All AFM articles – Page 116

  • News

    Celluloid Dreams sells Let's Make Money to Ad Vitam in France

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Early in the market, Paris-based Celluloid Dreams has closed a deal with Ad Vitam in France for Let's Make Money, its timely new feature-documentary about global finance and its woes. The film is directed by Erwin Wagenhofer and produced by Allegro's Helmut Grasser. Filmladen is handling its release in Austria ...

  • News

    Martinez's Cinepro takes on $20m thriller Tribes Of October

    2008-11-07T06:00:00Z

    Philippe Martinez returns to AFM with production and sales start-upCinepro Pictures and is introducing buyers to the $20m supernaturalthriller Tribes Of October.Martinez will direct and co-produce with screenwriters Nick Valelongaand Paul Sloane. The story is styled as a police thriller with adevilish twist and filming is set to begin in ...

  • News

    Deepa Mehta teams with Salman Rushdie for Midnight's Children

    2008-11-06T14:55:00Z

    Deepa Mehta is lining up a feature version of Midnight's Children with author Salman Rushdie, whose masterpiece of magic realism about the birth of modern India has remained untouched by film-makers for nearly 30 years.The film-maker announced the film with Rushdie today, at the eighth annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council ...

  • News

    Mirovision, M to partner on Youth Is Reckless

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Korea's Mirovision is partnering with M Production to produce Youth IsReckless, by Lee Myung-se, the director of the visual extravaganza M,martial arts mystery Duelists, and crime action film Nowhere To Hide.Youth Is Reckless is based on the Book of Five Rings, a classic samuraitreatise by Miyamoto Musashi, which Lee was ...

  • News

    M-Line pre-sells Kitchen to Japan's Showgate

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    New Korean sales outfit M-Line has pre-sold romantic drama Kitchen to Showgate for Japan.The $1.2m film is due for a February 2009 release in Korea. Starring Ju Ji-hun, from the pan-Asian TV series Princess Hour, the film follows members of a suicide club who end up in a gruesome survival ...

  • News

    Miranda Richardson to narrate Turtle's Incredible Journey

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Long-gestating wildlife feature documentary The Turtle's Song, on Sola Media's slate here, has been given a name change and has recruited Miranda Richardson as narrator.The film will now be known as The Turtle's Incredible Journey. It should finally be ready in time for the Berlinale in February.Just prior to the ...

  • News

    Stallone reunites with Nu Image/Millennium for Expendables

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Following their successful collaboration on the global hit Rambo, Sylvester Stallone and Nu Image/Millennium Films are reuniting on action thriller The Expendables. Stallone wrote and will direct and star alongside Jason Statham with Jet Li in final negotiations to join the story of mercenaries who embark on a ...

  • News

    Stormare doubles up with Gnomes and Trolls

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Swedish actor Peter Stormare (Fargo, Bad Boys II) is to voice a schizophrenic hedgehog in NonStop Sales' Gnomes AndTrolls The Secret Chamber. The versatile Stormare is then to voice acompletely different role, that of Leif The Gnome King, in the sequel.'The hedgehog will be not be part of number two,' ...

  • News

    Lightning dives into Prodigy's The Reef

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Santa Monica-based Lightning Entertainment has acquired worldwiderights excluding Australia and New Zealand to Prodigy Movies' survivalthriller The Reef.Lightning co-presidents Rich Goldberg and Richard Guardian are takingtheir first executive producers on Andrew Traucki's tale of a group ofholidaymakers in Australia who are terrorised by a giant shark aftertheir boat capsizes. Principal ...

  • News

    Ealing goes gravedigging with John Landis comedy

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    John Landis will direct black comedy Burke And Hare for Ealing Studios and Fragile Films.Based on a true story, Burke And Hare is about two 19th century graverobbers who find a lucrative business providing cadavers for an Edinburgh medical school. Piers Ashworth and Nick Moorcroft, who previously wrote Ealing hit ...

  • News

    Christopher Hampton returns to directing with White Chameleon

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Christopher Hampton is to return to directing. The Oscar-winningEnglish writer/filmmaker, who picked up a Special Jury prize in Cannesfor Carrington in 1995 and also won plaudits for his Atonementscreenplay, is now to write and direct White Chameleon.The new project is being put together by UK producer Chris Curling'sZephyr Films and ...

  • News

    Central Partnership launches new Russian spy franchise

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    As the latest Bond movie Quantum Of Solace is launched worldwide, the Russiansare hatching their very own spy franchise.Here at the AFM,Moscow-based Central Partnership is introducing buyers to spy movie ManOf The East, starring Sergey Astakhov and Vladimir Epifantsev. Thefilm chronicles the adventures of Russian special intelligence agentYegor Kremnyov. ...

  • News

    Shochiku sells Tadashi Mori's Panda Diary to Wild Bunch

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Japanese entertainment conglomerate Shochiku has sold documentary PandaDiary to Wild Bunch for France, Benelux, Germany and Italy.Directed by Tadashi Mori, the documentary follows the lives ofendangered pandas who have never lived in the wild forest. Shot in theChendu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in China and AdventureWorld in Japan, ...

  • News

    IFC Festival Direct moves into High Point's Left Bank

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    High Point Films continues its AFM sales with IFC Festival Direct taking North American rights to chiller Left Bank.The deal was struck with High Point's director of sales Elisar Cabrera and IFC manager of acquisitions Jeff Deutchman.Left Bank is the feature debut of Belgian director Pieter van Hees, part of ...

  • News

    Bankside strikes US Baker deal with Panorama

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    UK-based Bankside Films has kicked off the AFM by announcing that Panorama Entertainment has taken all US rights to Gareth Lewis' The Baker.Gareth's brother Damian Lewis stars with Kate Ashfield and Michael Gambon. The comedy is about a hitman who hides out in a remote village where locals mistake him ...

  • News

    Intandem rocks with Bendelack's Sweet Baby Jesus

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    London-based Intandem Films has taken on worldwide rights for Steve Bendelack's new comedy Sweet Baby Jesus. The cast will include Lily Tomlin, Tom Green, Melanie Griffith, Michael McKean, Alison Pill (Milk), and Sean Brosnan (Laws Of Attraction).The ensemble comedy revisits the story of the Nativity set in 1970s Bethlehem, Maryland. ...

  • News

    Maximum takes on international sales for Michod's Animal Kingdom

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Maximum Films International has picked up international sales rights on writer-director David Michôd's crime thriller Animal Kingdom, starring Guy Pearce. Its allied releasing arm, Maximum Films Distribution, will handle the film in Canada. The film goes starts shooting in Melbourne early next year.The Australia-produced saga explores the Melbourne underworld, where ...

  • News

    Goldwyn takes US rights to American Violet

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired US rights to Uncommon Productions'American Violet starring Alfre Woodard and newcomer Nicole Behariefollowing its world premiere at Telluride.Director and producer Tim Disney and his screenwriter and UncommonProductions partner Bill Haney are meeting with international buyersat AFM.Samuel Goldwyn plans a March release for the story of ...

  • News

    Geoffrey Rush sings along with Bankside's Bran Nue Dae

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Geoffrey Rush has signed on to lead the cast of Bran Nue Dae, which Bankside Films is selling here. Fellow Australian actors Ernie Dingo, Missy Higgins and Dan Sultan will also star in the feature adaptation of the popular Australian stage musical. Rachel Perkins co-writes and directs.Principal photography started in ...

  • News

    AFM kicks off with record world premieres and solid footing in November

    2008-11-06T06:00:00Z

    Whatever the economic woes in the outside world, the American Film Market (AFM) remains in robust health. That was the message yesterday as the 29th edition of the market got underway.'There are 527 films are screening here in Santa Monica, among them 102 world premieres, the highest we've ever had,' ...