EXCLUSIVE: One of the market’s biggest-budget projects, the Will Smith action-crime thriller Sugar Bandits, has sealed multi-million dollar deals across the world for AGC ahead of a planned September start date.
01.05.2024 - 16:59 / deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: VMI Worldwide has acquired worldwide sales rights on Breed of Greed starring Gina Gershon (Showgirls).
Directed by Ralph Hemecker who also wrote the screenplay alongside Otto Eckstein and Andrew Boszhardt, the film’s cast is rounded out by Andrew Boszhardt, Adrian Enscoe, Chelsea Gilligan, and Madison Lewis.
The synopsis reads: Following the mysterious death of the Wendolyn’s patriarch brings the pharma family back together. While the family members go to war with one another, an ancient curse preys on their greed. The Wendolyn’s made billions on painkillers, but no drug can kill the pain that they’ll soon endure.
Producers on the pic are Ralph Hemecker, Andrew Boszhardt, and Otto Eckstein. The deal was negotiated by Jessica Russo on behalf of VMI and the producing team. Scott Freije and Julie Paquit at VMI will be handling the worldwide sales and introducing the film to buyers in Cannes.
“We were immediately enthralled by the unique tone of this atmospheric, and thematically rich film. We eagerly anticipate presenting this thrilling cinematic feature to buyers in Cannes,” said Jessica Russo, COO Productions & Acquisitions at VMI.
Boszhardt added: “Otto, Ralph, and I set out to make a fun, high-concept thriller that would equally entertain and provoke. We are excited to partner with VMI, a boundary-pushing sales and distribution company, that immediately saw the potential for our film to reach and captivate a global audience.”
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EXCLUSIVE: One of the market’s biggest-budget projects, the Will Smith action-crime thriller Sugar Bandits, has sealed multi-million dollar deals across the world for AGC ahead of a planned September start date.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Female stunt performer Wiriya Caesar will step up into the lead performer role in upcoming Thai action film “The 24.” The film project is being launched this week in the Cannes Market by new international sales firm Boz Pictures. Wiriya (aka Porntip Wiriya, aka “Fan”) has previously been a stunt double for Mary-Elizabeth Winstead in “Kate” and Golshifteh Farahani in “Extraction,” and has other credits on “Thirteen Lives” and “Hidden Strike.” In “The 24” she will star as an assassin who wakes up with a time bomb strapped to her body. She has clear instructions to kill a hit list of 24 members of the Bangkok underground, with each successful hit buying her more time alive. Caesar is joined in the cast by Japan’s Sakaguchi Tak (“Re:Born,” “One Percenter,” “Versus”), Dan Chupong (“Ong Bak 1 &2,” “Born to Fight”), Sunny Pang (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Headshot” and Gareth Evans’ upcoming “Havoc”) and Simon Kook (“Ip Man 3,” “Mayhem”). The film, which will shoot in the fourth quarter of this year, is written and directed by Lee Thongkham (“The Maid,” “The Lake,” “Kitty the Killer”).
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Chatchai Chinnasri and Nattawut Sanyabut, two stars from runaway Thai hit film “The Undertaker,” are reunited on upcoming supernatural horror film “Night Shift.” The new film, directed by Chaiwat Sitalasai (“Spirit of Ramayana”), centers on an upcountry graveyard worker who finds himself haunted by spirits in an abandoned building in Bangkok. The film is directed by Chaiwat Sitalasai (“Spirit of Ramayana”) and is now in advanced pre-production ahead of a June start of production. Delivery is anticipated in March 2025.
EXCLUSIVE: VMI Releasing, the North American distribution arm of VMI Worldwide, has picked up North American rights to Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba’s latest pic Haunted Heart, starring Matt Dillon.
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Asterix,” the popular French comics franchise, is set for a new animated journey. Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere, whose latest film “The Count of Monte-Cristo” is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, have penned “Asterix, the Kingdom of Nubia.” SND, the commercial arm of French network M6, has boarded the film and will kick off international sales at the Cannes Film Market, where they will present a sizzle reel to buyers.
Ed Meza @edmezavar Uwe Boll’s migrant crisis thriller “Run” is making its market debut in Cannes via Stuttgart-based sales company Kinostar. Boll just wrapped shooting on his latest pic and unveiled the first images from the production.
Brent Lang Executive Editor Pinnacle Peak Pictures is bringing a slate of faith-based films to the Cannes market, including a new installment in the “God’s Not Dead” franchise. Entitled “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” the film will be released theatrically in the U.S. this fall, but, like the rest of Pinnacle’s slate, foreign territories are available to buyers.
EXCLUSIVE: VMI Worldwide has taken international sales rights to A Sudden Case of Christmas and will present the holiday flick starring Danny Devito, Andie MacDowell, Wilmer Valderrama, and Lucy Devito to buyers at this week’s Cannes Market.
EXCLUSIVE: Ahead of the Cannes market, Lionsgate has taken North American rights off the table on one of the bigger-budget new packages that’ll be on sale next week: that’s action-thriller Mutiny, which will star action evergreen Jason Statham (Fast & Furious) and be directed by Jean-François Richet (Plane).
Image Nation Abu Dhabi and Roy Lee and Steven Schneider’s genre label Spooky Pictures have set the third feature under their multi-picture slate deal with sci-fi horror Menace. Directed by Randall Okita (See For Me), the film stars Isabel May (1883) who also serves as an executive producer via her banner Una Vaca Productions.
EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winning producers See-Saw Films (The King’s Speech) are gearing up on Tenzing, about the inspirational life of Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and his summit of Mount Everest in 1953 alongside fellow outsider New Zealander Edmund Hillary.
Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Korean sales firm Finecut has inked multiple deals for horror thriller “Noise” and for “A Traveler’s Needs,” the recent Berlin prize-winner directed by Hong Sangsoo.“Noise” is a “multi-sensory and realistic horror” film that intertwines societal motifs of “floor noise” with suspenseful elements. Directed by Kim Soo-jin, the film centers around a woman with a hearing aid haunted by inexplicable sounds linked to her sister’s disappearance in her own apartment and attracting a malevolent presence.
EXCLUSIVE: Toronto-based genre sales specialist Raven Banner has added Neon Noir horror pics Brute 1976 and Garden of Eden to its Cannes Film Market slate.
Naman Ramachandran British boxing champion and “Love Island” runner-up Tommy Fury will make his acting debut with Oceana Studios‘ “The Debt Inherited.” The film also marks the directorial debut of Oceana CEO Danny Sawaf. Dubai-based distribution and production outfit Oceana, whose credits include “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend,” starring Gabriel Byrne and Mira Sorvino, “Monstrous,” starring Christina Ricci, and “Terrifier 2,” will launch sales on “The Debt Inherited” at the Cannes Film Market.
EXCLUSIVE: Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not Productions is joining Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content to produce Beanpole helmer Kantemir Balagov’s first English-language film Butterfly Jam. Goodfellas is set to launch sales on the project in Cannes next week.
EXCLUSIVE: Political drama-thriller Words Of War, led by an ensemble including Maxine Peake, Ciarán Hinds, and Jason Isaacs, is heading to this month’s Cannes Market.
Samuel L. Jackson (Captain Marvel) and Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) are set to lead thriller Head Games, to be directed by Anthony Mandler (Monster) from a script written by Colin Liddle (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels).
EXCLUSIVE: The English-language adaptation of Momo, one of the best-loved fantasy books by The Neverending Story writer Michael Ende, has set a buzzy cast, with Alexa Goodall (A Gentleman In Moscow) taking the lead role of the young orphan girl Momo.
Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree has found key cast in the shape of two-time Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider Man) and two-time Emmy winner Claire Foy (All of Us Strangers).
EXCLUSIVE: Paul Rudd (Ant-Man) and Nick Jonas (Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle) are set to star in musical comedy Power Ballad from Once and Sing Street director John Carney, we can reveal.