All articles by Patrick Frater – Page 3
-
News
New Line, CJ pact for Shadowless Sword
Korea'sCJ Entertainment and New Line Cinema have struck a pioneering co-productiondeal for The Shadowless Sword. The period action film is written anddirected by Kim Jung-joon and is billed as a sequel to breakout internationalhit Bichunmoo. The$6.5m Troy-like film, set in 800AD, began 15 weeks of production inChina on Wednesday (16 ...
-
News
Turtles to fly at Mar Del Plata
Bahman Ghobadi's TurtlesCan Fly has been set as the opening film at the massively expanded Mar DelPlata festival (10-20 March). The festival has risen from160 films last year to 320 to celebrate its 20th edition. In addition to themain competition there are 14 sections and five tributes dedicated toArgentina's cinematic ...
-
News
Korean dramas fetch record prices with Japanese buyers
Japanese buyers at EFM are breaking records for the size of the dealsbeing made on Korean films.In an inter-Asian buying spree, Comstock paid $4m for Korea Pictures'period action drama The Duellist, pre-sold on the strength of a clipreel. Due to finish production in April, the Lee Myung-se-directed tale of afemale ...
-
News
Onoma racks up ChokDee sales
Onoma International has scored a raft of sales on its Thai-boxing drama ChokDeeby French director Xavier Durringer. The film, which stars martial arts star Dida, Bernard Giraudeau andrising Thai-French model Vanessa Vanida Faivre, was sold to Victory forBelgium, Svensk Filmindustri for Scandinavia, Front Row for the Middle East,Amero Mitra for ...
-
News
Wild Bunch goes crazy in Berlin
WildBunch has hosted the hot stand at this year's EFM market, with the Frenchseller signing over 50 deal memos at Berlin so far. Despitewell-publicised problems on Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara has not scared offbuyers for his upcoming all-star Mary. Starring Juliette Binoche, ForestWhitaker, Heather Graham, and Mathew Modine, Mary ...
-
News
Mirovision sends My Boyfriend to Nippon
Koreanmini-conglomerate Mirovision has tied up a clutch of high profile sales on itsSundance/EFM slate and extended its relationship with controversial directorPark Chul-soo.My Boyfriend Type B, a romantic comedy about the Asianphenomenon of dating according to blood groups - B-type men have a reputationas being selfish and arrogant - was sold ...
-
News
Red feeling Lucky on Plateaux
Italiandistributor Lucky Red has pre-bought multi-territory rights to A Thousand Plateaux (Chungae Eui Gowon),the Mongolian-set epic to be directed by controversial Korean director JangSun-woo. Thefilm is sold internationally by independent Korean sales house, Cineclick Asiaand was presented last month at Rotterdam's CineMart project market. There ithad $1m of finance in ...
-
News
Arclight takes on rights to Spacey's First Time
Arclight has picked upinternational rights to dark comedy Mini's First Time, which is producedby Ed Bass' Bold Films and Berlin festival entrant Kevin Spacey's TriggerStreet.The picture, now in postproduction, stars Nikki Reed as a 17-year-old who likes to experiment. Thingsturn sour, when, trying her hand as a call-girl, she discovers ...
-
News
Midsummer Dream unveils key voice cast
Stars including Rhys Ifans,Toby Stephens, Brian Blessed and Fiona Shaw have joined the key voice cast forthe international release of Dygra Films' Midsummer Dream, which is soldat Berlin by Lumina Films.Midsummer Dream is aSpanish-made CGI-animation very loosely based on Shakespeare's classic play,being directed by Angel de La Cruz and Manolo ...
-
News
Fortissimo dines out on Nina's Heavenly Delights
Fortissimo Film Sales hasadded an extra course to its Berlin spread by picking up Nina's HeavenlyDelights, a family-foodie comedy scripted by Dear Frankie writerAndrea Gibb.The film, set in Glasgow, isdirected by Pratibha Parmar, an award-winning British documentary directormaking her feature debut. Rising star Shelly Cohn (Possession)plays a young Indo-Scottish woman ...
-
News
Moviehouse picks up international rights to Shut Up
Moviehouse Entertainment,one of the UK's leading cross-over art-house sellers, has picked up rights toShut Up & Shoot Me (Sklapni A zastre l Me), an over-the-top comedyfrom Czech commercials director Steen Agro.Currently inpost-production, the film features a man who works six jobs, so his ungratefulfiancee can buy high-end designer shoes and ...
-
News
Palm acquires US rights to City Of Men
US distributor Palm Picturesyesterday acquired North American distribution rights to City Of Men, the TV series that picks up from FernandoMeirelles' Oscar-nominated smash film City Of God. International rights are being handled by theUK's Lumina Films. Lumina is also gearing up topre-sell the feature film of City Of Menwhich will ...
-
News
TFI adds Clark, Captain Alatriste to slate
TF1 International has added the biggest-ever Spanish filmand the new title by controversial director Larry Clark to its European FilmMarket slate. Swashbuckling 17th century adventure CaptainAlatriste has an all star cast headed byLord of The Rings star Viggo Mortensen alongside Eduardo Noriega, JavierCamara, Elena Anaya and Enrico Lo Verso. The ...
-
News
Arclight picks up powerhouse comedy pair
Arclight Films has picked up international sales rights totwo new films: $15m contemporary comedy thriller Three Bad Men and US comedy Nothing But The Truth.Three Bad Men is oneof the first films to emerge from Priority Pictures, the new company headed byColin Leventhal and Marion Pilowsky. It is produced by ...
-
News
Fortissimo dances off with Mad Hot Ballroom rights
Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up international rights toSlamdance hit film Mad Hot Ballroom. Therights were sold by Paramount Classics, which acquired the film outsideAustralia and New Zealand jointly with Nickelodeon last month.Directed by Marilyn Agrelo and written by Amy Sewell, thedocumentary tracks a group of 11-year old New York ...
-
News
Shochiku strikes multiple Hidden Blade deals
Japanese giant Shochiku,which is celebrating its 110th anniversary, has struck deals onTuesday's competition film The Hidden Blade (Kakushi Ken Oni No Tsume) for the US, Germany, France and Australia. The period martial artsdrama, directed by the Oscar-nominated Yoji Yamada (Twilight Samurai), was soldto Tartan Films for the US, EMS for ...
-
News
Israel lends helping hand to Palestinian bomber drama
Just daysafter the Middle Eastern summit in Egypt, Israel has offered a cinematic olivebranch to a Palestinian filmmaker.Paradise Now, a drama about the last 24 hours of twoPalestinian suicide bombers that was made by a Palestinian-born director on theWest Bank will receive distribution support from the Israeli Film Fund. Thepublic ...
-
News
Celluloid Dreams grabs Grace and Good rights
French sales house Celluloid Dreams has expanded itsEnglish-language slate with a pair of powerful acquisitions. It has grabbed international rights on Savage Grace, one of the hottest US indie projects of the moment,and Good, a feature adaptation ofC P Taylor's acclaimed play about an otherwise moral professor whoformulates Hitler's Final ...
-
News
Park's Lady sells to Japan and US
Korean giant CJ Entertainment closed two major deals on SympathyFor Lady Vengeance, the third and finalpart of Old Boy director ParkChan-wook's revenge trilogy.The film was bought fora multi-million dollar sum byToshiba Entertainment for Japan and by Tartan Films for North America.The $6m film is five weeks into its 12 week ...
-
News
Svensk to back Danish directing collective
Swedish giant SvenskFilmindustri (SF) is to power up its production ambitions in neighbouringDenmark by backing "a Danish version of United Artists".The new company, Tju-BangFilm, is a collective of directors and creatives which includes Jacob Thuesen,director of Berlin competition film TheAccused (Angeklaget). SF will own80 percent of the company, with the ...