Hot projects on Screenbase this week include German-Canadian co-production In The Lost Lands, twin brothers Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser’s Dégradé, spy-thriller Damascus Cover and documentary Tomorrow.
Fantasy adventure In The Lost Lands
Milla Jovovich will star alongside Justin Chatwin in this new feature based on short stories from the creator of Game Of Thrones. The German-Canadian co-production is directed by Constantin Werner.
The story revolves around a series of magical and fantastic tales centring on a sorceress in search of a spell, a warrior girl on a quest and a young barbarian who encounters a witch in a spacecraft.
Steve Hoban, Oliver Luer and Nico Bruinsma produce. Myriad Pictures chief Kirk D’Amico will serve as an executive producer.
Terrence Malick’s Voyage Of Time
Malick’s documentary features the voices of Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. Dede Gardner, Nicolas Gonda, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad and Sophokles Tasioulis produce.
Wild Bunch already sold the film to Japan, France, Benelux and Hong Kong. Broad Green Pictures will distribute in North America.
Gaza-set comedy Dégradé
Twin brothers Mohammed Abou Nasser and Ahmad Abou Nasser direct this black comedy set against the backdrop of the real-life liberation of a stolen lioness from the compound of one of Gaza’s most powerful clans.
Hiam Abbass and Maisa Abel Hadi star, Rashid Abdelhamid is producing alongside Marie Legrand and Rani Massalha. Elle Driver handles world sales.
Spy thriller Damascus Cover
Big Book Media produces this new feature based on a novel by Howard Kaplan. The film stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Olivia Thirlby, John Hurt, Igal Naor and Jurgen Prochnow, while Daniel Berk directs.
Production started this week in Morocco. Carnaby International will handle international sales. Principal photography is scheduled to take place in Casablanca from February 5 to March 23. Local Moroccan production company H Films backed the project.
The plot takes places in the late 1980s and focuses on a veteran spy sent undercover in Syria to smuggle a chemical weapons scientist and his family out of Damascus.
Ondi Timoner’s Brand: A Second Coming
Documentary about provocative comedian and activist Russell Brand will open the 22nd South By Southwest Film Conference on March 13. This UK/US co-production features David Lynch, Katy Perry and Noel Gallagher.
Ecology documentary Tomorrow
Mélanie Laurent and Cyril Dion feature in the crowd-funded film sold by Elle Driver.
Doha-backed Madagascar 1947, The Sound Of Silence
This documentary is about the largely unknown post-WWII rebellion by Malagasy war veterans, which was harshly suppressed by the French colonial authorities. This Madagascar/France co-production is directed by Marie-Clemence Andriamonta Paes.
Apocalyptic sci-fi film SUM 1
Christian Pasquariellio will direct Iwan Rheon and German actor André Hennicke. Christian Alvart produces through Syrreal Entertainment. Shooting is set to roll on February 9. Global Screen handles international sales.
Emmanuelle Bercot’s Standing Tall
Elle Driver sells this drama about an abandoned young boy who has been in and out of juvenile courts.
Catherine Deneuve, Sara Forestier, Benoît Magimel and Rod Paradot star.
Intergenerational dramedy The Final Lesson
Pascal Pouzadoux’s next film—based on Noëlle Châtelet’s French bestseller La Dernière Leçon —focuses on a 92-year-old woman who decides to take her death into her own hands. Elle Driver handles worldwide sales.
Marcel Gisler’s Electroboy
Germany, Switzerland and UK production is also among the nominees for the 2015 Swiss Film Prize in the categories for Best Documentary, Best Score and Best Editing. Picture Tree International handles worldwide sales.
Documentary Elstree 1976
Director Jon Spira funded his new project through Kickstarter, helped by producer Hank Starrs. The film will focus on some former Star Wars actors and their memories of a long-gone epoch.
Jon Spira made a name for himself in 2011 with documentary Anyone Can Play Guitar, named one of the top 10 music films of the year by the NME. The film is currently in post-production.
Audrey Estrougo’s Jailbirds
This new French feature stars Sophie Marceau as a woman who voluntarily takes her lover’s place in prison. Julie Gayet and Nadia Turincev produce through Rouge International. Elle Diver handles international sales.
Margarethe von Trotta’s The Misplaced World
This German drama revolves around a jazz singer heading to New York in order to find an opera singer who looks like her deceased mother.
Margarethe von Trotta (Hannah Arendt) is directing. The film has already been sold to Spain, Greece, Portugal, Hungary, Israel, Turkey, Brazil, and Japan.
Documentary about iconic horse race Palio
Palio is about Italy’s famous and highly dangerous horse race which takes place every year in Siena. The documentary will revolve around a novice jockey and an older insider.
Director Cosima Spender works alongside producers James Gay-Rees and John Hunt, while Francesco Melzi d’Eril is executive producer.
Valerio Bonelli edits and the score comes from Alex Heffes. UK sales outfit Altitude has boarded the feature.
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi filmCrumbs
Miguel Llansó’s new feature is produced by Spanish-Ethiopian team Sergio Uguet de Resayre, Meseret Argaw, Daniel Taye Workou and Miguel Llansó himself. The film premiered on January 27 at IFFR.
The story is about a scrap-collector named Candy who embarks on an epic journey through Ethiopia. New Europe Film Sales has picked up the film.
Children’s feature Trenk The Little Knight
Anthony Power directs this animation based on Kirsten Boie’s bestseller. Global Screen handles world sales.
3D animation Marnie’s World
Oscar-winning directorial duo Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein direct, while Global Screen handles international sales.
Ulysses Films’ Luis and His Friends From Outer Space
Brothers Lauenstein will also direct. Fabrique d’Images and A.Film Production are coproducing, delivery is expected by late 2017/early 2018.
Simon Rouby’s Adama
This French-language animation film is to be ready by spring 2015. Océan Films Distribution is on board as French distributor. Berlin-based Picture Tree International handles world sales.
Thomas Stuber’s debut feature A Heavy Heart (Herbert)
Student Academy Award winner’s next film is in production with Departures Films. Picture Tree International handles international sales.
Recent Sundance selection The Games Maker
Cinema Management Group acquired the Argentina-Canada-Italy family film.
German-Dutch title The Little Vampire 3D
CMG Europe SAS is on board as French co-producer as well as sales agent.
Psychological documentary Poached
Timothy Wheeler’s documentary focuses on obsessive egg thieves robbing the nests of rare birds. The film will be screened at the 22nd South By Southwest Film Conference in the documentary feature competition section.
Crowd-funded Twinsters
This documentary revolves around twin sisters separated at birth. Samantha Futerman directs alongside Ryan Miyamoto.
Art feature The Night And The Kid
David Yon’s film was funded by the Doha Film Institute. The plot is about a man and a young boy wandering at night through the Algerian desert.
Workers documentary The Siren Of Faso Fani
Michel K. Zongo’s new feature deals with former workers of a cotton factory in Burkina Faso and is co-produced by France, Burkina Faso and Qatar.
Ghassan Salhab’s thriller The Valley
This France/Germany/Lebanon co-production focuses on an amnesiac man held hostage on a local farm. It is backed by the Doha Film Institute.
Claire Belhassine’s The Man Behind the Microphone
This documentary funded by the Doha Film Institute tells the amazing story of Hedi Jouini, the godfather of Tunisian music.
Drama To All Naked Men
Bassam Chekhes’s new feature is co-produced by France and Turkey and backed by the Doha Film Institute. The story is set in the aftermath of the Syrian war.
Drama-thriller Candlestick
The film is directed by Christopher Presswell and stars Andrew Fitch, Isla Ure, Nigel Thomas and Tom Knight. It centres on a social gathering that is rocked when the host accuses his best friend’s wife of infidelity. It will be released in April.
Isla Ure’s feature debut Halcyon Heights
The film is currently in post-production and set for a summer 2015 completion. Workbus handles sales.
Spy adventure The Shadow Man
Workbus also handles international sales for this film set to shoot in September.
Fashion house documentary Dior And I
Dior and I brings the viewer inside the storied world of the Christian Dior fashion house with a behind-the-scenes look at the creations of Raf Simons’ first haute couture collection as its new artistic director.
Deals have been agreed in Australia & NZ, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France and Spain. Dogwoof Global handles world sales.
Jerry Rothwell’s How To Change the World
How To Change The World is the story of the pioneers who founded Greenpeace and defined the modern green movement. The documentary took the Special Jury Award for Editing in World Cinema at Sundance.
Mor Loushy’s Censored Voices
The film will have its European premiere in Berlin Panorama. This documentary revolves around the 1967 ‘Six-Day War’.
New sequel Berlin, I Love You
Jan Ole Gerster, Marjane Satrapi, Giuseppe Tornatore and Oren Moverman are among the filmmakers attached to direct episodes for the omnibus film. To date, there have been Cities of Love omnibus films dedicated to Paris, New York and Rio de Janeiro.
Award-winning Modris
New sales outfit Pluto Films’ initial slate includes Latvian director Juris Kursietis’ Modris.
Michael Wenning’s The Blue Mauritius
Wenning is due to start shoot in spring in Berlin on the tale of a mysterious person who hires a team of glamourous thieves to steal the most valuable stamp in the world. Amr Waked, Sönke Möhring and Anika Noni Rose star. Double Dutch International handles sales.
Drama 45 Years
Andrew Haigh’s new film stars Charlotte Rampling and Geraldine James.
Psychological horror The Canal
The Irish/UK co-production stars Rupert Evans, Antonia Campbell-Hughes and Steve Oram, and follows a film archivist driven insane by newsreel footage that reveals his home was the scene of a brutal murder. Jinga Films handles international sales.
Documentary Iraqi Odyssey
Berlin will see the European premiere of the film about the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation of Iraq.
Sundance title Fresh Dressed
The US/French co-production uses archival footage from the 1970s to the present day and interviews with the likes of Kanye West and Jay Z to explore the relationship between fashion and hip hop. Dogwoof handles sales.
Kickstarter-funded Endless Poetry
The feature marks the first co-production between Chile, Japan and France. Endless Poetry revolves around cult film-maker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s life as a poet in Santiago during the 1940s.
Uplink’s Takashi Asai is launching international sales on the project at the European Film Market.
Drama The Carer
Brian Cox, Emilia Fox, Anna Chancellor and newcomer Coco König will star. Production is set to begin in the UK later this month.
Producers are Jozsef Berger of Mythberg Films (Hungary), Steve Bowden of Vita Nova Films (UK), Charlotte Wontner of Hopscotch Films (UK), and Kai Künnemann of A-Company (Germany).
Biopic The Pilgrim - Paulo Coelho’s Best Story
Directed by Daniel Augusto and written by Carolina Kotscho, The Pilgrim chronicles the life of Paulo Coelho from misunderstood boy and rebellious youth to best-selling author.
Music Box Films has acquired North American distribution rights.
Afghan war documentary Tell Spring Not To Come This Year
Sales will be handled by Pierre Weisbein, formerly of Goldcrest, Canal+ and StudioCanal.
Sequel The Visitors: Bastille Day
The film is the third instalment in the highly successful time-travel franchise. Popular French actor Christian Clavier will reprise his role as Jacquasse the Crass, the uncouth servant of bumbling knight Godefroy the Hardy, played by Jean Reno.
Christian Vincent’s Courted
On the first day of a complicated court case, revolving around a man accused of kicking a baby girl to death, he is stunned to see a woman he has silently admired from afar for years enter as one of the jurors.
Danish star Sidse Babett Knudsen co-stars alongside Fabrice Luchini.
Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
Salma Hayek Pinault produced and spearheaded the project based on the Lebanese author’s book.
The voice cast includes Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek-Pinault, Quvenzhané Wallis, John Krasinski, Frank Langella and Alfred Molina. The film premiered in Cannes.
Berlin title As We Were Dreaming
As We Were Dreaming continues The Match Factory’s relationship with director Andreas Dresen and producer Peter Rommel. It stars Joel Basman and Henning Tadäus Beeck.
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