AFM buzz: UK sellers

David Garrett’s fast-growing Mister Smith Entertainment comes to market with hot comedy-drama Imagine, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Renner and Julianne Moore. Dan Fogelman directs his own script about an ageing rocker who reconnects with his son and his music. Denise Di Novi, Jessie Nelson and Nimitt Mankad produce, with the shoot set for spring 2013. WME handles US. Mister Smith, which recently inked a major licensing deal with DreamWorks, will also be showing a trailer of thriller 3,096 Days, based on the autobiography of Austrian kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch. Most major European territories are available.

Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar’s new Embankment Films will be enticing buyers with Roger Michell’s romantic comedy Le Weekend, which shoots in early November, and sci-fi actioner Our Robot Overlords, due to shoot in 2013, from Grabbers director Jon Wright. Their Iraq war thriller Mission: Blacklist, starring Robert Pattinson, is in pre-production with Preferred Content co-representing North American rights with WME Global.

HanWay’s diverse slate includes market debuts for Mike Newell drama Reykjavik starring Michael Douglas and Christoph Waltz as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev respectively; and Errol Morris documentary The Unknown Known: The Life And Times Of Donald Rumsfeld. See-Saw Films-produced Tracks, starring Mia Wasikowska, crime comedy Dom Hemingway, starring Jude Law and Richard E Grant, and Pascal Chaumeil-directed comedy A Long Way Down are currently in production and there are promos for Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive and comedy Lucky Dog, starring Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti. Both are in post-production. Diego Luna’s Cesar Chavez biopic, Chavez, is in production.

eOne’s London-based sales division will be showing selected scenes from comedy The F Word starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan, which is handled by UTA for the US, while thriller Cut Bank starring Armie Hammer and Ben Kingsley and Errol Morris’ dark comedy Freezing People Is Easy are both due to shoot early 2013.

Pathé International will be at AFM with market debuts for Stephen Frears’ drama Philomena, starring Steve Coogan and Judi Dench, and feature Diversity, starring the eponymous British street-dance troupe who won Britain’s Got Talent. Awaited Nelson Mandela biopic Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom and Denis Villeneuve thriller An Enemy are in post, while UK thriller Last Passenger gets its first market screening.

Will Clarke’s Altitude Film Entertainment makes its anticipated market debut (sales are led by Mike Runagall) with four intriguing projects, all set to shoot in the first quarter of 2013: Ewan McGregor will star in Australia-set heist thriller Son Of A Gun; Corin Hardy will direct Ireland-set horror title The Good People, produced by Joe Neurauter and Felipe Marino of Occupant Entertainment (ICM handles US); sci-fi action-thriller Outpost 37 marks the directorial debut of VFX maestro Jabbar Raisani; and Owen Harris will direct Rafe Spall in the adaptation of John Niven’s acclaimed novel about the UK music industry, Kill Your Friends.

Protagonist’s buzzy and busy slate includes market debuts for comedy Frank starring Michael Fassbender, Yann Demange’s action-thriller 71, Monsters sequel Monsters - The Dark Continent and UK action-thriller Kill Command, all of which are in pre-production as well as Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers follow-up A Field In England and Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, both of which are in post-production. Protagonist has footage of Kevin Macdonald’s How I Live Now and promo reels for StreetDance All Stars and action-epic Hammer Of The Gods, while Australian comedy Save Your Legs! gets a first market screening. John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary and Richard Ayoade’s The Double are in post-production.

Ealing Metro will generate interest for its slate with Falklands War action-adventure film Destroyer, which is set to shoot in spring starring Paul Bettany, and Nina Simone biopic Nina, starring Zoe Saldana, which is in production. Better Living Through Chemistry is in post-production and there will be a promo of Biyi Bandele’s Half Of A Yellow Sun.

WestEnd Films has a market debut for David Gordon Green’s drama Joe, starring Nicolas Cage, which is in production, and there is a promo for Ralph Fiennes’ Charles Dickens drama The Invisible Woman. Gabriele Salvatores’ Siberian Education is in post-production.

Luc Roeg’s Independent Film Company will be introducing buyers to drama The Sea, adapted from John Banville’s Booker Prize-winning novel, which is currently in production, and Africa-set horror Safari from director Robert Heath, which shoots next year. Anticipated comedy A Glimpse Inside The Mind Of Charles Swan III, starring Charlie Sheen, has a market premiere screening ahead of its Rome Film Festival premiere and an early 2013 US release through A24.

GFM Films has an intriguing slate of projects in development, including Lorenzo di Bonaventura-produced sci-fi title Neuromancer, and Fyodor Bondarchuk-directed thriller The Winter Queen, which has Milla Jovovich attached. Australian thriller Blowback, animation Stonerunner and Warp-produced thriller The Job are also slated for 2013, while Vinnie Jones thriller Schism and action-adventure Tomb Of the Dragon, starring Dolph Lundgren, are in post.

K5 will have a market debut for Renée Zellweger’s comedy 4 1/2 Minutes, which also stars Johnny Knoxville and Nick Nolte, and is in pre-production, and first market screenings for Paul Walker actioner Vehicle 19 and Status Quo documentary Hello Quo.

Bankside’s period drama Belle, produced by Damian Jones, is in production, as is Australian sci-fi film Patrick, and there are market screenings for iLL Manors, Wasteland and Everyday. US thriller Innocence is in post-production.

Simon Crowe’s SC Films will be at the market with a solid slate including family animation Flying South, the next film to come out of SC’s fruitful partnership with Animation Picture Company. The Reef 2: High Tide 3D has a first market screening while Jungle Shuffle 3D is in production. A Liar’s Autobiography - The Untrue Story Of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman also screens.

Salt will be presenting comedy Johnson, starring Cam Gigandet, currently in production, and action epic Northmen - A Viking Saga, to be directed by Claudio Faeh in 2013. Comedy Welcome To The Jungle, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, has a first market screening.

Kaleidoscope will be handling sales on Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and will be pushing new titles iKllr, The Seasoning House and nature doc The Green Planet, while Tristan Whalley’s Goalpost is re-teaming with the producer and writer of hit The Sapphires on Six Mile Bottom, a historical thriller currently in development.

The Works has a market premiere for Australian comedy-horror 100 Bloody Acres and screenings for comedy drama Good Vibrations and thriller Ashes.

Intandem will be touting 10 Things I Hate About Life, from director Gil Junger and producer Andrew Lazar, which is in pre-production, as well as development projects Holidater, Ocean Beach, Drifter and Famous. Stephen Gyllenhaal-directed comedy Grassroots is completed, as are UK comedy Jadoo and drama Believe (aka Theatre Of Dreams).

Genre specialist Jinga will have first screenings for anticipated comedy horror Black Forest: Hansel & Gretel & The 420 Witch, thriller Tulpa and horror Sawney: Flesh Of Man.

Celsius’ first market screenings include Mexican horror Come Out And Play and romantic comedy The First Time, while Moviehouse will give first market screenings to Nativity 2: Danger In The Manger! and drama I Declare War and has footage of New Zealand musical Romeo And Juliet: A Love Song, which is in post-production.

AV Pictures will give a market debut to James Moore and William Spicer’s well-received documentary Mission To Lars, about an autistic man’s journey to meet rock band Metallica.