16/05/2013 - Bellocchio, Duncan Jones and the likes of David Mamet with Cate Blanchett on the bill: Cannes' line-ups are filling up with a constant stream of new titles

On the second day of the Film Market at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, the line-ups of French international sales companies have been padded out with several new projects.

Cate Blanchett will play the lead in Blackbird directed by David Mamet, produced and sold internationally by SBS Productions of Paris.

Rezo Films has launched pre-sales of La prigione di Bobbio (international title: La Monaca) by Italian director Marco Bellocchio, a feature film set in the 17th century, coproduced by Switzerland and France (Babe Films). Shooting to begin this summer.

Le Pacte will coproduce and handle French distribution of Fleming by British director Duncan Jones (with a screenplay co-written with Roger Avary), a film on the creator of James Bond. Currently in its casting phase.

Pyramide International is pre-selling the Mexican-French coproduction The Amazing Cat Fish by Claudia Sainte-Luce,currently in post-production and whose work-in-progress has won acclaim from Ventana Sur. 

Gaumont is coproducing and handling the sales of the animation project in pre-production Ballerina by Canadian duo Eric Warin – Eric Summer, managed by the French company Quad. In Gaumont's line-up of international sales, La French byCédric Jimenez has also appeared, with cameras to roll in the fall, starring Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche in the roles of Judge Michel and the "godfather of Marseille”, Gaëtan Zampa (production by Légende).

Charles Gillibert (ex MK2) is launching his production company : CG Cinema. On the menu, Sils Maria by Olivier Assayas (news - with Juliette Binoche topping the bill), Pour un cortège by Atiq Rahimi (the last days of Alexander the Great, based on a novel by Laurent Gaude, screenplay co-written by the director and Jean-Claude Carrière) and Lost in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile] by duo Fiona Gordon – Dominique Abel (currently in development).

Another new arrival, that of Indie Sales, a structure headed by Nicolas Esbach (ex-sales and acquisitions director for TF1 International), associated for the occasion with producer Eric Névé and Elena Manrique of Spain.

Elle Driver has added to its line-up (news) and launched pre-sales of the comedy French Women directed by Audrey Dana with Isabelle Adjani, Vanessa Paradis, Géraldine Nakache, Marina Hands, Sylvie Testud, Julie Testud, Julie Ferrier, Alice Taglioni, Alice Belaidi  and Mélanie Doutey in the cast. Produced by Fidélité, the film will trace the tale of several of today's women in Paris. 

ARP Sélection is producing 96 heures directed by Frédéric Schoendoerffer with Gérard Lanvin and Nils Arestrup (a film currently shooting, about a confrontation between a cop and a gangster) and will again be working with Sergei Loznitsa who is to film Baby Yar in 2014. Also on ARP's planning schedule, the coproduction of Queen of the Night by Atom Egoyan (to be shot next year) and the project Les amants désunis by François Dupeyron (with Louis Garrel and Adèle Haenel in the cast). 

EuropaCorp has announced the highly secret project Sea at War with a screenplay signed Luc Besson.

To be continued…

(Translated from French)