03/11/2006

Hanway Films has just announced that it will handle international sales on Michael Winterbottom’s new film Genova as well as Ewan McGregor’s new futuristic film Franklyn by up-and-coming director Gerald McMorrow.

Winterbottom will start shooting Genova on location in Italy next spring with post-production taking place in the UK. The director of The Road to Guantanamo [+see also:
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film profile] co-wrote the script with Laurence Coriat, with whom he already collaborated on Wonderland.

The film is described as “a contemporary ghost story in the vein of Don’t Look Now with the sexiness of Stealing Beauty.” In this poignant tale of love and forgiveness set in Genoa, Joe (Colin Firth) and his two young daughters come to Italy in search of a fresh start following the sudden death of the girls’ mother. During a long hot summer, 16 year-old Kelly explores the sexy and dangerous underbelly of this mysterious new world while her younger sister Mary claims to have seen the ghost of their mother wandering the streets. Andrew Eaton, Winterbottom’s partner in Revolution Films will produce with co-financing from Film4.

Franklyn will be the first feature film of UK filmmaker McMorrow, who won the TCM Classic Shorts Film Competition for Thespian X, acquired by Dimension Films for the US. Franklyn, based on McMorrow’s own script, is set in London in the not-too-distant future where there is no separation between Church and State, religion and law and tells the story of four lost souls on a mission. Two parallel worlds divide them, one single bullet will decide their fate.

The film will be shot on location in the UK next summer. Producer Jeremy Thomas and founder of Hanway Films said: “We’ve recently produced wonderful first-time features from Jonathan Glazer and David Mackenzie and think this story will have an impact with audiences everywhere”.

Other titles sold by Hanway at the AFM include Sarah Polley’s directorial debut Away From Her and Philip Noyce’s thriller Dirt Music.