NEWS CANNESBRIEFS


MEDIA talks on Monday The 20th anniversary of the European Union’s MEDIA Programme and plans for its extension past 2013 will be the focus of the ninth edition of the European Rendezvous held in Cannes. Some 20 European directors including Jaco van Dormael and Paolo Sorrentino are confirmed for a closed meeting, hosted by European commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and festival president Gilles Jacob on the morning of May 16. A public conference will be held in the Palais that afternoon.


German fund gets behind Hanks-starrer Cloud Atlas Germany’s Medienboard Berlin- Brandenburg fund has chipped in $2.2m (€1.5m) for the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer’s $144m (€100m)Cloud Atlas. The Tom Hanks project will shoot mostly at Berlin’s Studio Babelsberg in the late summer. Focus Features International is selling.


Angle scoops Square France’s Other Angle has acquired sales rights toBack To Square One, a comedy produced by Alain Goldman and directed by Lionel Steketee, which it will screen in Cannes. Fabrice Eboué and Thomas N’Gijol — who wrote the script — play step-brothers who are dissatisfied with their inheritance. Mars Distribution is releasing in France on July 6.


Maya strikes for Hammers and Repeaters Maya Entertainment has taken on sales for Brian Crano’s comedy A Bag Of Hammers, which stars Jason Ritter, Jake Sandvig and Rebecca Hall. The story follows two misfits who form an unlikely family when they encounter an abandoned child. The company is also on board for Carl Bessai’s thrillerRepeaters.


WWE and Pathé to co-finance Cohen horror WWE and Pathé UK are partnering to co-finance and distribute horrorNo One Lives, written by David Cohen and to be directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Luke Evans stars in the story of a criminal gang who take a couple hostage. Pathé International will handle international sales, starting this week in Cannes. Twentieth Century Fox will distribute in the UK for Pathé.


BREAKINGNEWS For the latest film business news seeScreenDaily.com


Warp ramps up ambitious international features slate


BY WENDY MITCHELL As Warp Films comes to Cannes with the first Warp Australia pro- duction — Justin Kurzel’s Snow- town in Critics’ Week — the company is working on a number of new high-profile projects. The first of several prominent


book acquisitions is Rachel Ward’s Numbers, a supernatural thriller about a young woman who sees the dates of strangers’ deaths. Paul Fraser (A Room For Romeo Brass) will adapt. TF1 International is co- developing and co-producing the project, which Peter Carlton will produce. Carlton has also struck a deal


with Zeno Agency for rights to Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House. The story involves a house of whirling dervishes and a terrorist plot. Carlton said: “Ian has imag- ined a fantastic near-future, Islamic Bourne Identity set in the east-west melting pot of Istanbul.”


Seeking the afterlife Warp managing director Robin Gutch and producer Mary Burke have also acquired rights to Sum — Forty Tales From The Afterlives, by neuro-scientist David Eagle- man. Producers are now talking to writers to adapt a narrative film interpreting the book, which imag- ines life after death. Angus Lamont of Crab Apple will co-produce. Warp Films Australia, which is


headed by Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw, is next working on Partisan by Ariel Kleiman (who won the short prize in Critics’ Week last year).


Stokes. Matthew Holness’ short A Gun For George, about a failed thriller writer who seeks revenge, is now being adapted for a feature. Also, artists Jake and Dinos


Snowtown While building on its UK rela-


tionships, Warp is increasingly looking for international projects and partners. One big title is sea-battle movie


Destroyer, written and to be directed by Tom Shankland (The Children), about the HMS Coventry during the 1980s Falklands war, adapted fromFour Weeks In May by David Hart Dyke. Ealing Metro International is handling sales. Gutch has co-developed and


will produce the film with Lam- ont, and they may set it up as a European co-production. Warp is also on board with


New York-based Howard Gertler and Tim Perell for Bobcat Goldthwait’s Schoolboys In Dis- grace, based on the 1974 Kinks album. Ray Davies is executive- producing, and musician Jack White is in talks to re-record the music. The film could be set up as a German co-production. Still, Warp is not losing touch with its UK roots. Warp X’s recent


G2 signs multi-picture pact with IM Global for the UK


BY WENDY MITCHELL Distributor G2 Pictures has struck a multi-film UK rights deal with IM Global for titles including Guy Moshe’s Bunraku starring Josh Hartnett;Everything Must Go star- ring Will Ferrell and Rebecca Hall;


and After Dark action filmsDragon Eyes 1 and 2 starring Jean-Claude Van Damme; Transit starring Jim Caviezel; Stash House featuring Dolph Lundgren; and Philly Kid directed by Jason Connery. All the films will be released theatrically. G2 has also taken UK rights to


Bunraku n 8 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 11, 2011


the next eight films in the After Dark Originals series, having already worked with the brand this year. “We’re very happy to be continuing our relationship with IM Global and to be releasing such exciting titles later this year,” said G2 director Nik Hedman.


MK2 has announced the acquisition of a handful of Official Selection titles including Un Certain Regard entryBeauty (pictured), Oliver Hermanus’ second feature. Also added to the slate is Christian Rouaud’s documentary Leader-Sheep, which has a special screening out of competition. Finally, Cannes Classics documentary The Look by Angelina Maccarone has Charlotte Rampling as its subject. MK2’s titles also include Directors’ Fortnight opener The Fairy.


Nancy Tartaglione


hits include Paddy Considine’s Sundance award-winning debut Tyrannosaur, and Ben Wheatley’s SXSW hot seller Kill List. Opti- mum has UK rights to both. Considine is also developing


two further projects with Warp and Diarmid Scrimshaw’s Inflam- mable Films. And Submarine co-producer


Andy Stebbing is working with Gutch on a dark love story, set among the paparazzi, written by Benjamin Bond and Lindy Hey- mann (the latter will direct). Warp recently finished princi-


pal photography on UK director Peter Strickland’sBerberian Sound Studio, co-produced by Mary Burke and Keith Griffiths (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). Burke, head of Warp Signa- ture, is also working on a new project with Strickland which will be set in Europe. Warp is also working with


emerging UK talents via in-house producers Ally Gipps and Polly


Chapman have made short The Organ Grinder’s Monkey, starring Rhys Ifans and with a voice cast including Daniel Craig, Kevin Spacey and Rosamund Pike. The Chapmans are now developing feature The Marriage Of Reason & Squalor, based on Jake Chapman’s surreal romantic novel. Warp is working with its crea-


tive collective Shynola, who will make sci-fi thriller Redmen, adapted from the novel by Mat- thew de Abaitua.


Bafta winner on board Stokes and Burke will also pro- duce the debut feature (developed with Film4 and the BFI) of Bafta short winner Paul Wright. Laura Hastings-Smith, who


worked with Gutch on Steve McQueen’s Hunger, is amassing the final financing for psycho- logical horrorThis Little Piggy. Also with Lamont’s Crab Apple,


the joint slate includes Gregory Burke’s thriller Sum and Donkey Punch director Olly Blackburn’s car-racing filmModify Or Die. Warp CEO Mark Herbert and


Gutch toldScreen: “Looking at the ambitions of our future slate, and how we’re working with such a range of exciting directors, writers and producers from around the world, it really feels like the com- pany is about to enter an exciting new phase.”


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