UK quenches Thirst, Spain adopts Orphan

UK:

Icon Film Distribution has Christopher Smith’s horror thriller Triangle out in the UK from October 16. The film follows the passengers on a yachting voyage in the Atlantic Ocean, who are forced to jump to an unknown ship by strange weather conditions. With a saturated release the film goes up against Lionsgate UK’s The Imaginarium Of Dr Parnassus and UPI’s comedy Couples Retreat.

South Korean horror Thirst gets a limited release through Metrodome Distribuiton. Park Chan-wook’s film follows the vampiric transformation of a priest after a botched medical experiment. To date the film has grossed a total of $12.6m.

Thai martial arts film Ong Bak: The Beginning also gets a limited release through Revolver Entertainment. The film, directed by Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai, stars Jaa as Tiang, a young Thai boxer learning his trade.

Germany:

Michael Haneke’s Golden Palm winner The White Ribbon is opened by X Verleih, the distribution arm of the film’s majority producer X-Filme Creative Pool, on around 80 screens. The drama set on the eve of the First World War in Northern Germany is also Germany’s foreign language entry for the Oscars.

MFA has a 25 print release for South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst, which shared the jury prize with Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank at the Cannes Film Festival this year. The film, the first Korean film to be bought by a Hollywood studio for US release, was also shown at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany this summer.

Wolfgang Groos’ feature debut, the coming of age drama set in the world of basketball, Hangtime - Kein Leichtes Spiel, is opening in 30 locations throughout Germany. It is being distributed by 3L Filmverleih whose production arm 3L Filmproduktion was a co-producer of the Little Shark Entertainment project.

Spain:

Universal will release New York, I Love You (the second film in the “Cities Of Love” series which began with Paris, Je T’Aime), in Spain this weekend in parallel with the US release. Several international directors, including Fatih Akin, Brett Ratner, Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair and Jiang Wen, explore their different visions of courtship in the Big Apple through segments of the film. Lead actors include Shia LaBeouf, Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Andy Garcia and Ethan Hawke. Paris Je T’Aime  took a healthy $17.3m worldwide.

Warner Bros will be hoping Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra’s horror film Orphan can match the success of Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Orphanage, which took a phenomenal $36m in Spain alone, also through Warner. Orphan tells the story of a couple, played by Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga, who adopt a young girl after losing their daughter, however she is not as innocent as she first seems.

Another US-backed horror directed by Spanish film-makers is Carriers, which will be released by local outfit DeaPlaneta. Barcelona-born brothers Alex and David Pastor are already starting to make a name for themselves as film- makers, with Alex picking up an award at Sundance in 2006 for his short Larutanatural. Carriers tells the story of four friends who flee a viral pandemic, but soon realise they are more dangerous than a virus. 

France:

Rezo Films released the latest film from Stephane Brize, Mademoiselle Chambon, on Wednesday (October 14). The film, starring Vincent Lindon, Sandrine Kiberlain and Aure Atika, brought in 23,023 admissions on just 193 screens. Lindon plays a family man whose life takes a dramatic turn when he meets his son’s schoolteacher.

UK film The Descent: Part 2 had a solid opening for Pathe Distribution. The film, from director Jon Harris, sold 21,622 tickets on 134screens. Starring Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Jackson Mendoza and Gavan O’Herlihy, the horror picks up from Neil Marshall’s original following a caving expedition gone wrong.

Perennial box office favorite Gerard Jugnot returns with a feature he stars in and directs, Rose & Noir. The EuropaCorp release also stars Bernard Le Coq and Juan Diego. Set in 1577, the period comedy follows the king’s dresser who has fallen out of favor and is trusted with a diplomatic mission. A band of misfits sets off to Spain to complete the task.