Business goes into overdrive

21/05/2008

Now entering its final stages, the Cannes Festival Film Market has seen numerous deals clinched by French international sales companies.

Kinology (see news) have done great business with a 16-minute promotional reel for Jean-Francois Richet’s L'ennemi public n°1. This first part and the second instalment of the diptych (The Death Instinct), starring Vincent Cassel as the gangster Jacques Mesrine (see news) have been snapped up for almost all the world’s territories, including the UK (Momentum), Germany (Telepool), Scandinavia (Nordisk) and Poland ( Monolith).

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The two films will hit French screens on October 22 and at the start of 2009.

Pathé have sold the US remake rights for Dany Boon’s French blockbuster Welcome to the Land of Sh’tis [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (20m admissions) to Will Smith’s company.

Wild Bunch continue to score successful deals (see news), with pre-sales from The Weinstein Company for Radu Mihaileanu’s Concert. The film has also been pre-bought for the UK (Optimum), Scandinavia ( Cinema Mondo), Japan and Canada.

Optimum have also bought Jérôme Salle’s Largo Winch, Gilles Bourdos’ Afterwards and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
trailer
film profile] from Wild Bunch.

MK2 have not been outdone, with excellent sales for Belgian feature Rumba [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charles Gillibert
interview: Dominique Abel and Fiona Go…
film profile], which screened in the Critics’ Week (see special report) and has already been sold for the UK (Sound and Media), Germany and Switzerland (X Verleih), Benelux (Cineart), Poland (Vivarto) and Portugal (Pantheon).

MK2 have also struck successful deals with the animated film La véritable histoire du Chat Botté (“The True Story of Puss in Boots”), which screened at the market and won over buyers from Spain (Wide), Poland (Kino Swiat), the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (Bowline), Portugal (VC Media), the countries of the former Yugoslavia (Tuck), Turkey, Russia, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Israel and South America.

Promising pre-sales have also been negotiated for Gilles Béhat’s Diamond 13.

Finally, Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has been bought for the UK (Artificial Eye), Spain (Baditri), Scandinavia (Non Stop), Portugal (Atalanta), Benelux (A Film), the US, Australia and China.