NEWS
BY WENDY MITCHELL Abigail Breslin has joined the cast of Innocence for Killer Films and Bankside Films. Oscar nominee Breslin (Little
Miss Sunshine, Zombieland) joins the previously announced Julianne Moore in the gothic vam- pire thriller. Hilary Brougher will direct the fi lm, which is adapted from Jane
Mendelsohn’s novel of the same name. Breslin plays a recently bereaved teenage girl who discov- ers vampires at her elite boarding school. The film is the first project
under the new fi rst-look/co-devel- opment deal between UK-based Bankside and New York-based Killer. The shoot is scheduled to start
in late summer and Bankside is actively pre-selling here at the EFM. “We are thrilled to have Abigail
attached to star in Innocence. It is rare for someone of her age to have achieved the level of recogni- tion she enjoys all over the world. She is a top-class actress who will bring a great deal of prestige to a project that is already attracting
an extremely high level of interest in the marketplace,” said Stephen Kelliher, head of sales and market- ing at Bankside. Killer’s Pamela Koffl er added:
“Killer is thrilled to launch our fi rst project with Bankside. With such a classy team, we are excited to make a smart and terrifying fi lm that delivers on the promise of the genre.”
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Breslin joins Killer/Bankside’s Innocence Abigail Breslin Stassen prepares for African Safari 3D
Tim Draxl, Kevin Bishop, Kris Marshall and Xavier Samuel in the first image from Stephan Elliott’s new comedy A Few Best Men. Arclight Films is selling the title, which is still shooting on location in Australia. Dean Craig’s script follows an English groom and his three buddies travelling to Australia for a destination wedding which turns into a comedy of errors. Olivia Newton-John plays the mother of the bride.
Jeremy Kay
BY GEOFFREY MACNAB Belgian animation veteran and nWave head Ben Stassen has revealed further details of his fi rst live-action 3D venture, the $18m StudioCanal-backed African Safari 3D. Production will begin next month on the ambitious live- action natural-history feature doc, which follows an expedition from the Skeleton Coast in Namibia all the way to the top of Mount Kili- manjaro. “We are putting together all
kinds of technologies which have never really been used in 3D,” Stassen told Screen, citing plans to use infra-red 3D cameras which can shoot at night and slow- motion cameras which shoot at
Wang plots HSI’s Albert Einstein biopic
BY JEREMY KAY Wayne Wang is lining up an Albert Einstein biopic based on a script by Oscar winner Ron Bass. Hollywood Studios International Films president Eric Christenson is introducing the project to buy- ers here. The tentatively titled Einstein
chronicles the trials and tribula- tions of the celebrated genius as he balances family life with work, poverty and dyslexia.
Golan Ramras brought the
project to HSI and will produce through his Go Long Productions label alongside Paul Schiff. HSI chairman and CEO Steven Saxton serves as executive producer with Christenson and Hero Pictures’ Koldo Eguren. Producers are out to cast and
have been scouting Germany and other European locations “Coming aboard a project which teams Wayne Wang and
Ron Bass is tremendously excit- ing, and we have something spe- cial on our hands with Einstein,” Christenson said. “People know the name and the theories, yet most people don’t know the fasci- nating details of his life story.” Schiff recently struck a partner-
ship with HSI and has already placed the heist thriller Masterwork with the company. Einstein is his second collaboration with Wang following Maid In Manhattan.
Italy’s South Tyrol gets greenlight for $7m fund
BY MARTIN BLANEY Italy’s state of South Tyrol received the greenlight from the European Commission in Brussels this week to launch its own fi lm fund, BLS Alto Adige, with a budget of $6.8m (¤5m) for 2011. Non-refundable grants for the
production of theatrical features, TV fi lms, series and documenta- ries can be applied for irrespective of where the production company is based.
Similar to the policy of other
regional funds throughout Europe, BLS will require funded projects to generate an economic territorial effect of 150% on the allocated subsidy. Commenting on the establish-
ment of the new fund, producer Karl Baumgartner said: “The region is bursting with so much exciting material that has never been shared. That goes for both local authors and for external
■ 12 Screen International in Berlin February 12, 2011
film-makers. It’s a question of keeping the former here, and persuading the latter that it’s worthwhile coming to South Tyrol for both material and financial reasons.” Christiana Wertz, head of the
Film Fund and Commission, noted BLS would try to get regional banks on board with loans and venture capital in addi- tion to the financing coming through classic fi lm funding.
670 frames per second. “They are technologies that are nothing new in 2D but have never really been used in 3D.” The film-makers have made a
specially designed, motor-driven hot-air balloon which will enable them to shoot aerials. “There will be storylines about
both lions and elephants. We’ll see how they [lions] have adapted from hunting seals in Namibia to going after antelopes in the Savanna.” The film should be ready by
mid-2012. Last year, French powerhouse
StudioCanal acquired a minority stake in the Brussels-based nWave, the company behind ani-
mated feature Fly Me To The Moon and Sammy’s Adventure. Through the deal with Studio-
Canal, African Safari 3D will be released by Optimum in the UK and Kinowelt in Germany, as well as by StudioCanal in France. Meanwhile, the US fate of ani-
mated feature Sammy’s Adventure is yet to be decided. Universal Music Group, which acquired the movie, has not yet set a release date. Sammy’s Adventure 2, budgeted
at around $30m, will be ready by summer 2012. StudioCanal has already agreed pre-sales on the fi lm, including with Eagle in Italy, Belga in Benelux, Svensk in Scan- dinavia and Daisy in Korea.
Huppert Captured by Mendoza
French sales outfit Film Distribution has taken on sales for the new Brillante Mendoza project Captured, which stars French acting legend Isabelle Huppert. The film is being produced through Swift Productions. Huppert leads the cast alongside Katherine Mulville, Marc Zanetta, Maria Isabel Lopez and Rustica Carpio. The story is about Therese
Bourgoine, a French humanitarian volunteer on the island of Palawan in the Philippines, who is kidnapped by a group of extremist Muslims
fighting for an independent Islamic state. “We have been following
Brillante Mendoza’s work from the beginning, every movie has been more impressive than the previous one and we feel extremely lucky to come on board as the international sales company for Captured, his next movie,” said Nicolas Brigaud- Robert of Films Distribution. “This is a story with strong
international potential and Isabelle Huppert brings European marquee value to the movie.” Geoffrey Macnab
Isabelle Huppert
Brillante Mendoza
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