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Another
Epic wraps up Another deal By Jeremy Kay
Epic Pictures Group has acquired international rights to horror thriller Another from first-time director Jason Bognacki. Toronto Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes serves as executive producer and discovered Bognacki alongside Ultra 8 Pictures managing director Katarina Gligorijevic, the film’s associate producer. Paulie Rojas, Maria Olsen and Nancy Wolfe star in the film, a Giallo-Hammer Films style fusion about a young woman who may be descended from the Devil. Epic’s sales roster includes V/H/S Viral, the third in the horror franchise, which Magnolia will distribute in the US this autumn. Epic’s Patrick Ewald and Shaked Berenson are also selling recent Tribeca premiere Zombeavers, rom-com Who Gets The Dog? and Louder Than Words, starring David Duchovny.
Russian Fund to present 18 The Russian Cinema Fund, with support from the Russian Ministry of Culture, will present 18 new Russian films today at 6pm, at the Palais’ Auditorium K. The event will highlight animation projects, completed features of all genres and a handful of works in progress. Titles include hot-selling 3D animation sequel The Snow Queen 2, produced by Melnitsa Animation, which also presents 3D animation Sheep And Wolves; actioner 22 Minutes; football drama The Big Game; restaurant comedy The Kitchen In Paris; period melodrama Two Women, sold by Rezo Films; and Englishlanguage horror-thriller Bathory. Wendy Mitchell
MAD to cross borders with 10 Arab features By Liz Shackleton
Cairo-based distributor MAD Solutions has unveiled a slate of 10 Arab features that it will release across the region over the next year. All 10 titles will receive a dayand-date multi-territory release, with the territories determined by what is appropriate for each film. “These are specialist films, so the idea is to give them a wide geographic release, rather than wide in terms of the number of screens,” said MAD co-founder
Alaa Karkouti. Following the August release of Hany AbuAssad’s Omar in eight Arab territories, MAD will distribute an as-yet-untitled Arabic-language horror in August and Ahmed Amer’s mockumentary Kiss Me Not in October. Produced by Middle West Films, Kiss Me Not revolves around an Egyptian director who is facing issues with his kissing scenes. Egyptian omnibus film The Mice Room, which premiered at Dubai International Film Festival
last year, will be released in the last three months of 2014. Mahmoud Kamel’s Out Of Service is also being lined up for release before the end of the year. The remaining titles will be released in the first six months of 2015. They include Fawzi Saleh’s drama Poisoned Roses; Mohamed Khan’s Before The Summer Crowds; Sherif Nakhla’s documentary Les Petits Chats; Francois Verster’s doc The Dream Of Shahrazad; and Jordanian director Rifqi Assaf’s debut feature The Curve.
A total of 24 film producers from across Europe, selected by European Film Promotion’s member organisations, took part in EFP’s networking platform, Producers on the Move. The three-day event, which ended yesterday, included working sessions, one-to-one speeddating meetings and follow-up discussions on future projects. For the first time, Eurimages prepared a case study exclusively for the scheme, supported financially by the MEDIA Programme (2007-13) of the European Union and participating EFP member organisations.
New Century weaves Cotton tale By Liz Shackleton
Egyptian production company New Century Production will produce Cotton And Mice, the first project to team director Amr Salama and the Arab world’s biggest star, Ahmed Helmy.
The film is a comedy but the film-makers and star are keeping the story under wraps, which is customary with Helmy’s projects. Scripted by Mostafa Helmy, the film also stars Yasmine Raees and Dalal Abdel Aziz.
Currently in production, the film will be given the widest dayand-date release ever across Egypt at the end of July, when it goes out on 100 screens. Salama’s credits include a segment of doc Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad, And The Politician, and recent hit Excuse My French.
LatAm focus held today Buenos Aires Lab is teaming with the Marché to screen four LatAm works in progress tomorrow from 4-6pm at Palais K, Salle Bory: She Comes Back On Thursday by Andre Novais Oliveira (Brazil), The Princess Of France by Matias Pineiro (Argentina), The Absent by Nicolas Pereda (Mexico) and Lulez by Luis Ortega (Argentina).
6 Screen International at Cannes May 20, 2014
Indie Sales has unveiled the first image of Belgian director Joachim Lafosse’s The White Knights, starring Vincent Lindon as an aid worker accused of child abduction while on a mission, opposite Louise Bourgoin and Valérie Donzelli. The film, which just wrapped in Morocco, is in post-production. Melanie Goodfellow
cannes briefs Electric powers up Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has accessed a $50m capital infusion in the form of corporate and production credit facilities from First Republic Bank.
Brody crowned Emperor Corsan has cast Adrien Brody in the title role of Lee Tamahori’s revenge tale, Emperor. The company has introduced the project to international buyers here, and Paradigm represents North America. Production is set to begin in August in the Czech Republic and Belgium.
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Almeida’s film scoops Doc Alliance prize By Wendy Mitchell
The Doc Alliance Selection Award was announced at the Marché’s Doc Corner Brunch yesterday as The Quest Of The Schooner Creoula by Andre Valentim Almeida. The film follows the director on a schooner to the Selvagens Islands to document a Portuguese scientific expedition. He also taps his own memories of his family’s fishing history in Newfoundland. Almeida said at the brunch: “It’s an important prize for me. It’s validating what I’ve been doing for the past several years.” Also at the brunch, the Connect4Climate campaign and coalition announced it would follow up its Action4Climate documentary competition with a new competition, Action4Climate+, for film-makers over 35 years of age. Film-makers such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Fernando Meirelles, Mira Nair and Wim Wenders will serve on the jury. The initiative is backed by The World Bank Group, the Italian Ministry of the Environment and the Global Environment Facility. Guests at the Doc Corner Brunch included directors Laurent Bécue-Renard (Of Men And War) and Frederick Wiseman (National Gallery).
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