At EFM, Indies Strive to Adapt to Disruption of Global Film Market

K.J. Yossman Matthew Vaughn is already deep into producing his next feature film, a caper titled “The Stuntman,” Variety has learned. Helmed by stunt performer turned director Damien Walters, the film tells the story of two brothers who both become stuntmen.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Playmaker has closed a raft of pre-sales deals on “Ploey 2 – The Legend of the Winds,” which was presented to international buyers for the first time at the European Film Market this month. The Playmaker screened an exclusive first-look teaser at its booth in Berlin as well as a promo for attending buyers.

Anatomy of a Fall French producer Marie-Ange Luciani put in a flying appearance at the Berlinale this week with Claire Burger’s coming-of-age drama Langue Étrangère which received a warm reception in competition.

EXCLUSIVE: Josh Close (Killers of the Flower Moon) has signed on to star in American Solitaire, an indie drama marking the first feature from writer-director Aaron Davidman.

Naman Ramachandran Film production and distribution company KRG Studios is teaming with acclaimed filmmaker Anjali Menon on a Tamil-language feature film. Menon’s London Film School graduation short “Black Nor White” (2002), starring Archie Panjabi (“The Good Wife”) and Rez Kempton (“The Mummy”), won the BFI award at the Palm Springs film festival. Her directing credits include “Manjadikuru” (2008), “Bangalore Days” (2014), “Koode” (2018) and most recently “Wonder Women” (2022).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent As the European Film Market starts to unwind, the verdict is already in: Even if global economics are rocky, buyers are back and on the lookout. This week, dealmaking has been happening on both star-driven packages as well as arthouse and foreign-language movies.

A group of pro-Palestinian supporters staged a protest against Israel’s ongoing military action in the Gaza Strip in the main Marius Gropius Bau venue of the Berlin Film Festival European Film Market on Sunday.

EXCLUSIVE: The EFM packages aren’t done just yet. Pirates Of The Caribbean director and Oscar winner Gore Verbinski has pulled together a strong cast for his fun-sounding next movie, titled Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Naman Ramachandran Blue Finch Films have sold North American rights to thriller “Last Straw” to Shout! Studios at the Berlin European Film Market. Written by Taylor Sardoni, “Last Straw” pays homage to the pressure- cooker genre films of the past and aims to present a raw and unrelenting twist on the home-invasion thriller. The story revolves around a young waitress working the late shift alone at a rural roadside diner.

EXCLUSIVE: Production has wrapped on indie feature Bad Man, starring Seann William Scott (American Pie) alongside Johnny Simmons (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), Chance Perdomo (After We Fell), Andre Hyland (Barry), and Lovi Poe (Chelsea Cowboy).

Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars, will have its Polish premiere on Thursday at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum.According to Variety, director Jonathan Glazer will introduce the harrowing film at the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where parts of the movie were shot. “Zone” is about Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the Nazi officer and commandant of Auschwitz during World War II, and juxtaposes his home life with wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their five children to the horrors of the Holocaust happening right next door.“To acknowledge the couple as human beings was a big part of the awfulness of this entire journey of the film, but I kept thinking that, if we could do so, we would maybe see ourselves in them,” Glazer, 58, told the Guardian.

Davide Abbatescianni Italy will be the Country in Focus at the European Film Market, running this year from Feb. 15-21. One of the major producing hubs in the world with a long history of excellence, Italy is now going through a production boom driven by a rising global demand and a generous tax credit, capable of attracting massive foreign investment across fiction, documentary and animation.

Alex Ritman “Close to You,” the Elliot Page-starring drama directed by BAFTA winner Dominic Savage, will be introduced to international buyers at the European Film Market by former Charades exec Jean-Félix Dealberto. The film, which was written by Savage and Page, and also stars Hillary Baack (“Sound of Metal”), had its world premiere in Toronto, where Greenwich Entertainment acquired U.S. distribution rights.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief U.S-Asian sales company EST N8 has picked up the international rights for “30 Minutes,” a Korean sci-fi thriller film that is currently in production. The story revolves around a middle-aged man trapped in a time loop, repeatedly reliving the Christmas Eve of his murder.

Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett and Dave Bautista all star in projects at one of the biggest Berlin markets in recent memory, both post- and pre-pandemic. Whether this year’s high rollers will sell is the question that the 2024 European Film Market turns on.

Set Decorators Society of America has announced the winners of the SDSA Awards, recognizing excellence in the art of set decoration for films released in 2023. This year’s winners of the five categories included “Saltburn,” “Poor Things,” “Barbie” and “Asteroid City.” “Poor Things” took home the prize for both achievement in decor/design of a period film and best picture, with “Saltburn” winning in the contemporary film category for decor/design.

“Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy rips into his 2005 movie “Red Eye” in GQ magazine’s latest March cover story.“I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun making it,” Murphy told GQ. “But I don’t think it’s a good movie. It’s a good B movie.”In the psychological thriller, directed by Wes Craven, Murphy plays Jackson Rippner, who’s seated next to Lisa Reisert (McAdams) on a red-eye flight from Dallas to Miami — and whose evil terrorist intentions are revealed once the plane takes off when he tells her he’s going to assassinate the US deputy head of Homeland Security.“When I was a younger actor, I was really, really hard on everything that I was in,” said Murphy (“Peaky Blinders”).

EXCLUSIVE: We are hearing that Apollo Global Management, who was mulling an offer for National Amusements, the Redstone family company that controls Paramount Global, is no longer considering that now.

widespread drug abuse an extremely relevant issue in America? Obviously. But just as screamingly apparent is that a kilo of deflating, predictable movies about narcotics and dope are not going to bring hesitant audiences back to struggling movie theaters.

Talk to Me was named Best Film at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, which were handed out today on the Gold Coast. The teen horror pic also won Best Director for Danny and Michael Philippou and Best Lead Actress for Sophie Wilde.