All Middle East articles – Page 226

  • News

    Sony sells Japanese anime to France

    2007-02-12T04:00:00Z

    Rezo Films has acquired French rights from Sony Pictures ReleasingInternational (SPRI) to the Japanese anime title Tekkonkinkreet, whichreceived its world premiere in Berlin's Generation 14Plus strand.Rezo has set an April 25 theatrical release date for the Studio 4°C andAniplex co-production, which will be renamed Amer Beton for the Frenchmarket.Tekkonkinkreet is ...

  • News

    Levinson comedy books major territory sales for 2929

    2007-02-12T04:00:00Z

    2929 International has closed a raft of sales on Barry Levinson's upcoming comedy What Just Happened'Rights have gone to Telemunchen (Germany), Medusa (Italy), TF1 (France), and Manga (Spain).Shooting is scheduled to begin on Mar 22 with Robert De Niro in the lead as a desperate producer in the throes of ...

  • News

    B2B Belgrade Industry Meetings names 12 pitch projects

    2007-02-11T16:25:00Z

    New feature films from Eastern Europe and Central Asia are among 12 projects to be pitched at this year's B2B Belgrade Industry Meetings from March 2-4.They include Branko Schmidt's Metastases (Croatia), Kirill Serebrennikov's Diva(Russia) and Rusudan Chkonia's Keep Smiling! (Georgia).In addition to the public pitchings and one-to-one meetings with potential ...

  • News

    Tartan, Prokino among buyers wooing Chaotic Ana

    2007-02-11T15:32:00Z

    Julio Medem''s Chaotic Ana is stirring buyers'' juices. Early in the EFM, Sogepaq has closed deals on a number of major territories. The film has gone to the UK (Tartan), Germany and Austria (Prokino), Benelux (Cineart and A-Film) and Greece and Cyprus (Prooptiki).Starring Manuela Velles and Charlotte Rampling, the $6.5 ...

  • News

    Aku Louhimies back on his feet with She-Wolf

    2007-02-11T09:23:00Z

    Finnish director Aku Louhimies is is pushing ahead with his next project, She-Wolf, putting controversy over his last film behind him.Produced by Aleksi Bardy of Helsinki Film, the new film begins shootingin April. Based on a novel by Leena Lander, it is a love story set inthe Finnish civil war. ...

  • News

    Katapult scores with Zidane documentary

    2007-02-11T08:53:00Z

    Katapult Films Sales has closed deals on several titles here, led byDouglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's experimental documentary Zidane:A XXI Century Portrait.Rights have gone to Kinowelt in Germany and Circulo in Spain. Salesagent David Jourdan completed a deal for Italian rights with Dolmenbefore the market.Meanwhile Maria Maggenti's romantic comedy Puccini ...

  • News

    Okonedo to star in Skin

    2007-02-11T08:31:00Z

    The Little Film Company is commencing sales here on true-lifeSouth African saga Skin starring Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo.Shooting is set to begin in May on the co-production between the UK'sElysian Films and Bard Entertainments and South Africa's MoonlightingFilms.The project centres on the extraordinary genetic case of Sandra Laing,a black woman ...

  • News

    Verhoeven opens book on Russian Azazel.

    2007-02-11T08:24:00Z

    Paul Verhoeven is ramping up production on his long-gestating tsaristRussian crime romp The Winter Queen, now called Azazel.Shooting is set to begin this summer in St Petersberg and London afterPeter Hoffman's Los Angeles-based Seven Arts Pictures finalisedpay-or-play deals for Verhoeven and Milla Jovovich.Verhoeven's long-time collaborator Gerard Soeteman, who wrote thedirector's ...

  • News

    Friend and Barr cast for Russian gangster movie

    2007-02-11T08:20:00Z

    UK actor Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) and Jean-Marc Barr (Dancer In The Dark) are attached as cast for US writer-director Tony Pemberton's $ 4.5m gangster movie Buddha's Little Finger based on the novel of the same name by Victor Pelewin.The film's Berlin-based producer Rohfilm has brought Mikhail Kalatozov's Kalatozov ...

  • News

    Rock Haven finds home with TLA

    2007-02-11T08:07:00Z

    TLA Releasing has acquired worldwide rights here from journalist andfirst-time film-maker David Lewis to his drama Rock Haven.The story follows a spiritual man who moves to the coast to live withhis devoutly Christian mother and falls in love with an older man.Newcomer Sean Hoagland stars with Laura Jane Coles and ...

  • News

    Lordi ready to rock for Finnish horror film

    2007-02-11T08:02:00Z

    Finnish monster hard-rock group Lordi, which won last year's Eurovision Song Contest, will star in a $5m horror movie from Finnish producer Markus Selin, of Solar Films, who has for the last four years delivered the number one local top-grossers on the Finnish charts.Selin will be in Berlin to discuss ...

  • News

    Skarsgaard to star in Scandinavia's most expensive film project

    2007-02-11T07:57:00Z

    Swedish Hollywood-actor Stellan Skarsgaard will star in The Knight Templar - Svensk Filmindustri's $30.3m (Euro 22.8m) adaption of Swedish writer Jan Guillou's bestselling trilogy of Arn Magnusson - currently lensing on locations in Morocco.Skarsgaard will perform as Arn's uncle in Scandinavia's so far most expensive film project - two features, ...

  • News

    Wajda film throws spotlight on Polish film fund

    2007-02-11T07:34:00Z

    The expected unveiling at this year's Cannes Film Festival of Andrzej Wajda's Post Mortem will also serve as the international launch party of Poland's generous but still largely unknown new film fund. Wajda, whose Man Of Iron won the top prize at Cannes in 1981, will be among the ...

  • News

    Lovers, Lies And Thieves resurrected by Girard

    2007-02-11T04:00:00Z

    Lovers, Lies And Thieves - a comedy caper whichfell apart five weeks into pre-production in 2001 - is back on themarket courtesy of Arsam International's Illann Girard, producer ofBerlinale competition entry Goodybe Bafana and executive producer ofMarch Of The Penguins. The project is a comic take on the true story ...

  • News

    BFI, Bac sign French deal for Distant Voices Still Lives

    2007-02-11T04:00:00Z

    The British Film Institute struck a deal with Bac Films for all Frenchrights to the BFI's restoration of Terence Davies' Distant Voices StillLives. The BFI will re-release the film theatrically in the UK in April followed by a new DVD release. Bac Film's Jean Labadie negotiated the deal with BFI ...

  • News

    Criterion commits to Berlin Alexanderplatz

    2007-02-11T04:00:00Z

    In what promises to result in its most lavish compendium to date, high-end US DVD distributor The Criterion Collection has bought US DVD rights Reiner Werner Fassbinder's monumental 939-minute Berlin Alexanderplatz: Remastered. The film is screening in its entirety today at the Volksbuhne, starting at 10am and finishing at 3am ...

  • News

    ETF lines up Holland and Nettelback projects

    2007-02-10T15:22:00Z

    Germany's Egoli Tossell Films (ETF) is moving forward fast with new films from Agnieszka Holland and Sandra Nettelback in addition toMichael Hoffman's $20m Tolstoy drama The Last Station to star AnthonyHopkins and Meryl Streep.Holland is directing Peter & Catherine which ETF will co-produce withChris Curling's Zephyr Film. Chloe Sevigny is ...

  • News

    Russia not yet in from the cold

    2007-02-10T15:13:00Z

    For all its explosive box office growth, Russia remains a problematic market where DVD revenues are minimal and an impending law reducing the amount of allowable TV advertising threatens to undercut film pre-sales by broadcast networks.This sobre assessment was provided by a panel discussion on the Russian marketplace at Screen ...

  • News

    Fortissimo scores German hat trick with Kinowelt

    2007-02-10T04:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has closed a three-picture deal with Kinowelt Filmverleih consisting of Martin Scorsese's untitled Rolling Stones documentary, Christopher Guest's comedy For Your Consideration and Marion Hansel's Africa-set drama Sounds Of Sand. The deal was brokered by Kinowelt's founder and chief Rainer Kolmel and Fortissimo executive vice president, international sales, ...

  • News

    Sola Media takes on sales for $3m Turtle's Song

    2007-02-10T04:00:00Z

    Germany-based sales company Sola Media has picked up rights to nature documentary The Turtle's Song, from UK producers Film & Music Entertainment and Big Wave Productions. Sola has world rights excluding Austria and Finland to the theatrical feature produced by F&ME's Mike Downey, Sam Taylor and Zorana Piggott and Big ...