FEATURE US SELLERS cont
starring Colin Firth, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead remake and Diablo Cody’s upcoming feature directorial debut to star Russell Brand and Julianne Hough. FilmNation Entertainment sold international
rights on widely admired writer-director Jeff Nichols’ Cannes Critics Week winner Take Shelter and is back in business with the young US talent for Mud. Something of a change of pace for Nichols, Mud stars Matthew McConaughey as a fugitive who kindles a friendship with a teenage boy as he strives to hook up with his soulmate, played by Reese Witherspoon. FilmNation and Everest Entertainment are producing the film, shooting now in Arkansas. Lisa Maria Falcone, Sarah Green and FilmNation production chief Aaron Ryder are the producers. FilmNation will also co-represent domestic sales with CAA. Sales veteran Jere Hausfater will be helping
Dennis Rice’s Visio Entertainment sell Jock, a 3D animated family adventure from Jock Anima- tion. Duncan MacNeillie directed the completed project from his screenplay about a young man and his fearless dog, based on Sir James Percy FitzPatrick’s novel Jock Of The Bushveld. Donald Sutherland narrates and the voice cast includes Helen Hunt, Bryan Adams, Ted Danson and a special cameo by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The project features original music from Tim Rice, Alan Menken, Johnny Clegg and Adams. For seller Inferno, from the newly capitalised
pockets of Emmett/Furla Films, comes crime noir Broken City starring Mark Wahlberg, Cathe- rine Zeta-Jones and Russell Crowe. Allen Hughes will direct and Fox will distribute the story of a detective who uncovers corruption and intrigue when he investigates the mayor’s love life. Principal photography is due to begin imminently. Hyde Park International will introduce buyers to
Thunder Run. Gerard Butler, Sam Worthington and Matthew McConaughey will star in Free- dom Films’ 3D action thriller based on Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent David Zucchino’s account of how US forces captured Baghdad in the early stages of the Iraq War. Simon West will direct and Freedom Films CEO Brian Presley produces with Carissa Buffel and Kevin Matu- sow and The Graphic Film Co’s Jib Polhemus. Freedom Films is represented by Jay Cohen of the Gersh Agency. UTA Independent Film Group will be repping
Hours, to star Paul Walker, who is hot off the $600m-plus global success of Fast & Furious 5. Walker will play a desperate father who fights to keep his newborn child alive in post-Katrina New Orleans. Eric Heisserer, who wrote Universal’s recent sci-fi release The Thing and Final Destina- tion 5, penned the screenplay and will make his feature directorial debut. Peter Safran will pro- duce though Safran Company, and is also financ- ing the project. Production is being lined up in and around New Orleans for March 2012. UTA Independent Film Group packaged the project with Safran and is handling worldwide sales. For Highland Film Group, Peter Gallagher, Mar-
cia Gay Harden and Lucy Liu star in the com- pleted Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You, about a vulnerable teenager with a deep insight into life yet no idea how to live it. Toby Regbo, Deborah Ann Woll, Aubrey Plaza, Ellen Burstyn and Stephen Lang round out the key cast. The
n 12 Screen International at the AFM November 2, 2011 Visit Films’ award-winning ballet documentary First Position
Italian Ministry Of Finance, Rai Cinema, Four Of A Kind Productions and Jean Vigo Italia pro- duced the US-Italy project, based on Peter Cam- eron’s novel of the same name. Roberto Faenza directs the film, which has its world premiere in Rome this week. Indomina and Pinewood are financing comedy
A Fantastic Fear Of Everything starring Simon Pegg, and will show first footage at the market. Pegg plays a paranoid crime writer forced to confront his demons. Musician-turned-filmmaker Crisp- ian Mills wrote the screenplay and is co-direct- ing with animator Chris Hopewell. Keep Films is producing. Indomina holds North American rights and Universal will release in the UK, Ger- many, Australia, New Zealand and Latin Amer- ica. Indomina’s international sales division is handling sales on all remaining territories. Nicolas Chartier of Voltage Pictures will use
(From top) Matthew McConaughey will star in FilmNation Entertainment’s Mud as well as Hyde Park International’s Thunder Run; Mark Wahlberg headlines Inferno’s crime thriller Broken City; and Simon Pegg will star in Indomina and Pinewood’s A Fantastic Fear Of Everything
the AFM platform to talk up serial-killer thriller Frozen Ground, one of several titles now under the aegis of Emmett/Furla Films. The latter will fully finance the thriller, shooting now with John Cusack, Nicolas Cage and Vanessa Hudgens. Based on real events, Frozen Ground tells of the search for a seemingly respectable Alaskan man who kidnapped women, flew them to the wilderness and proceeded to hunt them down. Cage plays the state trooper who picks up one of the predator’s escaped victims and enlists her help to track down the killer. Scott Walker wrote the screenplay and will make his feature directorial debut. Voltage will also be pre-selling the Bin Laden thriller Code Name Geronimo; as well as Summer At Dog Dave’s with Morgan Freeman directed by Rob Reiner; and the comedy Imogene starring Kristen Wiig, Annette Bening and Matt Dillon. Parlay Films is presenting rom-com A Little
Something For Your Birthday, which stars Malin Akerman and James Marsden in the story of a fashion designer who struggles to find love after she reaches 30. Susan Walter wrote the screen- play and Michael Engler is directing. Steve Golin and Alix Madigan-Yorkin are producing. Parlay also has the UK-New Zealand project Cities to be directed by Roger Donaldson. The global thriller
about greed and ambition has an all-star cast including Clive Owen, Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom and Anil Kapoor. It is in pre-production for a 2012 shoot. Content is handling Nothing to Fear, which
Slash from Guns N’ Roses will produce through his Slasher Films. This horror story is about a family’s dark descent after opportunity knocks. Anthony Leonardi, a creature designer and sto- ryboard artist who worked on the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise and Constantine, makes his feature directorial debut. The story is inspired by folklore surrounding the town of Stull in Kansas, believe to be one of the gateways to hell. Louisiana-based Upload Films will co-finance and co-produce with Slasher. Content’s slate also includes action thriller The Numbers Station with John Cusack and Malin Akerman. Lightning Entertainment will offer the market
premiere screening of Brake, the completed US project starring Stephen Dorff, Tom Berenger and Chyler Leigh. Walking West Entertain- ment’s thriller is directed by Gabe Torres and centres on a Secret Service operative kidnapped by terrorists and subjected to physical and psy- chological torture as his captors try to extract crucial information. Torres and James Walker are producing. Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films has acquired inter-
national rights to the award-winning documen- tary First Position, which premiered recently in Toronto and was runner-up in the audience choice vote. First-time director Bess Kargman spent a year following six talented young ballet dancers en route to the Youth America Grand Prix contest. Not so long ago the three enterprising young
partners behind XYZ Films extended their remit to foreign sales through a strategic alliance with Celluloid Dreams. That alliance, Celluloid Night- mares, will be at AFM to sell Replicas, which stars Selma Blair and James D’Arcy as a couple whose vacation at their cottage getaway is interrupted by a violent family. Jeremy Power Regimbal is producing the Canadian production. For HSI Films, Eric Christenson arrives with the intriguing comedy pairing of John Cusack
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