Wild Bunch unleashes packed slate on Cannes

The French sales company, which has 13 Cannes selections, also has the latest project from Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pulcini and a new Baghdad-themed project from Ken Loach.

The Exodus – The Fortress, Burnt By The Sun 2 is an epic tragedy in two acts that picks up five years after the original film ends. The film will be released in Russia in May 2010 to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Russia and Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval says the company is eyeing a Cannes debut next year. TFM has just acquired rights for French distribution.

Maraval called it a “grand spectacle with epic grandeur of Laurence Of Arabia told via a very intimate story.” Wild Bunch will screen about 15 minutes of the film in Cannes.

Ken Loach’s Route Irish refers to the most dangerous stretch of road in Baghdad where a British mercenary soldier is killed under mysterious circumstances. His childhood friend and fellow soldier investigates the incident. The film is set in Liverpool and Baghdad with Jordan standing in for Iraq. Maraval says the emotional thriller is a departure for Loach, who starts shooting starts this autumn.

Shari Springer Bergman and Robert Pulcini return following 2007’s Nanny Diaries with another New York set tale, The Extra Man. Wild Bunch will handle world sales on the comedy starring Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly. Anthony Bregman and Stephanie Davis are producing. The $7m film, says Maraval, is somewhere in between Little Miss Sunshine and A Fish Called Wanda.

Jean-Luc Godard is currently shooting Socialism, which is being billed as a symphony in three movements and mixes an international set of characters on a cruise ship including a Moscow policeman, a war criminal of unknown origins, a French philosopher, an American singer (played by Patti Smith), a Palestinian ambassador and a former double agent.

Maraval told ScreenDaily, the film will be ready for Cannes next year and that for the first time in his life, Godard has done a promo reel.

Also on Wild Bunch’s slate

• Gael Garcia Bernal has joined the cast of Iciar Bollain’s Even The Rain with Belen Rueda and Luis Tosar. The film, with a script from Paul Laverty, follows an obsessive director who, on his quest to tell the true story of Christopher Columbus, ultimately ends up shooting in Bolivia during the Bolivian Water War.
• Sam Gabarski’s A Distant Neighborhood stars Pascal Greggory, Jonathan Zaccai and Alexandra Maria Lara. Based on the successful manga, the film is the story of a 50-year-old man whose father abandoned the family when he was a child. After a fainting spell, he is transformed into his 14-year-old self and endeavors to change the course of his family history by preventing his father from leaving. The $13.6m ( €10m) film is shooting in France and will be ready for Cannes next year.
• Wild Bunch will handle a reteaming of director Pierre Salvadori and star Audrey Tautou which is currently in pre-production. Following 2006 comedy Priceless, the duo are back with Full Treatment about a woman’s crazy plan to cheer up her mother. The film also stars Sami Bouajila and Nathalie Baye.
• Immaculate is a first French film from Gregoire Vigneron written by Vigneron and Laurent Tirard. Starring Benoit Magimel, Francois-Xavier Demaison, Julie Gayet and Lea Seydoux, the taut thriller comes from Fidelite in coproduction with Wild Bunch, Mars Films and Scope Pictures.
• Mama Rosh, written and directed by Emir Kusturica’s Underground assistant director Momcilo Mrdakovic. The buddy-road-war movie is also a love story played out between the Danube and the Delaware Rivers. Fatih Akin and Klaus Maeck are producing for Corazon International; Igor Turcinovic and Momcilo Mrdakovic for Paprika Films; Rita Dagher for Yalla Films and Jozef Berger for Mythberg Films. The film is being partly shot in New York.
• Wild Bunch is also teaming again with Guillermo del Toro who will produce the next from Cronicas director Sebastien Cordero. Romantic thriller Rabia is the story of two illegal immigrants living in Spain. The film was previously with Celluloid Dreams.