French sales outfit StudioCanal has confirmed several deals on Daniel Benmayor’s historical drama Bruc and Enrique Gato’s animation Tadeo Jones at the AFM, including StudioCanal-owned Optimum taking UK rights to both titles.

Benmayor’s film Bruc, which is being billed as “The Napoleonic First Blood”, has been sold to StudioCanal’s Optimum for the UK, Icon for Australia/New Zealand, Lusomundo for Portugal, Gulf Film for the Middle East, Svensk for Scandinavia and Village for Greece.

“We are also in advanced conversations for Germany and Latin America,” Harold Van Lier, head of international sales at StudioCanal, told ScreenDaily.

Bruc is based on a script by Jordi Gasull and Patxi Amezcua, and stars Juan Jose Ballesta as a Catalan drummer boy who retreats to the high sierra to escape Napoleon’s army, but then manages to almost singlehandedly defeat them, bringing hope to the rest of Europe. Vincent Perez and Astrid Berges-Frisbey co-star.

Production duties are shared between Spanish outfits Ikiru Films and El Toro Pictures with financing from the Catalan film institute (ICIC) and regional broadcaster TV3.

Universal Pictures will release Bruc in Spanish theatres on Dec 22.

Gato’s animation Tadeo Jones, which is being billed as “The Indiana Jones for kids”, has also gone to Optimum for release in the UK, as well as Shaw for Singapore, Village for Greece, 1+1 for Ukraine, PT Amero for Indonesia and Myndform for Iceland. Plus there is strong interest from other territories, confirmed Van Lier.

Tadeo Jones is a co-production between Spain’s Ikiru Films and El Toro Pictures and Lightbox Entertainment. It tells the story of a young guy who has to rescue a dog from an underground temple in South America where animals are sacrificed to the gods.
 

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