Buyers jump on Bille August’s Night Train

by Annika Pham

21/05/2012 - Bille August’s English language existential thriller Night Train to Lisbon based on the bestselling novel by Pascal Mercier is attracting a lot of interest in Cannes and deals have been closed by Carl Clifton’s sales team with Italy (Archibald Entreprise Film SRL), Eastern Europe (EEA) and Latin America (SWEN).

The film follows a Swiss professor (Jeremy Irons) who, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. The stellar cast also includes Vanessa Redgrave, Bruno Ganz and Lena Olin. The German/Swiss/Portuguese coproduction will be delivered in 2013. The film had previously been snapped by TMG Group owned Concorde Filmverleih for Germany, Frenetic Films for Switzerland and Paradiso Filmed Entertainment Belgique for Benelux.

K5 Film GmbH is also actively negotiating in Cannes pre-sales to the spoof film The Starving Games from prolific writers/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. The film, produced by Peter Safran (Scary Movie) has already been snapped by Wild Bunch Germany for Germany and Falcon for Middle East. Filming will start in October.

The musical documentary Shut up and Play The Hits following James Murphy and the LCD Soundsystem to its ultimate gig at Madison Square Garden on April 2, 2011 is among K5’s latest acquisitions. The Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern feature, which had its world premiere at Sundance, is produced by Pulse Films and executive produced by Christine Vachon’s Media Killer Films, former LCD manager Keith Wood and The Creators Project.

Also on K5’s Cannes line up is Mira Nair’s upcoming political thriller The Reluctant Fundamentalist starring Kate Hudson, Riz Ahmed, Kiefer Sutherland and Martin Donovan.