UK welcomes Nowhere Boy, [Rec] 2 scares up France

UK:

UK production Nowhere Boy, which charts the early life of musician John Lennon, receives a nationwide release through Icon Film Distribution from Saturday December 26. The debut film from artist Sam Taylor-Wood, the drama stars Aaron Johnson as Lennon, alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Anne Marie Duff.

Simon Ellis’ local comedy Dogging: A Love Story get a release in key cities through Vertigo Films, also from December 26. The film follows a journalist investigating the UK’s outdoor sex scene and stars Luke Treadaway and Richard Riddell

France:

[Rec] 2, the sequel to Spanish horror film [Rec] goes out on Wednesday in France in a competitive Christmas week that also sees the release of Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel along with the continued run of Avatar in its second week. Directed by Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza and starring Manuela Velasco, Oscar Sanchez Zafra and Ariel Casas, [Rec 2] picks up 15 minutes after the original left off. Le Pacte is releasing.

Tetro, Francis Ford Coppola’s intimate story that debuted in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes earlier this year, is also released Wednesday. Vincent Gallo stars in the family drama which follows two brothers grappling with their past. Memento Films is distributing.

Cannes title No One Knows About The Persian Cats, is also out this week. The film caused much controversy ahead of its debut in Cannes after the director’s girlfriend was imprisoned in Iran and then released as the festival got underway. Released Wednesday by Mars Distribution,  Bahman Ghobadi’s story takes in the underground music scene in Tehran.

Spain:

Filmax will release two films this Christmas, Kevin Kevin Tancharoen’s update of the famous musical Fame and Christmas animation film Niko & The Way To The Stars.

Fame, which will go head to head with US studio offerings, including Meryl Streep’s It’s Complicated and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, follows the exploits of students at the famous New York Academy of Performing Arts. The film has already performed well in the UK ($14m) and France ($6m), but musicals notoriously perform badly in Spain, with Step Up taking a measly $97,350 back in 2006. It will go out on 277 copies

Filmax’ second offering Niko & The Way To The Stars, directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen, has already taken an impressive $4.5m in France. The Finnish-Danish-German-Irish co-production, which is released 145 screens, tells the story of a young reindeer who overcomes his fear of heights so he can head to the North pole to save a troubled Santa and his fleet of flying reindeer.