Finecut Adds Outbreak Thriller ‘Toxic’ to Berlin Market Slate

Netflix, again, made all the headlines. The streaming giant closed out Berlin's European Film Market — an all-online affair this year that wrapped on Friday — with a jaw-dropping $55 million deal for worldwide rights to The Pale Blue Eye, a Gothic horror-thriller set in 1830 that will re-team star Christian Bale with his Hostiles director Scott Cooper.

Tina Turner is a musical icon with very few peers. Not only did her career span decades, inspiring millions with her ridiculous number of hit songs, but her style, performances, and attitude would go on to carry a legacy of its own.

Thomas Jane tracks down his prey in this exclusive first-look image from upcoming western thriller The Last Son. The film — previously entitled The Last Son of Isaac LeMay and being sold at Berlin's virtual European Film Market by VMI Worldwide, which first announced it at the AFM in 2019 — also stars Sam Worthington, Machine Gun Kelly and Heather Graham.

Christina Ricci has nabbed the lead role in Monstrous, the supernatural thriller from director Chris Sivertson and screenwriter Carol Chrest. Film Mode Entertainment is handling international sales at the virtual Berlin market in partnership with Screen Media, which has acquired the world rights outside of North America, U.K., Japan and the Middle East.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorSales agent M-Appeal has closed further territory deals for Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which just won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.Benelux rights have gone to September Film, and StraDa Films has picked the film up in Greece. September Film plans to release the title theatrically post pandemic.

Colson Baker — the man also known as musician Machine Gun Kelly — continues to expand his onscreen acting résumé with his latest film, the thrillerOne Way. Baker plays Freddy, who finds himself on a bus headed into the California desert with a potentially fatal wound after a robbery of his former crime boss goes wrong.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefTriumph and pain were bedfellows last year for the Korean film industry. But Berlin’s European Film Market and the imminent Hong Kong FilMart see Korean companies putting on a brave face.Korean cinemas were in defensive mode early on in the coronavirus pandemic, as a population familiar with epidemics chose to stay away from crowded places.

There’s no shortage of movies about kids who discover they possess special powers. Most of these, however — from The Incredibles to the Harry Potter franchise to the Razzie-nominated Tim Allen-starring Zoom: Academy for Superheroes(no, we didn't bother either) — are very much aimed at a younger audience.

Jamie Lang Brussels-based Best Friend Forever Sales has given Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Berlin Panorama player “All Eyes Off Me,” the sexually charged sophomore outing of actor-director Hadas Ben Aroya.Told in three distinct yet related chapters, the film begins at a party in Tel Aviv where young Danny is trying to find Max to let him know that she’s pregnant with his child.

Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders, executive produced by Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit writer-director Taika Waititi, is no typical sci-fi thriller. An entry in this year’s Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section and Goulet’s feature debut, the film flips the genre on its head by using the future to confront Canada’s past colonization and subjugation of its First Nation peoples.

Spain brings an extraordinary gamut of movie titles to Berlin. Some highlights:“All the Moons,” (Igor Legarreta)A France-Spain co-production, “All the Moons” tracks two vampires in the northern Spain during the last Carlist war.

Tides just aches to be a waterborne Blade Runner crossed with Mad Max, but instead emerges as even more waterlogged than Waterworld. A soupy, post-apocalyptic Europudding that needed more action, greater imagination and a star of some magnitude in the leading role, this tale of an investigation into the possibility of restoring life to a mostly decimated Earth is all dark, grim and clammy.

Self-taught Vietnamese filmmakerLê Bảo's directorial debut Taste takes place in the Ho Chi Minh City slums where he grew up, but the film centers on a displaced Nigerian man who is a world away from home.

Jamie Lang A year after featuring as the European Film Market’s focus country, Chile returns with a delegate of more than 20 producers who will participate in a virtual stand, backed by ProChile and the Ministry of Culture.Bastard.

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, executives setting up Zoom meetings and preparing to stream promos for Berlin's 2021 European Film Market — which kicks off Monday and runs through March 5 — are taking stock after 12 extraordinary months that have transformed the independent film industry. Many expect the all-virtual Berlin market will be the real test of the health of the indie biz.

Mel Gibson features in this first-look still from Panama, the upcoming thriller from action specialist Mark Neveldine that also stars Cole Hauser. Gibson plays Stark, a former commander who sends James Becker, a rugged and decorated ex-marine (Hauser), undercover to execute a high-value deal with untrustworthy adversaries.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBy any terms, Berlin’s 2021 European Film Market will deliver its smallest pre-sales market in years.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorProducer Gian-Piero Ringel, Oscar nominated for Wim Wenders’ “Pina,” and writer-director Sven Bohse, who directed true crime miniseries “Dark Woods,” a ratings hit last year in Germany, will be presenting their political thriller “Hinterland” this week as part of the European Film Market’s Co-Pro Series program.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentRyan Gosling, Shailene Woodley, Milla Jovovich and Catherine Deneuve headline new movie projects at a 2021 Berlin market that looks set, however, to deliver a slimmed down version of prior editions.It could hardly be otherwise.

Jamie Lang International sales agent Be For Films has given Variety exclusive access to the international trailer for Andreas Fontana’s first feature “Azor,” selected for this year’s Encounters section at the Berlin International Film Festival.