NEWS CANNESBRIEFS
Dogwoof enters Baghdad with UK release plan Dogwoof Films has picked up UK rights to Koutaiba Al Janabi’s controversial drama Leaving Baghdad, which had its world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival. Dogwoof head Andy Whittaker sealed the deal in Cannes, with plans for a UK release later this year. The film is a road movie, shot in Iraq, the UK and Hungary, about Saddam Hussein’s personal cameraman who is haunted by the strange disappearance of his son and seeks to escape to the UK.
Match Factory strikes deal for X-Filme foursome Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and Winter Sleepers are among four X-Filme catalogue titles which have now found a home with Cologne-based sales agent The Match Factory. The package also includes Wolfgang Becker’s Life Is All You Get and Sebastian Schipper’sGigantic. International distribution for the four titles had previously been handled by Bavaria Film before that sales contract expired.
Sound Of Heaven plays for iDream internationally India’s iDream Independent Pictures has picked up international rights to biopic Sound Of Heaven, about the iconic actor and female impersonator Bal Gandharva. The Marathi-language film is directed by Ravindra Harishchandra and produced by veteran art director and production designer Nitin Chandrakant Desai. The company also has acquired 75 titles from the library of the Children’s Film Society of India.
Bankside adds screening of Bringing Up Bobby Bankside has added another screening of Famke Janssen’s directorial debutBringing Up Bobby, which stars Milla Jovovich, Bill Pullman and Marcia Cross. The film screens today at 10am at Olympia 8.
Film Bridge offers Love Film Bridge International is handling worldwide distribution here on the hit Belgium romantic comedyMadly In Love (Smoorverliefd). Hilde Van Mieghem wrote and directed the story of four female relatives in Antwerp.
Medavoy to remake Sushi Typhoon title
BY LIZ SHACKLETON Japan’s Nikkatsu has sold English- language remake rights to Alien Vs Ninja to Mike Medavoy and Arnold Messer’s Phoenix Pictures. Directed by Seiji Chiba, the
period action film follows a band of ninjas battling aliens who crash-land in Japan. Produced under Nikkatsu’s
Sushi Typhoon genre label, the film has sold to multiple ter- ritories and will be released in Japan this July. Messer said: “I think we have
found a unique way to frame the story and bring a heroic twist to it that is fresh, surprising and one that will be a very entertaining sci- fi martial arts comedy.” Messer, who recently produced
Hallstrom leaves Danish Girl, lines up Hypnotist
BY GUNNARREHLIN AND GEOFFREY MACNAB Lasse Hallstrom has left the Nicole Kidman film The Danish Girl, which was set to shoot in Germany this summer. “There has been too much back
and forth with the film. I don’t think the script is perfect and since Rachel Weisz left the project two weeks ago, there is not a com- plete cast,” Hallstrom told Screen. “This is a sensitive subject
[about the world’s first sex change operation], and I feel a film about it should not be rushed into pro- duction without everything being perfect. But I told the producers that if they don’t find a new direc- tor now, I’d be happy to make the film at a later stage.” Hallstrom is in pre-production
on the $11m Swedish thriller The Hypnotist which will star Mikael Persbrandt (In A Better World). Svensk has confirmed sales
deals with France (TF1), Germany (Prokino), Benelux (Lumiere), Spain (Aurum), Greece (Rosebud) and Australia (Hopscotch). Deals are pending with Russia and East- ern Europe. “I have never seen such a huge interest in a film from Scandinavia,” producer Peter Pos- sne of Sonet Films said. Shooting starts on January 9.
n 6 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 15, 2011 Alien Vs Ninja
Black Swan, will produce the remake. Sushi Typhoon producer Yoshinori Chiba, Nikkatsu’s film division chief Aki Sugihara and Yoko Asakura of Los Angeles- based production outfit Action 5 will join as executive producers.
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Nikkatsu plans worldwide 100th anniversary celebrations
BY LIZ SHACKLETON Japan’s oldest studio, Nikkatsu Corporation, is planning to celebrate its 100th anniversary with a world tour of some of its iconic films. The tour will kick off in October at
Lincoln Center in New York City, before moving to France’s Nantes Festival des 3 Continents (November 22-29) and Paris’ Cinématheque Francaise in December. It will then roll on to other cities in the US, Europe and Asia before culminating in Tokyo early next year. The studio, which turns 100 in
2012, has produced more than 3,000 films in every genre. It also produced the legendary Roman Porno series of ‘pink’ films in the 1970s and 1980s. Highlights of the tour include a
digitally restored version of Yuzo Kawashima’s 1957 Tricksters: The
Windmill Lane joins Diaries
BY SARAHCOOPER Newly launched Irish post-pro- duction and finance company Windmill Lane Entertainment has struck an innovative finance deal on The Moth Diaries, pro- duced by Ed Pressman. Produced by Samson Films,
Mediabiz and Strada Films, Mary Harron’s film, which shot in Montreal, is completing its post and VFX at the Dublin-based stu- dio. It is the third international project to team up with Windmill Lane, following EuropaCorp’s sci- fi thriller Lockout and Steven Sod- erbergh’sHaywire. Set up at the end of 2009, Windmill Lane’s co-production
model enables international pro- ductions to take advantage of the Irish tax credit, which is up to 28% of Irish spend and is deliv- ered on financial closing or the first day of principal photography. Films do not need an Irish story to qualify, nor must they shoot in Ire- land. The company recently invested $7.1m (¤5m) into a vis- ual-effects studio aimed at high- end feature films. “When the producers are look-
ing for the last piece of finance when pre-sales at the right level aren’t forthcoming, we can often help in closing the deal,” said Michael Murphy, chief executive of Windmill Lane.
Last Days Of The Samurai Era. “The interesting thing about
Nikkatsu is that it changed direction and tried new genres every few years,” said Lincoln Center programme director Richard Pena. Nikkatsu chairman Aki Sugihara
said the studio was domestically focused in the past but is now making films for global audiences. At Cannes, Nikkatsu’s sales team
is selling a slate which includes its Sushi Typhoon genre label (see story, left).
L-R: Cinématheque Francaise’s Jean-Francois Rauger,AkiSugihara,Richard Pena, 3 Continents programmer Jerome Baron
CANNESBRIEFS
Wild Bunch whistles for Dixie’s Julia X 3D PJ Pettiette and Claudie Viguerie’s new US production and sales company Dixie Theatrical Corporation, which is backed by Louisiana oil magnate Greg Hall, has licensed German rights to its revenge thriller Julia X 3Dto Wild Bunch.
Kaleidoscope goes to Lonely Place To Die Kaleidoscope Entertainment has picked up UK rights for Julian Gilbey’s UK adventure thrillerA Lonely Place To Die. The thriller, set in Scotland, stars Melissa George and Ed Speleers. Genesis handles sales.
Visit Films has closed further key territories here on Werner Herzog’s 3D documentaryCave Of Forgotten Dreams. Deals closed in
Australia (Rialto), Spain (Wanda), South Korea (Green Narae), Czech Republic (Artcam) and Canada (Kinosmith).
Jeremy Kay
Campaigners are on for Springfilm, F&ME Dutch production house Springfilm and UK producer Film & Music Entertainment have completed shooting in Manila on the feature Snow White (aka Lilet Never Happened), about child prostitution. Directed by Jacco Groen, the film is set in the dark underbelly of the Philippines capital. In Cannes, it has been confirmed that various campaigning organisations have joined the project as campaign partners, including Salinlahi, Pinay Sa Holland, Small Voices for Change: An International Campaign to Stop Child Prostitution and Gabriela Women’s Party.
Kazuko Wakayama
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