NEWS


Shreder and Felts plan retro horror with Ritual


Stephen Woolley


Woolley, Jordan take second stab at vampires


BYANDREAS WISEMAN Veteran UK producer Stephen Woolley reteams with Neil Jordan for vampire thriller Byzantium, which starts screening here as a Special Presentation on Sunday. “Having made The Company Of


Wolves and Interview With The Vampire, I love the genre,” says Woolley, who runs Number 9 Films with his wife Liz Karlsen. “I have always been a huge fan of the horror-gothic strain, but I haven’t made this kind of film for a while.” Saoirse Ronan and Gemma


Arterton star in Byzantium as a mother-daughter vampire duo who wreak havoc on an unsus- pecting English seaside commu- nity. It was this female angle that initially drew Woolley to Moira Buffini’s script: “What was most interesting to me about Moira’s source material was the mother- daughter relationship. I had never seen that portrayed strongly before in a film.” He adds: “The biggest chal-


lenge was financing the film. We wanted to make something class- ier than most films in the genre. It needed a sense of proportion because the story spans 200 years. It was always going to be an expensive genre film.” Instrumental to achieving that


feat were the film’s primary finan- ciers Demarest and backing from StudioCanal, which pre-bought UK rights, the Irish Film Board and the British Film Institute (WestEnd Films handles interna- tional sales, CAA and WME repre- sent the US). Woolley and Karlsen are also in


Toronto with their new produc- tion, Mike Newell’s Great Expecta- tions, which is screening on Tuesday and is sold by HanWay. Number 9 is also hard at work


on its next production, Carol, an adaptation by Phyllis Nagy of Patricia Highsmith’s The Price Of Salt, on which Karlsen is the lead producer (HanWay also han- dles sales). John Crowley is directing and


Mia Wasikowska and Cate Blan- chett are attached to star.


BY JEREMY KAY Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts of fledgling produc- tion and sales company Continen- tal Media are in town to talk up an inaugural slate that includes retro- horror Ritual from Blumhouse Productions, to star Saw writer and lead Leigh Whannell. Shreder, a former executive at


IM Global and Preferred Content with experience in studio produc- tion, and Felts, who cut his teeth in production at NBC Universal and worked for CBS Television Distribution, have ballooned their line-up in less than a year to more than 10 films. The Los Angeles-based part-


ners recently sold worldwide rights to The Lost Coast Tapes and cut a North American deal with XLrator Media, which also acquired Saturday Morning Mas- sacre. Both releases are upcoming. The sales roster includes road


JamesAndrew Felts


movie The Most Fun I’ve Ever Had With My Pants On from the pro- ducers of Jess + Moss, a two-film Tom Sizemore package featuring


hostage thriller Radical and pos- session story Auteur, and three titles to be shot back to back from former After Dark Films producer Lauren Ito and her Absinthe Entertainment. The partners are starting up a


Matthew Shreder


development fund and are mov- ing forward on the $5m vacation thriller Trust from writer Stephen Susco. The development slate includes $500,000 heist thriller with Los Angeles-based Boon- dock Films that will shoot in the spring. “We are trying to meet the best


talent out there,” Felts said, “to let them know that we’re young and hungry and prepared to give pro- ducers all the attention they deserve.” Shreder added that Continental


Media aimed to begin sales proper at the AFM, by which time the goal is to have several new titles on offer.


TORONTO BRIEFS


TIFF pics join Oscar hunt Two TIFF titles have been put forward in the Oscar race. Cate Shortland’s German-language drama Lore will represent Australia (Memento handles sales) and Bence Fliegauf’s Romany drama Just The Wind will represent Hungary (The Match Factory sells).


TrustNordisk dives for Friland’s Pioneer TrustNordisk has boarded international sales for Pioneer, a Norwegian thriller produced by Headhunters veteran Christian Fredrik Martin from Friland Produksjon. The $7.7m film is about a diver on a dangerous mission at the start of the Norwegian oil rush in the early 1980s. Erik Skjoldbjaerg will direct and Headhunters lead Aksel Hennie stars.


Myriad steals away with Wilson, Baldwin Kirk D’Amico’s Myriad is introducing buyers to Been Caught Stealing, to star Patrick Wilson and Alec Baldwin. Myriad and APA co-represent US rights.


O’Shea’s Exchange targets Hellbenders Brian O’Shea’s The Exchange has acquired international sales rights to the TIFF Midnight Madness horror comedy Hellbenders, directed by JT Petty. Preferred Content’s Kevin Iwashina and Christine D’Souza are handling the US and Canada.


Film Sales Company takes a seat withMenAt Lunch


Andrew Herwitz’s The Film Sales Company has boarded US sales rights to TIFF documentary Men At Lunch by director Sean O Cualain. The film, which explores the


genesis of the famous 1932 photo of men lunching on a beam while building a Manhattan skyscraper, had


its North American premiere here yesterday and screens today and on September 14. In the doc, the film- makers explore the men from the beam and discover who took the photo. Producer Eamonn O Cualain said of Herwitz: “His enthusiasm and vision for the film along with his vast


experience and track record made him the ideal partner.” The film is being celebrated in


Toronto with Sergio Furnari’s sculpture of the shot, and a recreation of the image (pictured) with help from Toronto Ironworkers Local 721. Wendy Mitchell


Producers launch Kickstarter drive for hip-hop animation France’s Mikros Image — the


BY JEREMY KAY French agency Film France is sup- porting a Kickstarter campaign by producer-writer Jacqui Barcos to realise the hip-hop animation project Central Park Tale. The film-makers need to raise


$40,000 to fund a proof-of-concept teaser that will be used to present the vision to potential investors.


n 4 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2012


animation studio behind the 2010 Oscar winner Logorama — has invested in the campaign and Happy Feet animation director Daniel Jeannette is lined up to direct. Rita Cahill will serve as executive producer. Central Park Tale is a contempo- rary take on West Side Story in


which rival squirrel clans use grav- ity-defying dance moves to fight for their turf. “Mikros offers the best of both


worlds — the attention to detail and superb craftsmanship of a boutique shop, coupled with the firepower of a brand new state-of- the-art animation studio,” said Barcos.


AV acceptsMission AV Pictures has taken on world sales for Mission To Lars, an uplifting documentary about an autistic man who wants to meet Metallica rock star Lars Ulrich.


Strand takes In The Fog Strand Releasing has taken US on Cannes Competition drama In The Fog by Sergei Loznitsa.


Artsploitation snags Clip US rights to Maja Milos’ Serbian teen sex drama Clip have been acquired by Artsploitation Films. The film has its North American premiere here at TIFF on Monday.


Breaking Glass has Dark Breaking Glass has taken US rights to Israeli director Michael Mayer’s gay love story Out In The Dark.


Filmauro feels Disconnect Filmauro has acquired Italian rights to Henry Alex Rubin’s ensemble drama Disconnect from Exclusive Media (see review, p16).


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