NEWS Market’s 8% footfall rise JiangWen


Jiang Wen fires for Gone With The Bullets


BYSCREENSTAFF Leading Chinese film-maker Jiang Wen is likely to reunite with Gong Li in his latest directorial project, Gone With The Bullets, according to Marco Ma, who co-owns Bei- jing-based Buyilehu Films with the director. According to Ma, the film can


be roughly seen as a sequel to Jiang’s 2010 hit, Let The Bullets Fly, though the two films’ plots will not be closely connected. “It will be another action drama


about contests of wits and power, that has a tense pace and is full of Jiang Wen’s playful imagination, but on a grander scale,” Ma said, adding that the production budget will be much higher than the $20m range of Let The Bullets Fly. Jiang will also star in the film,


and the cast will likely include Ge You. Buyilehu is financing now, and Ma said Hong Kong-based Emperor Motion Pictures is likely to co-produce and co-distribute.


on Sunrise Germany’s Endorphine Production and Dutch production company Augustus Film have boarded Indian film-maker Partho Sen-Gupta’s Sunrise (Arunoday), alongside India’s Independent Movies and the National Film Development Corp (NFDC). Set to star Adil Hussain (Life Of


Pi) and Tannishtha Chatterjee (Brick Lane), the Marathi- language film follows a police inspector investigating a child- trafficking case, who is obsessed with finding his own daughter, who went missing 10 years earlier. Augustus’ Bero Beyer and


Endorphine’s Fabian Massah will produce with Sen-Gupta and Rakesh Mehra of Independent Movies. Production is tentatively scheduled to start in early 2013. Sen-Gupta has raised some


funding via crowd-sourcing. Liz Shackleton


Buyers excited by Thieves, Gangster


BYLIZ SHACKLETON Korea’s Showbox has scored fur- ther sales on heist action thriller The Thieves and recent hit Name- less Gangster: Rules Of The Time. The Thieves, directed by Choi


Dong-hoon, has gone to China (Lava Film), Hong Kong (Edko Films) and Thailand (LH Movie- fusion) during this market. In post-production, this heist


action thriller revolves around a group of thieves who attempt to


n 2 Screen International at Cannes May 23, 2012


steal a $20m blue diamond from a casino in Macau. Meanwhile, Nameless Gangster:


Rules Of The Time has gone to Japan (KRCG), China (Binci Media), Hong Kong (i-Cable Entertainment), French-speaking Europe (Metropolitan Film- export), Spain (Mediatres Estu- dio) and ex-USSR and the Baltics (Maywin Films). Showbox also sealed several deals on action thriller A Company


Europe gazes


BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW The Cannes Market is reporting an 8% hike in attendance this year, with Asia and Latin America lead- ing the rise in participant numbers. “We have seen a 15% increase


in Asian participants and a 21% rise in professionals from Latin America,” noted market managing director Jérome Paillard, on the basis of figures up to Tuesday afternoon. “Overall, I think people are


happy with the market. A lot of contracts have been signed, even if the prices have been slightly lower than hoped for,” he added.


Italia In Luce launches as new umbrella


BY GEOFFREY MACNAB The main Italian film and tourism agencies are banding together as ‘Italia In Luce’. The ministry of cul- tural heritage and activities, the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry for economic develop- ment, and the tourism department are creating a public-private part- nership with Istituto Luce Cinecitta and ANICA. Roberto Cicutto, CEO of Istituto


Luce said Italia In Luce will have a budget of $6.4m, with $500,000 set aside to support selected foreign distributors who buy Italian films.


Breaking down the figures on


participants from Latin America, Argentina saw a 42% increase in attendees; Chile, a 118% rise; and Colombia, a 22% hike. From Asia, Taiwanese attend-


ance jumped 48% to 62 par- ticipants. Meanwhile China’s burgeoning presence rose by 20% to 237 attendees. Market attendance from Euro-


pean territories was stable in most countries, with a small dip in the number of participants from some of the countries hit by the region’s debt crisis, such as Greece and Romania.


Overall, companies in the mar-


ket hailed from 109 countries. A number of African nations were in attendance for the first time including Burkina Faso, Congo, Gabon and Rwanda. In terms of the market’s con-


tent, 4,659 films were on offer, 3,028 of which were market debuts. Of these titles, 941 pictures screened in the market, including 741 premieres. While the rain may have damp-


ened spirits on the Croisette, the bad weather prompted a 25% jump in market-screening admis- sions to 35,700.


France’s culture minister hits town


BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW France’s new culture and com- munication minister, Aurélie Filip- petti, was in Cannes on Tuesday for her first big public address since being appointed last week by the country’s recently elected socialist president, Francois Hollande. “I am here as a politician but


also as a cinephile,” said Filippetti, speaking at the French National Cinema Centre’s presentation. Filippetti said her key policy


objectives include an overhaul of France’s Hadopi piracy rules, as well as new measures to adapt French cinema and its film-finan- cing model to the digital age, such as making possible tweaks to the


Aurélie Filippetti


country’s strict media-chronology laws. “Respect for authors’ rights


and the remuneration of creativity are fundamental for me,” said Filippetti. “Of course, adaptations are


necessary and the internet has its positive sides, but any changes need to take place within a regu- lated framework.


Midway through the market, Media Luna has taken international rights to three new films: Darezhan Omirbayev’s Student, pictured, screening in Un Certain Regard, a modern-day interpretation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime And Punishment which has already been sold to France (Las Acacias); Fien Troch’s Kid, about a single mother and her son; and Jacco Groen’s Lilet Never Happened, starring Sandy Talag, about child prostitution.


Geoffrey Macnab


Man, starring So Ji-sub (Sophie’s Revenge, Rough Cut), which has gone to Japan (Pony Canyon), Indonesia (Ram Indo), Thailand (STG Multimedia), German- speaking Europe (Splendid Film) and French-speaking Europe (Synergy Cinema). In addition, LH Moviefusion


took Thai rights for thriller The Scent and romcom Love On-Air, directed by Kwon Chil-in. The Scent was also sold to Hong Kong (Edko Films) and Singapore (Shaw Renters).


Foldager talks Bornedal slate and Pelle film


BY GEOFFREY MACNAB Producer Meta Louise Foldager has revealed further details of her new joint venture with director Ole Bornedal. Foldager’s Metafilm and


Bornedal’s 4 Fiction are working together on a slate of four films, two Danish and two international. The producer, who worked with


Lars Von Trier on Melancholia and Antichrist, said the budgets for the Danish films would be $4m to $5m, while the international pro- jects would be at a higher level. On the initial slate is The Killers


(working title); gender-debate drama Man Vs Woman; and a fea- ture set in Copenhagen’s counter- culture music scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Foldager also revealed Per Fly’s


Pelle The Conqueror follow-up may be shot in two parts. The Den- mark-Sweden co-production “is a big period piece, so it will be around $8m”, she said. Fly told Screen: “It is a fantastic


story about the struggle of the work- ers and the trade unions, which is important to tell in today’s society.” It is not yet known whether Max


von Sydow will reprise his role from Bille August’s original 1987 film, which won the Oscar and Palme d’Or.


CANNES BRIEFS


Mehlitz heads to FIP Lago Film’s Marco Mehlitz has joined Fox International Productions Germany as head of development and production.


Anchor Bay scoops pair of action features Anchor Bay has swooped on all English-speaking territories for actioners Officer Down and Pawn. Red Sea Media is handling international sales on both.


Submarine fires Torpedo Submarine Entertainment and Dakota Group have launched Torpedo Pictures to fund and distribute low-budget genre titles in the $500,000 to $1.5m range.


McAvoy boards Rigby Shooting is set to begin this summer on The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Him and The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby: Her, to star Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy, who has replaced Joel Edgerton. Myriad sells.


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