Taking Stock: CBS Films Drawing From the Likes of “Dean” & Martin

A directorial debut charmed but not necessarily win over critical mass but nonetheless did not go unnoticed (helps when your directorial debut wins the Best Narrative Feature award), CBS Films have acquired the U.S. rights to Dean. Along with the freshly Cannes selected David Mackenzie’s Hell or High Water, CBS Films will have a solid one two punch for theatrical release in 2016 with this item from comedian, actor, artist, musician and writer Demetri Martin. Martin, Kevin Kline, Gillian Jacobs and Mary Steenburgen star.

Gist: This focuses on Dean (Martin), a New York illustrator who falls hard for an L.A. woman (Jacobs) while trying to prevent his father (Kline) from selling the family home in the wake of his mother’s death.

Worth Noting: In 2006, DreamWorks picked up Martin’s Will – the story an ordinary guy who lives in a world where people’s lives and destinies are being written by scribes in Heaven. The man wakes up one day to find that his heavenly writer has decided to no longer draft his life, and he must go about his day unscripted.

Do We Care?: Variety and Indiewire both giving the film passing grades while the Tribeca jury claimed “it manages the near impossible task of breathing new life into a well-worn genre, balancing humor and pathos with an incredibly deft touch, and offering a unique perspective on the way we process loss,” we’re curious enough to give this a shot.