NEON finds new muse in ‘The Actor,’ starring Ryan Gosling

In a competitive bidding war, NEON has closed the deal for the Anomalisa helmer and Oscar nominee, Duke Johnson’s The Actor. The film, starring two-time Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson, La La Land), is based on the best-selling novel, Memory, by Donald E. Westlake. Johnson penned the script alongside Stephen Cooney. NEON will take North American rights for the highly anticipated package.

Stranded in 1950s Ohio after a brutal attack, actor Paul Cole (Gosling), suffering from severe memory loss, struggles to find his way back to his life in New York and reclaim what he has lost.  The Actor  follows a thrilling journey we must all make, to find home, to find love and ultimately to find ourselves. 

Gosling is producing the feature alongside Waypoint Entertainment’s Ken Kao. Duke Johnson will produce with Abigail Spencer under their Innerlight Films production banner. Paul Young is producing through his company, MAKE GOOD. Charlie Kaufman is executive producing. Gosling and Kao’s partnership follows their recent project announcements of Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary at MGM, and Leigh Whannell’s Wolfman at Universal.  

Jeff Deutchman negotiated the deal for NEON with CAA Media Finance and Endeavor Content, who are co-repping U.S. rights. Endeavor Content is handling international sales.

The pickup of The Actor continues NEON’s foray into boarding projects from early stages, as they did with Best Picture Oscar winner, Parasite and Pablo Larrain’s upcoming Spencer. The company is also in production on several forthcoming titles. 

Denis Makarenko/Shutterstock

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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