TF1 International has boarded The One And Only, a romantic comedy produced by the UK’s Assassin Films and to be directed by Simon Cellar Jones.

The world-wide acquisition and sales arm of TF1 Group, which is co-producing the title along with Pathe UK, will be handling worldwide sales with the exception of English-speaking territories which will be handled by Pathe, and Scandinavia which will be handled by Sandrew Metronome.

The One and Only -- an adaptation from Danish award-winning box office hit Den Eneste Ene, written by Peter Flannery and set in Newcastle — will start shooting in the summer of 2001. Assassin Films produced East is East, while Simon Cellar Jones' credits include Some Voices.

TF1 International’s two other hot pre-sales include Danish film-maker Ole Bornedal’s $14m period drama I Am Dina, starring Pernilla August, Gerard Depardieu, Maria Bonnevie, which is currently shooting, and another recent pick-up, Dai Sijie’s The Little Chinese Seamstress, based upon the Chinees film-maker’s own best-selling novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, which is to start shooting shortly.

Palomar Pictures

Joni Sigvatsson's Palomar Pictures, which is co-producing mega-budget K:19 - The Widowmaker for Intermedia, is teaming up with hot Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur (101 Reykjavik) to produce Kormakur's English-language debut A Little Piece Of Heaven.

Palomar has also bought film rights to US bestseller The Red Tent by Anita Diamant which is being developed as a directing vehicle for Ramaa Mosley, and is rescussitating romantic comedy Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn? Which Ryan Murphy has scripted and will direct.

Inspired by Tom Waits' song of the same name and 16^th century play Tis A Pity She's A Whore, A Little Piece Of Heaven is currently being rewritten by Kormakur and Andrew Chapman. An edgy thriller, it tells the story of a man and a woman on the run from the police for setting up insurance frauds who are not what they seem. Icelandic company Zikzak is co-producing the film with Palomar.

Palomar was bought out by Sigvatsson, former head of Propaganda Films and Lakeshore Entertainment, two years ago and he runs it with partner Jonathon Ker. Why Can't I Be Audrey Hepburn? Is set to shoot later this year and Sigvatsson is currently negotiating for the female lead with a major actress. The Red Tent is the retelling of the Old Testament story of Jacob from a female point of view.

M6

France’s M6 has become the first distributor to sign up for rights to Hong Kong superstar Michelle Yeoh’s new picture The Touch. The film will be released by M6 sister company SND, which is scheduled to handle Gangs of New York.

Thierry Desmichelle, director general of M6 Interactions ,said he had acquired all French rights including home entertainment.

By the end of the market, Media Asia, the production powerhouse which has developed and is financing the film, expects to close deals for the rest of Europe. While it is in discussions with four US parties, Media Asia says that a North American deal on the circus adventure picture may be harder to close until the SAG strike threat is resolved.

The $20m film has been a long time in development and is now set to roll in July under the direction of Peter Pau, who recently won the Oscar for best cinematography for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yeoh is producing through her company Mythical Pictures and will star. Taiwanese company Pandasia takes a co-production credit after putting up some 40% of the budget. The company is also an equity investor in Media Asia’s Princess D and will supply special effects through its technical facilities offshoot Digimax.

"The Touch is both a statement and a new standard bearer for what people from Hong Kong can do," said Thomas Chung, Media Asia Group managing director.

Media Asia has been building its own theatrical distribution network in Asia. In partnership with local partners such as Entertainment Golden Village it now has releasing capabilities in Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s

Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s official competition title Kandahar sold to a string of distributors even before its first screening on Thursday. Bim has taken the film for Italy, Golem for Spain and United King for Israel.

StudioCanal’s specialty division Wild Bunch, which is handling worldwide sales on the title, has also been fielding several offers for the Benelux, Canada and Scandivania. Two US distributors have expressed interest.

Makhmalbaf's latest film deals the ordeal of the Afghan women under the rule of the Taliban.

Buena Vista International (BVI) has bought a large part of the world on Europa Corp's Kiss Of The Dragon, the Jet Li-actioner to which 20^th Century Fox has domestic rights. The $25m picture co-starring Bridget Fonda and Tchecky Karyo which Besson wrote with his Fifth Element collaborator Robert Mark Kamen.
BVI has taken the film in Scandinavia, Benelux, Latin America (excluding Mexico), Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. It marks the continuation of an aggressive international acquisitions spree for BVI under senior vice president, international distribution, Anthony Marcoly and director of acquisitions Alicia Keyes.

France's Chris Nahon directed Kiss Of The Dragon which is the story of a Chinese intelligence officer who goes to Paris and becomes embroiled in a deadly conspiracy.

Warner Bros

Warner Bros has acquired Japanese, Spanish and South American rights to Nanni Moretti’s Cannes competition title La Stanza Del Figlio, sold worldwide by StudioCanal’s speciality division Wild Bunch.

Wild Bunch had previously sold Korean rights for La Stanza to Jaynet. Wild Bunch, headed by Vincent Maraval, has no less than 10 titles in official selection this year, including four in the main competition, including, along with La Stanza, Jean-Luc Goddard’s L’Eloge de l’amour, Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Distance and Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Kandahar.

TR Pictures (TRP)

The $16m ice-age tale The Mammoth Hunters is to be the first film produced by TR Pictures (TRP) the production company created in May 2001 by former Clt Ufa International top executive Heinz Thym and US writer-director Stewart Raffill.

The two principals of the UK-based company, which has offices in London, Los Angeles and Luxembourg, plan to turn out three to four family-oriented feature films per year, carrying budgets in the $5m-30m range, most of them shot in Canada and in Europe.

Thym was head of co-productions and acquisitions for the RTL Plus (aka Clt Ufa) group’s foreign sales and distribution arm. UK-born, Los Angeles-based Raffill directed some 14 features in Hollywood, including The Adventures Of The Wilderness Family for MGM/UA.

The Mammoth Hunters (working title) - which is currently being cast and will make an heavy use of computer generated images - is mostly aimed at children from six to seventeen years old and is to start shooting as of August in France, Canada and Lapland.

TRP has several other projects already in development, all written and to be directed by Raffill, including Europe-set political thriller Bombers, a humorous Christmas tale, as well as The Smooth Operator a women-oriented flick set between the UK, Holland and Paris. TRP will develop, produce and handle foreign sales on its titles.

Code Red

Catherine Breillat’s latest controversy-courting film, Fat Girl (A Ma Soeur!) has been acquired for distribution in the US and English-speaking Canada by Code Red, which now plans an unrated domestic release after an expected North American festival run this autumn.

Code Red is the acquisition co-venture formed by art-house specialist Cowboy Booking International and producer Antidote Films. Fat Girl is the company’s third pick-up from French sales house Flach Pyramide following Ziad Doueiri’s West Beirut and Tony Gatlif’s forthcoming Vengo.

While not quite as overtly explicit as Breillat’s earlier film, Romance, Fat Girl is still an unflinching study of teenage sexuality and virginity. that revolves around two young sisters.

Other territories already sown up include the UK (Metro Tartan) Australia (Potential), Japan (Prenom H), Brazil (Cinearte), Finland (Cinemundo), Netherlands (Film Museum), Belgium (Progres Films), Switzerland (Agora Films), Russia (ASG Video) and Turkey (Irfan Film).

Mirovision

Setting out to become an integrated major, Korean sales agent Mirovision has unveiled a series of acquisitions, a new production alliance and a slate of new pictures.

Having last year handled Korean distribution of big-budget international titles such as Dancer In The Dark, Mirovision has set up a new distribution label Miro Discovery for smaller titles. "This will allow us to create a brand and a clear identification with auteur directors," said Jason Chae, Mirovision CEO. First titles acquired for the new label include Amores Perros, Séance, Girl Fight, Requiem For A Dream and Winchester’s Christmas Carol.

On the production front Chae unveiled the next film by Hong Sangsoo, whose Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors last year appeared in Un Certain Regard. The untitled drama with a $1.5m budget will go into production in July through Miracin Korea, the production company that has delivered all of Hong’s acclaimed films.

Confirming the Korean sci-fi boom Mirovision is also readying Yesterday, a psychological thriller about detectives on the trail of kidnappers. The film stars Choi Min-soo, the Broadway-trained actress who shot to fame in blockbuster Shiri.The film begins production in July on a hefty $5m budget under the direction of Jung Yon-soo. Mirovision says that the project is already attracting strong interest from Japan and other Shiri success territories.

It is in post-production on Raiba:n (SIC), a light drama about three taxi drivers who attempt to shake up their pathetic lives. The director is Jang Hyun-soo, who Chae describes as "the hidden treasure of Korean cinema."

"We are reinventing ourselves as content players, above and beyond sales," said Chae. "We will have the ability to go beyond the Korean market. That’s why we are so pleased to representing Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Séance [which premiered at last year’s Toronto festival]".

Chae is just weeks away from finalising a deal with Korean broadcaster MBC which will span production, distribution and acquisitions. This is likely to kick off with six low-budget independent projects, backed by a new fund, which MBC is establishing. "We may do English-language projects as co-productions with the US through this."

Myriad Pictures

Myriad Pictures has agreed to terms for a two-year $100m revolving line of credit from Imperial Entertainment Group, the film financing subsidiary of Comerica Bank, for film production.

The deal was negotiated by Myriad co-president Kirk D'Amico and CFO Jon Schiffman with Imperial's president Morgan Rector, senior vice president Jared Underwood and assistant vice president Jaime Regal.

The deal will allow Myriad to continue to finance its production slate independently, according to D'Amico and his co-president Philip Von Alvensleben. Myriad is owned by German media company IN-Motion AG.

Myriad's current slate includes People I Know featuring Al Pacino and Kim Basinger, Miguel Arteta's The Good Girl with Jennifer Aniston and teen comedy Van Wilder: Party Liaison.

Karim Traidia

Algerian-born Dutch director Karim Traidia (Les Diseurs Des Verites, The Polish Bride) has completed the script for what will be his next film, English-language comedy Halcyon, set to become the first feature film out of Robert Lovenheim’s Paris and New York based River City Productions.

Described as a bittersweet comedy, Halcyon tells the story of a Dutch family forced to emigrate from a futuristic Europe due to a "meat plague." The family arrives to island nation Halcyon, where they have to assimilate to the islanders’ strange customs.

Lovenheim, who co-wrote the script with Traidia, is seeking a Spanish co-producer to shoot the $3.5m film this autumn on the Canary Island of Lanzarote, which he discovered at last December’s Spanish Film Screenings for Europe.

A prolific TV producer, Lovenheim is refashioning veteran River City as a home for "English-language films made in Europe with European directors and mixed casts." He recently formed an association with New York-based start-up management company Key Light Entertainment to tap US actors and scriptwriters as well.

Two other feature films in development at River City include the $10m fantastic comedy Dragons from director Ella Lemhagen (Tsatsiki) and director Rainer Kaufmann’s $6-8m Pandora, written by David Ives and based on the true story of the 1930’s love affair between silent movie star Louise Brooks and director Georg Wilhelm Pabst.

Winchester Films

The UK’s Winchester Films has finalised its long gestating acquisition of 10 year-old indie distribution outfit Feature Film Company.

Winchester bought the distributor from chairman David Holloway, who co-founded the operation with Mick Southworth in 1991. Southworth joined Winchester last year to set up a UK distribution operation.

Laurence Gornall and David Shear, respectively head of marketing and sales at Feature Film Company, will take up posts at Winchester under Southworth. Winchester’s distribution operation is to handle ten to 12 releases a year including product from the US’ Wind Dancer, with which the company has a three-year deal.

Feature Film Company handled titles such as Withnail & I, Cold Comfort Farm, Gang Related and Ulee’s Gold.

"This is a determined business undertaking," said Southworth. "The only niche we wish to fill is that of a solid resourced distribution company that has the infrastructure capable of releasing a steady stream of high level product."

Alliance Atlantis Pictures

Alliance Atlantis Pictures International has closed a raft of deals on Atom Egoyan's Ararat, a film within a film set against the 1915 Turkish massacre of Armenians.

Aside from the previously announced sales to ARP in France and BIM Distribuzione in Italy, president Mark Horowitz has sold it to Altima in Spain, AMA Films in Greece, Myndform in Iceland, MGN in Russia, Shaw Renters in Singapore and Shani Films in Israel.

As for the Turkish buyers, says Horowitz, the response has been mixed but he is confident that he will close in Turkey. "Will Japanese audiences not see Pearl Harbour," he said. "Did Germans not go to see Schindler's List?"

PICCAP Cinema Arts Entertainment, the US arm of French sales house Artedis, has picked up lowbudget US title, Gabriela. The romantic tale, produced by its writer and director, Vincent Jay Miller, has been successfully released in the US by fledgling US distributor Power Point Films.It earned $600,000 (a $5,791 per screen average on its opening week-end in Los Angeles and is expected to gross some $2m as it rolls on to other cities. Pictured are Jaime Gomez and Seidy Lopez. Francoise Meaux Saint Marc

Alibi Films International

UK-based sales outfit Alibi Films International has picked up international sales rights on Secretary, a US indie film starring James Spader.

Directed by Hit Me’s Steven Shainberg from a script by Erin Cressida, the love story also stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Jeremy Davies. Gyllenhaal plays a secretary who goes to work for Spader’s eccentric lawyer.

The film was produced by Double A Films, which has credits including Hamlet, and Shainberg. The deal with Alibi was brokered by Michael Roban of New York law firm Kauffman & Roban.

Alibi, founded by former HandMade executives Gareth Jones and Hilary Davis, is representing a mostly UK and Irish slate including South West 9, by the producers of Human Traffic, and Mystics, about two spiritualist con artists.

CineMedia Filmproduktions

Germany's CineMedia Filmproduktions, Freedom Pictures and Voyager Films will team on Face Value, a $7.5m comedy set to start shooting at the end of August on location in London and Berlin. Cobalt Media Group is in advanced negotiations to co-finance and distribute the film. John Hay (There's Only One Jimmy Grimble) will direct, Tim White and James Gibb will produce; CineMedia's Christoph Thoke will co-produce. Face Value is the story of a bankrupt printer who decides to start a counterfeiting operation.

Crusader Entertainment

Howard Baldwin's Crusader Entertainment - financed by billionaire businessman Philip Anschutz - has acquired the rights to the action/adventure book series by Clive Cussler revolving around character Dirk Pitt. They include Sahara, Atlantis Found, Night Probe, Inca Gold and Flood Tide.

Paramount Pictures has domestic rights to the series, per Crusader's three-year first-look deal with the studio, and Baldwin is meeting with international distributors, financiers and sales agents in Cannes with a view to setting up foreign finance.

The first Pitt novel Iceberg was published in 1973 and since then, the books have been published in over 40 languages in over 100 countries. The latest adventure Valhalla Rising is to be published this fall.

"I have always been a huge fan of the Clive Cussler's stories and I am excited to be working with Crusader in developing these books into films," said Sherry Lansing, Chairman of the Motion Picture Group for Paramount Pictures. "We are thrilled Crusader Entertainment has acquired the rights to them."

Crusader has also created a Classics division which is currently on production on two films shooting in Chicago - Joshua based on the first novel of Joseph Girzone's book series, and Children On Their Birthdays based on the short story by Truman Capote.

The company is currently in pre-production on A Sound Of Thunder based on Ray Bradbury's short story; Pierce Brosnan stars, Renny Harlin is directing and Dante Entertainment is co-producing. Crusader also recently acquired the life rights to the story of music legend Ray Charles.

Gravity Entertainment and Studios

South Florida-based company Gravity Entertainment and Studios, has announced the first titles to be produced through its three production divisions : Gravity Pictures, Lighthouse Point Films (medium-sized, genre flicks) and the latest addition, arthouse-oriented Farm Club Films.

Gravity, which handles titles in the $10m plus budget range, is in the process of building film and television studios in Fort Lauderdale and has already backed Larry Clark’s Bully, along with StudioCanal.

The next picture to be turned out by Gravity Pictures will be Goodtime Charlie, a $15m rock n’ roll epic starring Brad Rowe and Marisa Coughian to be directed by Kostas Iannos, which is scheduled to start shooting mid-june in Toronto. Don Carmody (Driven, The Lost World) is producing.

As for the Lighthouse banner, its first producing effort will be Funny Money, a $3m Irish title produced by Noel Pearson (My Left Foot) and featuring Stephen Dorff and John Hurt.

Farm Club Films, dedicated to smaller titles with price tags up to $1.5m, will kickstart with Have You Seen Me, a partnership with Muse Productions (American Psycho, Virgin Suicides, Buffalo 66). The $1.2m California-set drama written and directed by Damian Harris is to start shooting at the end of June.

Mr Brown Entertainment

A Danish remake of Lars Buechel’s hit comedy Now Or Never — Time Is Money could be on the cards according to Ralf Zimmermann of Mr Brown Entertainment, the production company of German star Til Schweiger.

He also announced that Mr Brown and director Buechel are to continue their collaboration with another feature project, Erbsen Auf Halb Sechs, a tragicomedy about two blind lovers, which Buechel has been writing with Now Or Never author Ruth Toma. Principal photography is slated to begin in April 2002.

In addition, Mr Brown is developing a number of US projects including the western Marilyn's Tavern & Whorehouse and a feature entitled Barefoot to be made in English and as a German remake in collaboration with a US studio and a German distributor. Now Or Never — Time Is Money is handled internationally by Telepool

Hong Kong is now ready to take its place at the centre of the world film industry. That at least is the message being delivered by Selina Chow, member of the Hong Kong legislature and chairman of the HK Tourism Board.

Chow says that the film industry is now being taken seriously by the HK authorities and that the various government departments are at last co-ordinating their efforts."Everyone is doing their bit," said Chow. "Film and tourism are inseparable in our minds." She admits that, prior to Hong Kong becoming a Special Administrative Region, support had been haphazard. "We have a great city, great talent and we are ready and able to welcome other film-makers to come here and make use of our facilities."

Chow is also keen to position HK as the key access point for film-makers wanting to shoot in mainland China. Most of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’s crew was Hong Kong based. We are very familiar with locations and facilities in China.

The HK government has set up a film fund. "This is not in the business of subsidising films. But it is now assisting training, script-writing, production courses art design and even travel to foreign festivals."

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures is backing the UK remake of Burt Reynolds thriller The Mean Machine, with former football hard man Vinnie Jones taking the starring role. Newcomer Barry Skolnick is currently shooting the story of a jailed footballer forced to take part in a violent contest between prisoners and their guards for Matthew Vaughn and Guy Ritchie's Ska Films, the prodcution outfit behind Lock, Stock And two Smoking barrels and Snatch. Also in the cast are Jason Statham Sally Phillip, Vaz Blackwood and Warren Mitchell, famous for his Alf Garnett character. Paramount had the rights to the 1974 original.

Film & Music Entertainment

Film & Music Entertainment (UK), the British production division of German’s FAME has picked up feature film rights to acclaimed TV series Flambards. The 13-part series was based on a series of novels by Katherine Peyton and was produced by Yorkshire Television. F&ME (UK)’s head of production Sam taylor said the series targets girls between 12 and 6 years old and has the potential to be turned into a lucrative brand."

F&ME UK, the British film production and finance arm of German multi-media group FAME, is to team up with production outfit Clear Pictures on Fake!, a $25m tale of art fraud.

Clear Pictures is the new Los Angeles-based production label of Matthew Justice, who executive produced Steven Norrington’s Blade and recently delivered the same director’s The Last Minute under his Venom Entertainment banner.

Fake is based on the life of Elmyr de Hory, a Hungarian refugee who was once acclaimed as the greatest forger of all time. He was also the inspiration for Orson Welles’ documentary F Is For Fake.

"Fake! represents a real opportunity to make a sophisticated, entertaining movie, with an independent heart and international appeal," said Justice.

F&ME UK, which is headed by Mike Downey and Sam Wood, will co-develop and produce. It is also readying two other productions, Josephine starring Giancarlo Esposito and Maria Schrader and Under the Stars by Christos Giorgiou currently in post production and looking for summer festival homes.

Sullivan Entertainment

Canadian independent production and distribution company Sullivan Entertainment has signed with Harper Collins to produce thirteen paperback books in an exclusive series to publish prior to the launch of the animated feature of Anne of Green Gables which will be completed production late Fall 2001. Sullivan, which recently announced its new feature film division will be attending Cannes for the first time and will unveil exclusive footage from the animation to buyers and distributors at the market.

Bavaria Film International (BFI)

German directors may not have much joy with Cannes’ Official Competition selectors, but Bavaria Film International has had no trouble finding takers among international buyers for its lineup of German films. Bavaria Film International (BFI) has forged a three-year , five-picture output deal with newcomer producer Oliver Simon’s new production outfit K5 Film.

The first project under the agreement will be the $ (DM 3.5m) Nitschewo which will be co-produced by production services house ARRI and start shooting in August.

BFI’s Michael Weber said the sales company is "working for the first time here with a very young company who we are accompanying from their launch. We have an option to co-produce on the projects, but are also interested at the same time in bringing other partners onboard."

BFI also has output arrangements with such local production companies as box! Film, MTM and Wueste Film..

Roland Suso Richter’s "Cannes Junior" film A Handful Of Grass has been sold to France’s K-Films. Deals have been announced on Fatih Akin’s road movie In July for distributors in the USA (Philos), Singapore (Spafax), Norway (Scandinavian Entertainment) and Mexico (Gemini Films).

Further sales have been concluded on: Jean-Jacques Beineix’s thriller comedy Mortal Transfer which Maxfun Arthouse has bought for Hong Kong and has deals pending for Norway and Iceland; Philip Groening’s L’Amour, L’Argent, L’Amour with Overseas Movie Distribution for Singapore; Andreas Dresen’s Night Shapes for Paradise Films of Cuba; Caroline Link’s Beyond Silence for Svenska Filminstitut of Sweden; Lars Becker’s Kanak Attack for Beliven Enterprises of Russia; Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run for Golden Screen Cinemas for Malaysia and Brunei; Otto Alexander Jahrreiss’ Zoom for Maxfun Arthouse ofHong Kong and Oskar Roehler’s No Place To Go for ICA of the UK, Filmmuseum of the Netherlands and Lusomundo of Portugal and Portuguese speaking Africa.

The Indian Government

The Indian Government has launched its first ever marketing blitz to sell Indian movies at Cannes. This includes setting up an India pavilion at the festival to give prospective buyers information about Indian movies and to sell India as a destination for film shooting and post-production activities. Indian Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, who will arrive today with a high-level delegation to Cannes starting today, will also be meeting French film producers and potential investors for Indian entertainment industry. Swaraj and the delegation will also meet international film industry executives at a special India Reception scheduled for this evening at the Carlton. "The government wants to proactively facilitate export of Indian films," Swaraj told EIOL. The minister added that the idea was to highlight advantage India offers in terms of cost, diversity of geographical conditions, trained manpower for the post-production activities such as animation, special effects, sub-titling and digitalisation of old films. The minister said talks would be held with her counterpart in France for some Indo-French productions. The National Film Development Corporation has brought some 35 movies to be sold at Cannes, of which 11 are in production stage. This includes Daman, Train to Pakistan and Goutam Ghosh's Deekha. The government is planning to increase the Indian presence at other festivals and trade shows in the years to come. India is the largest producer of movies in the world and exports films worth around US $ 110 million annually.

Greenlight Media

German micro studio Greenlight Media is exploring the possibility of accessing private investors from outside of Germany to come onboard a new $100m media fund being launched in the next couple of months as a successor to

Greenlight's Berlin Animation Film (BAF) fund, according to Rick van den Heuvel, President and CEO of world sales division Greenlight International. The new fund, which was first made public during the Cartoon Movie co-production market at the Babelsberg Studios in March, will back a portfolio of 4-5 feature films. Van den Heuvel pointed out that "it is not clear yet whether it will only be animation - [as in BAF 1] - or whether there might also be 1-2 live action films. We are currently making the decisions at the moment on which projects will be supported". The first BAF fund, which was launched in two tranches in autumn and winter 1999 by London-based Dresdner Kleinwort Benson ploughed some DM 150m ($ ) into a mix of cinema and TV projects ranging from the $30m Simsalagrimm - The Movie, based on the SimsalaGrimm animated series, through to such series as Meadowlands, The @dventurers, Bob's Beach and Acariens .

Bim

Bim, one of Italy’s leading arthouse distributors, is looking to buy up to 9 pictures between now and the Venice Film Festival as it boosts its slate to 24 titles. It is the first time Bim’s Valerio de Paolis is attending the festival with an open slate.

"It’s so much more fun to be able to attend all the black tie dinners and parties when you’re looking for movies, rather than going and knowing that you’ve already bought everything you want before the festival," said De Paolis, explaining the change of strategy. Meanwhile, De Paolis is also looking to board new projects as a co-producer, and already has a co-production-distribution agreement with UK director Ken Loach.

Over the last decade, Bim has built a solid reputation distributing arthouse films by important authors as well as debut directors, and is a well-known distributor of Asian films. De Paolis recently acquired Tears of the Black Tiger and was the Italian distributor of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Recent pick-ups include hot French director Francois Ozon’s upcoming Eight Women, which stars Emanuelle Beart, Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, Virginie Ledoyen and Fanny Ardant, and Bruce Beresford’s Boswell for the Defence. Bim’s slate also includes Eric Rohmer’s The Lady and the Duke, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie and Bill Benett’s Australian film Tempted.

Esicma

Spanish producer Esicma is prepping its first two films under new head Pau Calpe: Manuel Poirier’s The Women… Or The Children First (Les Femmes… Ou Les Enfants D’Abord) and Eduard Bosch’s A Love Story (Una Historia De Amor).

The French-language Women is an 80/20 co-production between Maurice Bernart’s Paris-based Salome and Escima, which also holds all Spanish rights. ARP Selection has rights in France on the $4m film. Women begins shooting Monday in the UK and Spain with star Sergi Lopez (Harry, He’s Here To Help), who previously collaborated with Poirier on 1997 film Western.

Bosch (El Viaje De Arian) will helm the $2m Love Story (working title) with a script by Nicolas Melini. The film is expected to roll before year end.

"These two projects follow our twofold strategy of developing or backing two to three films per year mixing Spanish-language films for the local market and more international projects, likely in English," Calpe said. Calpe took over the reigns at Elias Querejeta-backed Esicma in 1999.

Menemsha Entertainment

Neil Friedman's Menemsha Entertainment has acquired international sales rights to Allison Anders' Things Behind The Sun, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

Starring Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann, Don Cheadle, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz, Elizabeth Pena, CCH Pounder and Patsy Kensit, the film - which is premiering on Showtime in the US - is the story of a music journalist writing a piece on a young rock musician (Dickens), who gets more than he bargains for when he starts to interview her.

Menemsha, which traditionally specialises in foreign language movies such as Train De Vie, Mauvaises Frequentations and Color Of Paradise, has also completed sales on its Hungarian film Divided We Fall which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award this year and has been picked up for domestic release by Sony Pictures Classics. Alfa Films bought it for Argentina, Cine Colombia for Colombia and Tantra for Poland. He also concluded a deal for pan-Latin pay-TV deal for CineCanal.

Filmstiftung NRW

Filmstiftung NRW chief Michael Schmid-Ospach has plunged into the debate about the absence of a German film in the Cannes official competition for the last eight festivals.

In an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF's Aspekte arts programme on Friday evening, Schmid-Ospach described the French attitude as "regrettable ignorance" when asked if Cannes was a fair playing field for the German cinema.

"Their internationality and their openness are no longer quite so credible if they don't register anything at all over such a long stretch, and then say that German cinema is lacking this or that", he argued.

"In questions of art one cannot proceed with brutality, one simply goes somewhere else", Schmid-Ospach suggested. Schmid-Ospach replaced Dieter Kosslick as head of German funding body Filmstifung last year.

Last week, Cannes Film Festival’s artistic director Thierry Fremaux accused German filmmakers of "lacking an unmistakable style".

MediaTrade

Italy's MediaTrade and Polish impresario Wladislow Bartoszewicz are backing Between Strangers, a film written and directed by Sophia Loren’s son Edoardo Ponti and starring his superstar mother opposite Gerard Depardieu.

Set to go before the cameras on June 4^th in Toronto, the film is being produced by Gabriella Martinelli, whose previous credits include both Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet as well David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch. She returns to production after a three-year hiatus alongside two other established Italian producers, Elda Ferri (Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful) and Mario Cotone (Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena).

Between Strangers tells the stories of three women representing three generations whose lives radically change when they confront their past..

"It's about Europeans who have found themselves in this cosmopolitan town and how their lives interweave," says Martinelli, who divides her time between Rome and Toronto. Martinelli will be shopping Between Strangers in Cannes accompanied by Ponti and Helga Stephenson, former executive director of the Toronto

Separately, Martinelli is in discussion with a British coproducer on an adaptation of Canadian journalist Robert MacNeil's Burden Of Desire, a historical novel set against the Halifax Explosion of 1917. John Kent Harrison is in the frame to direct.

Martinelli is structuring another Canada-Italy coproduction to adapt Canadian author Nino Ricci's best-selling trilogy Lives Of The Saints. International Film Festival and long-time Cannes habitue, who is acting as an unofficial producer's representative. Italian rights are also held by MediaTrade, an offshoot of the Mediaset television empire; Equinox Entertainment has the film for Canada.

Danish Film Institute

The Danish Film Institute's Lars Feilberg has arrived in Cannes with an interesting offer to all foreign producers. "We have some $1m which has been earmarked for foreign productions which have Danish companies involved as minor partners," Feilberg told Eiol.

Feilberg, who was appointed new area-manager for production and development at the Danish Film Institute in April, added: "Our system is quite flexible in this area, but so far we have only been involved in projects from the other Nordic countries. However, as our Danish filmmakers have been able to find increasing amounts of backing for their projects abroad, it's now our turn to invite European companies to collaborate with us."

Last year's Cannes contender from Sweden, Songs From The Second Floor, is one resent example of a film which benefited from the support from the Danish Film Institute through Danish co-producer Easy Film. "Projects still have to be evaluated by our film-consultants, but we aim at 5-8 projects this year alone. Our film industry has become increasingly international in scope, with producers producing and co-producing feature in English and many of our most talented filmmakers and actors getting plenty of work and offers outside Denmark." The Danish Film Institute is represented in Cannes by Feilberg as well as head of development Lars Hermann and producer Maja Dich.

Full On Entertainment

Start-up UK producer-financier Alki David has launched sales operation Full On Entertainment with a slate of completed features including Greek-set diving story Oxygen and comedy Adonis Of Orange County. The company aims to start shooting on dark comedy Coke-Head later this year.

Kevin Williams Associates (KWA)

Spanish sales agent Kevin Williams Associates (KWA) has closed a string of sales on Ventura Pons comedy Anita Takes A Chance (Anita No Perd El Tren).

The Catalan-language film has sold all rights to Canada (Cinema Esperanza), Finland (Kamras), Brazil (Providence) and Switzerland (Rialto). According to KWA chief Williams, sales are in final negotiations in France, Italy and Argentina as well. Slovakia ‘s Slovak TV picked up local free TV rights.

Anita premiered last February at the Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the fourth consecutive Pons film screened in the festival’s Panorama section.

The film stars Rosa Maria Sarda as a neurotic middle-aged woman who loses her job on the eve of her 50^th birthday and starts an affair with a younger construction worker (Spanish hunk Jose Coronado). Anita won the Best Iberoamerican Picture prize and a special mention for Best Actress at Argentina’s Mar del Plata film festival in March.

Outrider Pictures

SearchParty Films, the company launched at Sundance this year by Larry Estes and Scott Rosenfelt, has changed its name to Outrider Pictures and secured a second round of financing from DreamWeaver Film Investors based in Park City, Utah.

A film distribution services company founded for the exhibition, sales, marketing and promotion of independent feature films which are traditionally overlooked by other distribution companies, Outrider will release Ed Radtke's The Dream Catcher, Philip Kan Gotanda's Life Tastes Good and Stacy Cochran's Drop Back Ten; as producer's rep, they are currently shopping Jonathan Parker's Bartleby.

Outrider recently opened a sales and business affairs office in Los Angeles, headed by Kjehl Rasmussen and a theatrical distribution office in New York headed by Richard Abramowitz.

Fox Searchlight had been pressurizing SearchParty to change its name to avoid confusion in the marketplace; the SearchParty has been in use since 1997 when Estes joined ShadowCatcher Entertainment to create a low-budget financing/mentoring programme for young film-makers.

Svensk Filmindustri

Nordic major Svensk Filmindustri is to handle all international sales on Nik Powell’s Scala Productions’ Black and White, directed by Australian Craig Lahiff.

The fact based $4.5m drama will star Robert Carlyle as a lawyer who tries to save a young Aborigine from death row in the late 1950’s. Penned by acclaimed Australian Louis Nowra (Map Of The Human Heart), principal photography is set for late summer on locations down under in Adelaide and Ceduna Beach, as well as in London. Scala Produc tions will co-produce with Dou Arts’ Helen Leake with additional funding from The South Australian Film Commision, Showtime Australia and Tim Levy’s Future Films. Frank Cox’s New Vision will be handling the Australian release. Black and White is the second English-language feature picked up for international distribution by Svensk Filmindustri which will also be are presenting Sweden's Gossip and the Norway's You Really Got Me in Cannes.

Grupo Novo de Cinema E TV

Brazilian sales outfit Grupo Novo de Cinema E TV is developing two feature films and two documentaries in what will mark the heavyweight sales company’s first productions since 1999 documentary Dorival Caymmi, says Novo president and chairman Tarcisio Vidigal.

The initial four projects, details about which are still under wraps, are planned for production between this year and next. They form part of Novo’s current expansion, thanks to new backing from Brazilian Cinema Promotion (BCP).

Vidigal is hoping to capitalise on a renewed interest in Brazilian cinema following the international success of films such as Central Station and Me You Them. "There’s a lack of producers in Brazil," he says. "We get a lot of scripts, but we prefer to choose and develop our own projects."

Brazil’s only consolidated international sales agency, Novo began in 1972 as a producer of short films and documentaries then entered feature film production in the 1980s. Its transformation in the mid-1990s to its current incarnation came about following the closure of state film agency Embrafilme.

Blooming Pictures

Blooming Pictures, a new Italian production company, is in Cannes looking for European partners to finance Turtles, an English-language feelgood movie.

The Rome-based outfit, created by Riccardo Di Russo a former Strategic Management Consultant at Deloitte Consulting, and his sister Viviana, a former Mediaset journalist, aims to focus exclusively on commercial English-language pictures for the international market.

Turtles is a romantic comedy about the relationship between an Italo-American translator and a young English company manager.

Zenpix

Zenpix, a new US distribution company formed in April as a joint venture between Susan Jackson and Das Werk-backed Promark Entertainment Group, has picked up three films at the Cannes Film Festival - Asunder, Let It Snow and Ivans.x.t.c.

Asunder is an African-American drama starring Blair Underwood and directed by Tim Reid acquired from New Millenium; Let It Snow aka Snowday premiered at Sundance 2000 and was written and directed by Adam Marcus; it was acquired from Curb Entertainment; and Ivans.x.t.c is directed by Bernard Rose and stars Danny Huston and Peter Weller. It was acquired from producers Bernard Rose and Lisa Enos.

Let It Snow will be distributed theatrically by Artistic License in June; Zenpix has ancillary rights.

Jackson was formerly head of BMG Independents; she established a consultancy business Turtles Crossing in 1999, building a portfolio of clients including Granada Film, Lolafilms, Capitol Films and Portman Entertainment.

Magellan Filmed Entertainment’s

Magellan Filmed Entertainment’s Michel Shane and Jim Steele are in Cannes searching for an Italian partner to board a $50 million feature film about Leonardo da Vinci.

The biopic will start from Da Vinci’s deathbed before chronicling the multi-talented renaissance artist’s life from birth to middle age. "This story focuses particularly on the little-known tormented relationship Leonardo, the illegitimate child of peasants, had with his father. He strove for his dad’s acceptance all his life, while also longing for the love of a noble woman."

Shane, who bought rights two weeks ago, underlined the need to find an Italian partner given the nature of the project, and said writer Joseph Masiello had spent six months researching the story in Italy. Key roles are for a young to middle-aged man, a mature actress who will play Leonardo’s mother, and the artist’s group of friends.

The Malibu-based production outfit, which is chaired by Patrick F. Charles, Director, President and CEO and Terrence K. Picken, , Director, Executive Vice-President and COO, went public a year ago and houses producers Michel Shane and Anthony Romano, the team behind Leonardo Di Caprio’s next film Catch Me If you Can at DreamWorks SKG, and Michael Garrity and Mike Gabrawy. The two partnerships recently teamed up to produce Rennie’s Landing.

Driftwood

Matthew Justice has set a Cuban baseball film La Pelota as the first title to be produced under his new Driftwood label. Driftwood will handle those films the prolific Justice is producing outside his existing Venom Entertainment banner with Blade director Steve Norrington.

La Pelota is a creative documentary being co-produced with New York-based Chamba Mediaworks and directed by celebrated documentary-maker St Clair Bourne. Bourne recently completed Half past Autumn for HBO.

Venom and Justice yesterday (May 12) gave a world premiere market screening to Norrington’s The Last Minute, which is sold by HanWay Films.

"Driftwood is about collaboration with other film-makers and allows me to develop material that may take me in new directions," said Justice. "However my partnership with Norrington remains very important to me. We have a project called Godhead that Norrington is re-writing now."

Earlier this week it was announced that Justice is to produce Fake!, a $25m picture about art forger Elmyr de Hory. The film is set up as a co-production between Scott kaplan’s Clear Pictures LA and Mike Downey and Sam Taylor’s UK-based F&ME.

F.A.M.E

Germany’s F.A.M.E is set to follow such Neuer Markt companies as Internationalmedia and In-MOTION in accessing finance for its production activities via a private German media fund.

F.A.M.E board member Michael Bischoff, who is now also responsible for film production at the Munich-based company following the sudden exit of Thomas Haeberle last month, says that around $ (DM 40m) of private investors’ money could be tapped for international English language productions developed in-house by F.A.M.E as well as from third party projects in 2001.

"The only condition is that they have a potential to be distributed on the international market, so we are not talking here about German language features or TV movies", Bischoff explained. "We want to step up providing our production know-how toEnglish language productions linked with the resources made available through the funds", Bischoff said.

ApolloMedia

German private film fund ApolloMedia is set to launch another two new funds after Cannes with the aim of raising up to Euro 45m for the financing of film projects this year.

While a fifth tranche of ApolloMedia is likely to have a volume of Euro 30m, a new financing instrument called ProMedia is being created with an anticipated volume of Euro 15m.

"Investors had asked to have a fund which would take on fewer investors but each with higher [individual] levels of investment", explained Q & Q Medien’s Jan Fantl who supervises ApolloMedia’s projects. The unveiling of these new funds comes as Apollo closed its fourth tranche on May 8 with a total volume of Euro 52m.

Among the projects being financed by Apollo 4 are Christian Duguay’s $26.5m action thriller The Extremists with Rufus Sewell, Heino Ferch and Devon Sawa; William Malone’s Feardotcom, starring Natasha McElhone, Stephen Dorff, and Isabella Parkinson; Burr Steers’ $8.5m Igby Goes Down, coproduced with Marco Weber's Atlantic Streamline and starring Susan Sarandon, Ryan Philippe, Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman; and Robert Dornhelm’s Fourth Man with Oliver Platt, Ben Cross and Katja Flint, which will begin shooting in Vienna on October 1 as a coproduction with Austrian producer Norbert Blecha's Terra Film.

In addition, Apollo 4 is partnering Steven Paul's Crystal Sky on three projects: Bob Clark's Unleashed, Carl Colpaert's Jon Voight-starrer Façade, and Gregory Poppen's Baby Geniuses II which began shooting on location in Toronto on May 7

Italian Trade Commission

The Italian Trade Commission and Italy’s film promotional body, Italia Cinema, will launch the first ever Italian Screenings in Siena next June, in line with similar events in London and Lanzarote.

A deconsecrated 15^th century church will host the screenings of 18 Italian films — both Italian premieres and this season’s big hits, Italia Cinema director Giorgio Gosetti said. Sixty guests will be invited to the screenings and attend a reception in the medieval Chiantishire town’s frescoed Palazzo Comunale.

Gosetti explained that the event will be aimed at foreign buyers and executives who have been closely following the current revival of Italian cinema. Guests will be invited on the recommendation of Italian exporters and chosen among international film professionals who have a particular interest for European cinema. The Italian Screenings will be held between June 21^st and June 24^th.

Equinoxe

Equinoxe goes international with script programme Francoise Meaux Saint Marc

France's Equinoxe - a non-profit organisation which concentrates on script development - has announced the creation of Equinoxe Inc, a sister company that will operate on an international and commercial level.

The original organisation - whose founders and principals are Noelle Deschamps, Daniel Langlois and Dominique Marchand - operates a system where ten pupils discuss their scripts with ten supervisors in a week-long retreat at the Chateau Beychevelle in the Saint Julien wine region of Bordeaux. Current backers include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Canal Plus, the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the CNC and the Media Programme.

Since 1993, Equinoxe’s workshops have dealt with 153 scripts, 50 of which have been produced, including Alain Berliner’s Ma Vie en Rose, Albert Dupontel’s Bernie, Rolf de Heer’s The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, Yoshiyatsu Fujita’s The Bleep Brothers and Rachid Bouchareb’s Little Senegal.

Equinoxe Inc will be based in New York, and will work on four projects (half of them US, half of them European) per year and will organize two to three workshops involving high-profile scriptwriters. $1 million will be invested in Equinoxe Inc per year, with the company taking equity shares in any resulting productions. The financing (which will include Langlois as the main shareholder as well as a number of former and future supervisors) is currently being put together and the plan is to breakeven within three years.

European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO)

Strasbourg-based European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO) is keen to bring the Motion Picture Association (MPA) onboard the Lumiere Network of organisations, which provides statistics for its free database on admissions to almost 8,000 films released in Europe since 1996.

"Half of the traffic on the Lumiere website is from US and the service has been well received by MPA", said EAO's Andre Lange, "so we are now looking to integrate them into the network".

Meanwhile, another service similar to Lumiere is being prepared for unveiling in Cannes 2002 which will list all of the regional, national and supra-national public film funds throughout Europe.

The EAO currently also runs the subscriber-only Internet-based media law service Iris as well as an electronic version of its Statistical Year Book.

Morena Films

Spanish film and TV producer Morena Films is prepping a new slate of feature films top-lined by the English-language Time Spy from Argentine writer Marcelo Figueras (Plata Quemada). An anticipated $9m budget makes Spy Morena’s most expensive project to date since the firm’s Cannes-timed launch two years ago. Being developed in-house with no director yet attached, the project also marks a new direction for the company.

"Over the past 12 months we have selected new directors and broken them into features with the idea of continuing to work with them on bigger budgeted films," says Morena film division head Juan Gordon. "Now we have a number of projects with a clear commercial focus that we plan to fully develop before seeking high profile directors." Gordon defines Spy, a futuristic thriller about the investigation of a series of political assassinations, as "retro-decadent." Also in development is an as-yet untitled $6m Spanish-language film about the real-life sinking of a submarine in the Bay of Biscay at midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1936. Alberto Porlan is scripting.

Elisabeth Films

French production outfit Elisabeth Films is developing Olivier Assayas’ next film, Demonlover - a thriller dealing with industrial espionage starring French actor Charles Berlin.

The film - a ‘financial’ thriller set in France, Japan and Mexico and which will carry a budget in the $7m-8m range, is a complete departure from Assayas’ 2000 Cannes period drama Les Destinees Sentimentales. It is also likely to have more mainstream appeal than his award-winning festival titles Irma Vep (1996 Rotterdam) and Fin Aout debut Septembre (1998 San Sebastian).

Demonlover is expected to start shooting this summer and be ready for release in the second half of 2002. Franch digital satellite operator TPS has already boarded the project and other backers are to be announced shortly.

Elisabeth Films was created in 1996 by Edouard Weil and film-maker Xavier Giannoli, whose first short film, L’Interview, won a Palme d’Or in Cannes in 1998 and a Cesar award in 1999.

CJ Entertainment

Park Chan-wook, director of Korean blockbuster "Joint Security Area" (JSA), has fast-tracked Revenge Is Mine as his next picture. The $4m psychological thriller will go into production next month with delivery set for late autumn. Sales are handled by Korean major CJ Entertainment.

The story is of a father who sets out to avenge the kidnapping of his daughter, but is played as much as a drama as a thriller. "Park was keen to investigate the effects and impact of a kidnapping than to focus on the action itself," said CJ executive Catherine Park (no relation).

"We can move through the production and delivery phases very quickly as the script was finished two years ago and casting is nearly completed," said Park. In fact he was ready to make it before JSA."

Although traditionally few Korean films are sold internationally before completion, CJ is confident that the director’s track record and established production values mean that it will be able to be pre-sold. The cast is headed by Song Kang-ho, who co-starred in JSA as the North Korean sergeant. Also new to CJ’s slate are Jakarta, a comic crime thriller, and Prison World Cup, a $2m comedy which will be ready for the football (soccer) World Cup next year.

Jakarta, a comedy about three simultaneous attempts to rob a bank, was directed by Jung Cho-shin and notched $3.6m at the Korean box office. Prison World Cup, by first timer Bang Sung-woong is from the Shin Cine, the production stable, which last year delivered controversial Lies.

Mercure Distribution

Mercure Distribution is to handle worldwide sales on French main competition title La Chambre des Officiers directed by Francois Dupeyron and produced by Arp Selection.

The title, which toplines Eric Caravaca, Denis Podalydes and Sabine Azema, had already generated a positive buzz before Cannes. The WWI drama centres on a young officer wounded in the early days of the war, his face reduced to pulp, who spends the rest of the war in a military hospital.

Mercure’s Jacques Glou is already handling sales duties on another French main competition title, Cedric Kahn’s serial killer tale Roberto Succo.

FilmEngine

Chris Davis has been appointed head of international sales at newly established production and distribution outfit FilmEngine which was founded by Anthony Rhulen, Bill Shively and AJ Dix.

Davis, a familiar figure on the international scene, was most recently head of international at Scanbox International as well as holding similar posts at Franchise Pictures, Imperial Entertainment and Trans World Entertainment.

FilmEngine is debuting at Cannes with a slate including The Butterfly Effect starring Josh Jackson, Ali Larter and Elden Henson and One Night written by Mike Bender with Joel Gallan attached to direct.

The company is also in development on Star Crossed to star Andrew Keegan and LeAnn Rimes; an untitled action/adventure script written by Christian Gudegast and Paul Schuering and the action thriller Blind Horizon.

Rosa Filmes

Portuguese producer Rosa Filmes has announced plans to begin acquiring rights on feature films for its recently launched sales and distribution arm, dubbed Kino.

Rosa chief Amandio Coroado, being honoured at Cannes this year as one of European Film Promotion’s producers on the move, said he is particularly interested in handling Spanish and Brazilian fare.

"We can provide a gateway between Europe and Latin America," Coroado says. "It is absurd that Spanish and Portuguese audiences don’t know more about each others’ films."

Coroado is also developing a handful of new feature film productions including supernatural melodrama Odete, Joao Pedro Rodrigues’ follow-up to Phantom (O Fantasma), and Joaquim Sapinho’s period drama The Rule (A Regra), in co-production with Ireland’s Metropolitan Films.

Curb Entertainment

Curb Entertainment reports fast Cannes sales on its thriller The Operator which stars Michael Laurence, Jacqueline Kim, Stephen Tobolowsky and Brion James. Buena Vista International has bought Scandinavia and Benelux, Sivsa in Spain, SND in France, America Video Film in South America, Prooptiki in Greece, Cathay in Malaysia and Singapore and Video Vcappa in Italy.

SOHO Entertainment

Bicoastal US sales company SOHO Entertainment has acquired the international rights to Spring Forward, a co-production of IFC Productions and Michael Stipe's C-Hundred Film Corp. IFC Films released the film domestically last Christmas - it also screened at Toronto 1999 and Sundance 2000. Starring Live Shrieber and Ned Beatty and directed by Tom Gilroy, Spring Forward is the story of two co-workers who become friends over the course of a year working together. The deal was negotiated between SOHO CEO Greg Radin and the film's producer Paul Mezey.

Classic Films

Classic Films, Amedeo Pagani’s Rome-based production outfit has boarded a hefty slate of international films, including Spanish title Sin Noticias de Dios starring Penelope Cruz and Victoria Abril.

Classic joins a patchwork of international producers on the project, including Flamenco Films, Tornasol, Cartel, DMVB and Italy's Lucky Red. The film is being sold by France's TFI International.

Classic is also co-producing: France’s Anne Frendo with rising star Emma de Caunes; Theo Angelopoulos’s upcoming StudioCanal and Bac Films trilogy; and Every Stewardess Goes To Heaven, a drama by the hot young Argentine director Daniel Burman which starts shooting in July in the southernmost tip of Argentina.

Other projects include Figli-Hijos, a drama about an Argentinian brother and sister, written and directed by Marco Bechis (Garage Olimpo) and currently in post-production, and a co-financing deal on Wong Kar Wai’s upcoming 2046.

As part of an existing co-financing agreement, Pagani has also picked up Italian distribution rights to two competition films: Marc Recha’s Pau I el Seu Germa, and Millenium Mambo.

Planeta 2010

Planeta 2010, the media division of Spanish publishing giant Grupo Planeta, has picked up all rights for Spain on UK titles Gypsy Woman and My Kingdom from Overseas Filmgroup.

A Starfield Productions and Imagico Entertainment co-production for BSkyB film production arm Sky Pictures and Overseas Filmgroup, Gypsy stars Jack Davenport and Neve McIntosh in a romantic comedy between a London property developer and a widowed gypsy. Sheree Folkson directed.

Liverpool-set gangster film My Kingdom, starring Lynn Redgrave and Richard Harris for writer-director Don Boyd, is a co-production of Neal Weisman of Close Grip Films and Gabriela Bacher of Primary Pictures with Sky Pictures’ Will Turner executive producing.

Launched out of Barcelona two years ago, the deep-pocketed Planeta 2010 is fast becoming a key acquisitions force for commercial product on the Spanish scene. The company has a theatrical distribution arrangement in Spain with UIP and holds shares in various local broadcasters.

BV International Pictures (BVIP)

BV International Pictures (BVIP) has picked up international sales on Swiss filmmaker Curt Truninger’s dark romantic comedy Dead By Monday, which is having its international market premiere in Cannes.

Previous to taking on world sale chores, BVIP’s theatrical arm BV FILM had already acquired Scandinavian rights to the film which had also been sold to France (BAC Films), Italy (BIM) and Germany (Road Movies), and has now been picked up by Polish distributor NVC Felix Film. In addition, final discussions are underway for the local outpost of Buena Vista International to release the film in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Truninger is in Cannes to raise financing for his next feature, the romantic comedy The Accidental Lover whose script he has been developing with screenwriter Myra Fried.

"We have approached Road Movies, our previous production partner on Dead By Monday, and will be targetting other partners in Europe and North America to come onboard", Truninger stated, adding that "one option could be to have interiors shot in Berlin with exterior location work in Boston or LA".

Film Distribution

French foreign sales outfit Film Distribution has picked up the next film by Remi Waterhouse, with a working title of Les Proprietaires, which is to team Irene Jacob and Guillaume Canet.

Les Proprietaires is to start shooting in June and has already been bought by Diaphana for France.

Film Distribution, which is headed by former UGC International excecutives Nicolas Brigaud-Robert and Francois Ion, is handling Spanish film-maker Marc Recha’s main competition title Pau I El Seu Germa (Pau and His Brother), Directors’ Fortnight title La Traversee (The Crossing), a docu-drama directed by Sebastien Lifshitz track as well as Critic’s Week film, Nuages, a documentary narrated by Catherine Deneuve for the French version and Charlotte Rampling for the English-language version..

The company is also launching sales on an Indian title, Digvijay Singh’s social tale Maya, as well as a Canadian film, Michel Welterlin’s thriiller Wolves In The Snow.

Alia Films

Rome’s Alia Films has boarded several international films, including director Michel Blanc’s upcoming French comedy, Voyez Comme on Dance, a UGC production which starts shooting in July.

Alia’s Enzo Porcelli, who is the vice-president of Italy’s Independent Producers Association, has also boarded The Kiss of The Bear, Serghei Bodrov’s fairy-tale story about a young girl and the friendships she develops in a small circus. Produced by Germany’s Pandora Films, the film will shoot in Germany, Sweden, Russia and Spain with Silvio Orlando (Out of This World, La Stanza del Figlio) in a key role.

Porcelli is also a minority partner on Tsai Ming Liang’s competition title What time is it over there? and is also lining up a remake of the French film On Connait la Chanson.

Eurocine

Specialist French sales house Eurocine has picked up international sales rights to Czech drama The Spring Of Life (Der Lebensborn).

The film, which is directed by Milan Cieslar from a script by Cieslar and Vladimir Korner, is the true story of a woman who defies the Hitler-SS inspired re-education programme intended to breed an Aryan master race. Produced at the Barrandov Studios, Spring stars Monica Hilmerova, Vilma Cibulkova and Michal Sieczkowski.

The film premiered at the Zlin Children and Youth Festival, where it earned the Critics’ prize and later at Plzen, where it won the Special Jury prize. Sales had previously been handled by its backers Happy Celluloid and Ceska TV.

Constantin Film

German distributor-producer Constantin Film is exploring the possibility of tapping private German media funds to finance its production operations.

"We are definitely discussing using this form of financing", Constantin’s Bernd Eichinger said. "We do the majority of our films via classic bank financing, but it is true that [private] funds could make sense".

As of March 31 this year, the Munich-based concern had cash reserves of DM 109m and credit lines of some DM 380m in place to finance its production and license trading activities.

"However, we don't want to get into a situation where the funds run around using our name and are raising money with our name", Eichinger noted. Meanwhile, Constantin reported this week that it has reduced

its planned Group sales for the current financial year to $ (DM 230m) and an EBIT target of $ (DM 18m) following the postponement of release dates in the first five months and the lower than expected box office receipts generated by the acquired films Enemy At The Gates and One Night At McCool’s. Sales for the first quarter of 2001 dropped to $ (DM 43.2m) compared to the same period last year when such releases as The Sixth Sense and Amderican Pie contributed to total receipts of $ (DM 83.9m).

Hofmann & Voges Entertainment (HVE)

Hot young German production outfit Hofmann & Voges Entertainment (HVE) is planning to develop a string of comedy franchises in the style of the UK’s Kevin & Perry and Ali G or the US’ Saturday Night Live for the German and international markets.

The first step was made this week with the founding of the joint venture Headnut Industries with German "alternative" comedians Erkan Maria Moosleitner and Stefan Lust, the stars of HVE’s 2000 box office hit The Bunnyguards (Erkan & Stefan), to exploit the two characters "Erkan" and "Stefan" across all media.

Production will begin in June on their next feature, Erkan Und Stefan Und Die Macht des Boesen, as Girls On Top DoP Axel Sand’s directorial debut. Headnut Industries is also preparing a comedy show pilot for commercial broadcaster ProSieben; a video game with Ravensburger Entertainment and a book on the two "crass Germans" with publisher Droemer Knaur.

Meanwhile, on an international level, HVE has opened a development office in Los Angeles to access young writing talents to develop comedy feature films that would create franchises for the domestic US market.

At the same time, another HVE subsidiary Goldkind Film will be a production partner with Constantin Film on Marc Rothemund’s Pornorama and will adapt bestseller author Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre’s novel Soloalbum. HVE is also lining up The Last Pimp (Der Letzte Lude), "a totally politically incorrect grossout comedy" about a man whose greatest ambition is to become a pimp, which will be directed by Matthias Dinter with Hamburg comedian Lotto King Karl starring. Constantin Film — with whom HVE has a "first look" arrangement — will distribute in Germany.

Irish Film Board (IFB)

The Irish Film Board (IFB) has joined forces with the Anglo Irish Bank to create a Euro 6.35m Company Development Initiative to finance a slate of projects and support strategic company growth for up to five medium-sized production companies.

Over a three-year period starting this autumn, the IFB will provide up to Euro 3.175m, the Anglo Irish Bank up to Euro 1.9m with the companies required to raise the balance of Euro 1.27m for the initiative - which is designed to give Irish producers the ability to compete internationally to attract the talent and finance they require to make commercially viable films.

A selection panel of IFB executive and Board members, Anglo Irish Bank nominees and external industry experts will allocate the development support. This will be done on the basis of the track record of the principals in each company, the quality and commercial potential of the proposed slate, and the ambition and credibility of the business plan.

Announcing the launch of the Initiative this week, Ireland’s Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands Sile de Valera called it "a very significant and important step in our endeavours to build a progressively more commercial industry".

"For too long Europes audiovisual sector has been undercapitalised, particularly in the vital area of project development. The measures which the Film Board plans to put in place represents our effort to redress this array of problems", de Valera said.

Pukka Group

Pukka Group, a three year-old post-production operation based in London, has formed a film production arm Pukka Films and hired Christian Martin, whose credits include Alex Winter's Fever, as in-house producer.

Pukka has already acquired rights to a slate of projects and has earmarked a fund of $750,000 to future development and acquisitions. CEO Paul Katis said that while Pukka is to date known as a post-production outfit but also has an internet arm specialising in video streaming and developing asset management software tools for the production industry, it has a long term plan to be a vertically integrated group active in areas such as web distribution and exhibition.A further producer and development executive are to join the team in the near future.

EM.TV & Merchandising

Debt-ridden German media concern EM.TV & Merchandising has announced that it will close its programmes and production management division as part of its future strategy of concentrating on its core business.

According to an official statement, the division’s head Sylvia Rothblum will remain at EM.TV in a consulting capacity until October 31 before passing her duties over to sales director Rainer Huether. EM.TV stressed that it will "continue to expand its portfolio with its own productions and acquired programmes in order to ensure the appeal of its portfolio for the international TV market".