German distributors went on a spending spree at Cannes picking up news films by Michael Douglas, George Romero, Sophie Marceau and Cecile de France.

Splendid Film has acquired rights for German-speaking Europe to over a dozen films. The Cologne-based company’s acquisitions include:

  • Michael Douglas drama/comedy Solitary Man, with Susan Sarandon, Mary-Louise Parker, and Danny de Vito.
  • Cult director George A. Romero’s latest horror film …Of The Dead.
  • Norwegian Tommy Wirkola’s Nazi zombie horror film Dead Snow.
  • James Isaac’s horror thriller Pig Hunt, with Travis Aaron Wade, Tina Huang and Howard Johnson Jr.
  • Romantic comedy Keep It Together, starring Christopher Walken and Blythe Danner.
  • Gary McKendry’s action spectacle The Killer Elite, based on Ranulph Fiennes’ bestseller The Feathermen, with Jason Statham as a Navy Seal hunting SAS agents.
  • Wesley Snipes’ action drama Game Of Death.
  • Isaac Florentine’s New York-set martial arts film Ninja, with Scott Adkins and Tsuyoshi Ihara
  • Gene 2.0, the sequel of the The Gene Generation
  • Pang Brothers’ high-budget action fantasy film Storm Warriors II (Fung Wan II)
  • Wilson Yip’s semiautobiograpical account of Bruce Lee’s legendary Kung Fu master, Ip Man, starring Donnie Yen.
  • Kazuaki Kiya’s action drama Goemon described as a Japanese variation on the adventures of Robin Hood.

Other Cannes acquisitions by Splendid included the comedy Your Perfect Angel and the new cult film Bitch Slap.

Meanwhile, Kinowelt sealed deals in the run up to and at Cannes for the sixth instalment of the Saw horror film franchise; Belgian director Ben Stassen’s Around The World In 50 Years 3D; new films by Atom Egoyan (Chloe) and Werner Herzog (My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done); Robert Luketic’s action comedy Five Killers; and Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare At Goats, starring George Clooney.

Duisburg-based Atlas Film + Medien acquired all German language rights for three French films at the market:

Pascale Pouzadoux’s comedy De L’Autre Cote Du Lit with Sophie Marceau and Dany Boon; a remake of the Lina Ventura 1973 classic L’Emmerdeur. The film is directed by the original film’s screenwriter Francis Veber, with an ensemble cast includingRichard Berry, Patrick Timsit and Virginie Ledoyen. It has also picked up thriller Sphynx with Cecile de France

Another German independent, Freiburg-based Kool Filmverleih, came home from Cannes with three new acquisitions: Lucien Jean-Baptiste’s family comedy La Premiere Etoile, Riad Sattouf’s comedy Les Beaux Gosses, and Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds.

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