NEWS CANNES BRIEFS


Metrodome snaps up Essex crime thriller Metrodome has picked up UK rights to crime-thriller Once Upon A Time In Essex, based on the iconic ‘Range Rover’ killings. The film is written by Stephen Reynolds, produced by Jonathan Sothcott and Simon Phillips, and directed by Paul Tanter. Shooting begins in June and casting is underway.


Buyers orderMeals Cinema Republic has sold 18 Meals to Japan (Action), Germany and Austria (Cine Global), Scandinavia, (Non Stop), Brazil (Esfera Films), and Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay (Primer Plano).


Captive finds audiences UK sales outfit One Eyed Films has sold Emmanuel Silvestre’s thriller Villa Captive to Benelux distributor Zeno Pictures. Deals had already closed for North America (Grindstone/Lionsgate), Japan (New Select) and Germany (I-On New Media).


Norway boosts new Nesbo Two high-profile Norwegian features are being fast-tracked — Morten Tyldum’s historical drama Tordenskjold (sold by Svensk), and Arild Frohlich’s family feature Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder, based on a children’s book by Jo Nesbo. They will receive $2.68m and $2.39m state funding, respectively.


Huettner gets Cooking Network Movie, Senator Film Produktion and C-Films Zurich have greenlighted The Cook (Der Koch). Director Ralf Huettner will adapt Martin Suter’s book, with Ruth Toma. The film will shoot in Switzerland and Germany in spring 2013.


Hungary animates deals The Hungarian National Film Fund has sold Egon & Donci and Water Spider-Wonder Spider to Thai buyer Shibuya, which also took on action-adventure Nosedive.


011 studies Stasi UK producer Zorana Piggott’s 011 Productions will co-produce the feature debut of German film- maker Eicke Bettinga, here with short Gasp. The untitled Stasi project is about an English student who moves to the GDR.


CORRECTION In Screen’s review of Darezhan Omirbayev’s Un Certain Regard title, Student, a prior sales agent was listed. The film is being sold in Cannes by Media Luna New Films.


Docs travel well for Wide House


BY ANDREAS WISEMAN Wide Management’s documen- tary arm Wide House has closed deals on doc Bergman & Magnani: The War Of Volcanoes to Switzer- land (Swiss Cinematheque) and Russia & CIS (Cinema Prestige). Francesco Patierno’s story


charts the intense love triangle between Ingrid Bergman, Roberto Rossellini and Anna Magnani. Russian outfit Cinema Prestige


also acquired Sam Peckinpah: A Portrait and Milos Forman: What Doesn’t Kill You… Wide’s Annecy competition


entry, animation Approved For Adoption, recently sold to France (Gebeka Films) and Benelux


Bergman & Magnani: The War Of Volcanoes


(Cinéart), and gets a wide release in both markets on June 6. It has a market screening today, while media doc The New Watchdogs screens on Wednesday. Tony Curtis: Driven To Stardom is also one of Wide House’s debuts.


Warp Australia goes Shopping


BY WENDYMITCHELL Sarah Shaw and Anna McLeish’s Warp Films Australia, here last year with Snowtown, is shooting Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s New Zealand feature, Shopping. Set in 1981, the story is about a teen- age boy seduced by a criminal. Albiston and Sutherland’s pre-


vious shorts, Run and The Six Dol- lar Fifty Man, won awards in Cannes and Sundance. NZ Film is selling here and has a promo to show buyers. Madman has Aus- tralia/NZ rights. Warp’s slate also includes Ar-


iel Kleiman’s Partisan, an Aus- tralia-UK co-production due to shoot in 2013; Snowtown writer Shaun Grant-penned The Scorer; plus two projects with Snowtown director Justin Kurzel.


Wanda signs $2.6bn deal


London has a


Nordic twist The Film London Production Finance Market (PFM, October 17-18) has announced a new international partner, the Nordic Co-Production Market (NCPM), part of the Norwegian International Film Festival in Haugesund. The partnership with NCPM


will lead to an exchange programme between the UK and the Nordic territories (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland). NCPM will recommend up to 10 projects, of which up to five will be selected to attend the PFM. Meanwhile, Film London will


recruit and propose UK projects to participate in the UK Focus at next year’s NCPM. PFM already has partnerships


with market events tied to Toronto, Melbourne and Rome, plus the Ile de France Film Commission. PFM, launched in 2007, hosts


for AMC China’s Wanda Group has signed an agreement with AMC Enter- tainment Holdings to buy out 100% of the US entertainment group for $2.6bn. Wanda will invest another


Tom Yoda, chairman of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), welcomed more than 300 guests to Japan Night, a reception at the Majestic Hotel on Saturday night to celebrate the 25th annual TIFF and the move by TIFFCOM to a new venue. “The 3.11 [tsunami and disaster] happened last year, but Japan has been going back to normal life,” said Yoda. “We hope we can cheer the people of Japan with the power of films. October is the best season in Tokyo; please come and see us on the Green Carpet.” TIFF this year runs October 20-28, while TIFFCOM runs October 23-25.


VoD platform Sanona pacts


with Yash Raj VoD service Sanona, a specialist in South Asian cinema, is launching its service in Cannes and has already locked a deal with Indian studio Yash Raj Films. The deal gives Sanona access to more than 50 films from the studio’s back catalogue, including Silsila. Sanona will roll out first in the


UK. Alongside Hindi films, it will offer Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and other regional Indian- language titles as well as cinema originating from the British Asian, Canadian and US diaspora. “Sanona will aim to acquire


annual slates, compromising all licensors’ releases for a calendar year,” said CEO Adam Davies. Andreas Wiseman


$500m over time on the opera- tion of AMC, according to Wanda Group chairman Wang Jianlin. The deal marks the largest


merger of a Chinese enterprise in the US, and is also the largest overseas merger of China’s cul- tural industry.


Ayres plansMarilynMonroe doc


BY GEOFFREYMACNAB Film-maker Ian Ayres, whose film Tony Curtis: Driven To Stardom is on Wide’s Cannes slate, is at work on a revisionist feature documen- tary about Cannes poster girl Mar- ilyn Monroe. Ayres has already spoken to and


filmed many Monroe associates, among them Don Murray (co-star of Bus Stop), Stanley Rubin (pro- ducer of River Of No Return) and Hugh Hefner, as well as Susan Bernard (daughter of glamour photographer Bruno Bernard). The director has also interviewed Monroe’s close family members. “We interviewed Marilyn’s first


foster sister, Nancy Bolender, who also has Marilyn’s first nude photo which she is letting us use in the film. It’s a baby photo of Marilyn,” Ayres said. The late Tony Curtis features in


n 6 Screen International at Cannes May 22, 2012 Wide BlueYonder


Odyssey sails into Wide Blue Yonder


BY JEREMY KAY Odyssey Pictures Corporation president and CEO John Foster is handling worldwide sales here on Wide Blue Yonder, starring Brian Cox, James Fox and Lauren Bacall, one of several films the veteran executive has refinanced after extracting from administration. Foster, who acquired the UK-


MarilynMonroe


the Marilyn doc. There is also some rare footage of the actress aged 15 years. The Monroe doc is currently


shooting under the provisional title Marilyn: Birth Of An Icon.


Norway dark comedy on behalf of the lead investors after a prior backer went into administration, claims to have turned it around within a year. Norwegian pro- ducer Euromax is part of the credi- tor group. Europafilm holds Scandinavian


rights; Odyssey holds rest of inter- national and All Channel Films’ Seth Kittay handles US. Wide Blue Yonder’s domestic release will be later this year.


more than 1,100 meetings over the two days.


Geoffrey Macnab


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