Screen International Day 1 AFM 2016

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AT THE AMERICAN FILM MARKET

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TODAY

SCREENINGS

» Page 47

Newly formed to focus on acquiring, developing and producing original animated movies. GFM Films will handle worldwide sales.

THE LAUREATE - NEW CAST SAM CLAFLIN, IMOGEN POOTS, ADELAIDE CLEMENS DIRECTOR WILLIAM NUNEZ PRODUCERS WILLIAM NUNEZ, TRISTAN LYNCH

DOG’Y’DOG - NEW

GENRE PASSIONATE TRUE STORY

PRODUCERS LENINGRAD COWBOYS

STATUS PRE-PRODUCTION

STATUS DEVELOPMENT

The sexy, passionate true story of author Robert Graves and his ménage à trois with wife Nancy and young American writer Laura Riding.

A teenage dog longs to be a rock’n’roll guitarist but finds his dreams put on hold when his famous ‘dogynaut’ father goes missing on his latest mission to Mars.

HERE COMES THE GRUMP - NEW

ALL THE DEVIL’S MEN - NEW WRITER/DIRECTOR MATTHEW HOPE

PRODUCTION COMPANIES PRIME FOCUS WORLD, ANIMA

PRODUCERS HANNAH HOLLOWAY, AMORY LEADER

STATUS EARLY ANIMATION

GENRE ACTION THRILLER

Terry, a regular boy, finds himself magically transported to a colourful, faraway land where he must put a stop to the evil deeds of a mean spirited wizard called The Grump.

STATUS CASTING FOR Q1 2017 SHOOT

CODENAME: HOUSEWIFE - NEW

THE LAST WITNESS

CO-DIRECTORS WILL VINTON, HONG SUKHWA PRODUCERS BILL SCHULTZ, CHINA FILM CORP

STARRING ALEX PETTYFER, ROBERT WIECKIEWICZ, MICHAEL GAMBON

STATUS DEVELOPMENT

WRITER/DIRECTOR PIOTR SZKOPIAK

An ordinary housewife finds herself enlisted as a top-secret spy tasked with saving the world’s greatest rock stars who are mysteriously disappearing. Based on the Korean short film Codename: Azzuma.

PRODUCER CAROL HARDING

HUGO DIRECTORS PHILIP LIPSKI, MIKKO PITKANEN PRODUCER PETTERI PASANEN CO-PRODUCER TRINE HEIDEGAARD

A fast-paced, explosive action thriller about a team of CIAcontracted operatives in pursuit of a notoriously brutal terrorist.

GENRE POST WWII THRILLER STATUS SHOOTING NOVEMBER 2016 A fictional re-telling of a true story that delves deep into the events of the Katyn Massacre.

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE

STATUS IN PRE-PRODUCTION

CAST VIOLA DAVIS, MAHERSHALA ALI, QUEVENZHANE WALLIS

Fun loving troll Hugo must do all he can to rescue his daughter Squeaky.

WRITER/DIRECTOR CLAIRE MCCARTHY

STONERUNNER

GENRE HEARTBREAKING LOVE STORY

DIRECTOR STEVE TRENBIRTH

STATUS PREPARATION

PRODUCERS PETER CAMPBELL, ANTONY I GINNANE

A unique look at the relationship between a man & a wife and their desperate search for the American Dream. Based on the novel by Ann Weisgarber.

PRODUCTION COMPANIES PRIME FOCUS WORLD, STONERUNNER PRODUCTIONS STATUS IN PRE-PRODUCTION In this sci-fi adventure, a boy befriends a long forgotten war machine in an attempt to rescue his parents.

PRODUCERS VIOLA DAVIS, SU ARMSTRONG, BRIAN ROSEN, JULIUS TENNON

THE UNRAVELLING DIRECTOR DOUGLAS MACKINNON PRODUCERS DAVID L HAMILTON, JANET MUSWELL WRITER DAVID L HAMILTON

Titles on the GFM Evolution slate embrace a new model of filmmaking, focusing on genre-driven films with budgets in the $1m-$2m range.

GENRE SUPERNATURAL THRILLER STATUS CASTING

EAT LOCAL - SCREENING

A chilling tale of two brothers brought together again to rid themselves of a fratricidal curse.

CAST CHARLIE COX, DEXTER FLETCHER, MACKENZIE CROOK, RUTH JONES, BILLY COOK DIRECTOR JASON FLEMYNG

WHISKY GALORE! - SCREENING

WRITER DANNY KING

CAST GREGOR FISHER, EDDIE IZZARD, NAOMI BATTRICK, ELLIE KENDRICK

GENRE DARK COMEDY

DIRECTOR GILLIES MACKINNON WRITTEN BY PETER MACDOUGALL BASED ON THE NOVEL

BY SIR COMPTON MACKENZIE PRODUCERS IAIN MACLEAN, ALAN J WANDS GENRE HEARTWARMING REMAKE The inhabitants of the isolated Scottish Island of Todday are largely unaffected by wartime rationing, until their supply of whisky runs out!

In a quiet country farmhouse, Britain’s vampires gather for their once every fifty years meeting... with some unexpected surprises.

SCREENING

ArcLight 4 - 2 November, 3.30pm ArcLight 4 - 3 November, 11.30am

WE STILL STEAL THE OLD WAY

SCREENING

CAST IAN OGILVY, BILLY MURRAY, PATRICK BERGIN, JULIAN GLOVER

AMC Santa Monica 5, 2 November @ 11.00am

DIRECTOR SACHA BENNETT GENRE GANGLAND THRILLER

BLAZING SAMURAI

STATUS COMPLETED

VOICE CAST MICHAEL CERA, SAMUEL L JACKSON, RICKY GERVAIS, MEL BROOKS

The archer gang are back and doing what they do best a daring heist in the heart of London.

DIRECTOR CHRIS BAILEY PRODUCERS ROB MINKOFF, YAIR LANDAU, SUSAN PURCELL WRITERS ED STONE & NATE HOPPER STATUS IN PRODUCTION An action packed, laugh-filled, animated comedy inspired by Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.

GANGLAND CAST TERRY STONE, SAM STRIKE, JOSH MEYERS DIRECTOR GREG HALL GENRE GANGLAND THRILLER STATUS COMPLETED In the aftermath of the iconic Essex boys range rover killings, a group of younger criminals emerge to fill the power vacuum.

STRATTON CAST DOMINIC COOPER, AUSTIN STOWELL, GEMMA CHAN, TYLER HOECHLIN, TOM FELTON DIRECTOR SIMON WEST PRODUCER MATTHEW JENKINS GENRE ACTION THRILLER STATUS DELIVERY Special Boat Service operative for MI6, Stratton, and his team search for a terrorist armed with biochemical weapons.

GFM FILMS @ THE AFM – OFFICE 515, THE LOEWS FOR SALES ENQUIRIES PLEASE CONTACT EDO@GFMFILMS.COM/CLAUDIA@GFMFILMS.COM

4SQUAREFILMS presents

They made their bed

Now they have to die in it

COSTUME DESIGNER

CREATIVE ENGLAND IN ASSOCIATION WITH FFILM CYMRU WALES AND PONT NEUF PRODUCTIONS A DIRECTOR HUMMINGBIRD FILMS PRODUCTION ‘B&B’ OF PRODUCTION TOM BATEMAN HAIRSEAN& MAKETEALE CALLUM WOODHOUSE JAMES TRATAS AND PAUL McGANN PHOTOGRAPHY NICK DANCE DESIGNER IAIN ANDREWS ORIGINAL UP LINE ARIANNA DAL CERO DESIGNER JUTTA RUSSELL CASTING COLIN JONES PRODUCER GARETH I DAVIES MUSIC DAN JONES AND SIMON BIRCH EDITOR GRAHAM WALKER EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS RICHARD HOLMES HANNAH THOMAS JON FINN ANDREW BROWN BILLY HURMAN SIMON GRAHAM-CLAIRE RICKY MARGOLIS CO PRODUCER ISABELLE GEORGEAUX PRODUCED BY JAYNE CHARD WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JOE AHEARNE

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2 2016

AT THE AMERICAN FILM MARKET www.ScreenDaily.com

IM Global sets off with Adventurers

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

IM Global has acquired worldwide rights to Chinese romantic thriller The Adventurers, one of the first productions from Flagship Entertainment, Warner Bros’ joint venture with China Media Capital (CMC).

In post-production, the film is directed by Stephen Fung (Tai Chi Zero) and stars Andy Lau, Shu Qi and Jean Reno. The story, written

by Fung, Chi Kwong Cheung, Andy Lo and Steve Ha, revolves around a thief (Lau) who steals two priceless pieces of jewellery during Cannes Film Festival. Reno plays a detective on his trail.

Flagship produced with CMC division Gravity Pictures and producer Terence Chang (Red Cliff).

IM Global, which has worldwide rights excluding China, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines, is launching sales on the film here at AFM. IM Global’s slate of Chinese films also includes Huayi Brothers’ The Wasted Times, Village Roadshow Asia’s suspense thriller Hide And Seek and Fundamental Films’ action comedy Super Express.

Gaumont hits Binoche Bump

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Gaumont has taken on world sales on Noémie Saglio’s comedy Baby Bump(s), starring Juliette Binoche as a devil-may-care fortysomething who falls pregnant at the same time as her daughter. Camille Cottin (I Kissed A Girl) plays the longsuffering daughter. The film, produced by Pan-Européenne and Flamme Films, is in post-production for a March 2017 release in France.

Gaumont is putting the accent on comedy at this year’s AFM. Other titles on its slate include French box-office hit Brice From Nice, starring Jean Dujardin, and Valérie Lemercier’s comedy 50 Is The New 30. The company will show first footage of the latter.

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HanWay assigns Trainer

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

HanWay Films has announced new market project The Trainer, which will reunite Liam Neeson with his Michael Collins director Neil Jordan. Neeson will play John Moore, a premier racehorse trainer in the west of Ireland, who is beset by tragedy. When a teenage refugee comes into his life, the two bond over a racehorse.

As well as that buzz project, HanWay Films will also be talking

to buyers about rom-com The Wilde Wedding, starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Patrick Stewart, Minnie Driver, Jack Davenport and Yael Stone. The film, in post-production, is written and directed by Damian Harris and produced by Moneyball executive producer Andrew Karsch.

Close plays a celebrated actress preparing for her wedding to a renowned English writer (Stewart) in the presence of both of their

families. CAA represents domestic rights on the film. New HanWay Films MD Gabrielle Stewart, formerly of Bloom, said: “It’s a delight to see Glenn Close and John Malkovich reunited, as they were so memorable in Dangerous Liaisons.”

The new-look London-based sales team will also be talking to buyers about their live-action Pinocchio film from Matteo Garrone and Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing Of A Sacred Deer.

TODAY

Saoirse Ronan, news, page 8

NEWS Fuelling up Rocket Science enters the market fray with Saoirse Ronan and Casey Affleck dramas. » Page 8

Old gems Brian Cox and Tom Courtenay join true-life heist thriller. » Page 8

FEATURE Hot projects Screen profiles the buzz titles in the market from around the globe. » Page 18

SCREENINGS

» Page 47

IMR chases down Bloom in Shanghai

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

The Ashram

Seville finds Companion, Ashram

BY JEREMY KAY

Montreal-based Seville International will kick off sales on a prestige slate that includes A Worthy Companion starring Evan Rachel Wood, riding high in her starring role in HBO’s Westworld. Brothers Jason and Carlos Sanchez will direct the film about a troubled woman who uses manipulative

tactics to persuade a teenage runaway to live with her.

Seville holds worldwide rights to A Worthy Companion as it does on The Ashram, a spiritual thriller from producer Guneet Monga (Gangs Of Wasseypur) and executive producer Brian KavanaughJones (Insidious), which stars Sam Keeley, Melissa Leo, Kal Penn and

Indian rising star Radhika Apte.

Rounding out the new titles is writer-director Adam MacDonald’s occult horror Pyewacket, currently shooting. The Walking Dead’s Laurie Holden stars; Jonathan Bronfman and Victoria Sanchez-Mandryk are producing.

Seville and the producers represent US rights.

The Exchange adds Mann to dark comedy Beef Los Angeles-based The Exchange has bolstered its AFM slate with international sales rights to Beef and attached rising star Thomas Mann (Me And Earl And The Dying Girl) as the lead. CEO Brian O’Shea

will introduce the project this week.

It marks his second collaboration with producer Tom McNulty after The Spectacular Now. WME Global represents US rights to Beef, a Fargo-like dark comedy

based on Jeff Lock’s 2014 Black List screenplay about a small-town fastfood restaurant manager who gets into trouble with the local crime syndicate.

Jeremy Kay

IMR International — the Los Angeles-based joint sales venture of Insiders’ Vincent Maraval and MadRiver Pictures’ Marc Butan and Kim Fox — is launching sales here at AFM on Shanghai-set action-adventure S.M.A.R.T. Chase: Fire & Earth starring Orlando Bloom.

UK film-maker Charles Martin directed the production, which recently wrapped in Shanghai.

Joining Bloom in the cast are Hong Kong star Simon Yam, Hannah Quinlivan, Lynn Hung, teen heartthrob Leo Wu and martial artist Yanneng Shi. “S.M.A.R.T. Chase will bring the international audience through an unknown traditional and supermodern Shanghai at full speed,” said Maraval.

The production is fully financed

by Bliss Media, with company CEO Wei Han producing alongside Ben Pugh at London-based management and production company 42.

Bliss Media will oversee the Chinese distribution while CAA packaged and represents the film’s domestic rights.

IMR International was launched at Cannes by MadRiver Pictures and Insiders, an offshoot of Parisbased Wild Bunch, which was launched by Maraval in 2015 to focus on US independent pictures in the $15m range.

THIS FILM IS A NL FILM PRODUCTION IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH NTR AND NANOOK ENTERTAINMENT BV. THIS FILM IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH A CONTRIBUTION BY HET NEDERLANDS FILMFONDS AND THE NETHERLANDS FILM PROUCTION INCENTIVE AND HET COBO FONS. © 2016 NL FILM & TV BV

NEWS

C International bows with Gunj

BY LIZ SHACKLETON

C International Sales, the UKbased sales arm of Indian boutique studio Cinestaan Film Company, is making its AFM debut with a slate including A Death In The Gunj and Land Of The Gods. Konkona Sen Sharma’s A Death In The Gunj, which premiered at Toronto, is backed by indie production house Studioz IDrream. Directed by Serbia’s Goran Paskaljevic, Land Of The Gods stars India’s Victor Banerjee.

Headed by former 6 Sales chief Marina Fuentes, C International focuses on films with a connection to India and handles both acquisitions and Cinestaan productions.

The company is also selling Cinestaan’s Mirzya, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, for non-Indian diaspora territories.

The company’s slate also includes Goa-set comedy Jet Trash, starring Robert Sheehan.

Rocket Science fuels up with buzz slate, first hires

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Despite concerns over the exchange rate following the referendum to leave the European Union, 38 UK sales companies will exhibit at AFM, the most since 2009. Few come with as much intrigue as newly minted Rocket Science, the Londonbased operation launched last month by former HanWay Films MD Thorsten Schumacher, who worked at Jeremy Thomas’s bluechip sales company for 13 years.

Rocket Science’s debut slate includes drama On Chesil Beach starring Saoirse Ronan, Nick Hornby adaptation Juliet, Naked and David Lowery’s crime caper The Old Man And The Gun, set to feature Robert Redford and Casey Affleck.

The company recently bolstered its staff with the hires of

8 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

Rocket Science’s Claire Taylor and Chiara Gelardin

former HanWay executives Chiara Gelardin and Claire Taylor, who will both handle international sales.

Rocket Science is backed by a consortium of undisclosed investors and plans to expand to Los Angeles next year, with the aim of growing to around 10 staff by the end of 2017.

“We felt there was a gap in the

market for a bigger, more commercial, more vertically integrated, US-facing sales agency out of London,” Schumacher said. “I thought about this very carefully, which is why we made sure we are properly financed with partners with deep pockets so we can make good plays, not just as sales agents but potentially in the financing and development phases.”

Courtenay, Cox sign for Geezers

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Tom Courtenay and Brian Cox will play two of the culprits behind the London’s Hatton Garden safe deposit heist in Diamond Geezers.

The film will be directed by Ben Cookson, who is also co-writing the script with Tony O’Leary and David S Ward, Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Sting. GSP Studios International will commence sales at AFM. The 2015 theft, one of the biggest in UK history, saw a gang of old-school crooks cracking a vault in London’s jewellery quarter, making off with a stash worth an estimated $200m. Filming is due to start in London in January 2017. Producers are Alan Latham, Lionel Hicks and Charles Savage.

The project is the latest in a run of announced projects about the heist, with Working Title reported to be developing a version with James Marsh attached to direct.

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MARKET PREMIERE Nov. 3rd, 9:30 h, ArcLight 2 Nov. 5th, 11:30 h, ArcLight 2

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UNITED KINGDOM • ACTION-COMEDY • ENGLISH DIRECTOR SIMON WEST SYNOPSIS

The story follows Turk Henry; a mega platinum rock star star who’s married to a supermodel and rich beyond his wildest dreams. Whilst on holiday, his wife is mysteriously abducted by a group of renegade, ship-less ship-less pirates. With little assistance from local authorities Turk Turk is forced to embark on a mission to rescue his wife. With With life skills better suited to playing bass, playing the field, eld, and partying he is forced to navigate through deadly jungles and take on ruthless bandits in this truly hilarious, action-packed romp.

CARNABY INTERNATIONAL

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UNITED UNITED KINGDOM KINGDOM •• PERIOD PERIOD THRILLER THRILLER •• ENGLISH ENGLISH DIRECTOR DIRECTOR JOHN JOHN STEPHENSON STEPHENSON O.B.E. O.B.E. SYNOPSIS SYNOPSIS Prague, Prague, 1787.

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NEWS

Time flies for Showbox South Korea’s Showbox has announced a raft of pre-sales on Gang Dong-won-starrer Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned. Directed by Um Tae-hwa, the film is a fantasy drama about boys lost in time, one of who returns as an adult. The film, which stars Gang (A Violent Prosecutor, Kundo: Age Of The Rampant) and Shin

Eun-su in her feature debut, has sold to North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand (JBG Pictures), China (iQiyi, Lemon Tree), Japan (Hark), Philippines (VIVA Communications) and Turkey (Associated Euromedia). Showbox is also launching sales on Na Hyun’s crime thriller The Prison.

Jean Noh

Raven serves up sci-fi Meza

BY JEREMY KAY

Toronto genre specialist Raven Banner touches down at AFM with worldwide sales rights to James Mark’s sci-fi action title Meza. The film screens in the market on Saturday and tells of a high-schooler who discovers the truth behind his past, acquiring super-

human abilities in the process. Martial-arts exponent and stuntman Chris Mark, who has worked on The Hunger Games, stars with director Mark’s martial-arts group Team 2X. Producer Byron Kent Wong brokered the deal with Raven Banner managing partners Michael Paszt and James Fler.

12 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

Pattinson, Franco on Great Point slate

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

UK fund manager Great Point Media is launching its most ambitious slate to date with up to 20 films debuti n g a t A F M . Hav i n g invested in titles that have secured US deals this year, including Rachel Weisz drama Complete Unknown, picked up by Amazon, and Christine Vachon-produced Goat, which was sold to Paramount for the world,

the three-year-old company is pushing hard at the international film sales space.

Owned by former RHI Entertainment president Robert Halmi Jr and former Ingenious executive Jim Reeve, Great Point’s AFM s l a t e i n c l u d e s Al i c i a Vikander drama Euphoria, Sally Potter’s The Party, William H Macy-directed Krystal, Vachon-produced Where Is Kyra with Kiefer

Rai lets go Servillo comedy

BY GABRIELE NIOLA

Italian sales outfit Rai Com will launch sales at AFM on Let Yourself Go, Francesco Amato’s comedy starring

Toni Servillo (The Great Beauty). The actor, recently cast as Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s upcoming Pinocchio adaptation, stars as a

Sutherland, western Damsel with Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson, Katie Holmes comedy A Happening Of Monumental Proportions, Jim Loach’s Measure Of A Man, James Franco’s The Long Home, Zachary Quinto drama Aardvark and Anton Yelchin-Peter Dinklage title Rememory.

Former RHI Entertainment executive John Alexander leads sales.

psychoanalyst who lives next door to — and is still in love with — his ex-wife, when he meets a personal trainer named Claudia. Let Yourself Go is produced by Cattleya and Rai Cinema.

Mega-Vision unleashes Dragon Hong Kong’s Mega-Vision Project Workshop is launching sales on action crime drama Chasing The Dragon, which unites two of Hong Kong’s biggest stars, Donnie Yen and Andy Lau. Yen plays notorious 1970s gangster Ng Sek-ho in the film, co-directed by Wong Jing and Jason Kwan. Wong Jing’s Mega-Vision Project Workshop is producing with Bona Film Group.

Mega-Vision is also launching sales on action adventure The Golden Monk, directed by Wong Jing and Billy Chung. In post, the film is produced

by Mega-Vision and Beijing Hairun Pictures.

Liz Shackleton

www.screendaily.com

media luna @ AFM

NEWS

Octane roars with nine in the tank

BY JEREMY KAY

Friday Nov. 4th 9:30AM Monica Film Center 6

Former Premiere Entertainment Group executive Jack Campbell has launched Octane Entertainment with nine titles for AFM buyers, led by This Is Your Death starring Josh Duhamel.

Backed by a Silicon Valleybased investment fund, Octane plans to finance and produce one to two cast-

driven, globally appealing features and acquire 15-20 third-party titles per year.

This Is Your Death, from producers Great Point Media, centres on a lethal game show. Giancarlo Esposito directs and Famke Janssen co-stars. Great Point represents US rights. The slate includes comedy And Punching The Clown with

Sarah Silverman and JK Simmons, action title Cops And Robbers with Michael Jai White and thriller Tell Me How I Die headed by YouTube star Ryan Higa.

Company president Campbell will be joined at AFM by vice president Tamara Nagahiro and acquisitions executive Tanya Thanadpojanamart.

Screen Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to Iceland-set sci-fi Bokeh from Zealous Pictures and introduces it to AFM buyers this week. Maika Monroe stars in the Geoffrey Orthwein and Andrew Sullivandirected story of a couple on a romantic getaway who wake up to discover everyone on Earth has disappeared.

Jeremy Kay

What makes us human?

Truffle parades Dateless, Hippo

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

The theory of kisses and orgies

Fledgling UK sales outfit Truffle Pictures comes to its first AFM with a slate including UK comedy Dateless, action adventure The Gaelic King and John Jencks’ The Hippopotamus.

Truffle is spearheaded by former Metrodome executive Caroline Couret-Del-

egue and former The Little Film Company executive Elie Mechoulam.

Jencks’ completed comedy The Hippopotamus, based on Stephen Fry’s novel, stars Roger Allam, Matthew Modine and Fiona Shaw in the story of a disgraced poet seeking redemption at a friend’s

Carnaby rounds on Arthur sequel

BY TOM GRATER

#life #money #love… #nofilter

Visit us! @ Loews #630 www.medialuna.biz idamartins@medialuna.biz 14 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

London-based Carnaby Sales & Distribution has acquired worldwide sales rights to fantasy adventure sequel Arthur & Merlin: The Fire Of Balor. The previous film, Arthur & Merlin, sold to 13 territories including North America, the UK and other European countries.

Marco van Belle returns

to direct, with Martin Mahon producing. The story sees Merlin uniting Celtic tribes to defend King Arthur against dark forces.

Carnaby’s joint CEOs Andrew Loveday and Sean O’Kelly brokered the deal with executive producer Paul Osbourne and will introduce the project to buyers at AFM.

country estate. Debut writer-director Josef Baar’s comedy Dateless is adapted from Tibor Fischer’s novel The Collector Collector.

Truffle also has UK fantasy-action film The Gaelic King, in post-production, and supernatural thriller We Go On, which gets a market screening at AFM.

Metro nets Rainbow Metro International has boarded sales on finished UK-China-New Zealand 3D family adventure film Into The Rainbow (formerly The Wonder). Willow Shields and Leo Wu star.

The English-language production is partfinanced by Tien Ran Media Group, a subsidiary of Alibaba.

Andreas Wiseman

www.screendaily.com

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CHINA-HONG KONG BUZZ, PAGE 34

Screen correspondents profile some of the hottest and most intriguing projects from around the world available to buyers here at the American Film Market

NORTH AMERICA

By Jeremy Kay Sierra/Affinity’s Nick Meyer and his team

will commence international sales on Craig Gillespie’s drama-biopic I, Tonya, with Margot Robbie in negotiations to play controversial US figure skater Tonya Harding. Len Blavatnik’s AI Film will fully finance and UTA Independent Film Group and CAA represent US rights.

FilmNation will be talking up Bona Fide Productions’ The Only Living Boy In New York starring Jeff Bridges, Kate Beckinsale, Pierce Brosnan, Callum Turner, Cynthia Nixon and Kiersey Clemons. Marc Webb directs from a screenplay by Allan Loeb about a college graduate who embarks on a relationship with his father’s mistress. Amazon Studios holds US rights.

IM Global is fully financing and launching international sales on Drake Doremus’s Zoe, which will star Charlie Hunnam and Léa Seydoux. Scott Free Productions is producing the tale of two research lab colleagues who make profound discoveries in their work to perfect romance through technology.

Production is set for April in Montreal.

UTA Independent Film Group represents US rights.

Bloom will start sales on Fonzo, starring Tom Hardy as Al Capone. Addictive Pictures and Lawrence Bender produce

the story, set in the Chicago gangster’s final days as he is ravaged by dementia.

Josh Trank directs and CAA and WME Global represents US rights.

Voltage Pictures launches sales on Morgan Creek Productions’ Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez On Me, about the life and legacy of the iconic hip-hop star and actor. Benny Boom directs newcomer Demetrius Shipp Jr in the lead role. The film wrapped production in Atlanta and Las Vegas last spring and the producers are in talks on a US deal.

Nu Image will be talking up Angel Has Fallen, the third entry in the action series starring Gerard Butler. This time, Secret Service agent Mike Banning finds himself the target of assassins.

Paul Hanson’s Covert Media is on board worldwide rights to Resurface, which double Oscar-winning effects ace Paul Franklin (Interstellar, Inception) will direct. The action film centres on a scientist and an engineer trapped 35,000ft underwater after an earthquake separates them from their crew.

The project — the first from Covert Media’s two-year deal with Broken Road Productions — is in pre-production.

Red Sea Media arrives

with Ecstasia starring Scott East-

18 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

BUZZ

wood. Wayne Kramer will direct the story, set in 2022, when a virus has eliminated the ability to fall in love.

Jeremy Irons and Jack Huston star in An Actor Prepares, which Content Media will be touting to international buyers.

Steve Clark directs the father-son buddy comedy, which CAA represents for North America.

Radiant Films International has high hopes for Misfortune, a thriller to star John Cusack, Daniel Zovatto and Willa Fitzgerald. Lucky McKee directs the story of a desperate embezzler who goes up against three young friends who find his lost cash in the desert.

XYZ Films arrives with Anders Walter’ I Kill Giants, starring Zoe Saldana and Imogen Poots. The film, based on Joe Kelly’s graphic novel about a young misfit battling monsters real and imagined, is shooting now. Chris Columbus is on the producer roster and XYZ handles worldwide sales rights.

Fortitude International is talking up

Android, starring Aaron Paul and Olga Kurylenko. Niall Johnson directs the film, which is about a man alone in space who finds himself trapped (Left) Boys In The Trees

(Pictured above from left) Bleiberg Entertainment’s Coming Through The Rye; The Little Film Company’s Last Rampage: The Escape Of Gary Tison; and Shoreline Entertainment’s It Had To Be You

in a game of cat-and-mouse with his companion robots.

The Exchange brings Rebecca Ferguson-starrer The Lady And The Panda, which CAA represents in the US. Justin Chadwick directs and Laura Bickford and Michelle Qi produce the true story of a 1930s New York socialite who became the first person to bring a live giant panda from China to the world’s attention.

International Film Trust will be talking up The Party Crasher, about an evil entity that takes over a frat-house party.

Michael Benaroya is producing with Unique Features’ Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne. The film stars Shanley Caswell, Molly Tarlov, Jayson Blair, Jacob Artist, Ashton Moio and Cameron Moulene.

FilmSharks arrives with Inseparables, Marcos Carnevale’s Latin remake of French smash Intouchables. It stars Oscar Martinez, who won Venice’s best actor prize for The Distinguished Citizen.

Myriad Pictures represents international rights to Mushroom Pictures’ coming-of-age horror Boys In The Trees following its world premiere in Venice’s Horizons section. Toby Wallace, Gulliver McGrath and Mitzi Ruhlmann star in Australian director Nicholas Verso’s debut about teenage friends who »

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AFM BUZZ THE LOWDOWN

embark on a precarious all-night trek on Halloween.

AMBI Distribution arrives with an asyet-untitled Sarah Jessica Parker musical drama, in which a successful singer must deal with a life-changing diagnosis.

AMBI Group is fully financing the film, which is scheduled to shoot this winter.

Toronto-based Double Dutch International commences talks on rom-com You, Me And Him starring Lucy Punch, Faye Marsay, David Tennant and Simon Bird of The Inbetweeners. Production was due to start in the US on October 31 on the story of a career woman and her hedonistic girlfriend who must reexamine their relationship after befriending a Casanova-type neighbour.

Mongrel International is in town with G.L.O (The Giant Little Ones) to star Maria Bello and Josh Wiggins. Keith Behrman directs the tale of high school best friends whose lifelong relationship takes an unexpected turn at a 16th birthday party.

Raven Banner Entertainment has horror film Dearest Sister directed by Mattie Do. The story centres on a Laotian village girl who travels to the capital, Vientiane, to care for a rich cousin who has lost her sight but gained the ability to communicate with the dead.

Bleiberg Entertainment will be talking up Coming Through The Rye, a coming-of-age tale about a youngster in 1969 who runs away to track down reclusive author JD Salinger. Alex Wolff and Chris Cooper star.

13 Films is starting talks on family adventure Four Kids And It, to star Michael Caine, Bill Nighy, Matthew Goode and Paula Patton. Shooting is scheduled to begin on November 14 on the adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson’s story about young children who encounter a magical wish-granter.

Concourse Media handles worldwide sales to Grass Stains from Haven Entertainment and Bow & Arrow Entertainment. The drama about a teenager dealing with his conscience after a prank causes the death of his girlfriend’s older brother stars Tye Sheridan and Kaitlyn Dever. Kyle Wilamowski wrote and directed.

Electric Entertainment wil l be

talking up worldwide rights to company founder Dean Devlin’s Bad Samaritan.

David Tennant and Robert Sheehan star in the tale of car valets who burgle the wrong house.

The Little Film Company

20 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

The Recall

Maze

Lies We Tell

will kick off talks with worldwide buyers on Last Rampage: The Escape Of Gary Tison Tison. The true crime thriller stars Ro b e r t Pa t r i c k a n d Heather Graham, and recounts an Arizona prison inmate’s breakout and violent spree.

Dwight Little directs the film, currently in post-production.

Visit Films

will be mak(Left) The Case For Christ

ing its first concerted push on Maze, about the IRA prison breakout of 1983.

Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Barry Ward and Martin McCann star in writer-director Stephen Burke’s film, currently in postproduction. Lionsgate for the UK and NonStop Entertainment for Scandinavia are among the buyers already confirmed.

Former Premiere Entertainment executive Jack Campbell’s new Octane Entertainment hits the market with This Is Your Death starring Josh Duhamel, Giancarlo Esposito and Famke Janssen.

Esposito directs the story of a disturbing gameshow in which contestants end their lives for public enjoyment. Producer Great Point Media represents US rights.

Epic Pictures brings supernatural thriller The Lodgers, Brian O’Malley’s tale of a haunted family estate in Ireland where spirits are awakened by a young suitor’s advances. David Bradley from Game Of Thrones stars.

Pure Flix is seeking followers for The Case For Christ, its adaptation of Lee Strobel’s bestseller about an atheist reporter who sets out to prove Christianity is a cult and ends up feeling differently. The film will screen at the market and is set for a US launch in April in more than 1,200 theatres. Mike Vogel, Erika Christensen and Faye Dunaway star.

Montreal’s Seville International is in town talking up The Ashram, a spiritual thriller shot in India and starring Sam Keeley, Melissa Leo and Kal Penn. Ben Rekhi’s film is about a sceptical American who travels to the Himalayas to investigate his girlfriend’s disappearance and encounters a mysterious community.

VMI Worldwide will start talks on The Recall, starring Wesley Snipes and RJ Mitte. The action sci-fi was shot in the Barco Escape format, virtual reality and 4K. It follows five friends who must survive an alien invasion, and will open theatrically in the US in Barco-equipped theatres.

Shoreline Entertainment arrives with satirical rom-com It Had To Be You, about a neurotic jingle writer who must decide whether to get married or pursue her dreams. Chris Columbus serves as executive producer and the cast includes Cristin Milioti and Dan Soder. Samuel Goldwyn Films distributes in North America.

Spotlight Pictures founder and CEO Matt McCombs will be talking up Lies We Tell starring Gabriel Byrne and Harvey Keitel. The story follows the driver of a recently deceased businessman who lands in hot water when he attempts to save the family legacy and cover up his late employer’s affairs. Mitu Misra makes his directorial debut on the film, which is in post-production.

Film Mode Entertainment will commence talks on The Gracefield Incident, about a video-game developer who embeds a phone camera in his prosthetic eye and records an alien invasion while on a weekend getaway with friends. Mathieu Ratthe directs and stars with Kimberly Laferriere, Victor Andres Turgeon-Trelles, Juliette Gosselin and Alex C Nachi.

MPI Media Group arrives with The Stakelander, the sequel to cult post-apocalyptic film Stake Land. Connor Paolo, Nick Damici, Laura Abramsen, AC Peterson and Bonnie Dennison star in the story about a battle between vampire armies. »

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Double Date

The Stolen

Let Me Go

UNITED KINGDOM

By Andreas Wiseman HanWay Films heads to AFM with a new-look sales team and a live-action version of classic fairytale Pinocchio, from Gomorrah and Tale Of Tales director Matteo Garrone. The Great Beauty star Toni Servillo is to play Geppetto in the Italian-language movie, produced by RPC, Le Pacte and Rai Cinema.

Cornerstone Films ’ busy slate includes Dan Krauss’s feature adaptation of his documentary The Kill Team.

Nat Wolff and Alexander Skarsgard are set to star in the story of a US soldier trapped between his conscience and survival when members of his platoon carry out a murderous scheme in southern Afghanistan.

Thorsten Schumacher will be at AFM with his new company Rocket Science, which will be talking to buyers about Saoirse Ronan drama On Chesil Beach, currently shooting in the UK. Number 9 Films produces the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 1960s-set novel about a young couple on their honeymoon.

Embankment Films hits Santa Monica with Glenn Close drama The Wife, currently in production. The long-gestating project charts the story of a writer who decides to leave her husband while travelling to receive a prestigious award. Pro-

The Suicide Theory

Steel Country

ducers include Anonymous Content and Meta Film.

Protagonist Pictures is here with Richard Loncraine’s silver-dollar romcom Finding Your Feet, starring Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie and Joanna Lumley in the story of a woman who finds romance at a dance class.

Bankside Films will be talking to buyers about recently wrapped thriller Steel Country, headlined by Sherlock and Spectre star Andrew Scott, who plays a smalltown truck driver who turns detective.

The King’s Speech’s Gareth Ellis-Unwin produces, and editor is Slumdog Millionaire’s Chris Dickens.

Altitude Film Sales is in town with Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson’s supernatural thriller Ghost Stories, about a professor who encounters haunted people.

Warp Films produces and Martin Freeman is attached to star.

Following their collaboration on Oscar-nominated Song Of The Sea, WestEnd Films is reteaming with Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon on The Breadwinner, which is produced in association with Angelina Jolie’s Jolie Pas Productions. The title centres on an Afghan girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to support her family.

David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment will be looking to seal deals on Broad Green Pictures’ Wish Upon, starring Joey King and Stranger Things actress Shannon Purser. The film tells

22 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

the story of a 16-year-old misfit who finds a magic box that promises the life she always wanted, but each wish demands a deadly payment.

Andrew Niccol’s thriller Anon, starring Clive Owen and Amanda Seyfried, is in post-production for K5 Film. Owen will star as a detective operating in the near future, when crime has been eradicated.

Goldcrest Films will continue talking to buyers about Zack Whedon’s completed US thriller Come And Find Me, which has a first market screening.

Aaron Paul and Annabelle Wallis star in the feature, from producers Automatik Entertainment, Motion Picture Capital and Oddfellows Entertainment.

Metro International has boarded sales on completed UK-ChinaNew Zealand family adventure movie Into The Rainbow (formerly The ). Willow Shields, Wonder).

Leo Wu, Joe Chen, Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Archie Kao star in the story of two teenagers who travel inside a super-powered rainbow to China.

Great Point Media’s bustling slate includes L i s a L a n g s e t h’s drama Euphoria, starring Alicia The Breadwinner Vikander and Eva

Green. In post-production, the title charts the story of two sisters trying to reconnect before one of them succumbs to a terminal illness.

Independent comes to market with drama The Escape, starring Gemma Arterton and Dominic Cooper in the story of a dissatisfied woman who leaves her family. Lorton Entertainment is financing and has UK distribution rights.

Simon Crowe’s SC Films will have a market screening of animation Charming, featuring original songs by Demi Lovato and Sia. Avril Lavigne, John Cleese, Ashley Tisdale and Wilmer Valderrama also lend their voices to the movie, in which three fairytale princesses find themselves engaged to Prince Charming.

Salt will hope to entice buyers with recently wrapped supernatural horror Malicious Malicious, about a college professor and his pregnant wife who find themselves haunted — and connected — to a malicious entity, following a traumatic event.

Kaleidoscope Film Distribution will be

talking to buyers about Alice Lowe’s Venice and Toronto comedyhorror Prevenge, about a pregnant »

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AFM BUZZ THE LOWDOWN

woman who goes on a killing spree.

Sightseers actress Lowe wrote, directed and stars in the movie, which is sold by XYZ Films and ICM in the US. Celsius will stoke up interest in Isabel Coixet’s drama The Bookshop, about a woman who decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop in rural 1950s England, a decision that becomes a political minefield. The film has already pre-sold to Spain and Australia among other markets.

Film Constellation hits the Loews with comedy-horror Double Date from producers Matt Wilkinson and Maggie Monteith. Benjamin Barfoot’s feature debut stars Michael Socha and Georgia Groome, with cameos from Dexter Fletcher and Tom Sturridge.

Former Metrodome and The Little Film Company executives Caroline Couret-Delegue and Elie Mechoulam arrive at the market with newly minted sales outfit Truffle Pictures, which kicks off with John Jencks’ completed comedy The Hippopotamus, based on Stephen Fry’s novel about a poet summoned to his friend’s country manor to investigate a series of unexplained miracles.

Timeless Films will be in Santa Monica with the live-action version of writer Michael Ende’s Jim Button And Luke The Engine Driver. The Wave director Dennis Gansel takes the helm on the family fantasy, the producers of which include Warner Bros Germany, Christian Becker and Studio Babelsberg.

Guy Collins and GFM Films will be at AFM with development drama The Personal History Of Rachel DuPree. Viola Davis, Mahershala Ali and Quvenzhané Wallis are attached to star in the story of a heavily pregnant woman on a droughtstricken ranch who is forced to take survival into her own hands.

GSP Studios will be tempting buyers with Diamond Geezers, a story about the notorious Hatton Garden heist in Lon-

Interlude In Prague

The Prime Minister

don, in which a gang of pension-age crooks carried out a robbery worth an estimated $300m. Brian Cox and Tom Courtenay are due to star.

Umedia will be seeking further deals on its slate, which includes completed Italian drama Correspondence, starring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko.

The Works Film Group will premiere Loft director Erik Van Looy’s thriller The Prime Minister, in which the car of the Belgian prime minister is hijacked, his driver killed and the premier kidnapped by terrorists.

Carnaby Sales And Distribution will show an extended promo of Mozart

Hallows Eve

drama Interlude In Prague, about the turbulent months that influenced the creation of opera Don Giovanni. James Purefoy, Aneurin Barnard, Samantha Barks and Morfydd Clark star.

Evolutionary Films’ slate includes Juliet Stevenson starrer Let Me Go. In post-production, the drama is based on the memoirs of Helga Schneider, who was abandoned by her mother in 1941 when she was only four years old as her mother joined the Nazi SS. Recently launched C International Sales, the sales arm of Cinestaan Film Company, will present a slate including Hindi romance-drama Mirzya, about

star-crossed lovers in parallel worlds.

Former 6 Sales executive Marina Fuentes leads the charge.

4squarefilms will be touting completed Alice Eve and Jack Davenport title The Stolen, in which a woman’s dreams of a new life are violently shattered when her baby son is kidnapped.

Genre specialist Jinga Films has boarded Serbian sci-fi thriller Incarnation for world sales and remake rights.

The film, which had its US premiere at Screamfest LA, follows a man caught in a recurring nightmare.

Moviehouse Entertainment will be at the market with Brad Watson’s UK horror feature Hallows Eve, which played at London’s FrightFest. The film is about a gang that ignores bad omens in a bid to reclaim the streets on Halloween.

Dogwoof’s sales team will be talking to buyers about documentary Citizen Jane: Battle For The City, covering author, sociologist and activist Jane Jacobs, well known in the field of urban planning for her book The Death And Life Of Great American Cities.

Parkland Pictures will bring UK home invasion thriller Us And Them to market.

Jack Roth stars in Joe Martin’s debut about a disillusioned young man who holds a banker and his family hostage.

Devilworks will be seeking deals for Australian thriller The Suicide Theory, which the company is repping for international sales following its release on Netflix in the US. 7 & 7 Producers Sales Service comes to market with UK title Away, director David Blair’s completed drama starring Timothy Spall and Juno Temple.

Saradan Media’s slate includes drama Camera Store, currently in post-production. Set on Christmas Eve 1994, the US movie charts the story of two salesmen who must confront their fears when a young employee is forced on them by » their vindictive boss.

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24 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

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FRANCE

By Melanie Goodfellow Studiocanal will launch Shaun The Sheep Movie 2, the sequel to its joint production with the UK’s Aardman that earned $106m at the global box office.

Other new titles on the AFM slate include Paris-set comedy Madame, starring Harvey Keitel and Toni Collette as a wealthy ex-pat couple whose housemaid (Rossy de Palma) embarks on an affair with one of their rich acquaintances.

The slate also includes French-language comedy The Climb, starring Ahmed Sylla as a man who sets off to conquer Everest to impress a woman. It is the debut feature of Ludovic Bernard, who was an assistant director on a number of EuropaCorp productions including Lucy, Taken 3 and Nine Lives.

The rebranded TF1 Studio (formerly TF1 International) will kick off sales on Rudolf Nureyev, Rodolphe Marconi’s biopic of the legendary ballet dancer; romantic comedy Bonne Pomme, which reunites Gérard Depardieu and Catherine Deneuve; and Honey Bunny, about protective parents who try to help their lovesick teenage son get over being dumped. It will also show a promo reel of Philippe Lacheau’s comedy Alibi.Com, about the creator of a start-up that specialises in concocting alibis, and Knock, starring Omar Sy as a hustler-turneddoctor who convinces the healthy inhabitants of a village that they are ill to boost his earnings.

Gaumont will launch comedy Baby Bump(s), which stars Juliette Binoche and Camille Cottin as a mother and daughter who both fall pregnant at the same time. The company will also world premiere Brice From Nice, in which hapless surfer Brice (Oscar winner Jean Dujardin) quits the south of France for Hawaii, and Second World War drama A Bag Of Marbles, as well as a teaser for Albert Dupontel’s buzzed-about historical drama See You Up There.

Wild Bunch will show a promo reel for Luc Jacquet’s March Of The Penguins 2 — The Call and continue sales on Claire Denis’ High Life, starring Robert Pattinson, Patricia Arquette and Mia Goth, as well as a slew of Cannes 2017 hopefuls including Michel Hazanavicius’s JeanLuc Godard tribute Redoubtable, which shot over the summer, and Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts.

Kinology will kick off sales on Leos Carax’s long-gestated musical Annette, which is in pre-production, as well as Pascal Laugier’s horror-house thriller Incident In A Ghost Land, starring Mylene Farmer, Crystal Reed and Anastasia Phil-

Shaun The Sheep Movie 2

The Darkness

Baby Bump(s)

lips as a mother and two daughters. It started shooting in Canada for seven weeks on October 28.

Le Pacte will show promos for Lucas Belvaux’s drama This Is Our Land and actor Nicolas Bedos’s directorial debut Mr & Mrs Adelman, in which he plays a famous writer opposite Doria Tillier as his wife in a comedy romance flashing back to the couple’s life together from the 1970s onwards following the former’s death.

MK2 will kick off sales on Pierre Salvadori’s ensemble rom-com The Trouble With You, starring Adele Haenel opposite Audrey Tautou, Vincent Elbaz and Damien Bonnard. Other upcoming films include Naomi Kawase’s drama Radiance, in pre-production, starring Masatoshi Nagase as a photographer whose images stir powerful memories in a young woman who befriends him.

MK2’s slate also includes Serge Bozon’s black comedy Mrs Hyde, with Isabelle

26 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

Huppert as an eccentric teacher with a split personality, which is currently shooting in France. The company will also show first footage of Joan Chemla’s If You Saw His Heart, starring Marine Vacth and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Memento Films International will market premiere Daniel Castro Zimbron’s fantasy thriller The Darkness, which revolves around three siblings who live in a forest with their mysterious father, who confines them to a cellar when he leaves the house.

Alongside consolidating sales on big budget sci-fi venture Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets, new titles for EuropaCorp include Taxi 5, which is set to star popular French comic actors Franck Gastambide and Malik Bentalha, best known internationally for Gaumont’s Pattaya. Other upcoming titles include Samuel Jouy’s Sparring, starring Mathieu Kassovitz as an ageing boxer who refuses to hang up his gloves. The company also recently announced it had boarded the English-language remake of Takashi Miike’s Shield Of Straw.

Films Distribution is handling sales on Renaud Fely and Arnaud Louvet’s Brotherhood, A Life With Saint Francis, starring Elio Germano as the famous saint opposite Jérémie Renier as devoted follower Elia da Cortona.

The Bureau Sales will premiere promos for Matt Porterfield’s Sollers Point, starring McCaul Lombardi as a drug dealer trying to break out of the constraints of his

impoverished home town following his release from jail, as well as Olivier Peyon’s child abduction drama Life Beyond Me, starring Isabelle Carré as a mother who goes in search of her son in Uruguay.

Other buzzy titles on its slate include Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete and Peter Mackie Burns’ Daphne.

SND will kick off sales on children’s feature-length animation The Jungle Bunch, a spin-off from the TV series about a gang of misfit animals. It will also introduce Maurice Barthélémy’s The Exes, about five very different ex-couples whose lives intertwine with unexpected results.

Pathé International will officially launch sales on Andrew Haigh’s untitled Alexander McQueen project, starring Jack O’Connell as the UK fashion designer.

Films on the slate of genre specialist WTFilms include a first promo reel for Patrick Mille’s Going To Brazil, about a group of girlfriends who accidentally kill a man while visiting Rio for a wedding.

Other new additions include Don’t Hang Up, about a prank phone call that has sinister repercussions.

Other Angle Pictures brings comedy Full Speed by Nicolas Benamou, as well as Solange Cicurel’s dramedy Don’t Tell Her. New additions to the slate include Olivier Casas’ social comedy Baby Phone, about a dinner party at which the guests unwittingly reveal their secrets via a baby monitor in another room; In&Out, that sees a couple switch bodies to understand each other better; and Maxime Govare’s Just Divorced, about an estranged couple forced to live under the same roof for financial reasons.

Bac Films International continue sales on Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland-starrer The Leisure Seeker, cult directors Hélene Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s western noir Let The Corpses Tan and David Freyne’s post-zombie-era psychological horror film The Third Wave, starring Ellen Page.

Celluloid Dreams will launch sales on Fred Schepisi’s TIFF-announced thriller Andorra, which stars Clive Owen in the lead role alongside an ensemble cast including Toni Collette, Gillian Anderson, Joanna Lumley, Riccardo Scamarcio and new addition Vanessa Redgrave. The company is also bringing to the market 4K remastered versions of Jacques Audiard’s 1994 debut thriller See How They Fall and Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense.

Elle Driver will kick off sales on JeanPierre Devillers’ working-titled documentary Cannes, Cinema Of Liberty, which captures the history of Cannes Film Festival. Devillers’ previous works include the Emmy Award-winning The Man Who Saved The Louvre. »

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REST OF EUROPE

By Geoffrey Macnab, Wendy Mitchell, Elisabet Cabeza and Gabriele Niola German sellers will be out in force in Santa Monica. Beta Cinema is showcasing its Norwegian box-office hit — and Oscar submission — The King’s Choice.

Directed by Erik Poppe, the film is about real events in April 1940, when the king of Norway was presented with a monstrous ultimatum by the Nazis: surrender or die. Another prestige title on Beta’s slate is Cold Hell, a hard-boiled thriller by Stefan Ruzowitzky (The Counterfeiters).

Beta is also representing Vincent And The End Of The World from award-winning Belgian director Christophe van Rompaey, and Australian culture-clash comedy Ali’s Wedding from director Jeffrey Walker. Based on a true story, Walker’s film is about the son of a Muslim cleric, caught between family duty and following his heart after a reckless lie sets off a catastrophic chain of events before a wedding.

Films Boutique is continuing sales on Andrzej Wajda’s final film, Afterimage — Poland’s Oscar submission — about an elderly artist who falls from grace during the Stalin era.

ARRI Media will hold its first market screenings of Russian Oscar submission Paradise, the highly praised Holocaust drama by Andrei Konchalovsky. The film won Venice’s Silver Lion for best director.

ARRI is also presenting its hybrid liveaction/CGI family title Robby & Toby’s Fantastic Voyager by Wolfgang Groos, which Studiocanal will release in Germany in time for Christmas. The film stars Alexandra Maria Lara and Sam Riley. ARRI’s third market premiere is Vampire Sisters 3, Journey To Transylvania, the latest feature in its successful family franchise. The company will also show new material from animated Iceland-Belgium co-production Ploey — You Never Fly Alone.

The Match Factory is introducing bruising drama The 4th Company, set in the most violent jail in Mexico and following a renegade who joins a jailhouse American football team. The company is also handling Israeli director Rama Burshtein’s drama Through The Wall and Corinna Belz’s documentary Peter Handke — In The Woods, Might Be Late, about the superstar German author.

Fellow German outfit Global Screen will be introducing buyers to its Spanishlanguage romantic drama Amar, due for delivery next year, and its latest animated feature Bayala, featuring dragons and elves, which will be completed in 2018.

Cold Hell

Afterimage

SUM1

Other new projects include My Brother Simple, Markus Goller’s drama about a 22-year-old man with a mental age of three, and Zagros, a Belgian drama about a Kurdish woman accused of infidelity who has to flee to Europe with her young daughter. The company is also holding a market premiere of 3D animated feature Richard The Stork and a private screening of high-concept sci-fi thriller SUM1, starring Game Of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon.

Children’s specialist Sola Media is premiering German animation The Rabbit School, a Karate Kid-meets-the Easter Bunny story. The film, which will have its

28 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

local release on March 16, 2017 with Universum, has presold to France (Gebeka), Poland (Kino Swiat), the Middle East (Italia), former Yugoslavia (Dexin), South Korea (Yeilim), the UK ( A l t i t u d e ), E s t o n i a (Estin) and Turkey (Bir Film), all for a theatrical release around Easter.

(Right) The Rabbit School

Italian juggernaut Rai Com is premiering Francesco Amato’s comedy Let Yourself Go!, starring Toni Servillo as a Freudian psychoanalyst who lives next door to his ex-wife. Forced to go on a health kick by his doctor, he meets Claudia, a personal trainer who is totally absorbed in matters of the body. Rai Com is also selling Gabriele Muccino’s young-adult comedy Summertime, which debuted at Venice, and a pair of documentaries: Ossessione Vezzoli, a backstage look at acclaimed contemporary artist Francesca Vezzoli, and S Is For Stanley, about the long-time Italian driver of Stanley Kubrick.

FilmExport will arrive at the market with One Island Two Worlds — Cristo Rey, a two-brothers-one-woman story set in a shantytown in Santo Domingo. Also on its slate are In The Box, a thriller about a woman trapped in a garage with a car pumping out fumes; Vertical Conquests, a documentary about the rise of contemporary street artists; and comedy Let’s Talk from actor/director Sergio Rubini, about two bourgeois Roman couples struggling with revelations of infidelity and hypocrisy over a single night.

Topping the line-up for Latido Films is Argentina’s Oscar submission The Distinguished Citizen. Already a box-office success in Argentina, the black comedy directed by Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn follows a Nobel prize winner who decides to visit his home town. The film’s star, Oscar Martinez (Wild Tales), won Venice’s best actor prize for his performance. Latido’s slate also includes Rara from Chilean director Pepa San Martin, a coming-of-age story that was named best film in the Generation Kplus section at the Berlinale; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Spanish thriller May God Save Us, a San Sebastian winner for best screenplay; Carlos Saura’s dance documentary J: Beyond Flamenco; and controversial Polish drama Playground.

Film Factory Entertainment comes to AFM with a strong line-up of thrillers, including Alberto Rodriguez’s Marshland follow-up Smoke & Mirrors, a political corruption and espionage story set in 1990s Spain that won Eduard Fernandez the best actor prize at San Sebastian, and The Invisible Guest, directed

by Oriol Paulo and featuring a strong Spanish cast topped by Mario Casas, Barbara Lennie and Jose Coronado. Also on Film Factory’s slate are actor Raul Arevalo’s directorial debut T h e Fu r y O f A »

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AFM BUZZ THE LOWDOWN

Strawberry Days

Cage Dive

Furious

Patient Man, which won a Venice award for actress Ruth Diaz; Alex de la Iglesia’s black comedy The Bar; and Paco Plaza’s Eclipse. The latter two are in post-production.

Filmax International is bringing Marcel Barrena’s completed 100 Meters, a drama starring Dani Rovira, and The Motive from director Manuel Martin Cuenca, which is in production. The company will also introduce psychological thriller Muse, which will be directed by in-house regular Jaume Balaguero, and thriller Cross The Line from David Victori, winner of YouTube’s Your Film Festival in 2010 for his short The Guilt.

Filmax is looking to set up the picture as a US co-production.

Nordic powerhouse TrustNordisk is working with hot Danish production company Profile Pictures for Fenar Ahmad’s second feature, action thriller Darkland. The cast includes Dar Salim, Stine Fischer Christensen and Roland Moller. The story is about a successful surgeon who delves into Copenhagen’s underworld in an attempt to avenge his brother’s murder. Other new titles include Norwegian debut feature DRIB

by Kristoffer Borgli, now in post-production. The project — a satire of the advertising, branding and celebrity worlds — is inspired by the true story of the director’s friend, who almost became the

Tonio

Across The Waters

international face of a famous energy drink after making viral videos. The company is also selling Icelandic horror I Remember You, Oskar Thor Axelsson’s second feature after his 2013 festival hit Black’s Game. A promo is available here.

The company is also representing Swiss dramedy The Divine Order, which will be ready in winter 2017. Petra Volpe’s film is about the fight for equal rights for women in Switzerland in 1971, centring on a young housewife (Marie Leuenberger) who starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage. TrustNordisk will offer a market screening of Nicolo Donato’s Across The Waters, a Second World War story about a Danish-Jewish jazz musician fleeing the Nazis with his family. The slate also includes Swedish Oscar submission A Man Called Ove, Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s Toronto selection Pyromaniac and Ole Bornedal’s Danish black comedy Small Town Killers, currently in postproduction.

LevelK will have a glimpse of first footage from Rabbit to show buy-

32 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

ers. Luke Shanahan’s feature debut is about a medical student haunted by visions of her identical twin’s violent abduction. The film has already sold to SquareOne for Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. Adelaide Clemens, whose credits include Parade’s End and The Great Gatsby, leads the cast. Still in production, Rabbit is set for delivery in 2017.

The Yellow Affair is selling completed film 5 Women, directed by Olaf Kraemer.

The Germany-France psychological thriller is about a group of women on a holiday break who encounter a mysterious and attractive man. Other titles include Wiktor Ericsson’s Swedish drama Strawberry Days Days, about a Polish worker and a Swedish farmer’s daughter who fall in love.

Vienna-based Terra Mater Factual Studios (part of Red Bull Media House) is the outfit behind ivory trade documentary The Ivory Game, launching globally on Netflix this month. Terra Mater also has a new feature documentary, Super Sapiens which it will launch to ens, buyers. The provocative film will explore what is likely to be the next (Left) The Ivory Game

evolution of the human mind in an era of artificial intelligence and consciousnesshacking.

From the Netherlands, increasingly active Dutch Features Global Entertainment — which straddles mainstream and arthouse, film and TV — will hold a first market screening of the territory’s Oscar candidate Tonio. Other slate highlights include horror film Kristen, Mark De Cloe’s psychological thriller Silk Road and teen movie Hart Beat, a co-production with Nickelodeon.

Russian sales outfit Central Partnership is hawking its $40m historical epic Viking, due for delivery by the end of the year, and continuing pre-sales on Furious, set in the 13th century at the time of the Mongol invasions. The company also has first footage to show from bloodsucking fantasy Vamps.

Moscow-based Art Pictures Studio is giving a market debut to Pavel Lungin’s new thriller Queen Of Spades, loosely based on the Alexander Pushkin short story and co-scripted by The King’s Speech scribe David Seidler.

Among other titles, Australian outfit Odin’s Eye Entertainment is pre-selling animated feature Arkie, due for delivery in 2018, and will be screening Cage Dive, about three US college students who go diving in Australia and become stranded s with great white sharks for company. ■

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HOT PROJECTS CHINA & HONG KONG

The big guns Projects from China and Hong Kong available at the American Film Market will serve up a sizzling mix of action thrills, visual feasts and culinary delights. Liz Shackleton reports

God Of War

Battle Of Memories

Film Group and Wong Jing’s MegaVision Project Workshop. Andy Lau also stars and Wong Jing directs along with acclaimed cinematographer Jason Kwan. In production, the film follows Ho from his days as an illegal immigrant through his rise to becoming one of Hong Kong’s most powerful drug lords.

Dir Leste Chen The follow-up to Leste Chen’s 2014 psychological thriller The Great Hypnotist tells the story of a famous novelist who recovers from a nasty divorce by having a decade of his memory wiped.

But when he tries to recover the lost memories, he finds himself in the mind of a serial killer. Huang Bo, Xu Jinglei and Yang Zishan head the cast of the $22m film, which is scheduled for release in 2017.

Contact Angela Wong, Mega-Vision Project Workshop angelaolwong@mvphk.biz

Cook Up A Storm Dir Raymond Yip Wai-man

Contact Annabelle Hao, Wanda Pictures shuanghao0605@gmail.com

The Brink Dir Jonathan Li Zhang Jin (Ip Man 3), Shawn Yue, Wu Yue and Janice Man star in this $15m action thriller about a cop who is caught in the crossfire between rival factions in a gold-smuggling ring. In post-production, the film marks the feature debut of Jonathan Li, associate director on Overheard 2, Overheard 3 and Blind Detective.

Soi Cheang and Paco Wong are produc-

The Brink

ing for Hong Kong-based Sun Entertainment and YL Pictures, China’s iQiyi Motion Pictures and Sil-Metropole Organisation.

Contact Ricky Tse, Bravos Pictures ricky.tse@bravospictures.com

34 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

Chasing The Dragon Dirs Wong Jing, Jason Kwan Donnie Yen plays real-life 1970s gangster Ng Sek-ho (aka Crippled Ho) in this action crime drama, backed by Bona

Building on the success of his cooking and travelogue show Chef Nic, Hong Kong actor Nicholas Tse heads the cast of this foodie drama as a Cantonese street cook who goes up against a Michelin-starred chef in a culinary competition. Directed by Raymond Yip Waiman (The House That Never Dies), the film also stars Korean idol Jung Yonghwa and features a special appearance by China’s Ge You. The film is in post-production for release during Chinese New Year 2017.

Contact May Yip, Emperor Motion Pictures mayyip@emperorgroup.com

»

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HOT PROJECTS CHINA & HONG KONG

The Game Changer

The Liquidator

Dir Gao Xixi Gao Xixi’s period action title, in post-production, revolves around a trio of gangsters battling each other and rival mobsters in 1930s Shanghai. Starring Huang Zitao (You Are My Sunshine), Peter Ho (The Monkey King) and veteran actor Wang Xueqi (Iron Man 3), the film is one of the first major productions from Hong Kong-based YL Pictures, a subsidiary of China’s Yongle Group. Gao previously directed top-rated TV dramas including Legend Of Chu And Han, Three Kingdoms and Shanghai Bund.

Contact Grace Chan, Young Live Entertainment gcxfilm@gmail.com

God Of War Dir Gordon Chan In post-production, Gordon Chan’s period action film stars Sammo Hung and Vincent Zhao in the story of Chinese general Qi Jiguang, who defeated Japanese pirates along the Chinese coastline during the 16th century using maverick tactics. Well Go USA has rights for North

Manhunt

Dir Stanley Tong

Dir John Woo

Scheduled for release during Chinese New Year 2017, Stanley Tong’s actionadventure stars Jackie Chan as an archaeologist who teams up with an Indian professor (Sonu Sood) to find a legendary diamond. Also starring Aarif Rahman and Zhang Yixing, the film recently completed an extensive international shoot in China, the Middle East, Iceland and India. Kung Fu Yoga is produced by Sparkle Roll Media Corp and Beijing Taihe Entertainment Culture Development Co.

Chinese actor Zhang Hanyu and Japan’s Masaharu Fukuyama star in John Woo’s highly anticipated action thriller Manhunt, which is currently shooting in Japan for Media Asia Films. Produced by Chan Hing Kai and Gordon Chan, the film is based on a novel by Juko Nishimura about a lawyer who is framed for murder and sets out on a mission to clear his name. The book was first adapted into a popular 1976 Japanese film starring Ken Takakura. Woo’s $50m version has also tapped Japanese art director Yohei Taneda and cinematographer Takuro Ishizaka.

Contact Clarence Tang, Golden Network Asia clarence@goldnetasia.com

Cook Up A Storm

The Game Changer

Kung Fu Yoga

America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and the film has also been presold to a string of Asian territories.

Release is tentatively scheduled for March/April 2017.

Contact Fred Tsui, Media Asia frederick_tsui@mediaasia.com

The Golden Monk Dirs Wong Jing, Billy Chung Starring Zheng Kai and Zhang Yuqi, action adventure The Golden Monk tells the story of a monk who realises he is the reincarnation of a fairy spirit that was cast down from heaven and seeks out his true fairy love. In post-production, the film is produced by Beijing Hairun Pictures and Mega-Vision Project Workshop. Zheng has credits including Chinese hits So Young and Running Man, while Zhang starred in CJ7 and The Mermaid.

Contact Angela Wong, Mega-Vision Project Workshop angelaolwong @mvphk.biz

36 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

The Liquidator (working title) Dir Xu Jizhou Bill Kong is producing this action title about a criminal psychologist tracking a serial killer who targets people that have been acquitted of notable crimes. The cast is headed by Deng Chao, fresh from Stephen Chow’s blockbuster The Mermaid, Taiwanese actor Ethan Ruan (The Assassin) and Hong Kong actress Karena Lam (Zinnia Flower). In production, the film marks the feature debut of Xu Jizhou, who has directed several hit Chinese TV series.

Contact Julian Chiu, Edko Films chiujulian@ edkofilms.com.hk

Contact Fred Tsui, Media Asia frederick_tsui@mediaasia.com

Meow Dir Benny Chan In post-production, Benny Chan’s fantasy drama imagines a world where cats are aliens that secretly rule the planet, as either free-spirited mafia dons or seemingly harmless household pets. Louis Koo and Ma Li head the human cast of the film, which is being lined up for a tentative summer 2017 release. Chan Hing Kai, who recently produced Weeds On Fire and co-wrote The Mermaid, is on board as a script consultant.

Contact May Yip, Emperor Motion Pictures mayyip@emperorgroup.com

Railroad Tigers Dir Ding Sheng

Railroad Tigers

Following their collaborations on Police Story 2013 and Little Big Soldier, Ding Sheng is directing Jackie Chan in this $50m action comedy that aims to revive the spirit of classic Chan comedies such as Project A and Drunken Master II. »

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HOT PROJECTS CHINA & HONG KONG

Sky On Fire

Show Me Your Love

Sword Master

Chan stars as a railroad worker who leads a team of fearless fighters to derail the Japanese war machine in China, 1941. Young idols Huang Zitao, Wang Kai and Darren Wang also star. Backed

by Sparkle Roll Media Corp, Shanghai Film Group and Beijing Going Zoom Media, the film is scheduled for wide release on December 30, 2016.

Dir Derek Yee Well Go USA recently acquired North American and UK rights to Derek Yee’s long-anticipated 3D martial-arts epic, produced by Tsui Hark and starring Lin Gengxin and Peter Ho. Based on Gu Long’s classic wuxia novel, the film tells the story of an elite swordsman who is forced to fight a challenger determined to take his place at all costs. Produced by Bona Film Group and Yee’s Film Unlimited, Sword Master is tentatively scheduled for release in early December.

Contact Clarence Tang, Golden Network Asia clarence@goldnetasia.com

Shock Wave Dir Herman Yau Andy Lau produces and stars in this $22m crime thriller about a cop battling a crime boss who plans a bomb attack in the busiest cross-harbour tunnel in Hong Kong. The cast also includes Jiang Wu (A Touch Of Sin) and Philip Keung (Firestorm). Herman Yau (Ip Man: The Final Fight) is directing from a script he co-wrote with Erica Lee, while Dion Lam (Kung Fu Jungle)) is on board as action choreographer. Universe Entertainment and Bona Film Group are cofinancing the film, which is in post-production for tentative release in the second quarter of 2017.

Contact Alice Leung, Universe Films Distribution alice_ leung@uih.com.hk

Show Me Your Love Dir Ryon Lee Raymond Wong (PTU)) and veteran Hong Kong actress Crossing Nina Paw (Crossing Hennessy)) star in this family drama about a man who is reunited with the mother he barely saw as a child because she was forced to leave home for

38 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

Contact Virginia Leung, Distribution Workshop virginia@distributionworkshop.com

The Wasted Times Dir Er Chang

The Wasted Times

work. Filmed partly in Malaysia, Show Me Your Love is produced by the Hong Kong arm of Malaysia’s MM2 Entertainment, which has been ramping up production of Cantonese-language features. Ivana Wong (Love Detective) and Michelle Wai (Heaven In The Dark) also star in the film, which is scheduled for Hong Kong release in December.

Contact Grace Chan, Young Live Entertainment gcxfilm@gmail.com (Left) Shock Wave

Sky On Fire Dir Ringo Lam In post-production, Ringo Lam’s Sky On Fire stars Daniel Wu in the story of a security guard embroiled in a battle to protect stem-cell research, which can potentially cure cancer, from falling into the wrong hands. The cast also includes Joseph Chang Hsiao-chuan, who starred in the director’s hit action thriller Wild City, along with actresses Zhang Jingchu and Amber Kuo. Produced by Skyman Development, the film is in post-production and is scheduled for release in China on November 25, 2016.

Contact Virginia Leung, Distribution Workshop virginia@distributionworkshop.com

Starring Zhang Ziyi, Ge You and Japan’s Asano Tadanobu, Er Chang’s drama is based on the life of legendary mob boss Du Yuesheng, who ruled Shanghai in the 1930s. In post-production, the film is produced by Hu Xiaofeng and Zhang Dajun for Huayi Brothers, which will release in China on December 23. China Lion will release day-and-date in the US. Contact IM Global

sales@imglobalfilm.com

With Prisoners Dir Wong Kwok Kuen Wong Kwok Kuen, assistant director on Wilson Yip’s Flash Point, makes his directing debut with this gritty drama based on a true story about a gang leader trying to survive in a detention centre for young offenders. The cast is headed by Yau Hawk Sau (She Remembers, He Forgets) and Hong Kong singer and actor Kelvin Kwan (Lan Kwai Fong 2). Produced by Hong Kong-based Times Production, the film is in postproduction for a spring 2017 release.

Contact Ricky Tse, Bravos Pictures s ricky.tse@bravospictures.com ■

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IN FOCUS AMERICAN FILM MARKET

AFM buyers and sellers will know more than ever that quality counts in a fractured marketplace

Battle for independents The UK’s future exit from the European Union will be one of the hot topics of discussion at AFM, for the industry from both sides of the Atlantic. Jeremy Kay reports

M

ove over, Netflix. Brexit is the industry’s new bete noire. The UK’s looming departure from the European Union dominated the agenda at the BFI London Film Festival and is likely to permeate discussions at AFM. For British attendees, the drastic drop of the pound against the dollar will be a headache, something Studiocanal UK CEO Danny Perkins warned in a recent jeremiad. “Any company in the UK running numbers on an American film is going to find the numbers much tougher,” Perkins told Screen International shortly after delivering his keynote at the Film London Production Finance Market.

While the executive noted the Vivendiowned company remained committed to the UK, there was no getting around the fact that the pound’s lowest rate against

the dollar in decades means a 20% or thereabouts price hike for UK buyers during their transactions at AFM. “The conversations [with UK buyers] are going to be interesting,” says Sierra/ Affinity president of sales and distribution Jonathan Kier. “This kind of currency drop hardly ever happens and to have it do so in the country that’s so close to us, culturally, and is an incredibly important trading partner, is something we’ll all be watching carefully.”

While the exchange rate is painful, the UK industry — officially at least — continues to insist it is business as usual.

They say nothing is likely to happen until two years after the government triggers Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to start the Brexit process. It now appears this might happen by the end of March 2017.

When Screen International spoke to AFM managing director Jonathan Wolf

42 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

‘Actors who want to be movie stars are refocusing their power and energy towards bigger films’ Jason Moring, Double Dutch International

two weeks before the market, the number of registered UK companies was up nearly 16% from 32 last year to 38 — the highest number since 2009, when there were 38. Admittedly, some of those companies will be saving costs by planting their flag at the Film Export UK stand.

That makes financial sense, however, and

the presence of the umbrella group itself for the first time in a while shows how the official apparatus of the UK industry is determined to remain positive.

They are not the only ones. “It’s got a lot cheaper to shoot in the UK if $1.25 gives you £1,” says Embankment Films joint founder Tim Haslam. “Many financiers run their businesses in dollars and this year we’ve converted the financing on films to shoot [in the UK] — all of which are dollar-financed, five of which are shooting in the UK and three of which shot in multiple European co-production territories.”

The five UK shoots were Andy Serkis’s drama Breathe, Olaf de Fleur’s horror Hush, Jonathan Teplitzky’s biopic Churchill, Ron Scalpello’s My Name Is Lenny and Bjorn Runge’s Glenn Close drama The Wife, which was scheduled to begin production on October 30. »

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IN FOCUS AMERICAN FILM MARKET

Submergence

Drama Submergence starring Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy, Miguel Angel Vivas’s Spanish horror Inside and Martin Koolhoven’s recent Toronto world premiere Brimstone shot in a number of European territories.

Uphill struggle Brexit is the latest addition to an obstacle course that continues to affect the independent sector. The challenge for producers and sellers is to remain vital at a time when talent is migrating to TV and theatrical audiences, engorged on new and highly capitalised platforms, are becoming pickier.

“Even to get to the starting gate now, you need a certain element to give you a chance to turn it into a movie and make it viable,” says Alison Thompson of Cornerstone Films. Thompson recently sold out Denial, the Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall-starring Holocaust drama that enjoyed a strong reception at its world premiere in Toronto. Like Cornerstone partner Mark Gooder, she believes the drama is emblematic of the kind of prestige package the market craves.

The company will launch sales in Santa Monica on Going Places — in which John Turturro reprises his cult role of Jesus Quintana, first seen in The Big Lebowski — and Kirsten Dunst’s directorial debut The Bell Jar. “There’s much less of throwing it against the wall and seeing what sticks, because it won’t stick unless it’s really good,” says Gooder, who places a premium on “distinctive storytelling”.

“Audiences are very well served by other platforms and if you hit the bullseye with theatrical storytelling, there’s still an audience there,” he says, noting the US box-office success of Sully and The Girl On The Train.

Sierra/Affinity’s Kier agrees that finding a top-tier screenplay is becoming a necessary way to stand out. “You cannot

Denial

‘If you hit the bullseye with theatrical storytelling, there’s still an audience there’ Mark Gooder, Cornerstone Films

hide behind a weak script and say things can be fixed in post… Everybody is looking for unique voices and that’s what they’re focused on more now.”

The company represented international sales on Kenneth Lonergan’s prizefighter Manchester By The Sea, which just picked up four Gotham Award nominations. Screenplays do not get much better than this, yet that much-coveted high quality can prove problematic. “The studios have come in and are playing in our space now in a way they had not before Nocturnal Animals [which Focus Features pre-bought for the world at Cannes 2015],” says Kier. “In Sundance, Universal came in and scooped up Manchester

By The Sea from us.”

Few independent buyers can compete with a studio or the likes of Netflix or Amazon Studios, which paid $10m for North American rights to Manchester By The Sea following its world premiere in Sundance last January. Film-makers, Kier notes, want the capacity to mount a theatrical release. It is no secret that Cary Fukunaga would have liked a larger theatrical play on Netflix’s Beasts Of No Nation, while in Sundance this year The Birth Of A Nation director Nate Parker held out for an offer from Fox Searchlight.

On-screen talent may feel the same way. “I’m hearing rumblings that some actors don’t think it’s best for their bigscreen career to be cast on the small

44 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

screen,” says Double Dutch International president Jason Moring. “You put them in a big-budget film and buyers are saying they’re not a movie star any more. I think actors who want to be movie stars are refocusing their power and energy towards bigger films.”

While buyers bemoan their inability to compete with deep-pocketed rivals, sellers must continue to engage in an awkward dance to keep all partners happy — both the traditional and the newer, disruptive buyers. With regard to the latter, Kier says it feels like the dust has begun to settle. “A year ago there were a lot of questions about what it meant with Amazon and Netflix coming into the market.

“Amazon has become a real theatrical player and Netflix’s strategy as it relates to us has settled in, in terms of the films they’re looking to acquire and how they acquire them. For better or worse for our buyers, that’s coming into shape.”

Diversity tactics What is an independent buyer to do?

“Diversify,” says Bloom chief Alex Walton. “Try to get into material from an earlier stage and get involved with local content. Most independents in Benelux, Germany, Italy and the UK are more involved with local productions than they were five years ago. Most buyers will be exploring the TV space in their own markets and, in the case of companies like Gaumont, in the international market.”

“Buyers are looking for elevated commercial material that has a combination of elements that will drive either prestige or commercial box office,” says Paul Hanson, whose Covert Media recently launched foreign-language sales label Lexica Films. “It is a challenge for everyone to find something that can be packaged appropriately with a cast who are being pulled in different directions by

studio films, high-quality TV and streaming services.”

Packaging appropriately, some sources say privately, will probably mean taking risks on new names. It goes to the heart of pricing. It is critical to find the right financial balance — and who is to say that if something feels overpriced, it will not give UK buyers even more incentive to negotiate down on a minimum guarantee?

“Movies are selling for much lower than what you’re typically making a movie for,” says Cold Iron Pictures head Miranda Bailey, who is enjoying a purple patch with Richard Gere-starrer Norman, Sundance curio Swiss Army Man and Lake Bell’s upcoming What’s The Point?, among others. “As a producer and financier, the biggest challenge is finding the right film-maker to understand how to find the break-even point that suits the market and what people are actually paying.”

“If you’re prepared to support a smaller budget, it makes sense commercially and can attract meaningful presales — there’s business to be done,” says Guillaume de Chalendar, global head of media and entertainment for Bank Leumi. “But if producers make films for budgets that are too high, the distributors are not getting the chance any more.

For a lender like us, what do we lend against? Gap [financing] is one thing but there has to be some pre-sales if anything to validate the project. There are fewer ‘good projects’ that are banking-ready than there were, because distributors are not prepared to pre-buy at the level they were before.”

Still, the shifting dynamics of the business will always represent opportunities for the sharp-eyed. As Embankment’s Haslam says, “The disruption energises us and we try to anticipate. It makes us roll up our sleeves and that’s exciting for s an independent.” n

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MARKET 09:00 THE DRAGON SPELL See box, right

LAYLA M.

Drama. 98mins.

Dir: Mijke de Jong.

Scr: Jan Eilander, Mijke de Jong. Cast: Nora el Koussour, Ilias Addab. Beta Cinema.

When a Moroccan teenager in Amsterdam is radicalised, she marries a jihadist and joins an Islamist cell in the Middle East, but she finds there are other prejudices there, too.

AMC Santa Monica 5

THEIR FINEST

Drama, historical, romance. 116mins.

Dir: Lone Scherfig.

Scr: Gabby Chiappe.

Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy.

HanWay Films.

With London emptied of men now fighting at the Front, Catrin Cole lands herself a job writing copy for propaganda films that need “a woman’s touch”.

Her natural flair quickly gets her noticed by dashing movie producer Buckley, whose path would never have www.screendaily.com

crossed hers in peacetime.

With the country’s morale at stake, Catrin, Buckley and a colourful crew work furiously to make a film that will warm the hearts of the nation. As bombs are dropping all around them, Catrin discovers there is as much drama, comedy and passion behind the camera as there is on screen.

ArcLight 8

09:30 THE DROWNING

Thriller. 95mins.

Dir: Bette Gordon.

Scr: Stephen Molton, Frank Pugliese.

Cast: Julia Stiles, Josh Charles, Avan Jogia.

Electric Entertainment.

Tom Seymour, a psychologist, jumps into an icy river to save a drowning man, only to discover that he’s the same boy he put away for murder 12 years earlier. When the young man begins to mysteriously reappear around town and starts a suspicious new friendship with Tom’s wife, Tom is drawn into a dangerous reinvestigation of the case where he realises his wife may suddenly be the victim of a revenge plot.

AMC Santa Monica 6

09:00 THE DRAGON SPELL

Animation, family, children’s. 85mins.

Dir: Manuk Depoyan.

Scr: Elena Shulga.

Sola Media.

A small boy must embark on a fantastic quest to save both the

FILMS DISTRIBUTION PROMOREEL

world of humans and the world of magic from a witch possessed by a dragon’s ghost. Together with Eddie, the wannabe wizard, and Rocky, the feral wild child, he’ll have to prove what it takes to be a real hero.

Monica 2

11:00

115mins.

CLEAN HANDS

Monica 4

Thriller, drama.

109mins. Dir: Tjebbo Penning. Scr: Carl Joos. Cast: Jeroen van Koningsbrugge, Cees Geel, Thekla Reuten.

Wide Management.

Sylvia has turned a blind eye to her husband Eddie’s flourishing drug business for too long.

When Eddie’s dealings take a turn for the worse, Sylvia wants to protect the lives and futures of their young children and decides to flee. But Eddie will stop at nothing to keep his wife inside the “family”.

THE SHONKU DIARIES

Animation. 90mins.

Dir: Kamal Bansal.

Scr: Satyajit Ray. Highland Film Group.

A brother and sister, Mo and Melody, join up with the brilliant scientist and inventor Professor Shonku and his robot helper Robu to find their missing legendary explorer father.

Soon they find themselves deep in the Himalayas followed by the evil Franzotti, who is tracking a hidden treasure. Along the way they encounter unicorns and other magical creatures, and uncover a hidden paradise kept away from the world.

ArcLight 4

Monica 3

COME AND FIND ME

Thriller. 109mins.

Dir: Zach Whedon.

Scr: Zach Whedon.

Cast: Aaron Paul, Annabelle Wallis.

Goldcrest Films International.

The story of David, a man who wakes up to discover his girlfriend, Claire, has just disappeared.

More alarming, he swiftly establishes that everything she has told him about her life is a lie. Determined to find Claire and out the truth, David doggedly hunts on only to be dragged into an almost fatal web of threats, intrigue, espionage and nerve-shredding plot twists.

ArcLight 9

DANCE TO DEATH

Sci-fi, action, adventure.

100mins. Dir: Andrey Volgin. Scr: Andrey Zolotarev. Cast: Ivan Zhvakin, Lukeria Iliashenko. Planeta Inform Film Distribution.

A deadly dance tournament is held in a city following a nuclear apocalypse. Energy is extracted from the losers so that the city can survive. A young guy from the street is forced to take part in the tournament and falls in love with girl who has volunteered to participate in the battle. Will they survive or will the arena take their lives?

ArcLight 3

DEEP

Animation, action, adventure, family.

95mins. Dir: Julio Soto Gurpide. Scr: Julio Soto Gurpide, Jose Tatay, Salvador Rubio, Baboon Animation. Cast: Justin Felbinger, Stephen Ezra Hughes, Lindsey Alena,

MONICA FILM CENTER 1332 2nd Street OCEAN SCREENING ROOM 1401 Ocean Avenue, at Santa Monica Boulevard » Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration. See thefilmcatalogue. com for late changes

Elisabeth Catherine Gray.

Umedia International.

In a deep-sea world of the future where humans have abandoned the Earth and the oceans have risen, Deep, an adventurous octopus and the last of his kind, lives among a ragtag band of aquatic oddities protected by the keeper of the abyss, the mythical Kraken. But when an accident destroys their home in the deepest crevice of the ocean, Deep and his friends are forced to find a new home, facing formidable enemies and dealing with the most hilarious situations along the way.

ArcLight 1

GHOST TEAM

Comedy. 83mins.

Dir: Oliver Irving.

Scr: Peter Warren, Oliver Irving. Cast: Jon Heder, David Krumholtz, Justin Long, Amy Sedaris, Melonie Diaz. Film Mode Entertainment.

An amateur ghost hunter recruits his best friend, his misfit nephew, a beautician, a security guard and a medium to investigate suspicious activity at a creepy farm.

AMC Santa Monica 1

IN SEARCH OF FELLINI

Drama, action, adventure.

98mins.

Dir: Taron Lexton.

Scr: Nancy Cartwright.

Cast: Ksenia Solo, Maria Bello, Mary Lynn Rajskub. AMBI Distribution.

Follows one girl’s journey searching for the legendary Italian film-maker Federico Fellini.

ArcLight 11

November 2, 2016 Screen International at AFM 47

»

SCREENINGS

RETRIBUTION

Action, adventure, thriller.

78mins. Dir: Danny Albury, David Bispham.

Scr: Danny Albury, David Bispham. Cast: Dan Richardson, Olivia Popica, Sean Cronin. Princ Films.

A hardened debt-collector goes on a 24-hour rampage through London in an attempt to avenge the brutal attack on his teenage daughter.

Monica 5

13:30 ACCIDENT

MARKET 11:30 ALI’S WEDDING

Comedy. 100mins.

Dir: Jeffrey Walker.

Scr: Andrew Knight, Osamah Sami.

Cast: Osamah Sami, Don Hany. Beta Cinema.

Ali is the charming son of a much-loved Muslim cleric who has migrated to Australia from Iraq and attempts to juggle two very different worlds.

WHISKY GALORE!

Comedy, historical.

98mins. Dir: Gillies Mackinnon. Scr: Peter McDougall. Cast: Eddie Izzard, James Cosmo, George Fisher, Sean Biggerstaff, Ellie Kendrick, Naomi Battrick, Tim PigottSmith. GFM Films.

The inhabitants of the isolated Scottish island of Todday in the Outer Hebrides are largely unaffected by wartime rationing, until the island’s supply of whisky runs out.

AMC Santa Monica 5

11:30 ALI’S WEDDING See box, above

DON’T HANG UP

Thriller. 83mins.

Dir: Damien Mace, Alexis Wajsbrot.

Scr: Joe Johnson.

Cast: Gregg Sulkin, Garrett Clayton, Sienna Guillory, Bella Dayne.

WTFilms.

Desperate to please his family and community, Ali sets off a calamitous chain of events that sees him attending medical school despite not being enrolled, and falling in love despite being promised to another. As his wedding day draws ever closer, Ali’s double life is on the brink of exposure.

AMC Santa Monica 6

An evening of drunken prank calls becomes a nightmare for a pair of teenagers when a mysterious stranger turns their own game against them… with deadly consequences.

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THE STOPOVER See box, right

13:00 CAGE DIVE

Thriller, drama. 83mins.

Dir: Gerald Rascionato.

Scr: Gerald Rascionato.

Cast: Megan Peta Hill, Joel Hogan, Josh Potthoff, Pete Valley. Odin’s Eye Entertainment.

Follows three American college students making an audition tape for an extreme game show by filming their most intense activity: shark cage diving in Australia. A catastrophic turn of events leaves them stranded in baited water surrounded by great white sharks, turning their audition

48 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

tape into a documentation of survival.

will be crashed in the ice.

AMC Santa Monica 3

AMC Santa Monica 1

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM FRIEND REQUEST

Horror. 100mins.

Dir: Simon Verhoeven.

Scr: Matthew Ballen, Philip Koch, Simon Verhoeven. Cast: Alycia Debnam-Carey, William Moseley, Connor Paolo, Brit Morgan.

The Exchange.

Enjoying college life as a popular student, Laura shares everything with her more than 800 friends on Facebook. But one day, after accepting a friend request from a social outcast named Marina, Laura’s life is cursed, and her closest friends begin dying cruel deaths.

Before her time is up, Laura must solve the mystery behind Marina and her Facebook profile in order to break the deadly spell.

Thriller, drama. 105mins.

Dir: Juan Carlos Medina.

Scr: Jane Goldman.

Cast: Joanna Laurie, Jane Goldman, Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth, Alan Rickman. HanWay Films.

London, 1880. In the dangerous Limehouse district, a series of murders have shaken the community. So monstrous

and ruthless are these crimes the press claim they are the work of The Golem — a legendary creature from dark times... the Golem strikes again.

With no genuine leads, the police put the vastly experienced Detective Inspector Kildare on the case, a scapegoat for when the next victim surfaces.

A gothic murder mystery set in the darkest alleys of Victorian London.

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Action, adventure, thriller. 90mins.

Dir: Dan Tondowski.

Scr: Dan Tondowski.

Cast: Roxane Hayward, Stephanie Shields, Keenan Arrison, Tyrone Keogh.

The Exchange.

When four teenagers “borrow” a car for one night of fun, what starts as a wild joy ride turns into a nightmare. After a violent crash, they discover that being stuck at the bottom of a ravine in an overturned car is the least of their problems. The psychotic owner of the car that they stole has them in his cross-hairs. He will

Ocean

THE ICEBREAKER

Action, adventure.

100mins. Dir: Nikolay Khomeriki. Scr: Alexey Onischenko, Andrey Zolotarev. Cast: Petr Fedorov, Anna Mikhalkova, Sergey Puskepalis. Planeta Inform Film Distribution.

Based on a true story.

Antarctic, 1985. The icebreaker Gromov is trapped in the ice trying to dodge a giant berg.

For 133 days the crew try to find their way out.

One false move and they

MARKET 11:30 THE STOPOVER

Drama. 102mins. Dir: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin. Scr: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin. Cast: Soko, Ariane Labed. Films Distribution.

At the end of their tour of duty in

Afghanistan, two young military women, Aurore and Marine, are given three days of “decompression leave” with their unit, among tourists, at a five-star resort in Cyprus. But it is not that easy to forget the war and leave violence behind.

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SCREENINGS

out to solve problems of the people that he awakes in, such as remedying the relationship of a couple who are on the verge of a divorce or solving a teenage pregnancy of a high school couple.

Will he gain his memory and body back? Will he salvage his relationship with his lover?

Broadway 1

THE CANADOO

MARKET 13:30 BIG FISH & BEGONIA (3D)

Animation, fantasy, family. 105mins.

Dir: Xuan Liang, Chun Zhang. Scr: Seth Be, Xuan Liang.

Cast: Shih-Chieh Chin.

SC Films International.

It is a world within our world yet unseen by any human and the beings here control time and tide and the changing of the seasons. On the day Chun turns 16, she is transformed into a dolphin to explore the stop at nothing to get both the car and its contents back.

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BIG FISH & BEGONIA (3D) See box, above

MYSTIC GAME

Action, adventure, fantasy. 90mins. Dir: Artyom Aksenenko. Scr: Oleg Sirotkin. Cast: Alexander Petrov, Siana Pozharskaya, Kirill Kozakov. Red Sea Media.

Alex is a charming young adventurer who is dragged into the struggle of two powerful wizards. As a result of this battle his beloved Tanya is cursed. To save himself and Tanya, Alex is forced to find a way out of this dangerous “Mystic Game”.

Monica 6

human world. She is rescued from a vortex by a human boy at the cost of his own life. Chun is so moved by the boy’s kindness and courage that she decides to give him life again. But to do this, she must protect the boy’s soul, a tiny fish, and nurture it to grow.

Through adventure and sacrifice, love grows, yet now she must release him back to the sea, back to life in the human world.

Broadway 2

THE SNOW QUEEN 3: FIRE AND ICE

Animation, comedy, action, adventure. 80mins.

Dir: Alexey Tsitsilin.

Scr: Alexey Zamyslov, Alexey Tsitsilin, Vladimir Nikolaev, Andrey Korenkov, Robert Lence.

Cast: Alexey Tsitsilin.

Wizart.

After heroically defeating both the Snow Queen and the Snow King, Gerda still cannot find peace.

Her dream is to find her parents, who were taken by the North Wind, and finally reunite the family. Gerda and her friends venture on a difficult journey to find her parents and encounter new challenges along the way: they discover an ancient magical artifact of the trolls, the Stone of Fire and Ice. From that moment on

50 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

things do not go according to the initial plan. Will Gerda be able to tame the mighty forces of the magical elements and get her family back?

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THE TEMPLE

Thriller, horror. 90mins.

Dir: Michael Barrett.

Scr: Simon Barrett.

Cast: Logan Huffman, Natalia Warner, Brandon Sklenar. Industrial Entertainment.

Northern Japan. Locals discover a survivor on the edge of The Temple grounds, driven to insanity, so horribly disfigured by injuries that identification is impossible.

Piecing together found footage and forensics we attempt to untangle what happened to a group of young Americans lost in an abandoned mountain temple.

successfully sued the owner for not allowing them to share a double bed. Events take a deadly turn when another guest, (a Russian thug), arrives who they think might have something more sinister in mind.

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BECAUSE I LOVE YOU

Romantic comedy.

110mins. Dir: Joo Ji-hong.

Scr: Hwang Seung-jae.

Cast: Cha Tae-hyun, Kim

You-jung, Sung Dong-il.

Contents Panda.

Lee-hyung, who is ready to propose to his lover, is involved in a car accident and is left in a coma.

Miraculously, he snaps out of unconsciousness but notices that he is in another person’s body with no memory of his former self. As he learns that he is capable of retrieving his consciousness in other people’s bodies, he sets

Horror. 74mins.

Dir: Raymond Wood.

Scr: Christopher Piner.

Cast: Tyler Buckingham, Drey Wigfall. Darkwood Pictures.

When five fame-hungry millennials are chosen to be contestants on a reality survival TV show, it appears they have been given a chance at celebrity stardom — but when a mixture of strange discoveries, unexplained occurrences and mysterious disappearances plague the group, they begin to turn on one another, wondering if they are actually on a game show or if someone is playing a game of their own.

Monica 5

CEZANNE ET MOI See box, below

Monica 4

15:00 B&B

Thriller, psycho-drama.

95mins. Dir: Joe Ahearne.

Scr: Joe Ahearne.

Cast: Paul McGann, Tom Bateman, Sean Teale, Callum Woodhouse, James Tratas. 4Square Films.

Gay Londoners Mike and Fred, plan a weekend of mischief returning to bait the prosecuted Christian owner of a remote B&B. The year before they had

MARKET 15:00 CEZANNE ET MOI

Drama. 114mins. Dir: Daniele Thompson. Scr: Daniele Thompson.

Cast: Guillaume Gallienne, Guillaume Canet. Pathe International.

They were rebels, fearless and curious, and they loved each other the way you love when you are 13. Hopes, doubts, girls, dreams of glory: they shared it all. Paul is rich and Emile poor. They haunt the same

places, sleep with the same women and spit together on the bourgeoisie who spit right back. They draw by day the models with whom they spend their nights and hop on a train for 30 hours just to catch a sunset. Now Paul Cezanne is an artist and Emile Zola a writer. Fame has passed Paul by while Emile has it all: glory, money and a perfect wife, the woman Paul used to love.

Broadway 3

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SCREENINGS

THE DAILY AT AFM Suite 316, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Avenue, Santa Monica, California, 90401 Tel +1 310 458 6700 (ext 316) Editorial Editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 US editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Asia editor Liz Shackleton , lizshackleton@ gmail.com Deputy editor Andreas Wiseman, andreas.wiseman@screendaily. com, +44 7713 086 674 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com,

MARKET 15:00

+44 7710 124 065

SMOKE & MIRRORS

Sub editors

Suspense. 122mins.

Dir: Alberto Rodriguez.

Scr: Rafael Cobos, Alberto Rodriguez.

Cast: Eduard Fernandez, Jose Coronado, Mikel Lejarza, Marta Etura, Carlos Santos. Film Factory Entertainment.

Francisco Paesa — ex-secret agent for the Spanish government and the man responsible for the most important operation against the Basque terrorist group ETA — is framed by

Paul Lindsell, Adam Richmond Advertising and publishing Publishing director Nadia Romdhani, nadia. romdhani@screendaily.com, +44 7540 100 315 Senior sales manager Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com, +44 7765 257 260 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, +1 213 447 5120 International account manager Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis. manes@screendaily.com,

his own government and forced to leave the country. When he is finally able to return to Spain, he is broke and his personal life is falling apart. It is then he receives a visit from Luis Roldan, the powerful former Commissioner of Police who offers him $1 million to help him safeguard $12 million that was embezzled from the budget he used to control. Paesa’s acute mind will plan revenge in order to seize Roldan’s money.

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development executive Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail. com, +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 335 148 Events co-ordinator Sophie Moar, sophie.moar@ mb-insight.com, + 44 7834 902 528 Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Sinclair Printing, Los Angeles Screen International, London MBI, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, United Kingdom Subscription enquiries help@subscribe.screendaily.com +44 (0) 330 333 9414

SHOT! THE PSYCHOSPIRITUAL MANTRA OF ROCK

AMC Santa Monica 5

Documentary. 98mins.

Dir: Barnaby Clay.

Cast: Mick Rock.

Magnolia Pictures.

Told through the distorted lens of rock ’n’ roll mythology, icon-maker, psychedelic explorer, shambolic poet and custodian of dream Mick Rock navigates his story from the glam rock shimmer of London to the snarl of NYC punk, and deep into the new millennium. Awaiting heart surgery after a series of heart attacks, Mick turns inward to

THE RIFT

Sci-fi, thriller, horror.

90mins. Dir: Dejan Zecevic. Scr: Barry Keating, Milan Konjevic.

Cast: Ken Foree, Katarina Cas, Dragan Micanovic, Monte Markham.

Jinga Films.

The CIA receives a signal that one of their spy satellites has crashed in eastern Serbia. A team of US agents are dispatched to retrieve the flight data and unlock the terrifying truth.

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+44 7768 237 487 US sales and business

a drifter in order to rescue his daughter amid the impending global crisis.

THE DISTINGUISHED CITIZEN

Black comedy. 117mins.

Dir: Gaston Duprat, Mariano Cohn.

Scr: Andres Duprat.

Cast: Oscar Martinez, Dady Brieva, Nora Navas, Andreas Frigerio.

Latido Films.

After refusing prestigious awards all over the world, Mr Mantovani, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, accepts an invitation to visit his home town in Argentina, which has been the inspiration for his books. It turns out that accepting this invitation is the worst idea of his life.

Expect the unexpected when you have used real people as characters in your novels.

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PLAN B

Action, adventure.

52 Screen International at AFM November 2, 2016

face himself — his past, the present and the future that will be born from the ashes of his resurrection. He stretches his nervous system to the limit to bring us the iconic images of David Bowie, Syd Barrettt, Blondie, Queen, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop. He shot them all and imprinted them on our collective psyche forever.

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SMOKE & MIRRORS See box, left

15:30 A STREET CAT NAMED BOB See box, below

90mins. Dir: Ufuk Genc, Michael Popescu. Scr: Ufuk Genc.

Cast: Can Aydin, Julia Dietze. WTFilms.

Four friends have one night to fight their way through the Berlin underworld and get their hands on a mysterious safe in this homage to 1980s and ’90s action comedies.

AMC Santa Monica 3

THE OSIRIS CHILD: SCIENCE FICTION VOLUME ONE

Action, adventure, sci-fi.

100mins. Dir: Shane Abbess. Scr: Shane Abbess. Cast: Kellan Lutz, Isabel Lucas, Daniel MacPherson, Temuera Morrison. XYZ Films.

Set in the far future in an era of interplanetary colonisation. A military contractor teams up with

MARKET 15:30 A STREET CAT NAMED BOB

Drama, biography. 100mins.

Dir: Roger Spottiswoode. Scr: Tim John, Maria Nation. Cast: Luke Treadaway, Ruta Gedmintas, Joanne

Froggatt, Anthony Head. The Exchange.

The true feel-good story of how James Bowen, a busker and recovering drug addict, had his life transformed when he met a stray ginger cat.

AMC Santa Monica 2

»

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FILM FILM COMMISSION COMMISSION

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29/04/2016 29/04/201610:21 10:21 AMAM

SCREENINGS

BETA CINEMA PROMO REEL

115mins. Beta Cinema.

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EAT LOCAL

Action, adventure, thriller.

94mins. Dir: Jason Flemyng. Scr: Danny King. Cast: Charlie Cox, Mackenzie Crook, Dexter Fletcher, Tony Curran.

GFM Films.

In a quiet country farmhouse, Britain’s vampires gather for their once-every-50years meeting. Others will be joining them too: unwitting Essex boy Sebastian Crockett, whose promise of a night of passion with ravishing cougar Vanessa quickly turns into a fight for survival after she decides to introduce him to some of her friends — the coven of hungry vampires. As if Sebastian’s night couldn’t get any worse, a heavily armed band of mercenary vampire hunters, led by the steadfast Captain Bingham, crash the party and much like the vampires, they are out for blood. It is going to be a night to remember.

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IN DUBIOUS BATTLE

Drama. 113mins.

Dir: James Franco.

Scr: Matt Rager.

Cast: James Franco, Nat Wolff, Selena Gomez,

Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston, Josh Hutcherson, Zach Braff, Sam Shepard, John Savage, Ashley Greene.

AMBI Distribution.

In the Californian apple country, 900 migratory workers rise up against the landowners after being paid a faction of the wages they were promised. The group takes on a life of its own — stronger than its individual members and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike is founded on his tragic idealism — on the “courage never to submit or yield”.

Broadway 2

THE MONSTER

Horror. 91mins.

Dir: Bryan Bertino.

Scr: Bryan Bertino.

Cast: Zoe Kazan, Scott Speedman.

Embankment Films.

A mother and daughter are trapped and tormented in a pitch-black forest by a screeching creature — unlike anything they have heard before.

Not human. Not animal.

Like a thousand horses, like a mother’s clamour, a baby’s wail, a father’s howl. Their relationship at breaking point, 10-yearold Lizzy is all out of faith in her mother

Kathy but tries to stay brave and fearless.

Kathy, on the edge, barely keeping it together, knows that only a mother’s protective love, her most primal instinct, can save her daughter from what’s lurking in the darkness.

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THE WRITER’S BURROW See box, below

Z.A.N.

Supernatural thriller, horror, fantasy. 88mins.

Dir: Thiago Moyses.

Scr: Thiago Moyses.

Cast: Joao Meira, Chris Dantas, Roberto Rowntree. I-MAGE. Adam Manish tells his psychologist about his psychic abilities.

He is convinced that someone is trying to kill him because of them.

Although his psychologist, Zaid Hoder, thinks that he’s just experiencing hallucinations, it eventually transpires that, indeed, there are some mysterious figures after him. In order to escape from a disturbing recurring dream and compulsive drawing, he takes a great deal of pills, enough to kill any normal person. But Adam is, perhaps, more than just a regular human.

AMC Santa Monica 4

A CLOSE LOOK AT THE VOD MARKET IN ASIA What are the revenue models and consumption patterns driving Asian VOD? Liz Shackleton Asia Editor, Screen International in conversation with: Fabio Lima, Executive Director, Sofa Digital Belsasar Lepe, Co-Founder, Ooyala Felix Tsang, Sales and Acquisition Manager, Golden Scene

Sunday 6 November 3pm–4:30pm | AFM Studio Loews Hotel: 1700 Ocean Ave, Santa Monica

MARKET 15:30 THE WRITER’S BURROW

Thriller. 92mins. Dir: Kurro Gonzalez.

Scr: Kurro Gonzalez, Francisco Conde.

Cast: Francisco Conde, Adriana Torrebejano. Wide Management.

Carlos writes crime novels but since the death of his wife he has been suffering

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from writer’s block. When his publishing company sends an assistant to his house to help him overcome this difficulty, Carlos believes he might have another shot at love. Terrified by the idea this new opportunity might escape, he decides to keep her with him at all costs.

Produced by

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November 2, 2016 Screen International at AFM 57

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