Scott Walker Sets Creature Feature ‘The Tank,’ Cornerstone Launches Sales For Virtual Cannes Market

Manori Ravindran International EditorNicolas Cage is lined up to play a buffalo hunter in an adaptation of John Williams’ novel “Butcher’s Crossing,” directed by “Red Army” helmer Gabe Polsky.The film, which is being shopped to buyers at this week’s Cannes virtual market by sales agent and financier Altitude, is set in the 1870s and finds the “Mandy” star playing Kansas buffalo hunter Miller, who takes on a young Harvard dropout seeking his destiny out West.

EXCLUSIVE: Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star Penelope Wilton is joining Oscar winner Jim Broadbent (Iris) in Hettie Macdonald’s (Normal People) upcoming feature The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Naman Ramachandran Altitude Film Sales has taken worldwide sales rights, excluding Australia/New Zealand, for “Wolf Creek 3,” the latest instalment of the Wolf Creek franchise, and will introduce the project to buyers this week at the Virtual Cannes Market. Altitude will also distribute the film in the U.K.

Naman Ramachandran Indian video streaming platform SonyLIV is set to go global by October and has a robust slate of 40 shows in the works.In the last four weeks, the service has been given a soft launch across 28 global territories including the European Union, U.K., the Middle East and North Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. In the U.S.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentParis-based banner Indie Sales has closed deals in key markets for Flore Vasseur’s environment-themed documentary “Bigger Than Us” which is produced by Oscar-winning actress and activist Marion Cotillard.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentOscar-nominated French actor Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) has joined Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”), Nanni Moretti, and the Italian cast of romantic drama “Il Colibrì,” which has started shooting in Rome.Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio

Spinning Gold, the long-in-the-works biopic about 1970s Casablanca Records chief Neil Bogart, is heating up again in time for the Cannes Virtual Market. The pic, written and directed by Bogart’s son Timothy Scott Bogart, has added Wiz Khalifa to play Parliament leader George Clinton, Tayla Parx to play Donna Summer, Ledisi to play Gladys Knight and Lyndsy Fonseca to play music manager Joyce Biawitz.

Sam Worthington and Phoebe Tonkin are starring in Matt Nable’s directorial debut, Transfusion. The thriller, which also features Nable, is about a former Special Forces operative thrust into the criminal underworld to keep his only son from being taken from him. Production began in Sydney earlier this week and Altitude has added it to its slate with international sales launching at the Cannes Market.

Oscar nominees Emily Watson and Richard E. Grant have been set to star in director Jason Wingard’s romantic comedy Fado! from a script by Andrea Mann. Global sales agent Protagonist Pictures will introduce the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Market.

Kunal Nayyar, Lucy Hale and Christina Hendricks are set to star in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, an adaptation of the New York Times best-selling novel by Gabrielle Zevin. Hans Canosa will direct from Zevin’s adaptation of her own novel and David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment will be shopping the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Virtual Market next week. 

EXCLUSIVE: In an interesting international tie-up, UK sales firm Protagonist Pictures and Germany’s 7500 and Stowaway producer Augenschein are teaming up to co-represent worldwide rights on select English-language movies.

IFC Midnight has boarded U.S. rights to UK genre pic Burial.

Naman Ramachandran Cornerstone has unveiled the first look of Oscar and BAFTA winner Emma Thompson and emerging star Daryl McCormack in Sophie Hyde’s “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” ahead of the Cannes virtual market, where the company will also showcase footage from the film.The film is directed by Sophie Hyde (“Animals”) from an original screenplay by comedian and writer Katy Brand (“Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show”).Thompson (“Late Night,” “Nanny McPhee”) stars as Nancy Stokes, a 55-year-old widow

EXCLUSIVE: Aisling Franciosi (The Nightingale) is set to take the lead role in elevated horror film Stopmotion, which Wild Bunch International is launching ahead of the Cannes market.

Manori Ravindran International Editor“Julia’s Eyes” helmer Guillem Morales is readying 1980s-set psychological thriller “Brother,” with WestEnd Films set to launch sales at the Cannes virtual market later this month.Morales, one of Spain’s top genre auteurs, is best known for 2010 Spanish horror “Julia’s Eyes” (pictured), which was produced by Guillermo del Toro. The director recently won a BAFTA for his work on the hit BBC dark comedy anthology series “Inside No.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentBelgian director Felix van Groeningen (“Beautiful Boy”) and Charlotte Vandermeersch have started shooting in the Alps on “The Eight Mountains,” an Italian drama based on a bestseller about male bonding set against a mountainous backdrop.

Manori Ravindran International EditorAltitude Film Sales has boarded “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass,” Oliver Stone’s forthcoming examination of the assassination of President John F Kennedy.The London-based sales agent will debut footage and launch worldwide sales at the Cannes Virtual Market later this month. Meanwhile, Altitude Film Distribution will also release the film in the U.K.

Naman Ramachandran Altitude Film Sales has boarded high concept survival thriller “The Wreck” and will introduce the project to buyers at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.Based on a screenplay by Nick Saltrese (“Jetski,” “A Prayer Before Dawn”), the film will follow a group of old college friends who reunite on a Caribbean scuba diving trip exploring the wreckage of a WWII battleship and find themselves trapped inside the underwater labyrinth of rusted metal surrounded by great white

Rose Byrne is set to play New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in upcoming title They Are Us. Andrew Niccol will write and direct the project, which focuses on the week following the 2019 Christchurch attacks on New Zealand’s Muslim community. 

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorScott Collins has found life beyond “The Walking Dead.”The former ad-sales chief at AMC Networks, who gained traction by finding interesting ways of tying prominent marketers to some of the company’s flagship series, has joined Blockgraph, the ad-tech company that is jointly owned by by Charter Communications, Comcast, and ViacomCBS.