Paris-based sales company Elle Driver has closed a slew of sales for Guillaume Nicloux’s Lockdown Tower and Yann Samuell’s The Lulus ahead of Unifrance’s annual Rendez-Vous in Paris (January 11-17, 2023).
Lockdown Tower has sold to Signature Entertainment for the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, to California Filmes for Latin America and to Capelight for German-speaking Europe. Other sales include Vie Vision Pictures for Taiwan, Klockworks in Japan, Media4Fun in Poland, NK Contents in Korea and Capella Film for CIS and the Baltics. A US distributor will be announced soon.
The film – titled La Tour in French – is about a group of residents who must fight for survival when their building tower is enveloped in a deadly black veil. The film is produced by Les Films du Worso’s Sylvie Pialat and Benoit Quainon alongside Unité’s Bruno Nahon. The film will screen for buyers at the Rendez-Vous following premieres at the Rome Film Festival and Sitges. Lockdown Tower is veteran director Nicloux’s 16th feature following 2019’s Thalasso that screened at San Sebastian, 2015 Cannes Competition title Valley Of Love and 2013 Berlin premiere The Nun.
Elle Driver’s family adventure drama The Lulus, adapted from a popular comic book series about a group of young orphans at the dawn of World War I, has also pre-sold to several territories including Gussi for Latin America, Rai Cinema in Italy, Outsider in Portugal, Distri7 in Benelux and Paradise Film Distribution for CIS and the Baltics.
Elle Driver will screen the film for the first time for buyers at the Rendez-Vous in Paris. The Lulus stars François Damiens, Alex Lutz and Isabelle Carré and is produced by Wild Bunch, Superprod, les Films du Lézard, Elle Driver and Bidibul. Samuell directed 2003 romantic comedy Love Me If You Dare starring Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard and 2011’s War Of The Buttons.
Also on Elle Driver’s Rendez-Vous slate is Party Of Fools (Le Bal des Folles), Arnaud des Pallières’ eighth feature set in 1984 Paris and and inspired by the 19th-century La Pitié Salepetrière all-female mental institution that housed thousands of women, mostly against their will. The story of female solidarity stars Mélanie Thierry, Marina Fois, Carole Bouquet, Josiane Balasko and Yolande Moreau and is produced by Coda producer Philippe Rousselet alongside Jonathan Blumenthal for Prélude.
Elle Driver will unveil first look images to buyers for Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams, the story of the friendship between a dog and a Robot. It marks the Spanish director’s first foray into animation adapted from a popular graphic novel set in an imaginary 1980s New York populated by animals with no definable age of gender that the director describes as his love letter to the city where he lived for a decade. Robot Dreams is produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures with Noodles Production and Les Films du Worso.
Rounding out the slate is Cédric Kahn’s 12th film Making Of, described as a film-within-a-film comical fiasco feature that stars Denis Podalydès, Jonathan Cohen and Stefan Crepon alongside Emmanuelle Bercot and is produced by Olivier Delbosc for Curiosa Films.
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