SEPTEMBER 23-25 2012


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Forum sees opportunity ahead John Travolta


Travolta and Stone inspire Zurich ‘Fever’


BY ANDREAS WISEMAN Zurich’s eighth festival opened with a bang on Thursday with Oliver Stone’s Savages and a life- time achievement award for John Travolta. On accepting his Golden Eye


award here in Zurich, Travolta thanked the festival in German before ending with a nod to Shake- speare’s Hamlet: “I guess it’s the old question: to be or not to be. I chose to be, and I guess you’re glad I did. Thank you.” Earlier in the day Travolta told


the media: “It’s always an honour when someone thinks your life is worthy of this kind of acknowl- edgement… Mine has been a good life, full of ups and downs and fi lled with fascinating adventures.” On the night, festival co-direc-


tor Nadja Schildknecht told the packed auditorium at Kino Corso that star-power and industry pres- ence was vital for the festival’s future: “In order to grow a film festival you need to attract prolifi c directors, producers and guests.” Zurich’s mayor Corine Mauch


called Stone and Travolta “masters in moving hearts and minds”, and joked that the opening fi lm would lead to a “Thursday night fever”. Stone was in a more reflective


mood during the Savages press conference when he discussed his motivation for making the film. “This was a chance to do a thriller about the cat-and-mouse games that go on inside a war. I love how each of the characters isn’t what they initially seem to be. But in the end, the fi lm is about the cynicism of the drug war.” Meanwhile, Travolta spoke


about his upcoming projects, including a biopic of American football coach Vince Lombardi, who once coached Travolta’s father Salvatore.


Actors Helen Hunt and John Hawkes and director Ben Lewin were in Zurich for the European premiere of Sundance hit The Sessions. Hunt was also the recipient of Zurich’s Golden Eye Award for career achievement. “I’ve decided it’s an award marking the mid-point in my career,” joked the Oscar-winning actress. “I have worked a long time on so many things I’m proud of so I’m thrilled.” Fox Searchlight’s comedic drama tells the true story of a 38-year-old disabled man who contacts a sex surrogate to lose his virginity. Hunt, who is naked in a number of scenes in the film, said: “The film strips away the shame and the cliché, the half covering, the lighting and the music with which we adorn the topic of sexuality in films”. Hawkes added: “My part represented a real challenge, But the character of Mark [O’Brien] jumped off the page at me with his sense of humour and fighting spirit.”


BY WENDY MITCHELL Film fi nance is healthy despite the world’s wider economic problems, experts told attendees at the Film Finance Forum @ Zurich Film Festival yesterday. Veteran French distributor and


producer Pierre-Ange Le Pogam of Stone Angels said in his keynote: “There is a big economic crisis — this is bad for many people but it’s good for the movie business.” He noted: “In France 15 years


ago, 150 million people were going to the movies every year. Last year it was 215 million. The global mar- ket for movies is growing. “If people are considering


investing in movies, now is the right time to do it. Do it only with professional people,” he added, before joking: “Don’t do it with the American studios.” In all seriousness, the studios’


changing business models were a hot topic at the Forum, because as majors work with ballooning budgets on larger tentpoles, there are more opportunities for more realistically budgeted fi lms across the globe.


Pierre-Ange Le Pogam Le Pogam said: “The more the


world grows, it helps people to realise that they absolutely have to emphasise their local experi- ences.” He pointed to the success of the very French hit The Intouch- ables. “You should back the local movies that can travel and have impact… More and more sophisti- cated producers from Europe and the rest of the world know how to make movies for the $10m, $20m, $30m that can reach the whole world... Studios’ local subsidiaries need these new movies.” Ben Browning, CEO of Wayfare


Entertainment, agreed: “There is a huge opportunity for local fi lms, [as] studios are retreating into cre- ating brands and fewer movies.”


Roeg Sutherland, co-head of


CAA’s finance and sales depart- ment, noted that the industry was seeing a resurgence in finance thanks in part to the strength of foreign sales. He said: “The pre- sale market is back, even if it’s not at the same level it was six years ago. Also, Japan is buying again.” Sutherland added: “For most


investors it’s about covering a lot of your budget with foreign sales and soft money.” He noted that CAA would usually aim to get 70-80% of a budget out of pre- sales and soft money, after which a North American deal would repre- sent only 20-30% of the budget. He added: “The more diffi cult


thing is to evaluate the US value of a movie,” especially with the shift- ing marketplace including more VoD-centric players. For the investors he works with,


Sutherland said a return on investment of 13-16% would be satisfactory. Christopher Woodrow, CEO of


Worldview Entertainment, added: “Between 2004 and 2007, a lot of investors got burnt because they


were exposed to too much theatri- cal risk… or too much cherry-pick- ing by the studios, or too much mezzanine debt on top of equity. The model has changed a lot. There’s never been a better time to invest in fi lm.” Libby Savill of O’Melveny &


Myers said the industry was now correcting from the boom of the previous decade when hedge funds and banks were ploughing finance into studios and inde- pendents. After that bubble burst, she says, “We are now seeing some investors coming back into the market.” She pointed to some positive examples working now, such as Anton Capital backing StudioCanal’s slate. Sutherland suggested that the


interests of fi lm-makers and inves- tors need to be in alignment, and that budgets need to be kept at smart levels to ensure movies are getting made. “If you want to make a movie that’s more diffi cult, you just have to take less up front,” he said. Yesterday’s Forum was held at the Dolder Grand Hotel.


Magnet gets Reckless


BY WENDY MITCHELL Production and fi nance company Magnet Media Group has come on board to produce director Bob Dolman’s Recklessness. “It’s a very funny action com-


edy,” Magnet president Jeanette Buerling told Screen. The plot fol- lows a depressed man who is sit- ting in his car contemplating suicide; when the police approach him he leads them on a car chase, along the way picking up a trans- vestite who changes his mood. Dolman, who also wrote the


script, has credits including The Banger Sisters. Magnet president of production


Andreas Wiseman


Pictured above: festival co-director Nadja Schildknecht, Helen Hunt, John Hawkes and festival co-director Karl Spoerri


and development Michele Ohayon brought the project into the com- pany, and it marks the outfi t’s fi rst film to be entirely developed in- house. Also, Magnet has added Ger-


man actress Veronica Ferres to the cast of Married And Cheating,


which is set to star the previously announced Kiefer Sutherland, Sarah Jessica Parker and Eva Longoria. That Belgian-German-Cana-


dian co-production, a romantic comedy about infi delity, will shoot in Belgium, Germany, Montreal and New York starting in late 2012 or early 2013. Raymond De Felitta (City


Island) will direct. Buerling and Ohayon will produce for Magnet, with other producers including Michael London (Sideways). The budget is expected to be below $25m. Magnet is starting to work on pre-sales directly with distribu- tors now. Per Neumann’s Euro- pean Film Bonds is on board. Magnet was launched in 2008


and has offices in Beverly Hills, Cologne and London. Buerling is also co-chair of the


Film Finance Forum @ Zurich Film Festival.


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