11/02/2007

“We are so excited that David Mackenzie’s Hallam Foe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] was accepted in competition. It’s the platform we were hoping for for this film”, said Independent Film Sales' head of marketing Sarah Goodwin, from their booth at the British in Berlin Stand.

“The film’s official screening is not before next Friday so nobody has seen it so far and we are waiting for buyers’ reactions to start selling the film. But expectations are high because of Mackenzie’s successful previous films – Young Adam and Asylum [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – and Jamie Bell in his first major role since Billy Elliot”, added Goodwin. Hallam Foe will be released in the UK by BVI.

Two other titles on Independent’s line-up are screening at the EFM: Marc Munden’s Mark of Twain, which just won the Movies That Matter prize in Rotterdam, and the award-winning London to Brighton [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Paul Andrew Williams, sold in most territories apart from Italy, Spain and Germany.

Independent recently picked up at the beginning of international market distribution rights to documentary film In Search of Diego by brothers Ben and Gabe Turner. It features five under-privileged British football fans who dream of meeting Diego Maradona and manage to raise money to go to Argentina. The film, in post-production, will be ready for Cannes.

Another major title on Independent’s upcoming projects is Night Train, the new film by the company’s founding member, Nicolas Roeg. Still in the early development stage, the thriller is being co-written by Roeg and Steven Soderbergh, who is co-producing with Roeg’s son Luc.