Blue Finch Film Releasing Boards International Sales on Western Thriller ‘Head Count’ – Cannes Market (EXCLUSIVE)

Letitia Wright is stepping into the ring for In the Shadows, a drama based on the true story of Ramla Ali, the first Somali British professional boxing champion. 

Naman Ramachandran Principal photography has commenced on Adam MacDonald’s survival thriller “Out Come the Wolves.” The feral feature, which will be shot on location in Dundas, Ontario throughout May, follows the story of a woman who takes her fiancé to a secluded cabin to meet her best male friend, before things take a dark turn during a hunting trip. The film is represented for international by Altitude Film Sales, who will be discussing the film with buyers at the upcoming Cannes Film Market. MacDonald’s credits include “Backcountry”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and “Pyewacket”, which also debuted at TIFF. He also directed the third and fourth seasons of “Slasher” and the upcoming season five for AMC’s Shudder. Most recently, he completed directing the first virtual reality horror movie experience for Meta entitled “Be Mine.”

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer “Aladdin” and “Charlie’s Angels” breakout Naomi Scott will star alongside “Game of Thrones” alum Kit Harrington and Oscar winner Jeremy Irons in the epic romance “Eternal Return,” Variety can report exclusively. Village Roadshow Pictures is producing the project and will introduce the film to buyers at next week’s Cannes Film Festival. “Eternal Return” follows Cass (Scott), a young woman who has resigned herself to a life of emotional invulnerability until she meets Virgil (Harington), a cartographer who makes maps to imaginary places. Along with his partner Malcolm (Irons), a vibrant renaissance man, the pair relentlessly attempts to travel back in time awaken Cass to love again. The original feature is written and directed by Yaniv Raz (“Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets”).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off a successful collaboration on “Charlatan,” Films Boutique has boarded Agnieszka Holland’s next film “The Green Border,” which just completed principal photography in Poland. Now in post production, “The Green Border” tells the fateful story of a family of Syrian refugees, a solitary English teacher from Afghanistan and a young border guard, all of whom meet on the Polish-Belarusian border during the most recent humanitarian crisis triggered by President Lukaschenko opening doors to migrants in Belarus as a back door to enter the EU.  The screenplay, penned by Holland, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko and Maciej Pisuk, is inspired by real events. Research for the film included hundreds of hours of document analysis, interviews with refugees, border guards, borderland residents, activists and experts.

EXCLUSIVE: Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to The Stones and Brian Jones, a documentary about the “lost creative genius” who launched – and named – The Rolling Stones.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s some neat casting. Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) and Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace) are set to lead psychological horror film Self-Portrait which Mona Fastvold (The World To Come) will direct from a script she co-wrote with Brady Corbet (Vox Lux).

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Movie Film), two-times Cesar Award nominee Jean Reno (Leon), Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World) and Connie Nielsen (Gladiator) are attached to star in action movie Birdseye, which The Exchange will be launching for international sales ahead of the Cannes market.

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is leading a John Maclean-helmed survival thriller that will be taken to Cannes Market by HanWay Films.

Naman Ramachandran U.K.-based sales and distribution outfit Blue Finch Films has boarded international sales, excluding North America, for William Shatner documentary “You Can Call Me Bill” from Legion M and Exhibit A Pictures. Written and directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, who has previously helmed documentaries such as “78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene,” “Memory: The Origins of Alien,” and “Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on the Exorcist,” the film had its world premiere at SXSW 2023 as part of the Documentary Spotlight section. The film is an intimate portrait of William Shatner’s personal journey across nine decades, stripping away all the masks he has worn during his storied career – most famously the Star Trek franchise – to reveal the man behind it all. The first and only feature-length documentary dedicated to Shatner’s life, career and philosophy, it delves into his most fervent passions, hopes and concerns, through a thematic distillation of his most recent autobiographical songs and a deep dive into the farthest reaches of his filmography.

EXCLUSIVE: Film Seekers has acquired international sales rights to dark-comedy-thriller ClearMind about a virtual reality therapy experiment that takes a deadly turn for a Cannes sales launch.

EXCLUSIVE: Action-thriller Classified, starring Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin and Tim Roth, has completed principal photography on location in Malta.

EXCLUSIVE: Pitch Perfect and The Hustle star Rebel Wilson is set to star in action-comedy film  Bride Hard from director Simon West (Expendables 2) for a Cannes market launch. 

Emma Roberts is set to star in comedy Hot Mess, which David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment is launching at the Cannes Market next week. 

EXCLUSIVE: Peter Sarsgaard (Dopesick, The Batman) and Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven, Terminator: Dark Fate) have signed on to star in The Damning Of A Country Merchant, a horror pic from Anonymous Content, Two Independent Eyes, and Anti-Worlds, who have partnered to produce.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor London- and Paris-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation is launching sales on “Return to Reason,” the newly restored 4K version of an assembly of Man Ray’s four cult classic silent films, paired with an original soundtrack by Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan’s SQÜRL. The film, which is produced by Marieke Tricoire at Womanray and Julie Viez at Cinenovo, will premiere in Cannes’ Official Selection as part of the Cannes Classics sidebar. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Man Ray’s first film in 1923, “Return to Reason” is the first 4K restoration of Man Ray’s four surrealist and dreamlike short films, known as the first surrealist films, now accompanied by an exclusive soundtrack composed and performed by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and musician Carter Logan’s band SQÜRL.

Here is another hot package set to hit the Cannes Market later this month as Sebastian Lelio has set Voyagers as his next film at FilmNation Entertainment with Andrew Garfield attached to play astronomer Carl Sagan and Daisy Edgar-Jones attached to play Ann Druyan.

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based sales and production company Charades and London-based production and financing studio Anton are partnering on the worldwide sales of Oscar-winning Australian director Adam Elliot’s upcoming stop-motion drama Memoir Of A Snail.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy-winner Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) will star alongside Oscar-nominee Kate Hudson (Glass Onion) and actress and model Kaia Gerber (Babylon) in psychological thriller Shell from director Max Minghella (Teen Spirit).

The recently launched Toonz Feature Film and China’s Golden Valley Films have struck a co-production and co-financing deal for six animated pictures over the course of the next three years.

Christina Hendricks (Mad Men, The Neon Demon) has signed on to lead the psychological thriller Reckoner, written and directed by Nissar Modi (Z for Zachariah) in his feature directorial debut.