ARP takes French rights to Venice title Seediq Bale

The deal was negotiated by Fortissimo’s Nicole Mackey and Michael J. Werner with ARP co-head Michèle Halberstadt. It follows the sale of the film’s UK rights to Optimum Releasing, announced last week.

Produced by John Woo, Terence Chang and Jimmy Huang, the $25m Taiwanese epic will receive its word premiere in Official Competition at the upcoming Venice film festival. It will then screen at Toronto as a Special Presentation

Directed by Wei Te-sheng (Cape No. 7), the film is gearing up for the biggest ever release for a Taiwanese production – on the same amount of screens as for Transformers 2 – with 100,000 tickets pre-sold for its September opening.

On making the announcement, Fortissimo’s Mackey said: “We are thrilled that ARP will be handling this epic in France. Michèle and Laurent have a great eye for extraordinary films and it’s a testament to the great creative forces behind this project that ARP has preemptively taken it on before its Venice premiere.”

ARP’s Halberstadt said: “We have had a long and positive association with Taiwanese cinema and also with our good friends at Fortissimo – we are looking forward to working with this extraordinary film in France.”