All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 154
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Thai master Weerasethakul lines up Uncle Boonmee
Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who has won multiple prizes for previous films like Syndromes And A Century, Blissfully Yours and Tropical Malady, is preparing Uncle Boonmee: A Man Who Can Recall His Past Lives, which will be handled internationally by The Match Factory. It is being produced by London-based Illuminations ...
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Yes Men land at Rezo
The Yes Men are back in town and they're promising to wreak mischief in Berlin. New film from the merry pranksters The Yes Men Fix The World, which screened at Sundance and is opening this year's Berlin Panorama, has been picked up for international sales by Rezo. Directed by Andy ...
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Dean Spanley goes to US with Miramax
Miramax Films has taken US rights to Toa Fraser' much feted comedy-drama Dean Spanley starring Sam Neill, Jeremy Northam and Peter O'Toole. The UK/New Zealand coproduction, which screened at the Toronto, London and Pusan festivals last year, was produced by Matthew Metcalfe and Alan Harris, with David Parfitt, Finola Dwyer, ...
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Loveridge launches Meridiana with first slate
Industry veteran Helen Loveridge, who co-founded Fortissimo Film Sales, has announced details of her new, London-based sales outfit, Meridiana Films. 'This is my first active market,' Loveridge commented. 'I will be starting slowly, looking to build up as we did with Fortissimo.' The company will be handling both dramatic features ...
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Memento closes on Larrieu brothers' This Is The End
Paris-based Memento Films International has taken on international sales to This Is The End, the new $13m (Euros 10m) end-of-the-world epic from Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu. Produced by veteran Bruno Pesery in association with Backup Films through their Coficup fund, the film stars Matthieu Amalric, Sergi Lopez, Catherine Frot and ...
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Sally Potter on the 'poor cinema' of Rage
Sally Potter's new feature Rage, which had its world premiere in competition at Berlin this week, has a cast to make distributors sit up and take notice. Actors involved in the ensemble comedy-thriller include Judi Dench, Jude Law, Steve Buscemi, supermodel Lily Cole and comedian Eddie Izzard.The film, a murder ...
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In focus - Festival buzz - Bright outlook in Berlin
French director Gaspar Noe will be in Berlin this week to explain to distributors the concept behind his film Enter The Void, which is being sold at the European Film Market (EFM) by Wild Bunch. The title of Noe's effects-driven new feature seems strangely apt given what many buyers and ...
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Baker Street to launch international sales division under Lansley
UK production and media financing outfit Baker Street Media Finance has launched its own sales arm. Baker Street International - as the new division is called - will be attending the EFM informally before beginning selling in earnest in Cannes in May.The new outfit is head by former Lakeshore executive ...
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Memento closes pre-Berlin sales on Katalin Varga, Treeless Mountain
Aggressive French sales outfit Memento has announced a raft of deals on films on its EFM slate.
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Rotterdam claims success despite slight drop in visitors
The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) ended this weekend on a more muted note than in previous years.For details of Rotterdam Tiger Awards click hereOn the final day,the KPN Audience Award went to Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle and co-director Loveleen Tandan.The festival's own official figures revealed that both ...
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Films from Turkey, Iran and Korea claim Rotterdam Tiger Awards
Films from Turkey, Iran and South Korea took the Rotterdam VPRO Tiger Awards at the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam.The winners were Iranian film-maker Ramtin Lavafipour's Be Calm And Count To Seven*, Yang Ik-June's Breathless from South Korea, and Turkey's Wrong Rosary.The $19,000 (Euros 15,000) prizes were handed out at ...
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International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009 update
More than midway through the 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), there is a clear feeling of relief among industry delegates. Some had feared that thanks to the global economic downturn, even an event as well-established as IFFR's coproduction market CineMart might have fallen completely flat. However, despite a cautious ...
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Fassbender, West and Kurylenko to headline Neil Marshall's Centurion
Pathe and Celador have confirmed casting on Neil Marshall's Roman era Centurion with Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger), Dominic West (300) and Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) to headline the film. Shooting begins next month on February 22. The script is written and will be directed by Marshall, whose The ...
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High Point Films picks up Dutch hit Winter In Wartime for EFM
Winter In Wartime, the biggest Dutch box-office hit of recent months, has been picked up for international sales by London-based High Point Films. The first market screenings of the film are planned for Berlin next month. The film is proving a minor box-office phenomenon in the Netherlands and attracted over ...
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Holland and Italy threaten to withdraw from Eurimages fund
A potentially serious rift is building at the heart of Eurimages, the Council of Europe fund for the co-production, distribution and exhibition of European cinematographic works. It has emerged that both Holland and Italy are threatening to withdraw from the fund, which currently has 33 members. 'They are unhappy with ...
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United Kingdom - Fresh blood
Is Hammer really "rising from the dead" again' The UK company that made Dracula, Prince Of Darkness, the Quatermass movies and The Devil Rides Out has often seemed on the verge of resurrection. As 2009 begins, it is clear the long-predicted revamp is happening for real. And in its new ...
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United States - Atlantic crossing
Overlook, as any self-respecting horror fan should know, is the name of the hotel in The Shining. It is also now the name of the sales outfit set up by Verane Frediani and Franck Ribiere.The company aims to have a presence on both sides of the Atlantic, and is an ...
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38th edition of Rotterdam opens with plea for Hubert Bals Fund
Rutger Wolfson, director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam made an impassioned defence of the work of Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund (HBF) at the opening of the 38th edition of the festival last night. The fund, devoted to supporting filmmaking in developing countries, has just received a qualified vote of ...
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38th International Rotterdam Film Festival opens
The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) will open tonight(January 21) with outdoor screenings of three specially commissioned films by Carlos Reygadas, Guy Maddin and Nanouk Leopold. The films will be projected high on the sides of buildings in the city's centre. In Maddin's Send Me to the 'lectric Chair, ...
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Eye on the tiger: Rotterdam International Film Festival preview
When Rutger Wolfson was named director of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in autumn 2007, his appointment was on an interim basis. His contract was for only one edition and many expected him to return to his job as director of De Vleeshal, a Dutch centre for contemporary art, ...