’s upcoming film House/Wife (formerly known as Ivy) starring Alicia Braga, and Slashback which had its premiere back in March at SXSW. Scythia also produced The Friendship Game starring Peyton List from Netflix’s Cobra Kai, and Cold Copy featuring Tracee Ellis-Ross and Bel Powley. Additional credits include Falling, Viggo Mortensen’s directorial debut, a UK/Canada Treaty Co-Production, which celebrated its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020 and was an Official Selection at the 73rd Edition of the Cannes Film Festival as well as TIFF; A24’s The Witch, winner of the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as two Independent Spirit Awards.

Current Flow Entertainment is a film and television production company with operations in Los Angeles, California and Jerusalem, Israel led by Alexander Vinnitski. Credits include A Cat in a Box, a high concept heist thriller written and to be directed by Paco Cabezas; Isotope, a true story of an airline hijacking based on one of the world’s best known and most successful counter-terrorism operations in history and A Good Thing About War, a dramedy in vein of Little Miss Sunshine, taking place during the Gulf War, to name a few.

The Solution Entertainment Group is a multi-faceted, full service international sales and financing company co-founded by foreign sales veteran, Lisa Wilson, film financier, Myles Nestel, and Craig Chapman. The Solution’s most recent slate includes Blacklight directed by Mark Williams (Honest Thief), starring Liam Neeson, Honest Thief starring Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh and Jai Courtney; Line of Duty, directed by Steven C Miller (Escape Plan 2), starring Aaron Eckhart; The Ice Road from director Jonathan Hensleigh, starring Liam Neeson and Dreamland from director Nick Jarecki (Arbitrage) starring Gary Oldman, and Evangeline Lilly.

Anamorphic Media Inc. (AMI) is a film financing and production entity based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada led by executives Sara Shaak and Matthew Lyons. AMI has been a financing partner on Girl with Bella Thorne, The Doroman starring Ruby Rose and Jean Reno, and Meet Cute, the recent Peacock feature starring Kaley Cuoco and Pete Davidson.

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