Radiant Films International handles sales outside US on Scythia Films drama.
Saban Films has acquired US rights to the anti-gmo drama Percy Vs Goliath starring Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci and Zach Braff.
Radiant Films International is handling international sales at the AFM on the story of a small-town Saskatchewan farmer who takes on a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop.
Clark Johnson directed the drama from a screenplay by Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pryor.
Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Hilary Pryor, Garfield Lindsay Miller and Ethan Lazar produced,...
Saban Films has acquired US rights to the anti-gmo drama Percy Vs Goliath starring Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci and Zach Braff.
Radiant Films International is handling international sales at the AFM on the story of a small-town Saskatchewan farmer who takes on a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop.
Clark Johnson directed the drama from a screenplay by Garfield Lindsay Miller and Hilary Pryor.
Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Hilary Pryor, Garfield Lindsay Miller and Ethan Lazar produced,...
- 11/11/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Neo-western set to shoot in Canada in November.
Matthew Shreder’s Los Angeles-based Concourse Media will launch worldwide sales at Afm on The Last Victim, a neo-western to star Ali Larter, Ralph Ineson and Ron Perlman.
The project is in pre-production and scheduled to commence production in Canada in November. Larter, who starred in the Resident Evil franchise, will play an anthropologist on the run from a gang of outcasts in the wilds of New Mexico.
Ineson, who starred in The Witch for Robert Eggers and appeared in HBO hits Chernobyl and Game Of Thrones, will portray the gang leader,...
Matthew Shreder’s Los Angeles-based Concourse Media will launch worldwide sales at Afm on The Last Victim, a neo-western to star Ali Larter, Ralph Ineson and Ron Perlman.
The project is in pre-production and scheduled to commence production in Canada in November. Larter, who starred in the Resident Evil franchise, will play an anthropologist on the run from a gang of outcasts in the wilds of New Mexico.
Ineson, who starred in The Witch for Robert Eggers and appeared in HBO hits Chernobyl and Game Of Thrones, will portray the gang leader,...
- 10/31/2019
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Company launches tech division Concourse Xr Studios.
Matthew Shreder’s Concourse Media has boarded two new titles for Cannes and launches sales next week on the Jai Courtney crime thriller Edge Of Dawn and music documentary Find Your Groove.
Henry-Alex Rubin directs Edge Of Dawn (formerly Semper Fi) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sean Mullin. Courtney and Nat Wolff star in the story of a police officer and his friends who must break out his younger brother from prison after a bar fight. The cast includes Finn Whitrock, Beau Knapp, and Arturo Castro.
Karina Miller (To The Bone) of...
Matthew Shreder’s Concourse Media has boarded two new titles for Cannes and launches sales next week on the Jai Courtney crime thriller Edge Of Dawn and music documentary Find Your Groove.
Henry-Alex Rubin directs Edge Of Dawn (formerly Semper Fi) from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sean Mullin. Courtney and Nat Wolff star in the story of a police officer and his friends who must break out his younger brother from prison after a bar fight. The cast includes Finn Whitrock, Beau Knapp, and Arturo Castro.
Karina Miller (To The Bone) of...
- 5/8/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Concourse Media is heading to Cannes with completed action-drama Edge Of Dawn (previously known as Semper Fi), starring Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad), and music documentary Find Your Groove.
Also starring in the former are Nat Wolff (Paper Towns), Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl), Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story), Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds) and Arturo Castro (Broad City). Directed by Henry-Alex Rubin (Murderball) and written by Rubin and Sean Mullin, the film is produced by Karina Miller (To The Bone) from Sparkhouse Media and David Lancaster (Whiplash) of Rumble Films.
The story follows Cal (Courtney), a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a reservist in the Marine Corps along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother Oyster (Wolff) accidentally kills a guy in a barfight and tries to flee, Cal is torn between his family and his job. The project was...
Also starring in the former are Nat Wolff (Paper Towns), Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl), Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story), Beau Knapp (Seven Seconds) and Arturo Castro (Broad City). Directed by Henry-Alex Rubin (Murderball) and written by Rubin and Sean Mullin, the film is produced by Karina Miller (To The Bone) from Sparkhouse Media and David Lancaster (Whiplash) of Rumble Films.
The story follows Cal (Courtney), a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a reservist in the Marine Corps along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother Oyster (Wolff) accidentally kills a guy in a barfight and tries to flee, Cal is torn between his family and his job. The project was...
- 5/8/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Following in the footsteps of fellow ballers like Kobe Bryant (Kobe Studios), Lebron James (SpringHill Entertainment), and Stephen Curry (Unanimous Media), NBA All-Star and Dwight Howard is getting into the film business. The Washington Wizards center, via Mansa Productions, has come aboard as an executive producer of Percy, an anti-gmo indie film starring Oscar-winner Christopher Walken, Christina Ricci, and Zach Braff.
Grasshopper + Marks Productions (Brewmaster) has also signed on as exec producers of the film, which is being directed by Clark Johnson.
Written by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller, the plot follows a small-town Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser (Walken) who challenges a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop.
Additional cast includes Roberta Maxwell as Percy’s wife; Adam Beach as Percy’s neighbor, Alton Kelly; Luke Kirby as Percy’s son; Martin Donovan as the conglomerate’s lead lawyer,...
Grasshopper + Marks Productions (Brewmaster) has also signed on as exec producers of the film, which is being directed by Clark Johnson.
Written by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller, the plot follows a small-town Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser (Walken) who challenges a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop.
Additional cast includes Roberta Maxwell as Percy’s wife; Adam Beach as Percy’s neighbor, Alton Kelly; Luke Kirby as Percy’s son; Martin Donovan as the conglomerate’s lead lawyer,...
- 12/7/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Scrubs alum Zach Braff is set to star opposite Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci in the anti-gmo indie film, Percy, which is being directed by Clark Johnson. The script, based on events from a 1998 lawsuit, is by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller.
It follows small-town Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser (Walken) who challenges a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop. Braff will play Jackson Weaver, a small town lawyer who represented Percy and took the case all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court against Monsanto.
The pic is currently in production. Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Pryor, and Miller are producing the feature with Ethan Lazar, William Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang, and Kevin Hoiseth serving as exec producers.
Braff recently directed the Warner Brothers film Going In Style starring Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and...
It follows small-town Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser (Walken) who challenges a major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop. Braff will play Jackson Weaver, a small town lawyer who represented Percy and took the case all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court against Monsanto.
The pic is currently in production. Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Pryor, and Miller are producing the feature with Ethan Lazar, William Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang, and Kevin Hoiseth serving as exec producers.
Braff recently directed the Warner Brothers film Going In Style starring Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and...
- 9/19/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Distributor to partner with Munro Films on early 2019 theatrical release.
The UK’s Parkland Entertainment, the distribution arm of Parkland Pictures that launched last month, has struck a deal at Tiff with Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade for its first acquisition, taking rights to whisky documentary Scotch – A Golden Dream.
Parkland Entertainment will partner on an early 2019 theatrical release with Munro Films, with whom Parkland co-owner Tom Stewart worked while at Arrow Films, where he served as acquisitions director until his departure last June.
Andrew Peat directed Scotch – A Golden Dream, which tells of legendary distiller Jim McEwan, who began...
The UK’s Parkland Entertainment, the distribution arm of Parkland Pictures that launched last month, has struck a deal at Tiff with Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade for its first acquisition, taking rights to whisky documentary Scotch – A Golden Dream.
Parkland Entertainment will partner on an early 2019 theatrical release with Munro Films, with whom Parkland co-owner Tom Stewart worked while at Arrow Films, where he served as acquisitions director until his departure last June.
Andrew Peat directed Scotch – A Golden Dream, which tells of legendary distiller Jim McEwan, who began...
- 9/17/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Distributor to partner with Munro Films on early 2019 theatrical release.
The UK’s Parkland Entertainment, the distribution arm of Parkland Pictures that launched last month, has struck a deal at Tiff with Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade for its first acquisition, taking rights to whisky documentary Scotch – A Golden Dream.
Parkland Entertainment will partner on an early 2019 theatrical release with Munro Films, with whom Parkland co-owner Tom Stewart worked while at Arrow Films, where he served as acquisitions director until his departure last June.
Andrew Peat directed Scotch – A Golden Dream, which tells of legendary distiller Jim McEwan, who began...
The UK’s Parkland Entertainment, the distribution arm of Parkland Pictures that launched last month, has struck a deal at Tiff with Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade for its first acquisition, taking rights to whisky documentary Scotch – A Golden Dream.
Parkland Entertainment will partner on an early 2019 theatrical release with Munro Films, with whom Parkland co-owner Tom Stewart worked while at Arrow Films, where he served as acquisitions director until his departure last June.
Andrew Peat directed Scotch – A Golden Dream, which tells of legendary distiller Jim McEwan, who began...
- 9/17/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Scotch: A Golden Dream will screen to buyers at Afm.
Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade has hired Ryan Bury as director of global film sales and has introduced Tiff buyers to the whisky documentary Scotch: A Golden Dream.
Bury has been responsible for delivering theatrical marketing campaigns for Concourse and third-party clients through his ongoing role as a partner at Concourse’s in-house marketing firm, I&Co.
He is in Toronto where Concourse has been talking up Scotch: A Golden Dream, which outlines the scotch whisky industry and follows Jim McEwan, who started working at a whisky distillery at the...
Los Angeles-based Concourse Film Trade has hired Ryan Bury as director of global film sales and has introduced Tiff buyers to the whisky documentary Scotch: A Golden Dream.
Bury has been responsible for delivering theatrical marketing campaigns for Concourse and third-party clients through his ongoing role as a partner at Concourse’s in-house marketing firm, I&Co.
He is in Toronto where Concourse has been talking up Scotch: A Golden Dream, which outlines the scotch whisky industry and follows Jim McEwan, who started working at a whisky distillery at the...
- 9/10/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
In today’s film news roundup, Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci star in a farming drama, Megan Fox is playing a war correspondent and Tania Raymonde has unveiled a dark comedy set in the art world.
Castings
Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci are starring in the farming drama “Percy,” a Scythia Films production that has started shooting in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Clark Johnson is directing from a screenplay written by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller. “Percy” is produced by Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Pryor and Miller. Executive producers are Ethan Lazar from Scythia Films, William Santor and Andrew Chang-Sang for financier Productivity Media, Kevin Hoiseth for sales agent Concourse Media, Christopher Yurkovich, Alex Ordanis, Deepak Kumar, Mark Gingras and John Laing.
Walken portrays a small-town Saskatchewan farmer; the film follows his unlikely crusade against genetically modified crops. Ricci plays an anti-gmo activist. The cast includes Roberta Maxwell,...
Castings
Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci are starring in the farming drama “Percy,” a Scythia Films production that has started shooting in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Clark Johnson is directing from a screenplay written by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller. “Percy” is produced by Scythia Films’ Daniel Bekerman, Ian Dimerman, Brendon Sawatzky, Pryor and Miller. Executive producers are Ethan Lazar from Scythia Films, William Santor and Andrew Chang-Sang for financier Productivity Media, Kevin Hoiseth for sales agent Concourse Media, Christopher Yurkovich, Alex Ordanis, Deepak Kumar, Mark Gingras and John Laing.
Walken portrays a small-town Saskatchewan farmer; the film follows his unlikely crusade against genetically modified crops. Ricci plays an anti-gmo activist. The cast includes Roberta Maxwell,...
- 9/5/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar winner Christopher Walken and Christina Ricci are set to star in Percy, an indie film which is currently in production in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Clark Johnson (The Wire) is directing the pic from a script by Hilary Pryor and Garfield L. Miller.
The film, based on events from a 1998 lawsuit, follows small-town Saskatchewan farmer (Walken) who challenges major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop. As he speaks out against the company’s business practices, he realizes he is representing thousands of other disenfranchised farmers around the world fighting the same battle. Suddenly, he becomes an unsuspecting folk hero in a desperate war to protect farmers’ rights and the world’s food supply against what they see as corporate greed. Ricci will play anti-gmo activist Rebecca Salcau.
Additional casting includes Roberta Maxwell as Percy’s wife; Adam Beach as Percy’s neighbor,...
The film, based on events from a 1998 lawsuit, follows small-town Saskatchewan farmer (Walken) who challenges major conglomerate when the company’s genetically modified (Gmo) canola is discovered in the 70-year-old farmer’s crop. As he speaks out against the company’s business practices, he realizes he is representing thousands of other disenfranchised farmers around the world fighting the same battle. Suddenly, he becomes an unsuspecting folk hero in a desperate war to protect farmers’ rights and the world’s food supply against what they see as corporate greed. Ricci will play anti-gmo activist Rebecca Salcau.
Additional casting includes Roberta Maxwell as Percy’s wife; Adam Beach as Percy’s neighbor,...
- 9/4/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Gravitas Ventures has acquired all U.S. rights to Tye Sheridan’s coming-of -age film “All Summers End” for a June 1 release.
Written and directed by Kyle Wilamowski (“Snow Angels”), the film also stars Kaitlyn Dever, Pablo Schreiber, Austin Abrams, Annabeth Gish, Ryan Lee, Paula Malcomson and Bill Sage.
Sheridan, the lead in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” portrays a teenage boy who falls in love while grappling with his guilty conscience over a prank that’s gone awry. The film, formerly titled “Grass Stains,” premiered last year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
“Powerful performances from leads Tye Sheridan and Kaitlyn Dever tell the story of first love and first loss that will resonate with all audiences,” Laura Florence, VP of sales and marketing for Gravitas, said. “It’s a very relatable tale of those emotional awakenings that can be razor sharp and unforgettable.”
Producers are Steven Olivera of Deckplate Films,...
Written and directed by Kyle Wilamowski (“Snow Angels”), the film also stars Kaitlyn Dever, Pablo Schreiber, Austin Abrams, Annabeth Gish, Ryan Lee, Paula Malcomson and Bill Sage.
Sheridan, the lead in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” portrays a teenage boy who falls in love while grappling with his guilty conscience over a prank that’s gone awry. The film, formerly titled “Grass Stains,” premiered last year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
“Powerful performances from leads Tye Sheridan and Kaitlyn Dever tell the story of first love and first loss that will resonate with all audiences,” Laura Florence, VP of sales and marketing for Gravitas, said. “It’s a very relatable tale of those emotional awakenings that can be razor sharp and unforgettable.”
Producers are Steven Olivera of Deckplate Films,...
- 4/4/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Anna Paquin stars, True Blood co-lead Stephen Moyer directs.
Concourse Film Trade, the sales and financing arm of Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts’ Concourse Media, will introduce worldwide buyers in Cannes to their previously announced sales title The Parting Glass.
The drama recently wrapped production in Toronto and reunites True Blood’s Anna Paquin with her co-lead and real-life husband Stephen Moyer, who makes his feature directorial debut.
Productivity Media, founded by William G. Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang and John Hills, is co-financing the project and serves as executive producer with Concourse Media.
Paquin stars alongside another True Blood alumnus, Denis O’Hare who also wrote the screenplay, as well as Melissa Leo, Cynthia Nixon, Rhys Ifans, and Ed Asner.
The Parting Glass centres on a family that tries to piece together their lives after a death.
“Ed Asner pulls off an unforgettable encore performance and is surrounded by an extremely talented group of actors that all...
Concourse Film Trade, the sales and financing arm of Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts’ Concourse Media, will introduce worldwide buyers in Cannes to their previously announced sales title The Parting Glass.
The drama recently wrapped production in Toronto and reunites True Blood’s Anna Paquin with her co-lead and real-life husband Stephen Moyer, who makes his feature directorial debut.
Productivity Media, founded by William G. Santor, Andrew Chang-Sang and John Hills, is co-financing the project and serves as executive producer with Concourse Media.
Paquin stars alongside another True Blood alumnus, Denis O’Hare who also wrote the screenplay, as well as Melissa Leo, Cynthia Nixon, Rhys Ifans, and Ed Asner.
The Parting Glass centres on a family that tries to piece together their lives after a death.
“Ed Asner pulls off an unforgettable encore performance and is surrounded by an extremely talented group of actors that all...
- 5/9/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Anna Paquin stars, True Blood co-lead Stephen Moyer directs.
Concourse Film Trade, the sales and financing arm of Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts’ Concourse Media, is launching worldwide sales on previously announced The Parting Glass.
The drama recently wrapped production in Toronto and reunites True Blood’s Anna Paquin with her co-lead and real-life husband Stephen Moyer, who makes his feature directorial debut.
Paquin stars alongside another True Blood alumnus, Denis O’Hare who also wrote the screenplay, as well as Melissa Leo, Cynthia Nixon, Rhys Ifans, and Ed Asner.
The Parting Glass centres on a family that tries to piece together their lives after a death.
“Ed Asner pulls off an unforgettable encore performance and is surrounded by an extremely talented group of actors that all pull at your heart strings in ways that every family can relate to,” Shreder said.
”The Parting Glass is no exception to our belief that value is driven...
Concourse Film Trade, the sales and financing arm of Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts’ Concourse Media, is launching worldwide sales on previously announced The Parting Glass.
The drama recently wrapped production in Toronto and reunites True Blood’s Anna Paquin with her co-lead and real-life husband Stephen Moyer, who makes his feature directorial debut.
Paquin stars alongside another True Blood alumnus, Denis O’Hare who also wrote the screenplay, as well as Melissa Leo, Cynthia Nixon, Rhys Ifans, and Ed Asner.
The Parting Glass centres on a family that tries to piece together their lives after a death.
“Ed Asner pulls off an unforgettable encore performance and is surrounded by an extremely talented group of actors that all pull at your heart strings in ways that every family can relate to,” Shreder said.
”The Parting Glass is no exception to our belief that value is driven...
- 5/9/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Matthew Shreder and James Andrew Felts’ company has acquired worldwide rights to the drama from Haven Entertainment and Bow and Arrow Entertainment starring Tye Sheridan and Kaitlyn Dever.
Los Angeles-based Concourse and newly arrived executive vice-president of sales Kevin Hoiseth will commence sales at the market on Grass Stains, about a teenager wrestling with his conscience after a prank causes the death of his girlfriend’s older brother.
Kyle Wilamowski wrote and directed the drama.
Sheridan’s stock continues to rise and the youngster just wrapped production on Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and recently starred in in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Dever’s credits include Short Term 12 and The Spectacular Now.
At the Afm, Concourse will also be continuing sales on The Little Hours starring Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, John C Reilly and Molly Shannon. France, Spain, Italy, Japan, China South Korea and Cis remain available.
“We look forward...
Los Angeles-based Concourse and newly arrived executive vice-president of sales Kevin Hoiseth will commence sales at the market on Grass Stains, about a teenager wrestling with his conscience after a prank causes the death of his girlfriend’s older brother.
Kyle Wilamowski wrote and directed the drama.
Sheridan’s stock continues to rise and the youngster just wrapped production on Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and recently starred in in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Dever’s credits include Short Term 12 and The Spectacular Now.
At the Afm, Concourse will also be continuing sales on The Little Hours starring Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, John C Reilly and Molly Shannon. France, Spain, Italy, Japan, China South Korea and Cis remain available.
“We look forward...
- 10/28/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Keep up with the revolving door that is the entertainment industry with our weekly Career Moves column that tracks all the comings and goings of the industry leaders that make Hollywood tick. Check out our last edition of Career Moves to find out who went where, when and why.
– Lisa Bunnell is moving from Landmark — where she served as VP and head film buyer — to Focus Features, where she will come on board as their new president of distribution. Bunnell is replacing previous distribution president nm8352658 autoJim OrrJim Orr[/link][/link], who is now heading to Universal to become their Evp and general sales manager. In an “only in Hollywood!” twist, Orr’s new job is the same that Bunnell’s own husband, Steve Bunnell, held at Universal until he left the company in April to join Regal Entertainment Group as Svp, chief content and programming officer. You got all that?
Bunnell was...
– Lisa Bunnell is moving from Landmark — where she served as VP and head film buyer — to Focus Features, where she will come on board as their new president of distribution. Bunnell is replacing previous distribution president nm8352658 autoJim OrrJim Orr[/link][/link], who is now heading to Universal to become their Evp and general sales manager. In an “only in Hollywood!” twist, Orr’s new job is the same that Bunnell’s own husband, Steve Bunnell, held at Universal until he left the company in April to join Regal Entertainment Group as Svp, chief content and programming officer. You got all that?
Bunnell was...
- 10/5/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
International sales veteran Kevin Hoiseth has been tapped as Evp Worldwide Sales at Concourse Media. In the new position, he'll be responsible for leading the company's distribution efforts to drive global sales for Concourse Film Trade, the newly bolstered film sales and financing arm of Concourse Media. Hoseith arrives from International Film Trust, where he oversaw international sales for a slate of more than 15 titles including Werner Herzog's Salt & Fire, which…...
- 10/4/2016
- Deadline
Todd Olsson has joined International Film Trust as a sales consultant and Kenner Bolt has been appointed to the newly created position of director of acquisitions.
Olsson recently served as co-president of Ironclad Films and will work alongside director of sales Kevin Hoiseth and head of marketing and communications Marcin Janowski.
He reports to Ift founder Michael Benaroya. Among his other appointments were svp of Sobini Films at Lionsgate and was director of acquisitions at the Walt Disney Company.
Bolt is tasked with sourcing completed and development feature projects for Ift’s pipeline.
Prior to Ift she was sales and marketing executive at MediaXchange.
Ift’s slate of films includes Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire starring Michael Shannon and Gael García Bernal, Bleeding Heart starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet and You Shall Know Our Velocity based on Dave Eggers’ novel and starring Daniel Radcliffe.
“Olsson’s wealth of experience, from a background...
Olsson recently served as co-president of Ironclad Films and will work alongside director of sales Kevin Hoiseth and head of marketing and communications Marcin Janowski.
He reports to Ift founder Michael Benaroya. Among his other appointments were svp of Sobini Films at Lionsgate and was director of acquisitions at the Walt Disney Company.
Bolt is tasked with sourcing completed and development feature projects for Ift’s pipeline.
Prior to Ift she was sales and marketing executive at MediaXchange.
Ift’s slate of films includes Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire starring Michael Shannon and Gael García Bernal, Bleeding Heart starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet and You Shall Know Our Velocity based on Dave Eggers’ novel and starring Daniel Radcliffe.
“Olsson’s wealth of experience, from a background...
- 11/7/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Todd Olsson has joined International Film Trust as a sales consultant and Kenner Bolt has been appointed to the newly created position of director of acquisitions.
Olsson recently served as co-president of Ironclad Films and will work alongside director of sales Kevin Hoiseth and head of marketing and communications Marcin Janowski.
He reports to Ift founder Michael Benaroya. Among his other appointments were svp of Sobini Films at Lionsgate and was director of acquisitions at the Walt Disney Company.
Bolt is tasked with sourcing completed and development feature projects for Ift’s pipeline.
Prior to Ift she was sales and marketing executive at MediaXchange.
Ift’s slate of films includes Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire starring Michael Shannon and Gael García Bernal, Bleeding Heart starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet and You Shall Know Our Velocity based on Dave Eggers’ novel and starring Daniel Radcliffe.
“Olsson’s wealth of experience, from a background...
Olsson recently served as co-president of Ironclad Films and will work alongside director of sales Kevin Hoiseth and head of marketing and communications Marcin Janowski.
He reports to Ift founder Michael Benaroya. Among his other appointments were svp of Sobini Films at Lionsgate and was director of acquisitions at the Walt Disney Company.
Bolt is tasked with sourcing completed and development feature projects for Ift’s pipeline.
Prior to Ift she was sales and marketing executive at MediaXchange.
Ift’s slate of films includes Werner Herzog’s Salt And Fire starring Michael Shannon and Gael García Bernal, Bleeding Heart starring Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet and You Shall Know Our Velocity based on Dave Eggers’ novel and starring Daniel Radcliffe.
“Olsson’s wealth of experience, from a background...
- 11/6/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Us sales outfit launches Antti J.Jokinen thriller at Afm.
Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Toby Stephens (Black Sails) and Brian Cox (Bourne Supremacy) are set to star in thriller The Bay Of Silence, from The Resident director Antti J. Jokinen.
Us sales outfit International Film Trust has boarded the project at the Afm where it will begin sales.
The sales deal was negotiated by Kevin Hoiseth on behalf of Ift and producer Thomas Dixon on behalf of the filmmakers.
Based on Lisa St Aubin de Terán’s best-selling novel, The Bay Of Silence is written by actress turned writer Caroline Goodall (The Dressmaker) with Markus Selin of Solar Films (Purge) and Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica (Jimi: By My Side) producing.
Goodall and Peter Garde (Melancholia) are executive producers with Dixon (The Korean) and Aoife O’Sullivan (Miss Julie) on board as co-producers.
Shoot is due to begin in summer 2016 in Italy, UK and Ireland...
Uma Thurman (Kill Bill), Toby Stephens (Black Sails) and Brian Cox (Bourne Supremacy) are set to star in thriller The Bay Of Silence, from The Resident director Antti J. Jokinen.
Us sales outfit International Film Trust has boarded the project at the Afm where it will begin sales.
The sales deal was negotiated by Kevin Hoiseth on behalf of Ift and producer Thomas Dixon on behalf of the filmmakers.
Based on Lisa St Aubin de Terán’s best-selling novel, The Bay Of Silence is written by actress turned writer Caroline Goodall (The Dressmaker) with Markus Selin of Solar Films (Purge) and Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica (Jimi: By My Side) producing.
Goodall and Peter Garde (Melancholia) are executive producers with Dixon (The Korean) and Aoife O’Sullivan (Miss Julie) on board as co-producers.
Shoot is due to begin in summer 2016 in Italy, UK and Ireland...
- 11/6/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: International Film Trust heads to Cannes with sales rights to the recent Tribeca world premiere starring Jessica Biel.
Bleeding Heart also stars David Mamet’s daughter Zosia Mamet from HBO’s Girls and The Kids Are All Right. ICM Partners represents Us rights.
Ift president Christian de Gallegos and his team will commence international sales on the story of a yoga instructor who attempts to rescue her sister from an abusive relationship.
Diane Bell, whose credits include 2010 Sundance Sloan Prize winner Obselidia, wrote and directed the thriller.
Super Crispy Entertainment’s Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling and Greg Ammon of Fido Features produced. Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Dan Halsted served as executive producers.
“Bleeding Heart showcases the talents of Jessica and Zosia who are both utterly compelling in Diane’s bold, female performance-driven film, which will most certainly have international appeal,” said de Gallegos.
Kevin Hoiseth brokered the deal behalf of Ift with ICM Partners and attorney...
Bleeding Heart also stars David Mamet’s daughter Zosia Mamet from HBO’s Girls and The Kids Are All Right. ICM Partners represents Us rights.
Ift president Christian de Gallegos and his team will commence international sales on the story of a yoga instructor who attempts to rescue her sister from an abusive relationship.
Diane Bell, whose credits include 2010 Sundance Sloan Prize winner Obselidia, wrote and directed the thriller.
Super Crispy Entertainment’s Jonathan Schwartz, Andrea Sperling and Greg Ammon of Fido Features produced. Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Dan Halsted served as executive producers.
“Bleeding Heart showcases the talents of Jessica and Zosia who are both utterly compelling in Diane’s bold, female performance-driven film, which will most certainly have international appeal,” said de Gallegos.
Kevin Hoiseth brokered the deal behalf of Ift with ICM Partners and attorney...
- 5/1/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
You hear it all the time: Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News. But Americans were buying all the same, and to quote Screen International: “The current market is focused on smart money and smart deals, not volume of product”. Business at Afm was also solid though unspectacular. Moreover, the pre-buying of projects may be below the radar of this $3 billion business of international film buying and selling. TrustNordisk’s CEO Rikke Ennis says that 70% of their films are pre-sold. As you look at the upcoming Winter Rights Roundup due out in two weeks from SydneysBuzz.com/Reports, you will notice many of the films have been pre-buys this market and many films screening were already pre-sold during Afm in November.
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
And for all the complaints about Berlin, many sales agents set up private screenings before the market kicked off. What is that about?
Beki Probst, who has run the Efm since 1988, responded to the many media reports of a quieter market in an interview with ScreenDaily which sounds almost the same as the one she gave in 2009.
Quoting her current statement which I take the liberty of quoting here as it appears in Screen:
“I think that there was a good movement of business this year,” she said. In the opinion of Probst, there had been a muddying of the distinction between the Efm and the more general term of the ‘market’.
“Daphné Kapfer of Europa International representing 35 sales agents said that it was a very good Berlin, and Glen Basner of FilmNation commented that it was ‘the best Berlin’.
“Even Harvey Weinstein came just for 24 hours to sign a $7m check, and Aloft was bought by Sony Pictures Classics.
“It’s the players, and not the market, that is important. The players come here if they have the right line-up. All we can do is provide the best infrastructure, but what happens after that is up to them.”
"Sales agents were not sitting idle at their stands if one takes the example of one company in the Martin Gropius Bau: the CEO met with 90 buyers and the members of staff responsible for marketing had no less than 180 meetings in addition to ad-hoc discussions at events in the evenings."
Coproductions are the engine driving the business these days.
This year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market ended after two-and-a-half days with awards handed out to projects from Kazakhstan and Belgium.
The €6,000 Arte International Prize went to Kazakh film-maker Emir Baigazin’s planned second feature The Wounded Angel, the second part of a trilogy after his Silver Bear-winning Harmony Lessons. The €1.2m Almaty-based Kazakhfilm Jsc production has already attracted France’s Capricci Production as a co-producer and has backing in place from the Doha Film Institute and the Hubert Bals Fund.
The €10,000 Vff Talent Highlight Pitch Award was presented to Belgian director Bavo Defurne for his romantic dramedy Souvenir. The €2m co-production by Oostende-based Indeed Films with Belgium’s Frakas Productions and Germany’s Karibufilm already has backing from Flanders Audiovisual Fund, Cinefinance and public broadcaster Vrt/ Een.
India-Norway’s $55 million film to be directed by Hans Petter Moland (In Order of Disappearance)’s The Indian Bride is an exciting example of an unusual pairing of countries.
Bavaria and Senator’s joint venture Bavaria Pictures’ The Postcard Killers to be directed by Mexican director Everardo Gout shows the international expansion of talent.
The Hungary-Austria-Germany co-production of Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, or U.K.-Lithuania action comedy Redirected being sold by Content brings unusual European partners together.
U.S. born Damian John Harper’s coproduction with the German producers, brothers Jakob and Jonas Weydemann, on Los Angeles will be followed by In the Middle of the River now being developed with Zdf’s Das Kleine Fernsehspiel unit.
Shoreline’s The Infinite Man produced with Australia’s Hedone Productions in association with Bonsai Films with investment from South Australia Film Corporation through its Filmlab funding initiative, development assistance from Screen Australia is also a new sort of pairing.
Film and Music Entertainment (F&Me), Bac Films, 20 Steps Productions and Bruemmer & Herzog’s The President is shooting in Tbilisi, Georgia and is being directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Italian-Canadian producer Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Sights of Death starring Danny Glover, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Baldwin and Michael Madsen is directed by Allessandro Capone in Rome.
The Spain-u.K. co-production Second Origin is based on the best selling Catalan novel Mecanoscrit Del Segon Orgen.
The Golden Bear Winner Black Coal, Thin Ice is a Boneyard Entertainment (New York & Hong Kong) co-production with Boneyard Entertainment China (Bec), Omnijoi Media (Jiangsu, China), China Film co-production.
A sign of the times is the Swedish Film in Berlin advertisement which lists all Swedish co-productions:
In Competition: In Order of DisappearanceOut of Competition: NymphomaniacBerlinale Special: Someone You Love Generation Kplus: A Christmoose StoryPerspektive Deutsches Kino: Lamento
All are with European co-producers as is Antboy a Danish-German co-production.
One of my favorites is Gallows Hill, being sold by Im Global and already picked up by IFC for U.S. Starring Twilight actor Peter Facinelli, U.K. actress Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Colombian model and actress Carolina Guerra, it was entirely financed from within Colombia by television network Rcn’s affiliate Five 7 Media which produced with Peter Block's A Bigger Boat, David Higgins and Angelique Higgins' Launchpad Productions and Andrea Chung. The screenplay was written by Rich D’Ovidio ( The Call, Thir13en Ghosts) about a widower who takes his children on a trip to their mother’s Colombian hometown.
Another interesting combo is the Australian-Singapore co-production Canopy being sold by Odin’s Eye which was acquired by Kaleidoscope for U.K., by Kinosmith for Canada and Odin’s Eye itself for Australia. After its Tiff 2013 premiere, Monterrey acquired U.S. rights.
Cathedrals of Culture, was produced by Wim Wenders’ production company: Neue Road Movies in Germany and co-produced by Final Cut For Real (Denmark), Lotus Film (Austria), Mer Film (Norway), Les Films d'Ici 2 (France), Sundance Productions / RadicalMedia (U.S.), Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg In collaboration with Arte (Germany and France) and Wowow (Japan).
Grand Budapest Hotel is a co-production of Scott Rudin in U.S. and Studio Babelsburg in Germany.
Wouldn't you say there had to be an awful lot of business going on? If only the media knew where to look for it. Instead, they moan the same old tired tune, "Quality a bit soft. Not a lot of Big Titles. Not a lot of Big News". Oh well...
Efm Coproduction Market
Asian producer Raymond Phathanavirangoon, who was pitching the Hong Kong comedy Grooms by writer-director Arvin Chen at the Berlin Coproduction Market, announced that Germany’s augenschein filmproduktion will be a coproducer on Singaporean director Boo Junfeng’s second feature Apprentice. The film has already received backing from France’s World Cinema Support, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw of Germany and Germany's second network, Zdf’s Das kleine fernsehspiel unit. It also has Cinema Defacto as its French co-producer. Junfeng’s first film, Sandcastle, was screened at the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2010.
Cologne-based augenschein, who produced Maximilian Leo’s My Brother’s Keeper, the opening film of this year’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino and is handled internationally by Media Luna, is currently in post-production on Romanian filmmaker Florin Serban’s Box, his second feature after the 2010 Berlinale Competition film If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle.
Argentinian filmmaker Santiago Mitre whose debut The Student established him as one of the brightest and most courted young directors in Latin America was in the Co-production Market with his untitled second feature which France’s Full House connected to along with Argentina’s Union de los Rio, Argentine broadcast network Telefe, Ignacio Viale and the ubiquitous Lita Stantic.
Full House was also at the Coproduction Market with Peter Webber’s Fresh about a young thief learning the art of pickpocketing in Bogota, Colombia. It will be co-produced with Rcn affiliate Five 7 Media and 4Direcciones in Colombia and by Webber himself.
Raymond van der Kaaij, the producer of Tamar van den Dop’s Panorama title Supernova, is now financing Sundance winner Ernesto Contreras’ next feature I Dream In Another Language. The Spanish-English language project will be produced with Mexico-based Agencia Sha, and it is now casting the American lead according to producer van der Kaaij of Revolver Amsterdam. Developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and the winner of the Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaking Award, I Dream has already received support from Imcine in Mexico. Shooting is scheduled in Mexico for the end of 2014.
Revolver is now editing Bodkin Ras, the debut film of Iranian-Dutch director Kaweh Modiri, an English-language documentary-thriller set in North Scotland. The Dutch-Belgian-u.K. coproduction is set for release at the end of 2014.
Finnish film-maker Jukka-Pekka Valkeapaa’s is editing his latest feature They Have Escaped, which Revolver coproduced with Helsinki Film.
Trend of smart art genres
Another continuing trend, which began with Xyz and Celluloid Nightmares and continued with Memento, is the character-driven art genre films with tight budgets, like the Danish coming-of-age-werewolf-romance, When Animals Dream, directed by first timer Jonas Arnby, sold by Gaumont to Radius-twc for No. Americ. The Scandinavians, formerly making a mark with "Nordic Noir" are now making what they call "Nordic Twilight".
Trend of remake rights
Another trend is that of remake rights. Film Sharks reports it makes more from selling remake rights than from licensing distribution rights.
The Intouchables is selling remake rights to more countries than only India as is the sale of Other Angle’s Babysitting remake rights. Negotiations are underway with Russia, Italy and Germany.
Fruit Chan is considering an English language remake of his 2004 cult horror film Dumplings.
The market is bit too calm?…Then let us look at Cannes…
Usually by Afm you can begin the Tipped for Cannes List (which Gilles Jacob detested), but even that is a little on the quiet side. I begin to question whether all media fueled news is accurate: the slow sales being reported, the lack of pre-Cannes buzz… Is the media really investigating deeply?
Of all the trades, while Screen has the most international news and deepest analyses, Variety reports things no other trade is covering. But…still the non-news of a quiet market persists as if it were headline news. We always hear this and we are still in an economic slump, so what we wish for is not apparent, but this is not news.
Tipped for Cannes
Tipped for Cannes are Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home staring Gong Li and to be sold by Wild Bunch, Stealth’s First Law starring Mads Mikkelsen (Cannes 2012 Best Actor Award for The Hunt); Self Made (Boreg) by Shira Geffen and to be sold by Westend, shot in Hebrew and Arabic by the production and sales team behind Oscar nominated 2011 drama Footnote, the second film after Geffen’s 2007 debut Jellyfish which won the Cannes Camera d’Or. MK2’s Clouds of Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Chloe Grace Moretz and Kristen Stewart, and Naomi Kawase’s Still the Water will be delivered in time for Cannes. Pyramide International is plannng for Leviathan, a modern retelling of the biblical story which deals with some of Russia’s most important social issues to be ready for Cannes. It is directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and produced by Alexander Rodnyansky (Stalingrad) as their followup to Elena. Gaumont-cj co-production, The Target, the Korean remake of Fred Cavaye’s action thriller Point Blank will be ready in time for Cannes.
Rumors and truths about people changing positions
Rumors about Dieter Kosslick replacing Berlin’s Culture Secretary who resigned after a tax evasion scandal in which he admitted to stashing $575,000 in a Swiss bank account…Charlotte Mickie has left eOne and knowing her, she is bound to find something good elsewhere as she's too good to lose...StudioCanals Harold van Lier now leads eOne’s newly ramped international sales team and Montreal based Anick Poirier leads its subsidiary label, Seville International. Jeff Nuyts is leaving Intramovies. Nigel Sinclair and Guy East seem to be leaving Exclusive Media the company they founded as discussions with partners from Dasym Investment Strategies Bv move forward. Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures has joined International Film Trust as their director of international sales...and of course, Nadine de Barros has founded her own company, Fortitude, and was holding court at the Ritz Carlton the buzziest spot outside of the Martin Gropius Bau.
What I Saw and What I Thought
For what it's worth, here is my limited list of screenings of films seen only in the last 3 days of the festival when I was no longer "working". I am including some I actually saw at Sundance.
First and foremost -- and to be written about further in a "thought piece" as I term the articles I think long about before writing and to include my interview with the director Goran Hugo Olsson's (The Black Power Mixtapes winner of Sundance 2011 World Cinema Documentary Film Editing Award) -- Concerning Violence (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S.: Cinetic), based on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and seen at Sundance this year next to Stanley Nelson's outstanding Freedom Summer (PBS) and Greg Barker's We Are The Giant (Submarine), is a call to action for new societal models ringing out loud and clear.
Golden Bear Winner, Black Coal, Thin Ice by Diao Yinan, a Chinese noir, lacked the momentum and substance I would have expected in a winning film, though it was a fascinating way to see today's urban China. Had I been on the jury, I would have chosen the Best Director Award winning Boyhood (Isa: IFC) by Richard Linklater. But perhaps because James Schamus, an American who loves Chinese films, was President of the Jury, there might have arisen a question of disinterested objectivity. I would have to hear what jurists Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrhom, Chistoph Waltz, Tony Leung, Greta Gerwig, Mitra Farahani and Michel Gondry would have to say about the deliberations.
Speaking of jury prizes, it was a surprise the much acclaimed '71 (Isa: Protagonist, now headed by our dear Mike Goodridge) won nothing, and good Alain Renais' Life of Riley (Isa: Le Pacte) received recognition. I found Christophe Gans' La belle et la bete (Beauty and the Beast) (Isa: Pathe) an overproduced unwieldy special effects-ridden mess, even though it was exec-produced by Jérôme Seydoux who also produced the masterpiece La Grande Belleza (The Great Beauty), and starred his granddaughter Lea Seydoux. I'll stand by Cocteau's versoin. I heard Claudia Llosa (Milk of Sorrow)'s Aloft was also not widely admired.
About the best actress winning film The Little House (Isa: Shochiku could have marketed it more widely), I heard nothing at all, though it sounds really good. Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) (Isa: Beta) by brother and sister team Anna and Dietrich Brueggemann (any relation to our own Tom Brueggeman?) had a satisfying denouement and was quite engrossing with moments of humor lightening the heavy weight of the cross carried by 14 year old Maria played by Lea van Acken, a picture face out of a George de la Tour painting (Magdeline with a Smoking Flame or A Piece of Art). Macondo (Isa: Films Boutique - again! ) by Sudabeh Mortezai of Austria was a window on a world never seen before and very engrossing although the coming of age story was one we have seen before.
Not sorry to say I missed The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I, but sorry that I missed Beloved Sisters (Isa: Global Screen) of Dominik Graf, The Grand Budapest Hotel (will see it in U.S.), Argentinian Benjamin Naishat's History of Fear (Isa: Visit) -- I'll catch it in Carthegena, Guadalajara or San Sebastian I'm sure, Jack, In Order of Disappearance which sounds like the sleeper hit of the festival, Argentinan (again!) La tercera orilla (The Third Side of the River), Lou Ye's Tui Na (Blind Massage) and Rachid Bouchareb's Two Men in Town (Isa: Pathe - again!), which I heard was rather flat which is not surprising, for when non-Americans try to make an American genre, it usually misses a certain verve, but still is such an interesting subject for him to tackle, Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) (Isa: The Match Factory) from Germany, another "American" subject, but here about a German soldier in Afghanistan, not an American one.
Among the Berlinale Specials, I wish I had seen Nancy Buirski's Afternoon of a Faun which everyone said was good (Isa: Cactus Three the doc production company of Krysanne Katsoolis and Caroline Stevens) and Volker Schloendorff's 1969 Brecht piece Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Margarethe von Trotta. I did see his Diplomacy (Isa: Gaumont) which was a great treat, erudite, intimate and reminiscent of the novels of Sandor Marai (Embers and Casanova in Bolzano). Wish I could have seen Wim Wenders' Cathedrals of Culture (Isa: Cinephil), Diego Luna's Cesar Chavez (Isa: Mundial) and In the Courtyard aka Dans la cours (Isa: Wild Bunch) starring Catherine Deneuve and The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Isa: Le Pacte - again!!). I will see The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Isa: The Film Sales Company) by Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller, produced by Jonathan Dana, Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller and Celeste Schaefer Snyder (Ballets Russes), back home. The Turning (Isa: Level K), an experimental omnibus produced by my favorite Australian producer, Robert Connelly who also directed in part and Maggie Myles, is also a must-see as is Errol Morris' companion piece to The Fog of War, The Unknown Known (Isa: HanWay) and Houssein Amini's Two Faces of January (Isa: StudioCanal) starring my favorites Viggo Mortenson and Kirsten Dunst. We Come as Friends (Isa: Le Pacte), by Hubert Sauper whose earlier film Darwin's Destiny astounded me, was worth watching although so often his films plunge one into a hopeless helplessness. Fresh from Sundance, it was raising controversy and the story of the Sudan is worth knowing. His particular and peculiar Pov is valuable. Watermark (Isa: Entertainment One), another social issue worth knowing about will have to wait for a more propitious time. Personally I'm hoping Israel's current venture into desalination of water will lead the world into peace and that I will rejoice watching the doc about that.
Difret (Isa: Films Boutique - again!), fresh from Sundance where I saw it was really good and it sold well. I got to hang out with the team at the Panorama party. Gueros (Isa: Mundial - again!), was a disappointment -- too like The Year of the Nail (though different) in tone. But what a great company Canana is!
Panorama's Finding Vivian Maier (Isa: HanWay - again!) is brilliantly interesting. It is about to be released in U.S. by IFC. I highly recommend seeing this documentary about an eccentric, unknown photographer. It premiered at Tiff 2013. Fresh from Sundance where it won a Special Jury Prize, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine) was a treasure; Velvet Terrorists was about the oddest piece I have ever seen. About three former opponents of the Czechoslovakian Soviet Regime, each has continued to enjoy blowing up things. One is still training the next generation in urban guerilla warfare. They are otherwise unremarkable, sweet even, but twisted. What an odd documentary.
A quick look at the Market Films I have seen: of the 400+ premieres: Zero -- no I did see German Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Two Lives (Isa: Beta), and I will soon be home to celebrate its nomination at the famous Villa Aurora, the former home of German expatriate writer Leon Feuchtwanger. So many more films look sooooo attractive! A pity I may never get to see them. I would need all the time in the world, and I have so little. I have so much and yet I want more!
- 2/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
La-based sales company’s slate includes Cymbeline and Stephen King adaptation Cell.
Kevin Hoiseth [pictured] has joined La-based sales company International Film Trust (Ift) as director of international sales.
Hoiseth most recently served as director of international sales and marketing at Voltage Pictures where he worked on the likes of Dallas Buyers Club and Don Jon.
The new arrival will focus chiefly on Asia and Eastern Europe on an Ift slate that includes Cymbeline starring Ethan Hawke, Milla Jovovich and upcoming Fifty Shades Of Grey lead Dakota Johnson, Your Voice In My Head with Emma Watson, The King Of The Kastle starring Clive Owen and the Stephen King adaptationCell.
Ift president Christian De Gallegos and Ift co-founders Michael Benaroya, D Todd Shepherd and George Waud of Miscellaneous Entertainment made the announcement.
Kevin Hoiseth [pictured] has joined La-based sales company International Film Trust (Ift) as director of international sales.
Hoiseth most recently served as director of international sales and marketing at Voltage Pictures where he worked on the likes of Dallas Buyers Club and Don Jon.
The new arrival will focus chiefly on Asia and Eastern Europe on an Ift slate that includes Cymbeline starring Ethan Hawke, Milla Jovovich and upcoming Fifty Shades Of Grey lead Dakota Johnson, Your Voice In My Head with Emma Watson, The King Of The Kastle starring Clive Owen and the Stephen King adaptationCell.
Ift president Christian De Gallegos and Ift co-founders Michael Benaroya, D Todd Shepherd and George Waud of Miscellaneous Entertainment made the announcement.
- 2/6/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Though we've still got no Cabin Fever: Patient Zero release date here in the states, we recently learned that the infection will spread to the UK on March 17. A Canada release won't be far behind, and you'll find all the info by reading on!
From the Press Release
Raven Banner Entertainment has picked up Canadian rights to Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, part of the popular horror franchise originally created by Eli Roth. Directed by Kaare Andrews (Altitude and The ABCs of Death) penned by Jake Wade Wall (The Hitcher), and stars Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Currie Graham, Ryan Donowho, Brando Eaton and Jillian Murray.
The deal was negotiated by Michael Paszt, James Fler, and Annick Mahnert from Raven Banner Entertainment, and Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures on behalf of the producers.
When a cruise ship in the Caribbean collides with an abandoned research vessel, a deadly virus is unleashed.
From the Press Release
Raven Banner Entertainment has picked up Canadian rights to Cabin Fever: Patient Zero, part of the popular horror franchise originally created by Eli Roth. Directed by Kaare Andrews (Altitude and The ABCs of Death) penned by Jake Wade Wall (The Hitcher), and stars Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings Trilogy), Currie Graham, Ryan Donowho, Brando Eaton and Jillian Murray.
The deal was negotiated by Michael Paszt, James Fler, and Annick Mahnert from Raven Banner Entertainment, and Kevin Hoiseth from Voltage Pictures on behalf of the producers.
When a cruise ship in the Caribbean collides with an abandoned research vessel, a deadly virus is unleashed.
- 1/16/2014
- by John Squires
- DreadCentral.com
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