THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17 2011


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EFM robust despite quiet festival


BY JEREMY KAY Though critics have so far found festival selections largely uninspir- ing, EFM attendees reported robust business with one eye on the prospect of a hotter Cannes. Wild Bunch head Vincent Mar-


Bradley Cooper


Buyers speak up for Parlay’s The Words


BY JEREMY KAY Buyers have been fl ocking to The Words, Parlay Films’ drama which will star Bradley Cooper as an ambitious writer whose plagiarism returns to haunt him. Parlay head Lisa Wilson has


notched up key sales at EFM, clos- ing deals with Germany (Wild Bunch), Australia (Becker), Spain (DeAPlaneta), Latin America (Swen), Singapore (Shaw), Taiwan (SSG), South Africa (Nu Metro) and Switzerland (Ascot Elite). Deals also closed for Greece


(Audiovisual), Turkey (Pinema), the Middle East (Eagle), Israel (Forum) and Eastern Europe (SPI). Wilson is in negotiations with buyers from France and CIS and the Baltic states. “It’s a fantastic script that was


on the Black List,” Wilson said. “One of the producers worked on Margin Call, which has been help- ful because that has been very well received.” Jeremy Irons is in talks to join


the drama based on a screenplay by Tron: Legacy’s Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, who will make their directorial debuts.


aval noted the lack of excitement for the competition. “[The Berli- nale] is like a local festival and an international market,” he said, add- ing that the EFM was “very strong”. The EFM’s slot in the calendar


has always created challenges for US-based sales companies on the lookout for new material so soon after the AFM, holiday season and Sundance, so the few truly com- mercial locomotives prospered. FilmNation had arguably the


Hubert Boesl


Helena Bonham Carter was doing double duty at the Berlinale yesterday, promoting both Toast by SJ Clarkson and Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.


Epic fights for Blood & Iron


BY JEREMY KAY Patrick Ewald’s Los Angeles-based Epic Pictures Group has closed a deal with WTW Films in the UK and Ukraine’s FILM.UA Group to jointly fi nance and produce Blood & Iron (aka The Rus). Ewald and COO Shaked Beren-


son struck the deal with FILM.UA Distribution CEO Igor Storchak and WTW Films acquisitions man- ager Kateryna Vyshnevska. Production will start this sum-


Pyramide sales


Pyramide has sold Free Men (Des Hommes Libres) to Artifi cial Eye for the UK. Deals were also done for Benelux (Lumiere) and Switzer- land (Pathé). Pyramide also sold Andrei Zvy-


agintsev’s Elena to Benelux (Imag- ine), Greece (Seven) and Portugal (Clap). The latter also took Bruno Dumont’s The Empire. Finally, Angele & Tony has sold to


Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uru- guay (Aura) and Sweden (TriArt). Pyramide will handle French distribution for all the titles.


Dieter Kosslick coy about continuing after 2013


Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick remains resolutely coy when quizzed about the possibility of extending his time at the helm of the festival after the 2013 edition. Speaking exclusively to Screen,


Kosslick, who took up the post of festival director in Berlin on May 1, 2001, said: “It is not down to me,


Dieter Kosslick


but my shareholders as to whether they let me continue. I haven’t really thought about it at the moment and will do that when it’s the right time. But there is a while to go yet!” Kosslick’s current contract comes


to an end on April 30, 2013, just four weeks before his 65th birthday. Martin Blaney


mer on the story of a Viking king who confronts a marauding army. The producers are out to cast. Epic Pictures Group is enjoying


an enthusiastic response to its apocalyptic epic 11-11-11, and Ewald has signed deals here with Swen for Latin America and SPI for East- ern Europe.


BERLIN HOT DEALS


Thailand’s Sahamongkolfilm International has made further sales on its mixed martial arts action adventure Bangkok Knockout: BKO after its world premiere at the EFM. The film added sales from Klockwerx for Japan, Long Shong for Taiwan, CP Digital for Russia/CIS and Taksi for Turkey.


Joy Content Group has picked up all Korean rights to Miguel Angel Lamata’s Spanish erotic comedy Unresolved Sexual Tension, from Buenos Aires-based sales company FilmSharks. Distribution deals have also been done with Maywin (CIS), who will release the film in Russia this summer, and Venevision for North America, with US remake offers “on the table”, according to Guido Rud of FilmSharks.


Brownian duo reunite with Leopold


BY MARTIN BLANEY The Netherlands’ Circe Films and Germany’s Coin Film, co-produc- ers of Nanouk Leopold’s Forum fi lm Brownian Movement, will re- unite for her next feature project It’s All So Quiet based on Gerbrand Bakker’s bestselling novel The Twin. The story about the relationship


between a farmer and his closeted gay son will be shot in winter 2011- 12 with Belgium’s Prime Time and Els Vandevorst’s Isabella Films as production partners. In addition, Circe’s Stienette


Bosklopper is planning to work with Romanian fi lm-maker Radu Jude again, on his second feature Everybody In Our Family.


biggest title of the market from across the Atlantic and sold out its Gambit remake starring Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz. Summit International drew


heavy interest on Red 2 and Emma Watson-starrer The Perks Of Being A Wallfl ower, and buyers fl ocked to IM Global’s Sylvester Stallone heavyweight Headshot and Exclu- sive Films International’s Miley Cyrus vehicle So Undercover. The other top draws were Par-


lay’s The Words, Essential’s John Woo remake The Killer and Lake- shore and Sierra/Affi nity’s Gone. The international favourites


included StudioCanal’s African Safari 3D, Wild Bunch’s 360, Pathé International’s Don’t Be Afraid Of


The Dark, Metropolis’ Sundance hit The Guard, Fortissimo’s Marley, Tianjin Film Studio’s Legend Of A Rabbit and CJ’s thriller Sector 7. Berlin is not the place where US


buyers typically get their wallets out but there was trade. The Wein- stein Company acquired Coriola- nus and Magnolia struck a three-fi lm deal with TrustNordisk for Lars von Trier’s Melancholia and the Norwegian pair of Head- hunters and Happy, Happy. FilmDistrict and Miramax announced they were partnering on the US release of Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark and a US deal was expected on widely admired Golden Bear contender Nader And Simin, A Separation.


Jane Goldman


NEWS Original voices Origin and Film4 line up hot Jane Goldman and Polly Stenham pics » PAGE 2


DIARY Bonds of Blood Joshua Marston travels to Albania with The Forgiveness Of Blood » PAGE 4


REVIEW Wild Target Alexander Zeldovich’s Russian futuristic epic is an elusive hybrid » PAGE 7


SCREENINGS » START PAGE 10


This is the final edition of this year’s Berlin dailies. For continued festival coverage, visit ScreenDaily.com


DAY 8


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