Favourite film
Of the Italian films, I loved Ex by Fausto Brizzi. It was funny, it was tender, it shows that when you have a great cast, a great idea and direction and production values are up that Italians can compete with the films by Working Title (I am thinking of titles like Love, Actually). As far as international releases Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs (pictured) was my favourite. It was huge here [it grossed about € 30m] and surpassed the second one. It made me laugh it was imaginative and inventive. 3D was an added element, but it would have been great anyways. Of the independents, I liked Bruno (pictured, right) very much.
Biggest news story
Paranormal Activity is amazing because it was so well thought out. It was very well planned with a manipulative campaign. That is not so easy now that we are very jaded and have seen everything. To come up with something new and fresh, I have to say “hats off” to whoever has devised the campaign because it is not easy and the campaign was mapped out in a way that they created a hunger for this film. The marketing plan will be one to study.
But for the territories that bought the film they have a major challenge. The potential of the film is there but it needs to be exploited fully – and some territories won’t be able to do that. It is a major opportunity to show how good you are in marketing.
In Spain it made around $2.9m (€ 2m) and Germany as well – its not a sure-fire hit. [Territories] will have to work on it and find the right hook.
Changes in store for 2010
Changes will be widespread due to the massive growth in 3D especially in Italy where 3D screens are growing like mushrooms. We will see much more when Avatar (pictured, right) is released on Jan 15, 2010.
In regards to our business, we are already having a hard time locking a date for our 3D film (Call Of The Wild, 3D) [because there are many 3D films]. Looking ahead, I am looking forward to seeing [Tim Burton’s] Alice In Wonderland (pictured, right).
Regarding the financial crisis, I can only see what happens at the markets and what products are put out there. That gives us a pretty good idea of what is happening.
At the last two or three markets, there were fewer big- budget films. I am expecting the end of 2010, towards the next AFM to [offer a return] to more big- budget films than before.
Everybody is down-sizing; look at New Line and Paramount Vantage– it’s not good for independents but I am expecting that in 2010 things will look better, at least lets hope so.
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