FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 2012
TODAY
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Exclusive joins distribution arena
BY JEREMY KAY As Toronto kicks off, there is a new major buyer in town. Exclusive Media co-chairmen Nigel Sinclair and Guy East announced the launch of Exclusive Releasing yes- terday and have brought in Scott Pascucci as president and COO and Matt Brodlie as head of acquisitions. Screen first broke the story in
Cannes that Exclusive was contem- plating a move into domestic distri- bution and rumours continue to
Weinsteins on Track with Sy
BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW The Weinstein Company has acquired comedy On The Other Side Of The Tracks (De l’Autre Coté Du Periph) with Omar Sy in his fi rst lead role since Intouchables. Other Angle president Olivier
Albou confirmed that TWC had picked up the title for North Amer- ica, Latin America and China. TWC has grossed more than
$7m with Intouchables in the US. After being signed by UTA, Sy
recently moved to Los Angeles with his family to break into Hol- lywood. David Charhon’s On The Other
Side Of The Tracks stars Sy as a streetwise cop based in a rough Parisian suburb who joins forces with an uptight offi cer from an elite squad. The film has also sold to Benelux (Victory), Italy (Medusa), Spain (Vertigo), Switzerland (Fre- netic), Poland (Gutek), Hungary (MTVA), Greece (Village), Portugal (Pris), Turkey (Calinos), Germany (Senator) and Israel (Nachshon). Mars has French rights. Other Angle is handling interna-
tional sales on another Sy-starrer, Olivier Dahan’s The Dream Team.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis were in Toronto ahead of the opening night world premiere of their film Looper, directed by Rian Johnson. » See review, page 12
Revolver sells stake to Farsi’s Corniche
BY WENDY MITCHELL UK distributor and producer Revolver Entertainment has sold a significant minority stake in the company to Hani Farsi’s Corniche Pictures, the fi lm division of Cor- niche Capital. “We have been looking to grow
for a while,” Revolver founder and CEO Justin Marciano told Screen. “They are a great partner. [The deal] gives us a cash injection and more opportunity for growth in a way we’ve never had before.” The deal includes investment in
Revolver’s in-house production arm Gunslinger, which has pro- duced fi lms including Shank and Offender. London-based Farsi becomes a
Omar Sy
director of Revolver. He said: “Revolver Entertainment is a com- pany I’ve admired and respected for years. I’ve followed their
progress very keenly and hold Jus- tin and his team in a very high regard. Year on year their innova- tive and cost-effective approach to distribution and production has made them a unique company with an incredible brand identity.” Corniche is already an investor
in Jean Labadie’s French distribu- tor Le Pacte. Corniche recently supported productions such as Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Funda- mentalist, The Patience Stone and feature documentary The Network. Having a shared investor with
Le Pacte will not offer any formal ties but “it could present advan- tages for both of us”, Marciano said. No immediate changes are
planned at Revolver in terms of operations or staffi ng. Corniche has also become an
investor in Revolver’s VoD com- pany FindWatchShare.
swirl that the company may yet acquire Millennium Entertainment. The new venture plans to release
three to four wide and platform theatrical releases a year compris- ing fi lms from the Exclusive Media pipeline and third-party product. Exclusive Releasing will also
acquire fi lms for accelerated-win- dow and VoD release and develop and acquire alternative content such as concert films and music documentaries.
Pascucci arrives from Warner
Music Group division Rhino Entertainment where he served as president and he worked on Exclu- sive’s documentary George Harri- son: Living In The Material World. Brodlie — who is attending
TIFF for the company — is a famil- iar face on the festival circuit and most recently ran Paramount’s worldwide acquisitions group, overseeing domestic and interna- tional acquisitions and local-lan-
Hubert Boesl
guage productions. Prior to that he was SVP of production and acqui- sitions for TriStar Pictures and before that served for more than 10 years at Miramax. “Our goal is to assemble a small
but diverse slate of excellent fi lms across our targeted release levels,” said Brodlie. “Exclusive is making fantastic fi lms and there are also great projects available in the mar- ketplace looking for new distribu- tion options.”
Sam Reid
NEWS For whom the Belle tolls Sam Reid will play the love interest in Amma Asante’s Belle » Page 5
REVIEW All the world’s a stage Joe Wright brings a bold theatricality to Anna Karenina » Page 16
SCREENINGS » Page 24
INTERVIEW Going overboard Baltasar Kormakur talks about his true-life shipwreck thriller The Deep » Page 34
Turturro touts his Fading Gigolo
BY JEREMY KAY John Turturro is due to fly in to Toronto to talk to buyers about his upcoming role as director on Fad- ing Gigolo, in which he will also play the lead opposite Woody Allen. QED International is fully fi nancing and will introduce here. “It is like Broadway Danny Rose
meets Midnight Cowboy,” Turturro said of his story about a bookstore owner who convinces his friend to become a male escort. Sharon Stone, Sofi a Vergara and
Vanessa Paradis will play women who receive various forms of com- fort from Turturro’s gigolo, while Liev Schreiber is on board as a jeal- ous neighbourhood watchman. Production is scheduled to kick
John Turturro
off in New York in mid-October and Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and QED International’s Bill Block and Paul Hanson are producing with Sasha Shapiro and Anton Lessine. Cinetic Media handles US sales. Turturro, a longtime Coen Continued p4 »
Filmax has pre-sold Manuel Carballo’s zombie-themed thriller The Returned to Australia (Vendetta), Latin America (Corazon Films), Taiwan (Catchplay), Middle East (Gulf) and Indonesia (Queen International). The film will start shooting on
Filmax’s Returned scares up sales The Spain-Canada
co-production is produced by [REC] veteran Julio Fernandez for Castelao alongside Gary Howsam, Bill Marks and George Ayoub for Ramaco Media. Carballo previously directed
September 24 in Toronto and North Ontario before doing post in Spain. The cast assembled includes Emily Hampshire, Kris Holden-Ried, Shawn Doyle and Claudia Bassols. The story is about victims of
zombie attacks who can be temporarily healed through medical help. Hampshire plays a doctor whose duties are compromised when she fears for her husband’s safety.
Exorcismus, another Filmax project. “We have been extremely excited
by this project ever since we read the first pages of a short treatment by the talented young writer Hatem Khraiche. It’s an honour to be able to work with producers of the calibre of Canada’s Ramaco Media and we hope this is the first of many future collaborations,” said Julio Fernandez, president of Castelao Pictures.
Wendy Mitchell
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