All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 155

  • News

    Media Luna closes deal with Call Girl to Only Hearts in Japan

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Cologne-based Media Luna Entertainment has closed a Japanese deal onPortuguese drama Call Girl, a drama about a high class prostitute who is hired to seduce the local mayor.Only Hearts Co. Ltd has taken all Japanese rights to the film, which is directed by Antonio-Pedro Vasconcelos and stars Soraia Chaves. Media ...

  • News

    Siritzky gets science with Bogdanov twins

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Veteran producer/sales agent Alan Siritzky, owner of the Emmanuelle erotic franchise, is to partner with the controversial French twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, physicists best known for their popular TV series on science, on a feature documentary based on the brothers' 1991 best-seller God And Science (Dieu Et ...

  • News

    A-Film takes Benelux rights on four-film package from HanWay

    2008-11-10T06:00:00Z

    Re-energised Dutch distributor A-Film has snapped up a four film package from London-based HanWay Films. The films acquired are Harry Brown starring Michael Caine and Emily Mortimer, Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy about the young John Lennon, Christine Jeff's Sunshine Cleaning starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and Jon Amiel's Charles ...

  • News

    Les Plages D'Agnes sold to Zazie for Japan, Cineart for Benelux

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    As the AFM reaches the midway stage, Les Plages D'Agnes from veteran French auteur Agnes Varda, has been sold to a handful of new territories.Deals have been closed by French sales Roissy Films with Zazie Films for Japan, Cineart for Benelux and Seville Pictures for Canada. A UK deal is ...

  • News

    Wild Bunch Benelux buys Boheme, takes Imagine package

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    Wild Bunch Benelux Distribution, the new Amsterdam-based distribution operation set up by Pim Hermeling, has revealed further details of its initial slate.The new company is a joint venture between Hermeling and French powerhouse Wild Bunch, which has long been seeking to build up a pan-European distribution network. Jan Van Aert ...

  • News

    Brisseau's erotic arthouse Aventure defies market blues

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    In what is by common consensus a cautious market, controversial French auteur Jean-Claude Brisseau is continuing to lure buyers with his crossover brand of erotic/art house cinema. During the AFM, Brisseau's latest feature A L'Aventure, sold internationally by Films Distribution, has gone to the UK (Axiom), Japan (Zazie), ...

  • News

    Alcine takes Japan from Rai Trade on Avati pic

    2008-11-09T06:00:00Z

    In its first major Asian sale of the market, Italian outfit Rai Trade has closed a deal on Pupi Avati's new feature Giovanna's Father with Japan's Alcine. The film premiered in official selection in Venice earlier this autumn, picking up the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor for Silvio Orlando. Deals ...

  • News

    Affleck and Alba star in Winterbottom's Killer Inside Me for Wild Bunch

    2008-11-08T08:00:00Z

    Prolific UK director Michael Winterbottom is to hit the film noir trail with The Killer Inside Me, a $13 million adaptation of a novel by Jim Thompson (The Grifters) starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba. Wild Bunch has worldwide sales rights on the film excluding the US which Endeavor ...

  • News

    Magnolia scores with The Girl From Monaco for US

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Magnolia Pictures has pounced on US rights to The Girl From Monaco, Anne Fontaine's French box office hit which played at Locarno and Toronto this year.The deal was confirmed yesterday by Yoann Ubermulhin of French sales agent Pyramide International.'We are really glad to have our first collaboration with Magnolia on ...

  • News

    Isabel Coixet to start Map In Tokyo with Lopez, Kikuchi

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Isabel Coixet, the Spanish auteur behind Elegy and The Secret Life Of Words, is to start shooting her next film Mapa De Los Sonidos De Tokyo (Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo), on November 16, in Tokyo. Madrid-based Imagina International Sales is handling international sales here.The film will be ...

  • News

    Tokyo Theatres takes Japanese rights to Cantet's The Class

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Laurent Cantet's Palme D'Or winner The Classis Asia-bound. Here at the AFM, Paris-based sales agent Memento Films International hasclosed a Japanese deal with Tokyo Theatres and is reporting interestfrom Singapore and Thailand.Cantet's film, about a teacher in a high school in a tough part of theParis suburbs, was one of ...

  • News

    Ondamax lines up Latin titles for festivals in 2009

    2008-11-08T06:00:00Z

    Miami-based production and sales outfit Ondamax will be targeting Sundance and Berlin early next year with a slew of new Latin American projects. The lineup includes Ana Luiza Azevedo's Brazilian drama Before The World Ends, San Sebastian prizewinner Gasolina and documentary, Oso Blanco about the most notorious prison in Puerto ...

  • News

    Rex Media kicks off sales on Russian Interceptor trilogy

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    A Matrix-style trilogy is being planned around stories by cult Russian sci-fi writer Vasily Golovachev, led by the first film The Interceptor which is currently in post-production. The $10m film is being sold here by George Lascu's Rex Media. Lascu is also beginning pre-sales on the next two installments. The ...

  • News

    Elle Driver goes zombie with Dead Snow pickup

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Fledgling French sales outfit Elle Driver has added a Norwegian Nazi zombie movie to its AFM slate. Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow, now in post-production, is a comedy horror film about a group of eight medical students who are attacked in their cabin by a battalion of German zombie soldiers. All ...

  • News

    Ivan Fila to direct Bella Luna for Eyeworks

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Eyeworks Film and TV drama, the aggressive Dutch production outfit behind Oscar winner Antonia's Line, is to partner with Czech auteur Ivan Fila on new romantic comedy, Bella Luna. Fila has scripted and will direct the project, which follows twoelderly movie stars who had a torrid affair many years before ...

  • 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

    Profile: Bernd Eichinger

    2008-11-07T00:00:00Z

    German producer Bernd Eichinger is one of the titans of European film production. With credits ranging from Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer to Downfall and Resident Evil, he is responsible for some very big movies. Under his leadership, Constantin Film has become one of the most successful German producers ...

  • News

    French blockbuster Welcome To The Sticks triumphs in Germany, Italy

    2008-11-06T23:33:00Z

    Defying conventional wisdom that local comedies don't travel, Dany Boon's French mega blockbuster Welcome To The Sticks (Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'tis) is doing a roaring trade in both Germany and Italy. The comedy - released last weekend in Germany by Prokino under the title Wilkommen Bei Den Scht'is - has ...

  • News

    Miranda Richardson to narrate Turtle's Incredible Journey

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Long-gestating wildlife feature documentary The Turtle's Song, on Sola Media's slate here, has been given a name change and has recruited Miranda Richardson as narrator.The film will now be known as The Turtle's Incredible Journey. It should finally be ready in time for the Berlinale in February.Just prior to the ...

  • News

    Stormare doubles up with Gnomes and Trolls

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Swedish actor Peter Stormare (Fargo, Bad Boys II) is to voice a schizophrenic hedgehog in NonStop Sales' Gnomes AndTrolls The Secret Chamber. The versatile Stormare is then to voice acompletely different role, that of Leif The Gnome King, in the sequel.'The hedgehog will be not be part of number two,' ...