Czech Film Production Incentives Back, but at a Reduced Rate

EXCLUSIVE: Marcus Dunstan, the writer of Saw 3D and Saw VI, is set to direct the horror flick All My Friends Are Dead. Film Mode Entertainment and Roundtable Entertainment will launch sales on the project at the Toronto Film Festival.

about skin care is like asking an astrophysicist about the cosmos. She answers each question with such detail and fervor that it's hard not to get lost in the terminology—or the urge to soak up every piece of information like a sponge. It's not a completely implausible comparison. After all, the skin is the human body's largest organ, with pigment, texture, and conditions unique to each living and breathing person on earth.

LA-based distribution company Myriad Pictures has picked up international rights to Zátopek, the Czech Republic’s 2021 Oscar Entry. The film has also sold in the US to Gravitas Ventures.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Myriad Pictures has acquired the international rights to “Zátopek,” Czech Republic’s 94th Academy Award Best International Feature Film submission. Gravitas Ventures has North American rights to the feature. The deal was negotiated between John McGrath of UTA, on behalf of the producers, and Scott Bedno, senior vice president of sales and acquisitions at Myriad Pictures. “Zátopek” is about the greatest Czech athlete of all time, four-time Olympic champion Emil Zátopek. It is the seventh film by prolific Czech director David Ondříček. His film “In the Shadow” was the Czech Oscar submission in 2012.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Munich-based Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest truly independent TV-film groups, has licensed to PPCW Media for Hong Kong and Macau International Emmy winner “Atlantic Crossing,” starring Kyle MacLachan and Sofia Helin. PPC Media has also acquired Alejandro Amenábar’s Movistar Plus+ original “La Fortuna,” with Stanley Tucci and Clarke Peters, a tale of piracy, court room battles and historical justice set between the U.S. and Spain. Reaching more remote places, Beta has also closed Mongolia with Hulegu Media, on “Sisi” a mix of sex, politics and period glam from RTL, Beta and Story House, a modern mindset take on a film icon.  

Naman Ramachandran A first trailer has been unveiled for Toronto selection “Salt Lake,” Kasia Rosłaniec’s exploration of late-life desire and emancipation. In the film, 64-year-old Helena announces her intention to pursue sexual experiences with other men – much to the shock of her husband of 40 years. The cast includes Katarzyna Butowtt, Krzysztof Stelmaszyk, Adam Ferency, Dorota Kolak, Dagmara Krasowska, Judyta Paradzińska and Jacek Poniedziałek. The film will screen at Toronto as part of Industry Selects – 10 titles chosen by festival programmers for their sales potential. It is produced by Warsaw-based Mañana in co-production with Common Ground Pictures from Gothenburg, Sweden, the partners behind “United States of Love,” which won a Silver Bear at Berlin in 2016. The project was presented at the Berlinale coproduction market 2020, received a Creative Europe – MEDIA development grant and Polish Film Institute production support. “Salt Lake” will be released in Poland in spring 2023.

Christopher Vourlias A cross-section of works from revered masters and fresh faces will take center stage at Poland’s American Film Festival (AFF), whose 13th edition takes place Nov. 8 – 13 in Wrocław, Poland. Established in 2010 as the sister event of the New Horizons Film Festival, a showcase of independent and arthouse cinema launched in 2001, the AFF bills itself as the first film event in Central Europe solely devoted to the works of contemporary and classic American cinema. “We are searching for those voices, those auteurs, those talents and tendencies, and those waves of American film that are the most original and show some vibes of the current moment,” said festival director Ula Śniegowska.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Czech folk hero Jan Zizka’s story has been dramatized — and mythologized — in various forms many times, including a mid-1950s celluloid trilogy by Otakar Vavra that was arguably the local industry’s most ambitious production in those somewhat stodgy, pre-New Wave days. Purportedly the Czech Republic’s most expensive feature to date, Petr Jakl’s new “Medieval” portrays the same legendary figure in what’s anything but an old-school costume epic. Instead, this robust, assured enterprise offers a distant past in the brutally combat-driven action mode of “Gladiator” and “Braveheart,” its patriotic sentiments steeped in mud and blood. The economic realities for such a costly spectacular require a degree of formulaic creative decisions in line with current international audience tastes, while the casting of American and British actors in primary roles further waters down a distinctive regional character. Nevertheless, “Medieval” succeeds as a lively, handsome chunk of history (however freely imagined), with nary a dull moment between densely-packed intrigues, chases and battles. The Avenue will release this English-language spectacle on nearly 1,200 U.S. screens Sept. 9, simultaneous with rollout in several other territories.

Olivia Wilde declined to speak in detail about those Florence Pugh feud rumours as she appeared at a Venice Film Festival press conference to discuss her new movie “Don’t Worry Darling”.

EXCLUSIVE: Arjun Rampal is on his way to a shoot in Poland after a week’s work in London and a short stop in his home country India when he sits down for a chat with Deadline.

EXCLUSIVE: Next Productions, a subsidiary of sales agency The Exchange, has boarded production, financing and sales of concentration camp survival and escape drama Untold, with Oscar-winning director Aaron Schneider attached to direct.

has revealed the competitors for season 34, and it will feature several familiar faces!Big Brother couple Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss, who began dating after appearing on season 23 last summer, are among the dozen teams vying for the $1 million grand prize in the upcoming installment of the CBS reality competition, it was announced Tuesday. Other notable competitors include former NFL head coach/current ESPN analyst Rex Ryan, who is paired up with his golf buddy, Tim Mann, and Michelle Burgos, a backup dancer for Pitbull, who will compete with her firefighter husband, Luis Colon.The new season will also be a special one as the franchise celebrates its 400th episode milestone. The latest edition will kick off the globe-trotting race outside of U.S.

K.J. Yossman The line-up for Grimmfest’s International Festival of Fantastic Film 2022 edition has been unveiled.“The Loneliest Boy In The World” (U.K.) is set to open the U.K.

BAFTA-Winning ‘The Missing Children’ Producer Nevision Promotes Anne Morrison

Christopher Vourlias On a recent visit to Serbia, actor John Malkovich announced plans to team up with fellow leading men D.W. Moffett and Matt Dillon to build a state-of-the-art film, music and media production facility in neighboring North Macedonia, a small, mountainous country of just two million inhabitants.It might seem a risky gambit for a country with a modest domestic film industry that services few foreign shoots.

Eight films battled it out in competition at the 28th Sarajevo Film Festival, but Austrian director Sebastian Meise’s jury—including French director Lucile Hadžihalilović , Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, Serbian actor Milan Marić and Israeli producer Katriel Schory—spread the love quite widely.

Annika Pham More than 300 industry delegates from top shingles including Warner Bros Discovery, Viaplay, Germany’s Constantin Film, The Match Factory and France’s TF1 Studio are expected on the shores of Haugesund, Norway, over Aug. 23-26, for Scandinavia’s major film showcase, New Nordic Films.Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner “Triangle of Sadness” will both open the film confab festivities and screen alongside 18 new Nordic finished films at the market.