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Covert Media launches Lexica Films
11 hours ago
Exclusive: Paul Hanson’s production, financing and distribution outfit has launched an international sales label in the run-up to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Covert’s president of international Liz Kim Schwan will lead the division and kick off with sales on Earthquake, the drama about the 1988 Spitak natural disaster that is viewed as a potential candidate as Armenia’s Oscar foreign-language submission.
Sarik Andreasyan directed the film, which stars Konstantin Lavronenko, a Cannes best actor winner in 2007 for The Banishment.
Earthquake is a fictional account of the event that destroyed more than 300 towns across Armenia and displaced more than half a million people.
Set in Leninakan, Armenia, the story interweaves the stories of a 50-year-old Russian and a 28-year-old Armenian who work together to rescue survivors.
Covert will handle North America and all international sales excluding Russia, where Caro Premier Film Company has scheduled a December 1 release in 1,000 theatres under original title Zemletryasenie.
French and Chinese »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Haugesund: Liv Ullmann to retire from directing
12 hours ago
Norwegian actress and filmmaker announces end to directing on panel with fellow filmmakers Pernilla August and Iram Haq.
Norwegian actress and filmmaker Liv Ullmann, the two-time Oscar nominee and director of films including Cannes competition title Faithless, has announced that she doesn’t plan to direct again.
Ullmann made the announcement during a talk today at Haugesund’s Norwegian International Film Festival.
“I don’t want to direct anymore,” she said during the festival’s annual public talk, The Amanda Conversation.
“I want to use my strength to act in a film - there I can use it with a sensitive director, and write. I took that decision right now,” the 77-year-old veteran said with a smile.
As an actress, she is hoping to work with Anthony Hopkins in 2017 on an as yet unannounced film. The duo previously worked together on 1977 feature A Bridge Too Far.
Challenges
This year’s Amanda Conversation was between Ullmann, whose most recent »
- wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
San Sebastian: Baltasar Kormákur, Feng Xiaogang join competition
15 hours ago
Lee Sang-il, Bartosz M. Kowalski and Emiliano Torres also help complete competitive line-up.Scroll down for full list of titles
San Sebastian film festival (Sept 16-24) has added five titles to its competitive official selection, completing the line-up of films in line for the coveted Golden Shell.
The titles include The Oath (Eiðurinn) by Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur, who competed at San Sebastian with The Sea in 2001.
In his latest feature, the director - who made last year’s Venice opener Everest - tells the story of a heart surgeon whose family begins to unravel when his daughter gets mixed up with a drug-dealing boyfriend.
Also in the running for the Golden Shell will be China’s Feng Xiaogang with contemporary fable I Am Not Madame Bovary (Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian), starring Fan Bingbing.
Feng’s The Banquet competed at Venice in 2006 while Aftershock was China’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2011.
Other »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
David Tennant joins Electric’s 'Bad Samaritan'
16 hours ago
Dean Devlin’s company announced on Thursday that the former Doctor Who star has come on board the thriller.
Tennant arrives as Electric Entertainment said it had earmarked an autumn start in Portland, Oregon, for Bad Samaritan.
Devlin will direct the story from Brandon Boyce’s screenplay about two young car valets who use their business as a front to burgle their patrons’ homes.
When they target the wrong house, things take a turn for the worse.
Electric’s Marc Roskin and Rachel Olschan are producing alongside Devlin.
“I’m a huge fan of David’s work,” said Devlin. “I’m overjoyed at the opportunity to work with him. “Brandon’s script had me on the edge of my seat. Tennant’s intensity is a perfect match for this material.”
Electric Entertainment recently acquired the horror comedy Fear, Inc. and drama The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea starring Jason Sudeikis, Jessica Biel and [link »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Zurich fest unveils gala titles
18 hours ago
Juan Antonio Bayona, David Mackenzie and John Michael McDonagh among directors with films in Gala strand.
Zurich Film Festival (Sept 22-Oct 2) has unveiled the titles that will make up its Gala section.
In addition to previously announced titles Snowden, Florence Foster Jenkins and Deepwater Horizon, Zff will screen the latest films from directors including Juan Antonio Bayona, David Mackenzie and John Michael McDonagh.
Director: Andrea Arnold
Cast: Sasha Lane, Riley Keough, Shia Labeouf
Star (Sasha Lane) is trapped in a life far from perfect. Then she falls head over heels in love with Jake (Shia Labeouf), before embarking with him and a band of misfits who live by their own rules on an adventurous journey to freedom. The start of a quest to find the boundaries of a powerful young love and a road trip into the heart of America.
A Monster Calls (Sieben Minuten Nach Mitternacht)
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Cast: Felicity Jones, [link »
- michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
Aardman promotes Alison Taylor to head of sales and acquisitions
18 hours ago
Alix Wiseman, previously in the role, has left the animation studio after ten years.
Aardman Animations, the company behind Shaun The Sheep and Wallace And Gromit, has promoted Alison Taylor to head of sales and acquisitions.
The move is part of a wider restructure following the departure of previous incumbent in the role Alix Wiseman, who has left the company after ten years.
Taylor, who was previously senior sales manager at Aardman and has been at the studio for 12 years, will now be responsible for the global distribution of Aardman’s portfolio. She will be aiming to expand the team as part of the ongoing restructure.
Further changes to the team include the senior distribution and acquisitions manage Robin Gladman taking a more active role in growing the studio’s portfolio, and the recent appointment of Ruth Preston to sales manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Benelux, Latin America and South Africa.
Sean Clarke, head of »
- tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
ITV withdraws eOne offer
19 hours ago
The two companies were unable to reach an agreement on the value of the Canadian distributor.
British broadcaster ITV has withdrawn its takeover offer for Canadian film and TV giant Entertainment One (eOne) following a cold shoulder from the Twilight and Peppa Pig distributor.
ITV’s had seen its takeover bid, which valued eOne at $1.3bn, rejected earlier this month. Representatives of the Canadian company said that the offer “fundamentally undervalued” the production and distribution outfit.
An ITV statement read: “ITV announces that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Entertainment One. ITV continues to believe in the strategic logic and potential benefits of acquiring eOne but has a clear view of the value of the business, recognizing that this value would need to be verified by appropriate due diligence.
“It appears this value is different to the level at which the board of eOne would currently engage in a more formal process.”
The news prompted »
- tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
Vice's Shane Smith predicts traditional media 'bloodbath'
20 hours ago
Smith delivered this year’s MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International TV Festival.
Vice boss Shane Smith has taken aim at traditional media rivals, warning that there will be an acquisition “bloodbath” as firms such as Time Warner, Disney and 21st Century Fox all desperately chase scale.
Chief executive Smith used the MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International TV Festival to predict an “M&A frenzy” next year and an “ugly revolution” across media.
“The big boys will all do big strategy plays. They will buy market share because there’s going to be a fucking bloodbath. What will happen after consolidation is a whole load of new media will go away.”
Disney is believed to own around a 10% stake in Vice, having invested $400m last year, similar to A+E Networks’ stake, while Fox owns a 5% stake in the firm. “Time Warner, Fox and Viacom all tried to buy us at one time,” he said.
However »
Oscars 2016: Germany selects 'Toni Erdmann'
20 hours ago
Nine-person Foreign Language jury selects Cannes hit from director Maren Ade.
Germany has selected Cannes hit Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade as its submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Ade’s well-sold comedy about a father who tries to reconnect with his adult daughter stars Sandra Huller and Peter Simonischek.
The film, considered by many to be a strong contender to make the final shortlist, is a production by Komplizen Film, in co-production with the Austrian coop 99 Filmproduktion, knm (Monaco) and Missing Link Films.
The decision was taken by an independent jury appointed by German Films, comprising Karsten Stöter, Katharina Rinderle, Julia Weber, Jasna Vavra, Christoph Preßmar, Dunja Bialas, Felicitas Darschin, Sven Burgemeister and Heide Schwochow.
The nine-person jury said of its decision: “Toni Erdmann stood out among the eight submitted films with its resolute artistic signature. A bold and stylistically confident cinematic display of character on the pulse of the times. Maren Ade manages »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
Rlj Entertainment picks up 'Dog Eat Dog'
21 hours ago
Paul Schrader’s action thriller has found a home in the run-up to its North American premiere in Toronto next month.
Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe and Christopher Matthew Cook star in Dog Eat Dog, which is based on the novel by Edward Bunker and written by screenwriter Matthew Wilder.
Dog Eat Dog premiered in Cannes and centres on a botched kidnapping in which three ex-cons get on the wrong side of the Mob. The first Toronto screening is September 8.
Rlj entertainment negotiated the deal with Adme and plans a theatrical and VOD release in November.
Mark Earl Burman, Gary Hamilton, Brian Beckmann and David Hillary produced and Jeremy Rosen, Jeff Caperton, Barney Burman, Ray Mansfield, Shaun Redick, Donald Rivers, Michael McClung and Tim Peternel served as executive producers.
Jeanne Fields acted as executor of the Edward Bunker estate. »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Raindance reveals 2016 line-up; Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley on jury
21 hours ago
This year’s festival will include an inaugural virtual reality strand and a co-production forum focused on UK-Ibero-American relations.Scroll down for line-up
The 24th Raindance Film Festival has revealed its line-up, with 90 feature films set to be screened in London September 21 – October 2.
This year’s jury will be comprised of Stephen Fry (V For Vendetta), Joanna Lumley (Absolutely Fabulous), Imelda Staunton (Vera Drake), Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch), Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies), Jack Davenport (Pirates Of The Caribbean), Nicholas Pinnock (Top Boy) and American artist David Datuna.
They will preside over awards for a competition line-up that features the international premiere of Stephen Elliott’s After Adderall, a semi-autobiographical story about the production of the film adaptation of Elliott’s memoirs. Receiving its European premiere will be Japanese director Yoshiyuki Kishi’s A Double Life, about a young woman who is assigned to follow a stranger.
Among the seven UK premieres playing in competition are Indian drama [link=tt »
- tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
Netflix: diving into the data
21 hours ago
Broadcast’s Peter White assesses Ampere Analysis’ research into the secretive SVoD service’s content strategy in the UK.
Netflix is cementing its growth in the UK, where it has 6.1 million subscribers, by overhauling its programme library to move from a longtail warehouse to a premium platform.
The SVoD service’s second stage of growth is built around a constant refresh of its TV catalogue, with original commissions and high-profile acquisitions replacing older titles.
Exclusive data, provided by research firm Ampere Analysis, reveals that Netflix refreshed an average of 10.6% of its titles each month between July 2015 and March 2016. That rate jumped to 13% of programmes in April 2016.
This turnover comes alongside a huge cull in titles more than two years old. Netflix UK cut its catalogue by 490 TV and film titles from December 2015 to June 2016, from 2,502 to 2,012.
This echoes similar moves in the Us, where the firm reduced the total number TV shows on offer from 1,609 in January »
Malaysia rallies international team for 'Tombiruo'
22 hours ago
Seth Larney and Nasir Jani will co-direct the action thriller.
Australian VFX supervisor Seth Larney (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Malaysia’s Nasir Jani are co-directing Malaysian action thriller Tombiruo, based on the best-selling novel by Ramlee Awang Murshid.
Produced by Malaysia’s Astro Shaw, Ideate Media, Karangkraf and Layar Sunan, the film has also tapped Us-based 42 Entertainment to work on character design. 42 Entertainment has created games and immersive experiences for Us studio movies including Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Dark Knight and Tron Legacy.
According to Astro Shaw vice president, business development, Najwa Abu Bakar, the movie is being positioned for audiences beyond Malaysia, with the mix of Us, Australian and Southeast Asian talent.
“Given the increasingly international appeal of our recent movies such as The Journey, Polis Evo, OlaBola and the multi-territory co-production of Apichatpong Weeraseethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendour, we continue to also nurture local creative and production talents and work alongside international production teams,” Abu Bakar »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
Malaysia rallies international team for 'Tombirou'
22 hours ago
Seth Larney and Nasir Jani will co-direct the action thriller.
Australian VFX supervisor Seth Larney (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Malaysia’s Nasir Jani are co-directing Malaysian action thriller Tombiruo, based on the best-selling novel by Ramlee Awang Murshid.
Produced by Malaysia’s Astro Shaw, Ideate Media, Karangkraf and Layar Sunan, the film has also tapped Us-based 42 Entertainment to work on character design. 42 Entertainment has created games and immersive experiences for Us studio movies including Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Dark Knight and Tron Legacy.
According to Astro Shaw vice president, business development, Najwa Abu Bakar, the movie is being positioned for audiences beyond Malaysia, with the mix of Us, Australian and Southeast Asian talent.
“Given the increasingly international appeal of our recent movies such as The Journey, Polis Evo, OlaBola and the multi-territory co-production of Apichatpong Weeraseethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendour, we continue to also nurture local creative and production talents and work alongside international production teams,” Abu Bakar »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
Venice 2016: 10 things to look out for on the Lido
24 August 2016 11:00 PM, PDT
Screen reveals the burning questions ahead of this year’s festival…
Anticipation for the 73rd Venice Film Festival (Aug 31 - Sept10) has been building for weeks.
Now, ahead of the world’s oldest film showcase (and the autumn’s first major awards barometer), Screen highlights ten burning questions…
1. Awards race under orders…
This year’s awards race will get underway in earnest on the Lido. In the last three years the festival has kickstarted major Oscar runs for three movies: Gravity, Birdman and Spotlight, while last year’s crop also included popular awards titles The Danish Girl and Anomalisa.
This year’s line-up is starrier than ever with Venice’s competition alone featuring Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (more of which below), Tom Ford’s blue ribbon drama Nocturnal Animals, Jacqueline Kennedy biopic Jackie, starring Natalie Portman, Denis Villeneuve’s big-budget sci-fi Arrival and Michael Fassbender-Alicia Vikander romance The Light Between Oceans.
Which films, if »
- andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
Toronto: Bleiberg Entertainment boards 'Past Life'
24 August 2016 9:29 PM, PDT
Exclusive: The Los Angeles-based production and sales outfit has acquired worldwide rights to Avi Nesher’s historical drama heading into the Toronto International Film Festival.
Past Life will receive its world premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on September 12 and is inspired by the 1977 trans-European odyssey of two sisters.
The Israeli film follows the siblings – an introverted, ambitious classical music composer and a combative liberal magazine editor – as they try to unravel a wartime mystery that has troubled their lives.
Nelly Tagar, Joy Rieger, Doron Tavory and Evgenia Dodina star.
Nesher directed Past Life from his own screenplay inspired by Baruch Milch’s autobiography Can Heaven Be Void?
David M. Milch, David Zilber, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Ruth Cats and Nesher serve as producers.
Bleiberg’s Toronto sales slate includes the thriller Back In The Day with William DeMeo and Alec Baldwin, and family film Ace The Case starring Susan Sarandon.
Bleiberg currently »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Bleiberg Entertainment boards 'Past Life' sales for Tiff
24 August 2016 9:29 PM, PDT
Exclusive: The Los Angeles-based production and sales outfit has acquired worldwide rights to Avi Nesher’s historical drama heading into the Toronto International Film Festival.
Past Life will receive its world premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on September 12 and is inspired by the 1977 trans-European odyssey of two sisters.
The Israeli film follows the siblings – an introverted, ambitious classical music composer and a combative liberal magazine editor – as they try to unravel a wartime mystery that has troubled their lives.
Nelly Tagar, Joy Rieger, Doron Tavory and Evgenia Dodina star.
Nesher directed Past Life from his own screenplay inspired by Baruch Milch’s autobiography Can Heaven Be Void?
David M. Milch, David Zilber, Moshe Edery, Leon Edery, Ruth Cats and Nesher serve as producers.
Bleiberg’s Toronto sales slate includes the thriller Back In The Day with William DeMeo and Alec Baldwin, and family film Ace The Case starring Susan Sarandon.
Bleiberg currently »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Us Briefs: Academy president urges people to see 'The Birth Of A Nation'
24 August 2016 6:26 PM, PDT
Plus: ‘The Arrival’ to open Fantastic Fest
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has said people should go and see The Birth Of A Nation, the embattled slave revolt drama that has become embroiled in a furore surrounding director and star Nate Parker’s past.
Speaking to TMZ on Thursday, Isaacs said, “I know just by the conversation that has gone on since Sundance that it’s clearly a movie that filmgoers should go and see.”
The executive, who it is understood has not yet seen the film, added: “People need to see the movie and judge the movie.”
Parker recently addressed old rape allegations stemming from his days at Penn State University, for which he was acquitted in 2001.
Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi Arrival will open Alamo Drafthouse’s Fantastic Fest, set to run in Austin, Texas, from September 22-29. Announcing the second wave of programming on Thursday, festival top brass unveiled a roster that includes the Us »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
Im Global launches Go Global in Beijing
24 August 2016 6:10 PM, PDT
Im Global has launched a Beijing-based venture, Go Global, which aims to connect the booming Chinese film industry to the rest of the world, and will make its debut at the upcoming Venice Film Festival.
Headed by industry veteran Clement Magar (pictured), the new venture will maximise exposure of Chinese cinema overseas and represent non-Chinese films on the Chinese festival circuit.
Backed by the distribution experience and network of La-based Im Global, Go Global will offer Chinese producers, financiers and talent a wide range of services including festival strategy, festival booking, festival media promotion and event production.
Go Global will kick off its activities at the Venice Film Festival, where it will be a sponsor of the Bridging The Dragon co-production event and be the press agent of Chinese-Italian co-production Coffee, which has been selected for the Venice Days section.
Leslie Chen, Im Global’s senior vice-president of sales and acquisitions, Asia, recently »
- lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
Radiant Films International to sell Tiff entry 'Handsome Devil'
24 August 2016 5:32 PM, PDT
Exclusive: Mimi Steinbauer’s sales company will introduce international buyers in Toronto to John Butler’s Contemporary World Cinema selection.
ICM is handles Us rights to the Irish film, set to receive its world premiere on September 11.
Andrew Scott, Moe Dunford, Fionn O’Shea and Nicholas Galitzine star in Handsome Devil, about odd-couple roommates at a rugby-mad boarding school who resist peer pressure and form an unlikely bond.
Butler wrote the screenplay and Rebecca O’Flanagan and Robert Walpole produced for Treasure Entertainment. Claire McCaughley and Sarah Gunn served as co-producers.
“We knew off the bat that we wanted to add the charming and delightfully funny Handsome Devil to our slate, said Radiant president and CEO Steinbauer.
“It’s a real crowd-pleaser. We knew we had to be the ones to share this film with our international partners and look forward to doing so in Toronto.”
Handsome Devil marks Butler’s second Toronto premiere after 2013 selection [link=tt »
- jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
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