Hot projects on Screenbase

Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon

Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks, Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote and Jena Malone have signed on to co-star in Nicolas Winding Refn’s next feature.

“After making Drive and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of The Neon Demon,” Winding Refn said.

Principal photography will begin in Los Angeles on March 30. Gaumont and Wild Bunch are co-selling the title.

Wim Wenders’ Les Beaux Jours D’Aranjuez

This adaptation of the play by Peter Handke was announced by Alfama’s Paulo Branco during the EFM. It will star Reda Kateb and Sophie Semin. Wenders is expected to shoot in June.

Brady Corbet’s The Childhood Of A Leader

This directorial feature debut is currently shooting in Hungary. Berenice Bejo, Robert Pattinson, Stacy Martin, Liam Cunningham, Yolande Moreau and Sophie Curtis star. The film charts the birth of a terrifying ego during the rise of fascism in the early 20^th century.

Producers are Chris Coen, Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Helena Danielsson and Istvan Major. Ron Curtis, Brian Young, Aaron L. Gilbert, Michael Sherman, Matthew Perniciaro and Patrick Murray executive produce, with Genevieve Lemal co-producing.

Pope biopic Francisco

Francisco is the first officially endorsed biopic of Pope Francis. The $6m Spanish-language film is currently shooting between Buenos Aires, Madrid and Rome.

Beda Docampo Feijoo directs the film from his adapted screenplay based on Elisabetta Pique’s official biography. Dario Grandinetti stars as the Argentina-born Pontiff.

Prison-based comedy-drama The Special One

Timothy Spall is set to star in this new British feature. He will play an eccentric prisoner obsessed by the performance of the English football team in the World Cup.

The project, scripted by Falcon Fields and executive produced by Peter Keegan, is in the final stages of financing, and delivery is due for the summer of 2015.

Paul Andrew Williams’ The Eichmann Show

Williams’ drama, originally made for TV, is inspired by the televised trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. It stars Martin Freeman and Anthony LaPaglia. The filmmakers used original trial footage and recreated the trial with a host of doubles to fill out the courtroom.

Simon Block wrote The Eichmann Show and the BBC produced the series with Feelgood Fiction’s Laurence Bowen and Ken Marshall. Content Media’s Jamie Carmichael and Greg Philips served as executive producers.

Drama Set Fire To The Stars

Elijah Wood stars in the Edinburgh debut from director Andy Goodard about an aspiring poet whose life is turned upside down when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hero, Dylan Thomas, played by Celyn Jones.

Producers are A J Riach and Andy Evans, the screenplay was written by actor Jones and Goddard. Strand Releasing plans for a late spring 2015 release in the US.

Hitler assassination drama 13 Minutes

Christian Friedel, Katharina Schüttler, Burghart Klaussner and Johann von Bülow star in the story of a failed plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Lucky Bird Pictures produces with SWR, ARD Degeto, BR, WDR, ARTE, Delphi Medien and Philipp film production. Boris Ausserer, Oliver Schündler and Fred Breinersdorfer served as producers.

UK drama Starfish

Downton Abbey actress Joanne Froggatt is to star in and produce this story about a husband and wife whose love is tested to its limits by the impact of a rare and devastating disease.

The film is written and to be directed by Bill Clark and produced by Pippa Cross.

Action-adventure The Four Warriors

The film tells the story of four battle-weary Crusaders who embark on a mission to track down the evil predator who has abducted all the men and children from a devastated village. Game Of Thrones’ Kristian Nairn will star alongside Christopher Dane, Fergal Philips, Alex Childs, Hadrian Howard and Glenn Speers.

Phil Hawkins directs and produces with Alexandra Baranska. The film has already been sold to North America, France, Itlay, Turkey, Africa, Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and former Yugoslavia.

Anne Fontaine’s latest feature Innocent

The French-Polish co-production between Mandarin Cinema and Aeroplan Film stars Ida actress Agata Kulesza. The story centres on true events in Poland during the winter of 1945, when a young French Red Cross intern discovered a group of nuns in a nearby convent in the advance state of pregnancy after they were raped by soldiers of the Red Army.

Cast also includes Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek and Joanna Kulig. Principal photography has just begun in Poland.

Fabienne Berthaud’s English-language debut Sky

Diane Kruger and Norman Reedus lead the cast, while Berthaud and Pascal Arnold co-wrote the script. The story revolves around a woman’s lifelong wandering that turns into an intimate reawakening in foreign lands.

Producers are Bertrand Faivre and Gabrielle Dumon, in co-production with Pandora Film and Vamonos, and in association with OCS & Filmstiftung NRW. The Bureau Sales handles international sales.

Jean-Jacques Zilbermann’s drama To Life

This upcoming French feature has set a September theatrical release. Julie Depardieu, Suzanne Clément and Johanna ter Steege star in the story of three women who reunite 15 years after surviving Auschwitz. The film premiered in Locarno.

South Africa-based Breathe Umphefumlo

Berlinale Special world premiere (a Germany/South Africa/UK coproduction) Breathe Umphefumlo is about the striking and brutal realities of students struggling for food, shelter and medication in Cape Town.

Director Mark Dornford-May wrote the screenplay alongside Pauline Malefane, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa.

Abel Ferrara’s Pasolini

The film looks at the last days of Pier Paolo Pasolini and stars Willem Dafoe. It is sold by Funny Balloons.

Drama The Young Karl Marx

Raoul Peck’s project is about the budding friendship between the young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. August Diehl, who was selected as Germany’s Berlin Shooting Star in 2000, will portray Marx, while Engels will be portrayed by Alexander Fehling.

The Young Karl Marx is being structured as a French-German-Belgian co-production. Principal photography is set to roll this summer.

Benoit Jacquot’s Son Corps

French director will oversee Alfama’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 2001 novella, The Body Artist. The film will star Julia Roy.

Comedy drama Closer To The Moon

The English-language comedy drama from Nae Carafil stars Vera Farmiga and Mark Strong. It is a co-production with Italy’s Ugo Tucci, Poland’s Alessandro Leone and Romania’s Bobby Paulescu. New UK distribution company NEO acquired the film from Celluloid Dreams.

Gaza-set hybrid Samouni Road

Stefano Savona’s new film mixes live action and animation. Samouni Road is the true story of the Samouni family who survived almost 60 years of war and military occupation on their family land in Gaza until 29 members were killed during the Israeli military ground offensive in 2009.

The new project, which is the only one selected from Italy at this year’s Berlinale Co-Production Market, will see Savona’s French-based production outfit Picofilms being reunited with Rome-based Dugong.

Sundance hit Dark Horse

This documentary about a rags to riches racehorse won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at the last Sundance film festival.

Produced by Judith Dawson and edited by Joby Gee, Dark Horse is a DSP and World’s End Pictures production for Film4 and BFI.

Emily Atef’s new project 3 Days In Quiberon

The story, based on real events in the life of the legendary actress Romy Schneider, has Marie Bäumer cast as Schneider and Birgit Minichmair on board as one of her friends.

Supernatural thriller The Haunting Of Borley Rectory

The film is to be produced by Steven M. Smith and Dan McSherry. Principal photography will start in the UK from June 2015. Tony Hickox will direct.

Hagar Ben-Asher’s The Burglar

This Rohfilm production stars Lihi Kornovsky as a young woman who becomes a female burglar after her mother’s home is broken into by brutal thieves.

The film wrapped production at the Nivre Studios in Weimar after shooting at locations by the Dead Sea in Israel. The Match Factory has picked up international sales.

Drama Zurich

Rohfilm is producing Dutch director Sacha Polak’s new feature.

John Williams’ The Beat Beneath My Feet

Michael Müller produced this comedy about a lonely teen living with his god-fearing mother who dreams of becoming a rock star.

Luke Perry stars alongside newcomer Nicholas Galitzine. Spotlight Pictures has picked up world sales right.

Tom Browne’s debut Radiator

Veteran actors Gemma Jones and Richard Johnson star in this darkly comic examination of family life, marriage, age and love.

Russell Gomm’s The Woods Movie

This documentary is a look back at the making of the seminal found footage film The Blair Witch Project. Cast includes Gregg Hale, Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez.

Child abuse drama Verfehlung

Gerd Schneider’s screenplay centres on a Catholic prison chaplain faced with a painful dilemma when his best friend and colleague Dominik Bertram is remanded in custody under suspicion of sexual abuse.

The production by AV Medien Penrose and Penrose Film will be released theatrically in Germany at the end of March by Camino Filmverleih.

Paul Katis’ Kajaki. The True Story

The film centres on a real incident in 2006 when a group of British soldiers at the Kajaki Dam in Afghanistan set off a landmine and found themselves trapped in an unmarked minefield.

Metro International is handling international sales on the film, which opened in the UK on November 28.

Guatemalan story Ixcanul

This France/Guatemala co-production is directed by Jayro Bustamante and charts the haunting story of a 17-year-old Mayan woman who lives on the slopes of an active volcano in Guatemala but dreams of seeing “the city.”

The film’s cast is made up of non-professional actors. Bustamante produces along with Marina Peralta, Pilar Peredo and Edgard Tenembaum.

Film version of Tom Hillenbrand’s bestseller Devil’s Fruit

Germany’s Moritz Bleibtreu has been cast as a “culinary Bond” in this film about the adventures of the Luxembourg chef and amateur sleuth Xavier Kieffer.

The film is a €6m co-production between Luxembourg’s Iris Productions, France’s Rezo Productions and Germany’s Iris Productions Deutschland.

Animation Underdogs

Argentina/India/Spain co-production follows a football character’s quest to save the village from a rival who kidnaps his girlfriend.

Juan Jose Campanella directs, while John Leguizamo, Eugenio Derbez, Taran Killam, Bobby Moynihan and Chazz Palminteri are among the voice cast.

Rehab thriller I Feel Fine

Dominic West and Stacy Martin are among the cast of this new UK drama. Writer-director Lynne Ramsay and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy producer Robyn Slovo are executive-producing the feature about a teenager who becomes embroiled in crime and drug addiction.

I Feel Fine marks the directorial debut of established casting agent Des Hamilton, while the script comes from Hamilton and Amber Trentham. Development backers include Creative Scotland and the BFI.

UK road comedy After Louise

The film will start shooting in the UK on June 29, and a director will be confirmed soon. Scoop’s Michael Mueller wrote the original screenplay about a teenage girl running away from her wedding at a seaside hotel who meets an agoraphobic hotel worker whom she accidentally takes hostage on a road trip.

After Louise will be delivered in early 2016.

Comedy X+Y

This UK production revolves around a socially awkward teenage math prodigy finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.

NonStop Entertainment is distributing the film in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Baltics.

Julio Medem’s Ma Ma

The film stars and is produced by Penelope Cruz. Seville International handles worldwide sales.

Adaptation of award-winning novel The Sense of An Ending

Ritesh Batra, director of Indian hit The Lunchbox, is in advanced talks to direct the film, based on Julian Barnes story of a retired man looking back on an old friendship. The script has been written by Nick Payne.

Crime drama Silencers

Otto Bathurst’s new feature is scripted by Matt Greenhalgh and backed by BBC Films. Principal shooting will start this yaear.

Documentary The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson

Julien Temple’s new feature follows the remarkable story of acclaimed musician Wilko Johnson, who was told he only had months to live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but staged a remarkable recovery while still managing to tour.

The film is in the latter stages of post-production and will premiere at SXSW this March.

Action film Free Fire

Free Fire is a hard-boiled crime movie set in 1978 Boston, in which a meeting in a deserted warehouse between two gangs turns into a shootout and a game of survival.

Martin Scorsese has joined the upcoming UK production as an executive producer. Ben Wheatley will direct.

Supervolcano thriller Salt And Fire

German actress Veronica Ferres will star in this romantic thriller about a scientist in South America who clashes with the head of the corporation responsible for an ecological disaster.

Director Werner Herzog wrote the script and will produce with Michael Benaroya, alongside Nina Maag of Construction Film and Canana Films’ Pablo Cruz.

Arsen A. Ostojic’s The Man In The Box

German actress Martina Gedeck stars in the new Arsen A. Osojic drama, which has begun shooting.

Thomas Kretschmann co-stars in the story of a family who take into hiding a Jewish doctor who saved their son’s life. Parkland Pictures is selling.​

Hand-drawn animation Tulip

Lunamine and Folimage will partner on this new feature, which will be directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli.

Tulip tells the story of an 11-year old girl who sees monsters - at first she is terrified of these visions, but she soon learns they are actually a gift she inherited from her grandmother.

Drama The Corpse Of Anna Fritz

Anna Fritz, a famous and beautiful actress, has died recently. Three young men sneak into the morgue to see her naked. Fascinated by her beauty, they decide to become the last people to have sex with her.

Hèctor Hernández Vicens directs and cast includes Alba Ribas, Cristian Valencia, Bernat Saumell and Albert Carbó.

Documentary An Honest Liar

Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom’s documentary trains its sights on James ‘The Amazing’ Randi, the magician, escapologist and debunker of the paranormal.

Barry Sonnenfeld and Nick Fraser of BBC Storyville are among the executive producers. The film will roll out across the country through March and April, starting with the Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema in New York City and Nuart Cinemas in Los Angeles.

Roberto Caston’s The Silly Ones And The Stupid Ones

This family drama revolves around a group of movie professionals. Fernando Diez Varela produces the story written by director Roberto Caston. Cast includes Josean Bengoetxea, Loli Alonso and Aitor Beltrán.

Open Reel has sold rights to Uruguay, Poland and Italy. The drama premiered at the 2014 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Damien Manivel’s A Young Poet

This French comedy centres on young boy Remi, who’s determined to write his first poem. The feature is produced by MLD Films, Open Reel handles international sales.

Tiago Leao’s Longing Nights

Ainhoa Azcona, Shota Buadze and Maria Flores are among the cast of the Portugal/Spain co-production. Czech Platform Doc Alliance has acquired the feature.