All AFM articles – Page 121

  • News

    Martinez's Cinepro takes on $20m thriller Tribes Of October

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Philippe Martinez returns to AFM with production and sales start-upCinepro Pictures and is introducing buyers to the $20m supernaturalthriller Tribes Of October.Martinez will direct and co-produce with screenwriters Nick Valelongaand Paul Sloane. The story is styled as a police thriller with adevilish twist and filming is set to begin in ...

  • News

    Celluloid Dreams sells Let's Make Money to Ad Vitam in France

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Early in the market, Paris-based Celluloid Dreams has closed a deal with Ad Vitam in France for Let's Make Money, its timely new feature-documentary about global finance and its woes. The film is directed by Erwin Wagenhofer and produced by Allegro's Helmut Grasser. Filmladen is handling its release in Austria ...

  • News

    Mr Nice adds Chloe Sevigny, sells for Canada and UK

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Independent has pre-sold Bernard Rose's Mr Nice to Canada's Entertainment One and its UK affiliate Contender.Chloe Sevigny, David Thewlis and Omid Djalili have now joined the cast, which is led by Rhys Ifans in the title role. Ifans plays Howard Marks, the UK's infamous Oxford-educated drug baron. Marks himself is ...

  • News

    Milla Jovovich comes back with William H Macy

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Milla Jovovich has joined the cast of William H Macy's directorial debut Keep Coming Back. Macy and Steve Buscemi will also star in the coming-of-age story.ContentFilm has international rights and expects more cast to be announced soon.Jovovich plays a recovering alcoholic ex-stripper who meets a sheltered 18-year-old boy with a ...

  • News

    Hayden Christensen in talks for lead in HandMade's remake of Mona Lisa

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Hayden Christensen is in formal negotiations to take the lead in HandMade's remake of Mona Lisa. He will take on a younger version of George, the character made famous by Bob Hoskins in the original.Larry Clark will direct the project, budgeted at about $8m and set to shoot in New ...

  • News

    Omega Entertainment gets two from Hillenbrands

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Omega Entertainment has signed a two-picture deal with Hill & Brand Entertainment to handle international sales for Transylmania and The Black Arrow.Both are projects produced and directed by the Hillenbrand brothers. Transylmania is a completed college comedy/vampire spoof that will open for sales here at the AFM, and it is ...

  • News

    Jinga Films sells Everything to Ruscico for Russia/CIS

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    UK-based sales company Jinga Films continues its AFM deals by selling all rights for Russia and CIS for Richard Hawkins' Everything to Ruscico.Ray Winstone stars in the thriller/drama.Jinga has also closed an eight-film package deal with Viswaas Films for India and Malaysia. Films in that package include Tom Tyrwhitt's youth ...

  • News

    Deepa Mehta teams with Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children

    2008-11-06T14:55:00Z

    Deepa Mehta is lining up a feature version of Midnight's Children with author Salman Rushdie, whose masterpiece of magic realism about the birth of modern India has remained untouched by film-makers for nearly 30 years.The film-maker announced the film with Rushdie today, at the eighth annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council ...

  • News

    NeoClassics takes on Captain Abu Raed from Fortissimo

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Canada and US-based NeoClassics Films has picked up North American, UK,Australian and South African rights from Fortissimo to Jordan's firstforeign language Oscar submission Captain Abu Raed.Amin Matalqa's film stars Nadim Sawalha as an airport janitor whoenchants children from his poor neighbourhood who believe he is anairline pilot with tall stories ...

  • News

    AFM kicks off with record world premieres and solid footing in November

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Whatever the economic woes in the outside world, the American Film Market (AFM) remains in robust health. That was the message yesterday as the 29th edition of the market got underway.'There are 527 films are screening here in Santa Monica, among them 102 world premieres, the highest we've ever had,' ...

  • News

    Geoffrey Rush sings along with Bankside's Bran Nue Dae

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Geoffrey Rush has signed on to lead the cast of Bran Nue Dae, which Bankside Films is selling here. Fellow Australian actors Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins and Dan Sultan will also star in the feature adaptation of the popular Australian stage musical. Rachel Perkins co-writes and directs.Principal photography started in ...

  • News

    Goldwyn takes US rights to American Violet

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired US rights to Uncommon Productions'American Violet starring Alfre Woodard and newcomer Nicole Behariefollowing its world premiere at Telluride.Director and producer Tim Disney and his screenwriter and UncommonProductions partner Bill Haney are meeting with international buyersat AFM.Samuel Goldwyn plans a March release for the story of ...

  • News

    Maximum takes on international sales for Michod's Animal Kingdom

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Maximum Films International has picked up international sales rights on writer-director David Michôd's crime thriller Animal Kingdom, starring Guy Pearce. Its allied releasing arm, Maximum Films Distribution, will handle the film in Canada. The film goes starts shooting in Melbourne early next year.The Australia-produced saga explores the Melbourne underworld, where ...

  • News

    Intandem rocks with Bendelack's Sweet Baby Jesus

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    London-based Intandem Films has taken on worldwide rights for Steve Bendelack's new comedy Sweet Baby Jesus. The cast will include Lily Tomlin, Tom Green, Melanie Griffith, Michael McKean, Alison Pill (Milk), and Sean Brosnan (Laws Of Attraction).The ensemble comedy revisits the story of the Nativity set in 1970s Bethlehem, Maryland. ...

  • News

    Bankside strikes US Baker deal with Panorama

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    UK-based Bankside Films has kicked off the AFM by announcing that Panorama Entertainment has taken all US rights to Gareth Lewis' The Baker.Gareth's brother Damian Lewis stars with Kate Ashfield and Michael Gambon. The comedy is about a hitman who hides out in a remote village where locals mistake him ...

  • News

    IFC Festival Direct moves into High Point's Left Bank

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    High Point Films continues its AFM sales with IFC Festival Direct taking North American rights to chiller Left Bank.The deal was struck with High Point's director of sales Elisar Cabrera and IFC manager of acquisitions Jeff Deutchman.Left Bank is the feature debut of Belgian director Pieter van Hees, part of ...

  • News

    Shochiku sells Tadashi Mori's Panda Diary to Wild Bunch

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Japanese entertainment conglomerate Shochiku has sold documentary PandaDiary to Wild Bunch for France, Benelux, Germany and Italy.Directed by Tadashi Mori, the documentary follows the lives ofendangered pandas who have never lived in the wild forest. Shot in theChendu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China and AdventureWorld in Japan, ...

  • News

    Central Partnership launches new Russian spy franchise

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    As the latest Bond movie Quantum Of Solace is launched worldwide, the Russiansare hatching their very own spy franchise.Here at the AFM,Moscow-based Central Partnership is introducing buyers to spy movie ManOf The East, starring Sergey Astakhov and Vladimir Epifantsev. Thefilm chronicles the adventures of Russian special intelligence agentYegor Kremnyov. ...

  • News

    Christopher Hampton returns to directing with White Chameleon

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Christopher Hampton is to return to directing. The Oscar-winningEnglish writer/filmmaker, who picked up a Special Jury prize in Cannesfor Carrington in 1995 and also won plaudits for his Atonementscreenplay, is now to write and direct White Chameleon.The new project is being put together by UK producer Chris Curling'sZephyr Films and ...

  • News

    Ealing goes gravedigging with John Landis comedy

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    John Landis will direct black comedy Burke And Hare for Ealing Studios and Fragile Films.Based on a true story, Burke And Hare is about two 19th century graverobbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school. Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, who previously wrote Ealing hit ...