Vienna/London-basedsales agent EastWest Filmdistributionhas picked up world sales rights on Riga-born Alexander Hahn's comedy Midsummer Madness which was presented atlast week's Baltic Event Co-Production Market in Estonia's Tallinn and set to beginshooting next March.

Midsummer Madness will be co-produced by Austria's Fischer Film, the UK's Steve WalshProductions and Latvia's KaupoFilm with backing from the Austrian Film Institute, public broadcaster ORF, theVienna Film Fund, Eurimages, Ingenious Media and theNational Film Centre of Latvia.

Scriptedby Hahn with Alexander Mahler and Norman Hudis, Midsummer Madness consists of sixstories playing out simultaneously on one night in Latvia as six individuals undergodifferent kinds of romantic adventures. Jan Nakts (St John's Night) refers to theLatvian tradition where lovers and those who would like to fall in love cansearch the woods for the 'magic fern' on this night.

Employinga narrative style similar to Richard Curtis' Love Actually, Hahn's film will be shot in English with someGerman, Latvian, Russian and Spanish. The international cast already includesRussia's Chulpan Khamatova,Austria's Roland Dueringer, Tobias Moretti and Birgit Minichmayr,France's Dominique Pinon, the UK's Victor McGuire,Spain's Rossy de Palma, Germany's DetlevBuck, and local Latvian actors Juris Zhagars and Gundars Abolins.