Robert Redford and TerryGilliam projects spark up at Voltage Pictures

Nicolas Chartier's high-flying Los Angeles financing and sales company Voltage Pictures arrives at EFM with its most prestigious slate to date led by new work from Robert Redford and Terry Gilliam.

Chartier is in Berlin to introduce buyers to Robert Redford's romantic thriller The Company You Keep that is ready to shoot in July following a long gestation period that had previously seen it set up at Fox Searchlight.

CAA now represents North American rights to the big budget starring vehicle for Redford, who will direct and produce through his Wildwood label alongside Kingsgate Films' Greg Shapiro and Chartier.

Based on Neil Gordon's 2003 novel, The Company You Keep tells of a former radical activist who goes on the run for the sake of his young daughter after his identity is revealed.

Meanwhile Terry Gilliam is preparing a May 1 start date on the fantasy Zero Theorem, which will star Billy Bob Thornton and is being produced by Richard and Dean Zanuck.

The story revolves around a reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst who is hard at work on a project designed to discover the meaning or life or its lack thereof. CAA is again handling North American rights.

Gilliam is currently in post-production on The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus which features Christopher Plummer, the late Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell.

Chartier is riding high following Anchor Bay's $3.5m Sundance acquisition of North American and Australian rights to David Mackenzie's LA hustler drama Spread starring Ashton Kutcher, while Summit Entertainment is preparing to release Kathryn Bigelow's war thriller The Hurt Locker, which Chartier produced with Shapiro.

Voltage will also talk to buyers here about Big Eyes, the drama about artist Margaret Keane starring Kate Hudson that is set to go in May, and the Steven Seagal action title A Dangerous Man that starts shooting on March 1. Chartier will also unveil eight minutes of footage from George A Romero's latest zombie installment Of The Dead, currently in post.

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