Kinowelt and Universum buy big in Cannes

In addition to the previously announced Paul Walker thriller Vehicle 19,Kinowelt secured rights to Relativity Media’s family adventure The Brothers Grimm: Snow White by Tarsem Singh, starring Julia Roberts as the evil queen, Lily Collins as the title character and Armie Hammer as the prince.

The Leipzig-based company also acquired the rights for Niels Arden Oplev’s Afghanistan-set action thriller The Last Photograph which has Kinowelt’s parent company StudioCanal co-fnancing the film with Joel Silver’s Dark Castle. Studio Canal is handling sales on the film for the rest of the world outside of North America where it will be released via Dark Castle’s distribution deal with Warner Bros.

Moreover, Kinowelt, who will be moving its headquarters to Berlin this summer, continues its relationship with filmmaker Martin Scorsese by signing up for his new documentary Living In The Material World about the late George Harrison. The musician’s widow Olivia, who will also be co-producing the film, will provide Scorsese with access to unpublished material and never-before-seen footage.

Previously, Kinowelt had theatrically released Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film Shine A Light, which opened the Berlinale in 2008.

Speaking about this year’s Cannes deals, Kinowelt CEO Wolfgang Braun said that the company had “a successful market and got exactly those films we wanted. Our line-up profits here again from our acquisition and production activities as StudioCanal and from individual acquisitions for Germany and Austria.“

Meanwhile, Munich-based distribution outfit Universum Film picked up Nicolas Winding Refn’s high-octane film noir Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan, which received the Best Director trophy in Cannes’ Official Competition this year, and French action thrilller specialist Olivier Megaton’s Colombiana, produced and co-written by Luc Besson and starring Avatar’s Zoe Saldana in the lead role as a cold-blooded assassin.