TORONTO BRIEFS Backup strikes Groupe 1 pact


Zellweger to make time for Knoxville Renée Zellweger will make her directorial debut with 4 ½ Minutes, to star Johnny Knoxville. K5 International will handle sales (with CAA repping North America) and Kevin Frakes’ PalmStar Media Capital is financing. Knoxville will play a comedian who looks after the genius son of a single mum.


Drafthouse likes Films Drafthouse Films has struck a Canadian distribution deal with boutique operation FilmsWeLike that will kick off with Mads Brügger’s The Ambassador. The deal also covers Quentin Dupieux’s Wrong and crime drama Bullhead.


FilmNation feels Grimm FilmNation has acquired the film rights to popular Adam Gidwitz children’s book A Tale Dark & Grimm. FilmNation will partner with Marissa McMahon of Kamala Films to finance the development and produce the live-action film alongside FilmNation’s Aaron Ryder and Karen Lunder.


BY WENDY MITCHELL Film finance company Backup Films has signed a new partner- ship with Daniel Marquet’s Groupe 1. The exclusive deal will see the companies sourcing and working on 10-15 international projects per year. Films and TV projects will be budgeted between $1.25m-$38m. The companies plan to work


with international independent producers on “commercially viable projects with artistic ambition”. Each company will preserve


independence in other activities: Backup Media’s equity investment


in film and television via B Media Management, and Marquet’s film production activities through Groupe 2. Backup Films, part of David


Atlan-Jackson, Jean-Baptiste Babin and Joel Thibout’s Backup Media, has worked on films with budgets totalling more than $250m since 2002, usually coming on board for finance of 15%-60% of a film’s budget. Credits include Habemus Papam, Poliss, A Separation, In A Better World and A Single Man. Marquet is the former deputy


general manager of StudioCanal; Groupe 1, which he founded in


Turturro’s Fading Gigolo continued


brothers collaborator whose previ- ous directorial efforts include Romance & Cigarettes and Pas- sione, pitched the idea to Allen after a serendipitous haircut. “I told my barber, Anthony, the


story and he cuts Woody’s hair,” Turturro told Screen during a phonecall from New York. “He told Woody the story, Woody liked


it and Anthony called me up and said Woody wanted to talk to me.” Allen agreed to join the cast as


the bookstore owner and naturally proved to be a demanding collabo- rator in the development process. “The first draft was too overt for


him — the women were different ages and I was trying to get out of the business. Woody was more


2002, has recently worked on par- tially financing Christophe Gans’ La Belle Et La Bete. Groupe 1’s investments have gone into projects with an aggregate budget of $100m. Credits include Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest and Joy- eux Noel. Backup co-founder Babin said:


“Teaming up with Daniel Mar- quet is a unique and special chance to offer a higher level of services to producers and film- makers who we want to support and believe in.” Babin and Marquet are both attending Toronto.


interested in how we got into the business.” The comedy master finally


approved Turturro’s screenplay in February. “He has a huge role and it’s


more like a French comedy because it deals with the rich and poor of New York. I have a friend who is a bookseller and he was quite inspirational for me when I was writing it.”


Film4’s Ross to give Moguls talk


BY WENDY MITCHELL Film4 head Tessa Ross will deliver a TIFF Moguls talk at 2pm today in the Filmmakers’ Lounge. The company has a record seven of its productions at the festival: Sight- seers, Seven Psychopaths, Hyde Park On Hudson, The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology, Berberian Sound Studio, On The Road and Everyday. Sightseers director Ben Wheat-


ley has two more projects lined up with Film4 — bigger-budget mon- ster story Freakshift plus his newly announced A Field In England, a psychedelic English civil war story that will shoot later this month for digital arm Film4.0. Lenny Abrahamson, who


brings What Richard Did to TIFF, is readying comedy Frank (sold by Protagonist) to star Michael Fass- bender and Domhnall Gleeson. John Crowley’s Carol, to star Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska, is sold by HanWay. Film4’s busy slate also includes


A Most Wanted Man, Our Kind Of Traitor and Michael Winterbot- tom’s Paul Raymond biopic.


INTANDEM, WACHAFILM and BILL AND BEN proudly present NATASCHA McELHONE BRIAN COX


credits not contractual


WWW.INTANDEMFILMS.COM


INTANDEM FILMS AT TORONTO: Fairmont Royal York Hotel Tel: +1 (416) 368 2511 IN LONDON: 114-116 Charing Cross Road. London WC2H 0JR Tel: +44 (0) 207 851 3800. Fax: +44 (0) 207 851 3830 FOR SALES PLEASE CONTACT: Andrew Brown (andrew@intandemfi lms.com) or Billy Hurman (billy@intandemfi lms.com)


n 4 Screen International at Toronto September 7, 2012


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