‘Good Luck to You, Leo Grande’ to Open Sundance London – Global Bulletin

FESTIVALS

The U.K. premiere of “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande,” directed by Sophie Hyde, will open this year’s Sundance London (June 9-12), with lead actors Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack in attendance. The festival will close with the U.K. premiere screening of Jim Archer’s “Brian and Charles,” starring actor and comedian David Earl.

In all, the festival will host several features chosen from the larger U.S. Sundance Film Festival. These include Adamma Ebo’s “Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul”; Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection”; Max Walker-Silverman’s “A Love Song”; Lena Dunham’s “Sharp Stick”; Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher”; Sara Dosa’s “Fire of Love”; Ed Perkins’ “The Princess”; Joe Hunting’s “We Met in Virtual Reality”; Julie Ha and Eugene Yi’s “Free Chol Soo Lee”; and Hanna Bergholm’s “Hatching.”

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This year, the festival will feature an equal number of male and female directors across features and shorts. Screenings will be at London’s Picturehouse Central cinema and at venues across the U.K. when the festival goes on tour.

Tabitha Jackson, Sundance Film Festival director said: “Alongside some truly original voices and perspectives on the screen, we’re looking forward to joining filmmakers and an array of industry players for some illuminating conversations about the present and future possibilities of independent cinema.”

Clare Binns, MD, Picturehouse Cinemas, added: “We are delighted to be back together in person with our friends from Sundance U.S., and are proud to announce a broad and diverse program, which champions female voices and encourages an inclusive industry landscape. We are excited for audiences to join us for a thrilling offering of films on the big screen, talks and special guest appearances.”

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Meanwhile, the third edition of the Comic-Con Prague Festival, (April 22-24), culminated with the mayor of Prague appearing in a full-body suit as Iron Man. The festival took place at the O2 Universum Congress Centre, with Christopher Lambert, Julian Glover, Cara Buono and Hattie Hayridge among the guests. The event is organized by Comic-Con s.r.o., which is part of the non-profit group SFK Avalon. The first edition was held in Feb. 2020 with 23,000 participants. The second edition took place in Oct. 2021, with an attendance of 18,500 participants. – Film New Europe

BBC/HBO Max

SALES

Streamer HBO Max has snapped up 6 x 60’ BBC series “Wolf” for several Europe, the Middle East and Africa territories, including Iberia, the Nordics, Central and Eastern Europe, on “Wolf,” co-produced by APC Studios and Hartswood Films with the support of Creative Wales. Australian public broadcaster SBS has picked up first-run rights for Australia.

Based on Mo Hayder’s Jack Caffery series of novels, filming has commenced in Wales on the crime thriller for BBC One, BBC Wales and BBC iPlayer. Written and adapted by Megan Gallagher (“Borderliner”), Ukweli Roach (“The Midwich Cuckoos”) has been cast in the lead role of Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, who, obsessed with the neighbour he believes murdered his 10-year-old brother in the 90s, finds himself trying to right the wrongs of others. The cast also includes Sacha Dhawan (“Doctor Who”), Iwan Rheon (“Game of Thrones”), Sian Reese-Williams (“Hidden”), Juliet Stevenson (“Out Of Her Mind”) and Owen Teale (“Line of Duty”).

“Wolf” is commissioned by Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama, Nick Andrews, BBC Wales head of commissioning and Charlotte Moore, chief content officer. Executive producers are Elaine Cameron for Hartswood Films, Laurent Boissel for APC Studios, Ben Irving for the BBC, Kristoffer Nyholm (“The Killing”) and Gallagher. Nyholm is directing the first three episodes with Lee Haven Jones (“The Bay”) directing the final three. Nikki Wilson (“Doctor Who”) is the producer.

PRODUCTION

Production has begun on “Fallen,” a crime drama created and written by Camilla Ahlgren (“The Bridge”) alongside Martin Asphaug and Alex Haridi, from Swedish label Filmlance, distributed globally by Banijay Rights. Sofia Helin (“Lust”), plays the new head of the Kalla Fall, a group solving cold cases in Malmö. Due to a tragedy, she moves from Stockholm down to the small southern town of Ystad, where she lives with her half-sister (Hedda Stiernstedt – “Beforeigners”) and a cold case becomes topical again turning everything upside down. “Fallen” is a co-production between C More, TV4, Film i Skåne and Filmlance, in collaboration with ZDF. It is produced by Filmlance’s Anna Wallmark, and Lisa Dahlberg serves as executive producer at C More and TV4. The lead director is Linnéa Roxeheim (“Portkod”), working with Olof Spaak. Filming will take place in Malmö and Ystad and and the series will launch on C More in 2023.

APPOINTMENTS

ITV Studios has appointed Charlotte van Weede as sales director of its global entertainment business reporting into Arjan Pomper, MD Global Entertainment, where she will oversee the day-to-day running of the format sales division with its catalog that includes “The Voice,” “Love Island,” “The Chase,” “I Am A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!,” “Come Dine With Me,” “Rat in the Kitchen” and “My Mom Your Dad.” Previous stints for the executive include at eOne and Global Road Entertainment, and she has recently run her own media consultancy, in which she headed up film distribution for media content financier Anton Corp and consulted for the Netherlands Film Fund.

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Susan Newman Baudais has been appointed executive director of Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s cultural fund for the support of independent film co-production. She has been at Eurimages since 2012, initially as a project manager with special responsibility for first films and for the revised Council of Europe Convention on Cinematographic Co-production and since 2020 as head of the fund’s co-production support program. She joined Eurimages from the European Audiovisual Observatory, where she was a market researcher and analyst specialising in public funding and policy for film. Since it was set up in 1988, Eurimages has supported 2,296 co-productions for a total amount of approximately €655 million ($703 million).

STREAMING

Amazon Prime Video India‘s “Modern Love Mumbai,” the first of the three localized Indian versions of the acclaimed international series will premiere on May 13. Produced by Pritish Nandy Communications, the Hindi-language anthology includes “Raat Raani,” directed by Shonali Bose, starring Fatima Sana Shaikh, Bhupendra Jadawat and Dilip Prabhavalkar; “Baai,” by Hansal Mehta, with Tanuja, Pratik Gandhi and Ranveer Brar; “Mumbai Dragon,” by Vishal Bhardwaj, with Yeo Yann Yann, Meiyang Chang, Wamiqa Gabbi and Naseeruddin Shah; “My Beautiful Wrinkles,” by Alankrita Shrivastava, with Sarika, Danesh Razvi, Ahsaas Channa and Tanvi Azmi; “I Love Thane,” with Dhruv Sehgal, with Masaba Gupta, Ritwik Bhowmik, Prateik Babbar, Aadar Malik and Dolly Singh; and “Cutting Chai,” by Nupur Asthana, starring Chitrangda Singh and Arshad Warsi.

Amazon Prime Video India

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