NEWS
Ealing Metro plans Bailout with Black
Ealing Metro International and Prescience (financiers of The King’s Speech) are to finance and handle worldwide sales on Bailout (working title), a new comedy starring Jack Black and directed by Michael Winterbottom. In a story based on Jess Walter’s novel
The Financial Lives Of The Poets, Black plays Matt Prior, who finds himself jobless, crippled with debt, convinced his wife is having an affair and two weeks away from losing his home. The film will be produced by Michael
Besman (Ballyhoo), Melissa Parmenter (Revolution), Ben Cooley and Priyanka Mattoo (Electric Dynamite) and Black himself. The project is currently in pre-
production and is expected to start shooting in August. “We are delighted to be involved
with Bailout starring Jack Black, which will mark the first new project for Ealing Metro after the recent merger of Ealing and Metropolis/Prescience’s respective sales operations,” said Will Machin, head of Ealing Metro.
Geoffrey Macnab Content tells Story
BY WENDY MITCHELL Content Media has acquired Story/Teller for international sales, with producers sharing the North American rights. Alice Eve and Liev Schreiber star in the
psychological thriller directed by Mark Pel- lington (Arlington Road, U2 3D). Arnold Rifkin (The Whole Ten Yards) and Norman Reiss (The Mothman Prophecies) produce. The story is set in a world of secrets, guilt
and paranoia. Rifkin said: “As Story/Teller is Mark’s
passion project, the opportunity to collabo- rate with him in bringing his vision to the
screen has been an extremely creative and rewarding journey.” Content Film president Jamie Carmichael
added: “Mark is an extraordinarily compel- ling director and he has a really powerful vision for Story/Teller. Needless to say he’s attracted a wonderful cast too — we’re thrilled to have Alice and Liev on board.” Content has a director’s presentation reel
here in Cannes. Also, Content has sold Xavier Gens’ The Divide — about a desolate group of people in a New York apartment building — to Presidio for Japan. The film screens in the market tonight.
Film Bridge recruits 12 AngryWomen
BY JEREMY KAY Film Bridge International has launched talks here on the female ensemble 12 Angry Women, a comic twist on Sidney Lumet’s classic courtroom drama 12 Angry Men. Daryl Hannah, Ann-Margret, Rosie
Perez, Olivia Newton-John and Lainie Kazan are among the first to be summoned for jury duty. Randal Kleiser is set to direct the project, and will reunite with his Grease star Newton-John.
Jamie Seltzer’s screenplay follows an
all-female jury as they deliberate over the fate of a man accused of killing his wife. Michael Taylor is producing while Michael Wise and Roger Pugliese serve as executive producers. Principal photography is set to com-
mence in July in Portland, Oregon. Film Bridge International founder Ellen Wander (previously senior VP of Turner Pictures Worldwide) represents worldwide rights.
Martin Scorsese and Lars von Trier
Scorsese, von Trier plan Obstructions
BY GEOFFREY MACNAB Martin Scorsese has confirmed he will join forces with Danish maverick Lars von Trier on a follow-up to The Five Obstructions. The co-production between Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions and von Trier’s Zentropa Real will start producing next year. In The Five Obstructions, von Trier chal-
lenged co-director Jorgen Leth to remake a 1967 short film five times, with a different set of ‘obstructions’ for each version. Von Trier will apply this same method to Scorsese. It is believed von Trier will ask Scorsese to
revisit Taxi Driver. Von Trier told Screen ear- lier this year: “The idea behind this obstruc- tions thing is you give each other tasks which will move you into an area where you have been reluctant to go yourself.” Producers are Emma Tillinger Koskoff
for Sikelia and Carsten Holst and Louise Vesth on behalf of Zentropa Real.
Bavaria travels to Morocco with Link
BY WENDY MITCHELL Bavaria Film International is reteaming with Oscar-winning director Caroline Link and producer Peter Herrmann on their next film. The as-yet-untitled project, based on
Link’s original screenplay, is set in Morocco, about a German stage director working in Marrakech and dealing with his troubled teenage son. The son meets a feisty prosti-
tute who takes him to her home town. Ulrich Tukur will
play the father and Hafsia Herzi is in talks to join the film, which will shoot this winter on an $8.5m budget.
Caroline Link Artificial Eye falls for Haneke’s Amour
BY WENDY MITCHELL UK distributor Artificial Eye has boarded Michael Haneke’s Amour at script stage. Amour reunites Palme d’Or winner
Haneke with Isabelle Huppert. She plays the daughter of two retired classical music teachers (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva) whose relationship is tested after the wife suffers a stroke. The cast also features William Shimell. Films du Losange produces and handles sales. This builds on yesterday’s news that Arti-
ficial Eye also acquired UK rights to Laurent Cantet’s Foxfire. Louisa Dent, managing director of Artifi-
cial Eye, said: “We are delighted to be reu- nited with these talented and influential film-makers. Recent years have seen Artificial Eye pre-buying more films and becoming more involved in projects from earlier stages and we look forward to building further rewarding and collaborative relationships.” The distributor already has UK rights to We Need To Talk About Kevin.
Celluloid Dreams takes Italian Night
Celluloid Dreams has snapped up international rights for When The Night (Quando La Notte) by Italian director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini (Don’t Tell). Produced by Cattleya in collaboration with
Rai Cinema, the project is in post- production. The film is about a fragile mother
n 6 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 13, 2011
and a tough mountain guide who meet after an accident in the Italian mountains. It is based on Comencini’s own novel of the same title, published in Italy in 2009 and translated worldwide. The cast includes Claudia Pandolfi and Filippo Timi. Geoffrey Macnab
BREAKINGNEWS For the latest film business news see
ScreenDaily.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100