Italian distributors close a raft of hot deals in Cannes

Leading Italian indies have returned from a busy Cannes market, where they packed their  2011-2012 slates with several up-coming hot titles:

Eagle Pictures owned by Tarak Ben-Ammar has taken the rom-com The Inbetweeners by Ben Palmer, about a group of 18 year olds that take off for a beach holiday; Howie Askins horror film Evidence about a pair of friends who, while filming a camping documentary, discover they are being hunted; The Words, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal’s drama starring Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid and Jeremy Irons about a writer who discovers the price he must pay for stealing another author’s work; The Host directed by Andrew Niccol, based on a story by Stephenie Meyer and the sci-fi Cloud Atlas directed by Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski with Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon.

Moviemax, whose CEO is Guglielmo Marchetti, has picked up a quartet of titles in Cannes including two comedies from the Weinsteins: I Don’t Know How She Does It by Douglas McGrath starring Sarah Jessica Parker and A Little Bit Of Heaven directed by Nicole Kassell with Kate Hudson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Kathy Bates and Whoppi Goldberg.

The company has also nabbed action title Abduction, with Taylor Lautner from Lionsgate and the horror, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D, by John Lussenhop, from Nu Image.

Videa has picked up seven titles including: End of Watch a police film from Exclusive Film International starring Jake Gyllenhall; The Chef  a comedy directed by Daniel Cohen starring Jean Reno, acquired from Gaumont; A Happy Event by Remi Bezancon; Girl’s Night Out from HanWay; and Eva directed by Kike Maillo from the Wild Bunch. Videa has also picked up Great Expectations, Mike Newell’s rendition of the Charles Dickens classic starring Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes from HanWay as well as Jane Eyre from Focus Features International starring Mia Wasikowska, Judi Dench and Michael Fassbender.

Finally, BIM distribuzione owned by Valerio De Paolis has picked up Cannes competition title The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius which earned best actor kudos for Jean Dujardin; Lay The Favorite by Stephen Frears with Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones; 7 Dias En La Habana, the multi director project featuring, among others, direction of Benicio Del Toro and Laurent Cantet from Wild Bunch; Hyde Park On Hudson by Roger Michell with Bill Murray and Laura Linney from Focus; Great Hope Springs by David Frankel starring Steve Carrell, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones and finally, HanWay’s Shame by director Steve McQueen with Carey Mulligan and Michael Fassbender.