By late Saturday afternoon, major deals were closed with Italy (Medusa) and Canada (eOne).

Midway through the market, an upbeat StudioCanal has been toasting what Harold Van Lier, Executive Vice President International Sales, is calling its “strongest” AFM in
recent memory. “We’ve reached a much higher rate of pre-sales than ever before.”

John Le Carré adaptation Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, produced by Working Title, is driving business for the French company in Santa Monica. Bidding wars have broken out for the
$30 million spy thriller directed by Tomas Alfredson and starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy.

By late Saturday afternoon, major deals were closed with Italy (Medusa) and Canada (eOne).

The company is also fielding “very aggressive” offers from Scandinavia (and is expecting to close a deal shortly) and has received multiple offers from a host of other territories as well as “very strong interest” from Japan and Korea.

“Medusa and eOne have paid top dollar for what they recognize to be not only a great package and a great script but also a great opportunity to work with us and Working Title
directly,” Van Lier commented.

The film will be released by StudioCanal in France and by the company’s partners Kinowelt in Germany and Optimum in the UK.

StudioCanal has been enjoying robust pre-sales on other titles on its AFM slate. Projects like latest Eli Roth production, Psycho Killer (scripted by Andrew Kevin Walker of Se7en
fame) and Nick Murphy’s supernatural thriller The Awakening have provoked very strong buyer interest. eOne has also taken Canadian rights to The Awakening.

Van Lier said that StudioCanal has attracted “very strong interest from studios and major US distributors” and that the company was “in a very comfortable position to
look at how to maximize our upside domestically.”

“The market is focused on a few properties. Tinker Tailor was clearly perceived by the top buyers as a hot property to pre-buy,” Van Lier said.

Topics