<<

Feature Focus ScreenIngS, page 40

(Top row from left) richard gere, ,

(Second row from left) rebecca Hall, , radha Mitchell

european Market buzz titles Sales companies from Europe, North America and Asia are in Berlin with a huge range of international titles at various stages of production. Screen correspondents profile the latest projects at the European Film Market

US Sellers and Macao. Johnston will play a back- attempting to write a biography about her late packer who teams up with a fearsome karate musician husband. Sean Mewshaw will direct By Jeremy Kay champion to battle dark forces. Bey Logan, pro- from a by Desi Van Til. Production is IM Global jets into Berlin with the M Night Shy- ducer of the upcoming Crouching Tiger, Hidden set to begin in late March in . CAA amalan and Bruce Willis reunion project, Labor Of Dragon II: The Green Destiny, will produce. represents US rights. Love. Emmett/Furla/Oasis is financing the story, Aldamisa International will tempt buyers with Newly formed Dolphin International based on an early Shyamalan script about a griev- Captive, starring Bruce Willis. Simon Brand is launches with sales on the Mattel property Max ing man who walks across the US in memory of his gearing up for a July start on the story of a prop- Steel, about a teenager and his alien companion wife. Shooting is set to start in mid-September in erty developer kidnapped in Brazil. Aldamisa co- who combine as a superhero. The sales division of Philadelphia. finances with Emmett/Furla Films. Aldamisa’s CEO Bill O’Dowd’s Dolphin Films has signed a Richard Gere is swapping his Arbitrage hedge- Marina Bespalov produces with Randall Emmett multi-year alliance with IM Global to provide a fund manager for a homeless person in Time Out and George Furla, Alexandra Milchan and range of sales, marketing and legal services. Of Mind, his passion project that QED Interna- Groundswell’s Michael and Janice Wil- XYZ Films will commence sales on Kevin tional represents for international sales. Gere will liams. Smith’s new horror filmTusk . Demarest financed produce and Oren Moverman (The Messenger) will The Exchange heads to Berlin with world rights and produced Tusk in partnership with , who direct. WME Global represents US rights. on Ithaca, Meg Ryan’s feature directorial debut will release the film wide in the US in the third FilmNation will start pre-sales on Atlas Enter- with her co-star on quarter. , , Genesis tainment’s The Whole Truth, a courtroom drama board as executive producer. Rodriguez and Michael Parks star in the tale of a that will star Daniel Craig. Richard Suckle will pro- adapted the screenplay to Ithaca from William journalist who tracks down an adventurer with tall duce the project and (Frozen River) Saroyan’s novel The Human Comedy, a Second tales and a penchant for walruses. will direct from a script by Nicholas Kazan. CAA World War rites of passage tale of a teenage bicycle Meyers Media Group has boarded sales on Sac- put the project together. messenger. Ryan will star alongside Sam Shepard, rificefrom producer Arnold Rifkin. Radha Mitchell holds world rights to the $10m Melanie Griffith and . Shooting is set to will star as a surgeon whose discovery of a wom- Lady Bloodfight, which will star Amy Johnston, begin this summer. an’s mutilated body leads to shocking revelations. ’s stunt double in the upcoming Sierra/Affinity sells Tumbledown, ’ Rupert Graves and Colm Meaney round out the : The Winter Soldier. Chris Nahon that will star Rebecca Hall as a key cast. Flightplan writer Peter Dowling will will direct the action film in the autumn in China, woman who clicks with a young academic while direct and Rifkind’s Cheyenne Enterprises will »

n 22 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014 Feature EFM buzz

Arclight Films will be touting Reclaim, a thriller starring John Cusack, Ryan Phillippe, Rachelle Lefevre, Jacki Weaver, Luis Guzman and newcomer Briana Roy in the story of adoptive parents whose new daughter goes missing. Alan White directs from a screenplay by Luke Davies and Carmine Gaeta. The shoot just wrapped in Puerto Rico. Inception Media Group’s Barefoot screens at the EFM and stars , Evan Rachel Wood and JK Simmons from last month’s Sundance hit Whiplash. Andrew Fleming directed the story from a screenplay by Stephen Zotnowski about the black sheep of a wealthy family who falls for a psychiatric patient. is set to release the film in the US on February 21. David Pomier, David Scharf and Lisa Demetree produced. Cinema Management Group brings Sly Cooper, a PlayStation adaptation from Rainmaker Entertainment and producer Blockade Entertainment, who previously collaborated on Ratchet & Clank. The story of a thieving raccoon StripclubSharkattack and his childhood friends who plan a heist is set to open in early 2016. Kevin Munroe directs from his screenplay. Visit Films has Food Chains, narrated by Forest Whitaker, directed by Sanjay Rawal and produced by Smriti Keshari, Rawal and Hamilton Fish. The film screens in the festival’s Culinary Cinema pro- gramme and centres on a group of workers who battle to defeat the $4tn global supermarket indus- try. Visit’s busy slate also includes Competition title History Of Fear by Benjamin Naishtat, Sundance award winner 52 Tuesdays by Sophie Hyde and market premiere titles including Stay and War Story. FilmSharks International arrives with a market screening of hot Argentinian title The Mystery Of Happiness (El Misterio De La Felicidad) from Daniel Burman, a rom-com about a man who falls for his Son Of god The Mystery Of Happiness business partner’s wife when the partner goes missing. Disney holds pan-Latin American theatri- produce with Ireland-based Subotica. Production cal and DVD rights and Fox International’s Lap TV is scheduled to begin in in late March. will release on pay TV. Myriad Pictures will commence pre-sales on the Bleiberg Entertainment has the drug cartel inspirational drama You’re Not You starring Hilary thriller Close Range, which is in pre-production and Swank. DPP (the company of Prince Azim, the will star Scott Adkins. Isaac Florentine directs the Sultan of Brunei’s son) produces with Di Novi Pic- Bleiberg and Caliber Force production. tures and 2S Films. CAA represents US rights. Fortitude International, the new sales, financing , Josh Duhamel and Marcia Gay and production outfit headed by Nadine de Barros, Harden round out the key cast in the story of the Daniel Wagner and Robert Ogden Barnum, will be friendship between a care-giver and an ill thirty- talking up Kilburn Media’s something woman. George C Wolfe directs from project . will play the screenplay by Shana Feste and Jordan Roberts. the acclaimed late novelist Wallace as he embarked The film is in post. on a book tour with a reporter, played The Solution Entertainment Group has come on by . also pro- board to handle international sales on Archer Gray duces and James Ponsoldt will direct. Productions and Maven Pictures’ drama Ten Thou- Epic Pictures will tempt buyers with Zombeavers sand Saints starring . Robert Pulcini (above) Food chains that lands a blue-collar worker in trouble. The Park from Benderspink and Armory Films, the team and Shari Berman have started shooting in New Pictures Film was made in association with Coop- behind American Pie, We’re The Millers and Cabin York the story of the son of hippies who goes on an er’s Town Productions and Shoestring Pictures. Fever. The project is in post and follows college odyssey into late 20th century youth culture. Asa Cargo International will tempt buyers with girls on vacation who are attacked by a new breed Butterfield, , and In The Sun starring Josh Duhamel, Lynn Collins and of beast. Emily Mortimer also star. CAA represents US rights. Josh Wiggins, the star of recent Sundance premiere Little Film Company will tout The Husband, a Content Film will handle world sales on The Hellion. Shooting is set to kick off in Austin, , in dark marital infidelity comedy from Bruce McDon- Diabolical from director Alistair Legrand. The story February. Two Ton Films is financing and Clay ald starring Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Sarah Allen, centres on a family in a suburban home who are Pecorin, Aimee Shieh and Clay Floren produce. Trey Dylan Authors and August Diehl. awoken nightly by an increasingly strange pres- Nelson directs the story of a man and his young kid- Red Sea Media arrives with StripClubShark- ence. Jamie Carmichael, Kevin Iwashina and Ross nap victim who bond over a string of robberies. Attack, about biogenetically engineered great M Dinerstein produce. Relativity International has picked up interna- white sharks the size of piranhas that target the has picked up interna- tional sales rights to Son Of God, the feature version water supplies of rich people in New York City. tional rights to John Slattery’s feature directorial of producer Mark Burnett’s smash TV series The Highland Film Group has picked up sales on SPJ debut and Sundance premiere, God’s Pocket, star- Bible. Fox plans a wide US release on February 28. Enterprises, zgreen entertainment and Boku ring the late . IFC holds Christopher Spencer directed the epic starring Por- Films’ horror thriller Email starring Nikki Reed. US rights to the story of a construction site death tuguese actor Diogo Morgado as Jesus. Shooting will kick off in May in Singapore. »

n 24 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014 Feature EFM buzz

kyiv international film festival 25.10 02.11. 2014 UK Sellers By Andreas Wiseman Protagonist will be in Berlin with anticipated new period dramas Testament Of Youth starring Alicia Vikander and produced by David Heyman, and The Childhood Of A Leader starring Juliette Bino- che, Tim Roth and Robert Pattinson. Colin Farrell and are newly attached to ’s English-language debut The Lobster, which will also star Ben Whishaw and Léa Sey- doux. HanWay’s slate includes director Ben Wheatley’s JG Ballard adaptation High-Rise, with Tom Hid- dleston newly attached, and John Maclean’s antici- pated western Slow West, starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Ben Men- delsohn (footage available). Ewan McGregor is to (Top) The Babadook; terrorists over hostile terrain. Will Clarke and Mike star as a holy man and a demon in writer-director (above) Backtrack Runagall’s team will also be touting documentaries Rodrigo Garcia’s drama Last Days In The Desert, Bolshoi Babylon and Sundance award-winner Fish- which is due to shoot from this month. ing Without Nets. PRESENTATION OF comes to the EFM with an Bankside’s EFM slate includes Michael Petroni intriguing slate including Informant’s drama Boy thriller Backtrack, starring Adrien Brody and Sam NATIONAL Choir, starring ; ’s Neill, and Hector And The Search For Happiness, COMPETITION action thriller Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, which which is in post. There is a promo reel for X Plus Y, PROGRAM screens on promo; and thriller Galveston. Matthias Morgan Matthews’ drama with Asa Butterfield. Friday, February 7 Schoenaerts is set to star in Galveston, Jean Douma- Goldcrest’s growing slate includes Daniel Rad- 2pm – 4pm nian Productions’ adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto’s cliffe drama Brooklyn , about brilliant - Catwalk Bar novel in which a man is diagnosed with a terminal neer Washington Roebling. Douglas McGrath at the Berlin Marriott Hotel illness and discovers his boss wants to kill him. writes and directs, and the producers are Christine (Inge-Beisheim-Platz 1) David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment will Vachon for and Rose Ganguzza. Also be enticing buyers with Jesse Owens biopic Race, on the slate is Andre Ovredal thriller The Autopsy which will see (Attack The Block) por- Of Jane Doe, set to star . OFFICIAL PARTNER tray the famed athlete. The shoot is due to get Comedy Bill, about ’s ‘lost underway in May in Berlin and Montreal. Also on years’ as a wandering lute player, is the newest pro- the slate are ’s directorial debut The ject on Independent’s slate. Shooting this month in Water Diviner and comedy romance Love, Rosie, the UK, the film is produced by Cowboy Films and starring Lily Collins and , which gets its Punk Cinema and it comes from the creative team market debut screening. behind hit TV show Horrible Histories. Carol Mor- WestEnd’s The Great Gilly Hopkins is moving ley drama The Falling and Number 9 thriller Hyena towards production, with additional cast including are both in post. Sophie Nélisse, and , eOne’s sales lineup includes hit Sundance hor- www.iff-charity.org while ’s The Face Of An ror The Babadook, about a single mother strug- Angel and ’s , star- gling to cope with her -year-old son’s feral Online application and festival regulations: molodist.com Join us at facebook.com/Molodistfest ring Al Pacino, are both in post-production. temperament, as well as Xavier Dolan’s Mommy. is due to star in Sergei UMedia’s roster contains Julian Jarrold action- Bodrov’s drama Blood Mountain, which Altitude thriller Exit 147 and psychological thriller The Well. festival #44 edition will be selling. The film follows a private contractor Salt will be teasing 10 minutes of footage from who must escort one of the world’s most wanted Viking action-adventure Northmen: A Viking Saga, » n 26 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014 which is in post-production, and will also be shop- Alone, which has Damian Lewis attached to star ping Neil LaBute project The Geography Of Hope, as an astronaut who must save the planet when which has , Ethan Hawke and Vera Far- he is the sole occupant of a space station. miga attached. Among titles on Kaleidoscope’s slate are horror K5 International’s slate includes Bruce Willis film Willow Creek from director Bobcat Goldth- action feature Vice, due to shoot in Alabama in wait, action-thriller Rise Of The Predator, in which March, and heart-warming documentary Next a special-ops team is caught in a deadly game of Goal Wins, about the world’s worst football team. cat and mouse with a mutant predator, and horror Glee star Chris Colfer and will title Radio Silence. voice ’s Robodog, new to Moviehouse will be screening completed action- the Timeless Films slate. Timeless also has a mar- adventure Biodegradable and showing a trailer for ket debut screening for Postman Pat: The Movie family animation The Hero Of Colour City, with a and will be talking to buyers about The Legend Of voice cast including , Rosie Perez, The Underzoo from Happy Feet co-writer-director Craig Ferguson and Wayne Brady. Warren Coleman. Jinga has added Rick Rosenthal’s topical thriller The Works will be giving a market debut screen- Drones to its lineup, alongside Ate De Jong’s home ing to road-racing documentary Road, narrated by invasion thriller Deadly Virtues and Neil Horner’s , and will also screen Toni Collette crime thriller AB Negative. comedy Lucky Them. There is a promo of Canadian Shuffle set in the jungles of Mexico. Sci-fi-action (above) Let Us prey 7 & 7 will be shopping Delicious, a Busan- found-footage horror There Are Monsters. Tomorrow is due to shoot in the summer. selected UK love story about a troubled French chef Will Machin, Natalie Brenner and the Metro Carey Fitzgerald’s High Point will be tempting who falls for his pretty anorexic neighbour played International team will be introducing buyers to buyers with The Mirror, a found-footage horror, by Sherlock’s Louise Brealey; and Shirin In Love, a Spandau Ballet documentary Soul Boys Of The alongside completed comedy-documentary Aim US rom-com set among the affluent Iranian-Amer- Western World, which will be world premiering at High In Creation and Australian feature Drown, ican community of Beverly Hills. SXSW, as well as subversive high-school comedy currently in post-production. Parkland’s EFM slate includes Second World Extracurricular Activities starring , On AV Pictures’ slate are completed sci-fiScin - War action filmAllies , starring Julian Ovenden and Nat Wolff and Sasha Pieterse. Superhero thriller tilla, about an elite team of mercenaries chosen to Chris Reilly, and completed documentary Balkan iBoy, starring Will Poulter, is due to shoot in March. carry out a covert operation deep in a former Soviet Spirit, in which , and Celsius Entertainment will be looking to book state, and Liam Cunningham horror Let Us Prey, Marina Abramovic are among the voices to explore pre-sales on apocalyptic eco-drama Into The Forest currently in post-production. the artistic landscape of the Balkan region. from director Patricia Rozema. Ellen Page and Goalpost will shop Six Mile Bottom and The Trip Carnaby will continue to talk to buyers about Evan Rachel Wood are set to star in the story of two To , while Dogwoof has debuts for docs Dan- Panzer 88, Antisocial and Dark Peak. sisters living in a remote part of a northern Califor- gerous Acts Starring The Unstable Elements Of Bela- Intandem’s slate includes Gagarin: First In Space nia forest on the brink of an apocalypse. rus and Supermensch: The Legend Of Shep Gordon. and comedy Killing Hasselhoff. SC Films has market premieres for The Last Genesis will be shopping completed comedy Fledgling outfit Saradan will make its market Showing, starring Robert Englund, Finn Jones and Almost Married and completed horror Soulmate debut with Russian action-thriller Viktor, starring Emily Berrington, and family-animation Jungle as well as speaking to buyers about space thriller Gerard Depardieu and Liz Hurley.

The Last Showing The Hero Of colour city

Shirin In Love allies

n 30 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014 EFM buzz Feature

German sellers French sellers By Martin Blaney By Melanie Goodfellow One of the most hotly anticipated German titles Funny Balloons will commence sales on Abel Fer- this year will be Wolfgang Becker’s Me & Kamin- rara’s Pasolini, which has just started shooting in ski, which will be the director’s first feature film with in the role of the tragic since his international hit Good Bye, Lenin!. The film-maker. The company will also market pre- director also reunites with Daniel Brühl. Interna- miere Ablations, starring Denis Ménochet as a man tional sales are being handled by The Match Fac- trying to work out who stole his kidney. It is the tory, which will also be selling Christian Petzold’s debut feature of Arnold de Parscau. The company next feature, Phoenix, which reunites Nina Hoss will also show first footage of Laurent Cantet’s and from Barbara in a story set Cuba-set Return To Ithaca. immediately after the Second World War in a Ger- Wild Bunch will premiere promo reels for Jean- many coming to terms with the horrors of the Jacques Annaud’s Mongolia-set 3D epic Wolf Totem Holocaust. Another upcoming title in The Match and Oscar-winner Michel Hazanavicius’s The Factory’s portfolio is Philip Gröning’s next feature Search, while Zhang Yimou’s intimate love story My Brother Robert, which the director describes as Home Coming reunites the director with actress “a cross between a dream, a western and a poetic Gong Li. The company will also continue sales on lecture on philosophy, with elements from Hei- Wish I Was Here and White Bird In A Blizzard. matfilms and splatter”. Celluloid Dreams/Celluloid Nightmares will International buyers coming to this year’s EFM kick off sales on Max Currie’s Everything We Loved, will no doubt be curious to catch the market pre- about a magician who conjures up the illusion of a mieres of two local box-office hits — Suck Me little boy to help his depressed wife, and Saar Shakespeer and The Physician — which have been Klein’s Things People Do, starring as a grabbing the headlines in recent weeks. Bora man who turns to crime after he loses his job. Dagtekin’s Suck Me Shakespeer (known as Fack Ju Titles on The slate include Göthe in Germany) is a comedy in the vein of Bad Roy Andersson’s A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflect- Teacher; it sold the most tickets in German cine- ing On Existence, about a road trip by a door-to- mas in 2013 and has now totted up 6.5 million door salesman and a simple-minded friend, and admissions and more than $68m (¤50m) in tak- Jessica Hausner’s period tragi-comedy Amour Fou. ings. A second outing will go into production later TF1 International will start sales on Francois this year for a 2015 release. Suck Me Shakespeer is Favrat’s Boomerang, starring Laurent Lafitte and one of the titles in the line-up of fledgling sales Mélanie Laurent as siblings who uncover a family outfitPicture Tree International which is also han- secret, in an adaptation of A Secret Kept by author dling US-born Damian John Harper’s feature Tatiana de Rosnay. Director Frédéric Auburtin will debut Los Angeles, premiering in the Forum, and (Top) Los angeles; tion at Rotterdam and is being sold internationally be in Berlin to present early images of FIFA drama Swiss director Petra Volpe’s Dreamland, which has (above) The physician; by EastWest Distribution. United Passions (formerly A Men’s Dream) starring received four nominations in this year’s Swiss A former Shooting Star at the Berlinale, Berlin- Gerard Depardieu, Sam Neill and Tim Roth. Other Film Awards. born actor Max Riemelt (Free Fall) and veteran titles include Andrea Pallaoro’s Medeas and Jean-Paul Meanwhile, Beta Film is handling sales for actress Hannelore Elsner (Nowhere To Go) star in Rouve’s intergenerational drama Memories. Philipp Stölzl’s $36m (¤26m) English-language Uwe Janson’s To Life!. The film — still in produc- Elle Driver arrives with an eclectic line-up mix- adaptation of Noah Gordon’s bestselling novel The tion — is about an elderly cabaret singer and a ing international genre titles with French films. Physician, which has attracted more than 3 million young man. Global Screen is handling interna- New genre titles include Uruguayan Gustavo Her- admissions in Germany for tional sales. nandez’s Local God, in which a rock band unleashes International. The lavish historical drama stars UK Meanwhile, this year will see Germany mark the a spirit, and Sundance buzz titles: the vampire newcomer Tom Payne, and Stellan 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. comedy What We Do In The Shadows and Dead Skarsgard. While one can expect many documentaries to Snow 2: Red vs Dead. Upcoming French produc- The genre of the psychological thriller is increas- rework the familiar footage from that night, direc- tions include Benoit Jacquot’s 3 Hearts and Audrey ingly popular with film-makers working in Ger- tor Christian Schwochow is taking a different per- Dana’s French Women starring , many as shown by new films from such directors spective for his fiction film Bornholmer Strasse, Laetitia Casta and Vanessa Paradis. as Grzegorz Muskala (Whispers Behind The Wall). following the dilemma of border guards waiting in StudioCanal will continue sales on a dozen titles Muskala’s story, about a young law student falling vain for orders as the crowds gather on the eastern including ’ Lance Armstrong pic- under the spell of his enigmatic landlady, received (Below) Suck Me side of the border. Beta Film’s sister company EOS ture, which is in production, Justin Kurzel’s Mac- its international premiere in the Bright Future sec- Shakespeer Entertainment handles sales. beth and John Le Carré adaptation Our Kind Of Traitor starring Ewan McGregor. Berlin titles include The Two Faces Of January and The Hundred- Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of A Window And Disappeared, already a record breaker in . Gaumont will unveil Paris-set, high-concept comedy Coming In about a gay man who wakes up in bed with a sexy Swede on the eve of his wedding; Fred Grivois’ thriller Through The Air, written by Thomas Bidegain and featuring Reda Kateb, Ludi- vine Sagnier, Tchéky Karyo and The Broken Circle Breakdown star Johan Heldenbergh, and Mélanie Laurent’s directorial debut Breathe. Bac will market premiere Paolo Virzi’s thriller Human Capital and Henrik Hellström’s The Quiet Roar. The company will also show first footage from French comedy Fool Circle, a promo reel for Dagur Kari’s Fusi, about a fortysomething late bloomer, and images from Run, set during Ivory Coast’s civil war. Doc & Film International’s slate features Belgian director Bernard Bellefroid’s surrogate mother »

February 6, 2014 Screen International at Berlin 31 n drama Melody, his second film afterThe Boat Race; Vanja d’Alcantara’s Le Coeur Régulier, starring Isa- belle Carré as a woman who heads to Japan in memory of her dead brother; Franco-Chinese co- production Papa Lanterns about a Chinese family reunion, and Phantom Boy, the latest feature-length animation from Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Feli- cioli, the pair behind A Cat In Paris. Festival titles include South Is Nothing, Iranian and Scrap Yard. EuropaCorp will continue pre-sales on English- language titles Taken 3, Sea At War and unveil plans for Transporter 4. Upcoming French films include Tristan Aurouet’s bodyguard caper Buddy Guards and Bertrand Bonello’s Yves Saint Laurent biopic Saint Laurent starring Gaspard Ulliel as the designer. It is due to be released towards the end of the year. Alongside Berlinale selections The Dark Valley, Superegos and Wolfy, The Incredible Secret, Films Distribution will offer promo reels of half a dozen upcoming pictures including Anne Villaceque’s Weekends In Normandy, Benoit Mariage’s Scouting For Zebras and Lucas Belvaux’s Not My Type. Indie Sales will kick off sales on Quentin Dupieux’s Los Angeles-set Reality, starring Alain Chabat as a director in search of the perfect scream (above) run; (above ple trying to have a baby, which it is producing with Tbilisi just after the collapse of the Soviet Union. for his horror film, and continue working on ani- right) The Kidnapping Funny Balloons, and Helene Zimmer’s Being 14 Other Angle will market screen romantic jewel- mated feature Moomins On The Riviera. Mean- Of Michel Houellebecq about a bunch of turbulent teenage girls. It is also lery heist caper The Last Diamond, starring Béré- while, Michele Alhaique’s Senza Pieta stars continuing sales on Darren Lynn Bousman’s hor- nice Bejo opposite Yvan Attal, and Mona Achache’s Pierfrancesco Favino as a loner and Mafia hench- ror picture Abattoir. comedy Gazelles, the director’s first film since man who lands on the wrong side of his boss. Le Pacte is selling a trio of Berlinale selections award multiple award-winner The Hedgehog. UDI will kick off world sales on two Berlinale comprising Guillaume Nicloux’s highly anticipated Upcoming pictures from Pathé International titles: Argentinian Matias Lucchesi’s Natural Sci- The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq, revolving include Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette and Matthew ences and Tsai Ming-liang’s Journey To The West, around the mysterious disappearance of the Warchus’s Thatcher-era comedy Pride about an starring Denis Lavant and Lee Kang Sheng. It will French writer in 2011, Hubert Sauper’s timely unexpected alliance between striking miners and gay market screen Like The Wind, starring Valeria South Sudan documentary We Come As Friends activists. At the Berlinale, the company will premiere Golino as Italy’s first female prison governor. and ’ Life Of Riley, in Competition. Beauty And The Beast, starring Léa Seydoux and Vin- Upcoming films include Marianne Tardieu’sInse - Memento Films International will kick off sales cent Cassel, and Rachid Bouchareb’s Two Men In cure, starring Reda Kateb and Adele Exarchopoulos, on Jason Lew’s The Free World, starring Cillian Mur- Town starring Forest Whitaker and Harvey Keitel. and Quebecois Maxime Giroux’s Felix And Meira. phy as a recently freed convict who falls for a myste- Pyramide International will have a market debut Kinology will kick off sales on Alexandre Arcady’s rious woman, and continue selling drama Still Alice for Julie Lopes-Curval’s High Society and Andrey 24 Days, Mia Hansen-Love’s DJ drama Eden and doc starring as a neuroscientist who is Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan revolving around petty Cartoonists: Infantry Men Of Democracy. diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s opposite Russian corruption, and Julie Bertuccelli’s docu- Films du Losange will premiere promo reels for as her daughter. The company has mentary School Of Babel. Bent Hamer’s 1001 Grams and Tony Gatlif ’s also boarded documentary Energized. Premium Films is handling futuristic Vietnamese Geronimo and begins pre-sales on Barbet Schroed- Upcoming films onMK2 ’s slate include Olivier Panorama opener 2030 (Nuoc), will continue sales er’s Amnesia and will unveil a new project from Assayas’s Clouds Of Sils Maria and Naomi Kawase’s on Noaz Deshe’s White Shadow, which premiered at Philippe Claudel. Still The Water which are both in post-production. Sundance, and Iram Haq’s I Am Yours. New projects Versatile will show new promo reels for Sebas- MPM Film will market premiere Georgian drama include Fanny Jean-Noel’s upcoming hybrid fiction- tian Silva’s Nasty Baby, about a gay New York cou- Brother (Dzma), following two brothers living in documentary Move! exploring dance around the world. The company has a promo reel available. Rezo will kick off sales on Mondovino director Italian sellers Jonathan Nossiter’s documentary Natural Resist- ance about four Italian revolutionary winegrowers. By Melanie Goodfellow SND will introduce Eric Lartigau’s coming-of- Adriana Chiesa Enterprises will launch age tale La Famille Bélier, about a young girl grow- sales on Roberto Faenza’s English-lan- ing up in a family of deaf people, and will market guage Anita B, about a young Aus- premiere Anne Le Ny’s Almost Friends starring chwitz survivor trying to rebuild her Karin Viard and Emmanuelle Devos as two allies life, and Andrea Segre’s First Snowfall who go to war over the same man. Berlinale titles (La Prima Neve) revolving around a include feature animation Aunt Hilda! (Genera- Togolese refugee and a fatherless local tion) and Yves Saint Laurent (Panorama). boy in the Italian Alps. Wide Management will kick-off sales on Rotter- Rai Trade is selling ’s dam pick-up and Generation selection Tamar van Panorama screener Happy To Be Differ- anita B den Dop’s Supernova. It will also market premiere ent, a documentary exploring the lives Lech Majewski’s Dante-inspired Field Of Dogs, and of gay people in Italy in the 20th cen- film-maker Carlo Mazzacurati, who Fandango will show a promo reel for Ivan Ikic’s Barbarians, set against the backdrop of tury. It will also market screen died in January. Giovanni Veronesi’s comedy Woman As Kosovo’s independence declaration. Other Berlinale Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s flashback, Intramovies will market premiere A Friend, starring Laetitia Casta and titles include Peter Krüger’s N — The Madness Of coming-of-age tale The Mafia Kills Only Matteo Andreolli’s Puglia-set drama Fabio de Luigi and revolving around the Reason and ’s restored Nayak. In Summer, about a boy who can date Seven Little Killers about teenagers eternal question, can men and women Jour2Fete is offering a market screening of New key moments in his life via Mafia kill- whose lives are changed by a murder, just be friends? York-set comedy Swim Little Fish Swim, about a ings throughout the 1970s to , and Polish director Maciej Pieprzyca’s The Open Reel brings Grand Street life-changing meeting between a musician and a and lost treasure caper The Chair Of Life Feels Good about a teenage athlete starring Charlotte Riley and Michael young artist, and Christophe Cognet’s documen- Happiness, the last film by respected who is secretly doped by her mother. Wincott. tary Because I Was A Painter about secret artworks created in Nazi concentration camps. n 32 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014 EFM buzz Feature

Rest-of-Europe sellers By Geoffrey Macnab The resurgent Hungarian National Film Fund has several titles on its EFM slate. Its sales team will be presenting Mark Bodzsar’s first feature film Heavenly Shift, a very dark comedy. The fund will also be screening Denes Orosz’s gay-themed rom- com Coming Out, Bernath Zsolt’s sci-fi family movie Aura and Karoly Ujj Meszaros’s Liza, The Fox-Fairy. TrustNordisk will screen the first promo mate- rial from Susanne Bier’s new filmA Second Chance. The company is pre-selling The Shamer’s Daughter scripted by Anders Thomas Jensen and directed by Danish director Kenneth Kainz. The Scandinavian sales outfit will also be screening early material of Anders Morgenthaler’s Kim Basinger-starrer I’m Here, which should be ready for the autumn festi- vals. In official selection, TrustNordisk is present- ing a Competition title from Hans Petter Moland, In Order Of Disappearance, starring Stellan Skarsgard and . Pre-sales have already In Order Of Disappearance been concluded with Germany (Neue Vision) and Metrodome (UK). Pre-sales are also being contin- being talked up as a potential awards contender for ued on The Salvation and on its fast-growing slate next autumn. Both films will be released by Warner of kids’ movies. in Spain and Film Factory is presenting first foot- From Scandinavia, Svensk is screening a promo age. Meanwhile, the company is screening the of selected scenes from its $31.1m (¤23m) TV and Chilean filmTo Kill A Man, which recently won the feature epic 1864. The BBC has already picked up World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in Sundance. UK TV rights to the project, directed by Ole 6 Sales will be screening Jake Paltrow’s thriller Bornedal. Svensk will also be showing the promo Young Ones, Irish romantic comedy Gold starring from its new female gangster thriller Tommy Kerry Condon and , and Argentina- directed by Tarik Saleh, and will be screening Spain comedy I Thought It Was A Party, produced heartwarming family drama Nobody Owns Me star- by Fernando Trueba. Another new comedy, ring Mikael Persbrandt. directed by David Trueba, is Living Is Easy With The Yellow Affair has several new titles, among Eyes Closed, which follows events when John Len- them William D MacGillivray’s love story Hard non came to Almeria to make a movie in the mid- Drive, Chema Rodriguez’s road trip movie Nightfall 1960s. In and Sofia Norlin’s Broken Hill Blues, a 6 Sales sister company Dreamcatchers will be drama set in an isolated mining town. The com- selling Competition title Aloft, the first English lan- pany has two documentaries, Pixadores, about four guage feature from Berlinale winner Claudia Llosa. reckless young Brazilians, and The Joe Show, a por- Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy and Mélanie trait of the world’s most “famous and controversial Laurent star. sheriff ”, Arizona’s Joe Arpaio. It will also be pre- Meanwhile, Imagina will be screening Emilio selling several titles in post, among them Aussie Aragon’s new drama A Night In Old Mexico starring drama Fell, produced by John Maynard and and Jeremy Irvine. The company is directed by Crystal Bear winner Kasimir Burgess, also giving market screenings to Brazilian Western Finnish drama-thriller They Have Escaped and by Rene Sampaio and to psychological drama Ronnie Sandahl’s drama Lonelyland. Wounded by Fernando Franco. LevelK will be giving a first market outing to Madrid-based Kevin Williams Associates will be New Zealand drama Fantail from Curious Film showing a trailer of its new Japanese horror film and Yes Please Films; LevelK boarded the title at The Little Match Murder Girl, which is in post and Rotterdam. The company will also be giving a mar- will be completed in time for Cannes. It is being ket screening to its Sundance and IDFA title Sepi- sold through KWA’s Asian offshoot Elixir. deh from Berit Madsen, a feature doc about a DeAPlaneta is looking to catch buyers with its young girl in Iran who loves astronomy. new horror picture Viral by director Lucas Eyewell, launched last year by sales veteran Figueroa, which is completed and screening. On a Michael Werner, is bringing its project Nymphs to lighter note, the company will also be screening the EFM. new footage from family filmMillionaire Dog. Ambitious new Polish sales outfitNew Europe David Castellanos at Cinema Republic will be Film Sales will be presenting its new 3D Dutch screening Hassan’s Way (El Rayo), a road movie drama Above Us All, Caroline Strubbe’s Toronto/ while, Filmax will give market screenings to Tor- (above, clockwise) directed by Ernesto De Nova and Fran Araujo. Rotterdam title I’m The Same I’m An Other and ment, writer Michael Foster’s new horror movie Marshland, Millionaire Austrian documentary specialist Autlook is giv- Generation title Violet. co-written with Thomas Pound; Alfredo Montero’s Dog, 1864 ing a market premiere to A Symphony Of Summits Latido has several market premieres, among chiller In Darkness We Fall; and Barcelona Summer — The Alps From Above, a doc about the history and them crime thriller Betibu from director Miguel Night, a romantic drama starring Alex Monner and geography of the Alps. Autlook will also be present- Cohan, fraught romantic drama Inside Love star- Jan Cornet. Filmax also has a new erotic drama, ing The New Rijksmuseum, a feature celebrating ring Eduardo Noriega and Marta Etura, and Czech The King Of Havana, in pre-production and will be Amsterdam’s most famous museum. comedy Clownwide by Viktor Taus. pre-selling new thriller I Will Die Tonight. From Iceland, Dagur Kari’s Fusi — sold by BAC Filmax is arriving in Berlin with a slate heavily Spanish outfitFilm Factory is screening footage — is being given a market premiere by Icelandic slanted toward horror. [Rec] 4 Apocalypse is in post- from big-budget animation Mortadelo & Filemon Film Centre. The centre will also hold first screen- production, and the Spanish outfit presents its lat- Mission Implausible from Ilion Animation Studios ings of Olaf de Fleur’s thriller Brave Men’s Blood and est horror movie Summer Camp, which Alberto (Planet 51) and will also be giving buyers a taste of Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s comedy Paris Of Marini will start shooting later this month. Mean- Marshland by Alberto Rodriguez (Unit 7) which is The North. »

February 6, 2014 Screen International at Berlin 33 n Feature EFM buzz

Asian sellers By Liz Shackleton Chinese-language cinema is well represented in this year’s Berlin line-up with three films in Com- petition and several others screening in various sections of the festival. Fortissimo Films is handling sales on mainland Chinese director Diao Yinan’s Competition title Black Coal, Thin Ice, about a former detective inves- tigating a series of murders, as well as Hong Kong film-maker Fruit Chan’s post-apocalyptic thriller The Midnight After, which receives it world pre- miere in Panorama. Fortissimo’s slate also includes two other Panorama titles — gay-themed drama Unfriend, from the Philippines’ Joselito Altarejos, and Ira Sachs’ Love Is Strange, which was snapped up by Pictures Classics for North America, Horse is handling John Woo’s The Crossing, which Germany and Scandinavia at Sundance. Fortis- is approaching the end of its shoot. simo is also handling European and Latin Ameri- also has a strong presence in this year’s can territories on Gina Kim’s Final Recipe, starring Berlin line-up. Taipei-based Ablaze Image is han- Michelle Yeoh, which is the opening film of Berlin’s dling sales on Cho Li’s Panorama title The Rice Culinary Cinema section. Bomber, as well as Zone Pro Site: The Moveable Hong Kong-based Emperor Motion Pictures Feast, which is screening in Culinary Cinema. Tai- (EMP) is handling sales on Dante Lam’s psycho- wan’s Flash Forward Entertainment is handling logical thriller That Demon Within, starring Daniel Midi Z’s Ice Poison, a Burma-set drama touching on Wu and , which receives its world pre- drug addiction, which premieres in Panorama. miere in Panorama Special. EMP’s slate also Among Korean companies, Finecut is handling includes Teddy Chen’s martial-arts drama Kung Fu sales on Leesong Hee-il’s Panorama titleNight Flight Killer, starring . and recent pick-ups The Attorney, directed by Yang Hong Kong’s Edko Films will be introducing The woo-seok and Lee Sujin’s Han Gong-ju — which won Golden Era, a biopic of Chinese writer Xiao Hong, one of the three Tiger Awards at Rotterdam — both directed by whose last film,, feature debuts. Recently a massive hit in Korea, The won best actress at Venice in 2011. (Lust, shooting with and heading (clockwise from top Attorney stars Song Kang-ho as a lawyer defending a Caution) plays the writer who lived through turbu- the cast, while Media Asia has action drama Helios, left) The Midnight after, student falsely accused of spying for North Korea, lent times in China at the beginning of the last cen- now in post and directed by Sunny Luk and Long- golden chickensss, while Han Gong-ju won the top award at Marrakech. tury. Edko’s slate also includes Chow Hin Yeung’s man Leung (Cold War). a Tale Of Samurai Korea’s M-Line Distribution is selling Jung Rise Of The Legend, starring Eddie Peng. Golden Network Asia is handling sales on family cooking — a True Love Yoon-suk’s Forum title Non Fiction Diary, a docu- Story Distribution Workshop is launching sales on animation Bonta 3D and mainland Chinese film- mentary that examines a series of crimes and dis- ’s highly anticipated 3D spy movie The maker Ke Zhou’s The Master, about the legendary asters in Korea in the 1990s, and has also picked up Taking Of Tiger Mountain, based on the novel founder of the Choy Li Fut style of kung-fu. Bangladeshi director Mostofa S Farooki’s Ant Story, Tracks In The Snowy Forest, and starring Zhang All Rights Entertainment also has a 3D anima- which premiered in . Hanyu and Tony Leung Ka-fai. Meanwhile, We tion, Boonie Bears To The Rescue 3D, which recently Lotte Entertainment’s slate also includes a Distribution is introducing Matt Chow’s Golden grossed $34m in mainland China. All Rights has Forum title — Lee Yong-seung’s office politics Chickensss, the third in a series of comedies starring also picked up Indian director Agneya Singh’s road drama Ten Minutes — along with Lee Yeon-ho’s Sandra Ng as a prostitute witnessing a rapidly- movie M Cream. romantic comedy Hot Young Bloods, starring Lee changing Hong Kong. Beijing-based Huayi Brothers is selling Tian Jong-suk and Park Bo-young. Among other Hong Kong-based companies, Yusheng’s romantic comedy Ex-Files, starring Showbox is selling action thrillers The Suspect, Pegasus Motion Pictures is selling David Lam’s K-pop sensation Han Geng, and Feng Xiaogang’s directed by Won Shin-yun (Seven Days) and Kim crime thriller Z Storm, which recently started recent hit Personal Tailor, while Beijing Galloping Seong-hun’s A Hard Day, while 9ers Entertain- ment has Shin Dong-yeop’s thriller Days Of Wrath, starring Joo Sang-wook. CJ Entertainment is han- dling sales outside Europe and Latin America on Final Recipe and also Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer, which has a special screening in Forum. Japan also has a title in Competition, Yoji Yama- da’s The Little House, based on the award-winning novel by Kyoko Nakajima, which is being handled by Shochiku. Free Stone Productions is selling Forum title Forma, a slow-burning thriller directed by Ayumi Sakamoto, which receives its interna- tional premiere in Berlin. Meanwhile, Japan’s Gaga Corporation is han- dling Asian territories on an as-yet-untitled project from Tetsuya Nakashima, whose credits include the hit drama Confessions, and Culinary Cinema title A Tale Of Samurai Cooking — A True Love Story, directed by Yuzo Asahara. Nikkatsu is selling Saiji Yakumo’s high school drama My Pretend Girlfriend, starring Akari Hay- ami and Taro Takeuchi, while Toei will be screen- ing Takashi Shimizu’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, a live-action take on the popular story of a young witch. NTV’s slate includes Hideo Nakata’s upcom- The Suspect ing action thriller Monsterz. ns

n 34 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014