Buena Vista International is close to acquiring Latin American and French rights on local blockbuster, The Last Kiss. Rome sales agent Intramovies has also sold German rights to Tobis.

Scripted and directed by Gabriele Muccino, the generational drama stars Stefano Accorsi and was produced by Fandango and Medusa Film.

Meanwhile, Intramovies head Paola Corvino has picked up worldwide distribution rights to three new Italian pictures, which it will premiere at Berlin's European film market: Giuseppe Bertolucci's Probably Love (Probabilmente Amore), Vincenzo Marra's Sailing Home (Tornando A Casa) and Pasquale Marrazzo's Asuddelsole.

Corvino has also struck a deal with local production outfit Cattleya to handle worldwide sales rights on the comedies Se Fossi In Te and Mari Del Sud, as well as upcoming drama La Volpe A 3 Zampe, a co-production with Naples's Teatri Uniti.
Melanie Rodier

Golden Networks, the Hong Kong-based sales and production firm enjoyed a busy Mifed with Thai epic Bang Rajan. The film was sold in an all rights, multi-territory deal to UK-based Medusa Communications.

Medusa bought UK, Australia, New Zealand and Benelux rights on Thanit Jitnukul which was seen recently at Toronto and has taken $9m (Baht400m) in Thailand. Medusa, which has not handled a theatrical release in the UK since 1993's controversial Romper Stomper, is now considering giving the picture an outing on the exhibition circuit, according to executive Stephen Rivers.

The film was also sold to Cine Pro for Germany, and as part of a three-film package, with Dream Of A Warrior and Soul Guardians, to Greece's Pascard.

Golden Network, which is headed by Carrie Wong, also sold Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk's Real Fiction to May Win Media.
Patrick Frater

Gaumont launched sales on a 3 hour-long version of Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1989 title Roselyne Et Les Lions. The film, Beineix's fourth film after Diva, The Moon In The Gutter and Betty Blue, originally lasted 110 minutes. But it has been entirely re-edited, in partnership with national terrestrial broadcaster France 3 - which broadcasted the new version as a two-part mini-series and cable and satellite operator TPS. Gaumont is seeking limited theatrical releases in some key territories such as the US and Germany.
Francoise Meaux Saint Marc

BRIEFS

Fortissimo Film Sales has secured a high profile sale of Nonzee Nimibutr's erotic coming of age tale Jan Dara to France. The film is set to be released by industry veteran Jean-Luc Defait's JLD Deal as part of his return to the front-line of theatrical distribution. "France is the flagship territory in Europe for Asian films", said Fortissimo co-chief Wouter Barendrecht. "Commercially speaking, when an Asian film is well handled, it can work very big. Jean-Luc has all sorts of exciting plans for the launch of the film." JLD, which also bought Fortissimo's La Spagnola, is planning an 80-print release for Jan Dara.

ICA has bagged UK rights to Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Kandahar. Wild Bunch, which is handling foreign sales duties on the Iranian film-maker's Afghanistan-shot title, has sold a raft of other territories at Mifed, including Hong Kong (to First Distributors), Portugal (to Atalanta), Poland (to Gulek), Malaysia (to Suraya). Czech and Slovaqian rights went to Artcam and Singapore went to Forest Bio.

President Films has sold the few remaining territories on Travelling Birds, including Singapore (to Harold Shaw). The eagerly-awaited documentary epic from the team who produced Microcosmos has been a hot seller. Major territories are long gone but US, UK and Latin American rights are, for their part, being kept available for a US buyer. Bac Films will give the $25m Travelling Birds a massive 600 screens outing in France on December 12.

Shoreline Entertainment is closing sales on its drama The Man From Elysian Fields featuring Andy Garcia, Anjelica Huston and Mick Jagger. Manga Films has taken the film for Spain, Filmitalus for Portugal, Five Star for Israel and Right Pictures for Thailand. The film world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this year.

President Films has sold a package of titles, including Ffr150m action comedy Le Boulet, which is currently in post-production, to Russian distributor Central Partnership. Japan's Acine Terran has also grabbed Ma Femme Est Une Actrice, Yvan Attal's romantic comedy toplining his real-life companion Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Medusa, the Rome-based film distributor has sealed a strategic deal with Microsoft to distribute the US software giant's new video-game console, Xbox, as well as video games. Medusa has recently started producing video-games based on some of its most successful movies, including comic sensation Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo.

Korea's Cinema Service secured the sale of My Sassy Girl to Edko for Hong Kong. The film by Kwack Jae-yong is a romantic comedy that topped the Korean box office for six weeks through summer.

Full Moon International has acquired international rights to The Third Society, an action thriller starring Sonya Eddy as a cop taking revenge on the Asian drug lord who killed her mother. The film was written and directed by martial arts specialist JA Steel (aka Jacquelyn Ruffner) and produced by her company Warrior Entertainment.

Showcase Entertainment has acquired international rights to Shattered Lies, an action thriller directed by Gerry Lively (Darkness Falls) about the pursuit of a map which indicates the location of $3m in stolen money. The film stars Frank Zagarino, James Russo, Jack Skalia, Martin Kove and Elizabeth Giordano.

V Releasing , the new sales outfit, unveiled a slate of titles headed by Totally Blonde, a light romantic comedy starring Baywatch's Krista Allen and Michael Buble. The Vancouver-based company headed by Andrew Van Slee and Maurice Smith, is the sales front for production houses Extraordinary Films and Full Moon Pictures. The company is now in production on two science fiction suspense thrillers, Puppet Masters Versus Demonic Toys and Trancers 6.