Pathe’s Sales Slate, Including Two of France’s Biggest Productions, Reflects Global Ambitions

Cineflix Rights Goes On Scripted Sales Spree

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief“Lendarys,” a big-budget family adventure animation film that is currently in production, scored a handful of pre-sales during the Cannes Market. Rights sales are handled by Hong Kong-, Paris and Los Angeles-based All Rights Entertainment.With a production budget of $30 million, the film is the directorial debut of Philippe Duchene and Jean-Baptiste Cuvelier.

When his explosive defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard kicked off in April, Johnny Depp explained how he hoped to "clear the record" for the sake of his two children, Lily-Rose and Jack.The actor, 58, is suing actress Amber, 35, after she wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about experiencing domestic abuse, which he claims has damaged his career and resulted in him losing work. Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny is dad to daughter Lily-Rose, 22, and son Jack, 20, who he shares with his former partner, French actress and singer, Vanessa Paradis, 49.

Cynthia Littleton Business EditorShe loved raspberry sorbet, avocados and anything by John Mayer. She had a smile that you had to work for, as family members recalled, but once it spread across her tiny face, there was no more joyous feeling in the world.Evan Francis Buckner, who died April 28 at the age of 3 and a half, was remembered Tuesday morning at a memorial service in Malibu as an indomitable spirit.

Naman Ramachandran Studio Soho International has acquired worldwide rights to “A Bird Flew In” and has launched sales at the Cannes Film Market. “Quant” producer Kirsty Bell, the founder of production company Goldfinch Entertainment, makes her directorial debut with the film, which stars Sadie Frost, Derek Jacobi, Morgana Robinson, Jeff Fahey, Frances Barber, Julie Dray, Sophie Kennedy Clark and Camilla Rutherford. It is produced by Ben Charles Edwards (“Quant”) for Goldfinch with Phil McKenzie (“Twist”) serving as executive producer.Composed of seven interlinked narratives, the film is set in the U.K.’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Fashion-savvy parents! Tan France and Gigi Hadid bonded over their stylish careers and parenthood while filming Netflix’s Next In Fashion together.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“1976,” the awaited first feature of Chile’s Manuela Martelli, has closed first new major territories for sales company Luxbox before its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight later this upcoming week.The film is produced out of Chile by writer-directors Omar Zúñiga (“The Strong Ones”) and Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young”) at auteur-focused Chile-based Cinestación (“Too Late to Die Young”) as well as Alejandra Garcia and Andrés Wood, another celebrated Chilean director (“Violeta Went to Heaven”) at Wood Productions. Nathalia Videla Peña and Juan Pablo Gugliotta at Argentina’s Magma Cine co-produce.“1976” is set, as its title implies, in 1976, one of the bloodiest years of Augusto Pinochet’s hugely bloody dictatorship.

Fern Hawkins has been photographed soaking up the sun in Marbella alongside her pals, as her lavish hen do gets underway. The 27 year old has jetted off following her recent wedding to England footballer Harry Maguire, 29, with the couple tying the knot in a low-key ceremony at Crewe Registry Office on Thursday 12 May.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentFrancois Ozon, whose latest film, “Peter von Kant,” opened the Berlinale, is already shooting his next movie, “Madeleine,” with a flurry of stars including Isabelle Huppert, Dany Boon and Fabrice Luchini.The project, which is believed to be his most ambitious since “8 Women,” is being introduced to buyers at Cannes by Playtime and has already sparked strong interest. The plot is being kept under wraps, but Playtime is presenting the script to select buyers.Ozon is one of the few bankable European directors whose films have opened at major festivals and traditionally sell around the world, including in the U.S.“Madeleine” reteams Ozon with his regular producers, Eric and Nicolas Altmayer at Mandarin Cinema.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Lost And Found” has closed first sales to Italy (Eagle Pictures), France (KMBO) and Taiwan (Creative Century Entertainment) on thriller “Lost and Found,” starring Álvaro Morte, “Money Heist’s” Professor, and directed by “The Head” helmer Jorge Dorado.The caliber of the distributors – Eagle Pictures is one of Italy’s most muscular mainstream buyers, for instance – and the movie’s high-profile talent package confirm “Lost and Found” as a preeminent title in Spain’s currently most exportable product line: Upscale ambitious thrillers with a social-issue underbelly.Filmax, “Lost and Found’s” sales company, screened a promo at Berlin’s European Film Market. The first sales news comes just before the film’s first market screening at a private event at Cannes.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentParis-based company Kinology has secured international sales to “Il Sol Dell’Avvenire,” from Italian auteur and Cannes regular Nanni Moretti. Pic is currently shooting in Rome.The deal between Kinology and Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing in tandem with Moretti’s Sacher shingle and RAI Cinema, marks the first time Kinology has handled a Moretti pic.

EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Cochran, the American rock n roll star behind songs such as “Twenty Flight Rock” and “Summertime Blues,” is getting the feature documentary treatment.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMK2 Films, which is presenting six movies at the Cannes Film Festival, will be attending the market with a pair of hot new titles, French director Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Israeli helmer Maya Dreifuss’s “Highway 65.”“Anatomy of a Fall” stars Sandra Hüller, the critically acclaimed German actor of “Toni Erdmann,” as an enigmatic German novelist who is arrested after the mysterious death of her husband at their chalet in the French Alps. The court case examines every aspect of the relationship she had with her husband, while her visually impaired son is called to testify as a witness.The movie will re-team MK2 Films with Triet, whose latest film “Sybil” competed at Cannes.

Vincent Cassel will reunite with David Cronenberg for “The Shrouds,” a new thriller from the director of “A History of Violence” and “Dead Ringers.” The film, which Cronenberg will write as well as direct, centers on Karsh (Cassel), an innovative businessman and grieving widower, who builds a device to connect with the dead inside a burial shroud.Cassel and Cronenberg previously teamed up on “Eastern Promises” and “A Dangerous Method.” Their latest collaboration seems very much in the same envelope-pushing vein. According to the official longline for “The Shrouds,” Karsh’s revolutionary business is on the verge of breaking into the international mainstream when several graves within his cemetery are vandalized and nearly destroyed, including that of his wife.

Johnny Depp has amassed a huge fortune thanks to his highly successful acting career, so it comes as no surprise that the star has owned a number of extravagant properties over the years. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor, 58, who is currently facing his ex-wife Amber Heard in court, has been the owner of various different lavish homes, including multiple penthouses in Los Angeles and an entire village in France.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCannes Critics’ Week film “The Woodcutter Story” has debuted its trailer. It’s the feature film directorial debut from Mikko Myllylahti, the writer of Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Makki.” The film is being sold by French sales outfit Totem Films.“The Woodcutter Story” centers on Pepe, a woodcutter in an idyllic small town in Finland.

Netflix has opened an office in Italy and unveiled a huge slate of scripted and unscripted series and films from many of the country’s biggest producers, with Co-CEO Reed Hastings detailing the streamer’s roots in the nation.

Manori Ravindran International EditorA new documentary about “The Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion has been picked up for sales by WestEnd Films and Cinephil.Directed by César Award-winning “Since Otar Left…” helmer Julie Bertuccelli, “Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is screening as part of the Cannes Classics line-up.The New Zealand director was the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, for “The Piano,” and this year won the best director Oscar for her Netflix western “The Power of the Dog.”  Bertuccelli’s documentary on the 68-year-old filmmaker, which spans 40 years, is described as “the portrait [Campion] deserves, in a film that is unapologetically subjective and offbeat, very much mirroring [Campion’s] own trailblazing journey in cinema and life.” The film is produced by Academy Award nominee Estelle Fialon (“The Gatekeepers,” “Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), and crew members include editors Laure Gardette (“Capernaum,” “Polisse”) and Svetlana Vaynblat (“Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), as well as César Award-winning sound editor and mixer Olivier Goinard (“Adolescentes,” “Le Chant du Loup”).“Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is produced by Les Films du Poisson, which had three films in Cannes in 2021. The outfit recently produced the French remake of Hagai Levi’s “In Treatment,” with showrunners Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, which became French broadcaster ARTE’s most watched broadcast with more than 60 million viewers.Bertuccelli said of her documentary: “Jane is the director for whom I have the most admiration and with whom I feel a genuine connection.