AFM Roundup Day 2: Aussie Stars Set For ‘The Turning’; Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy To Topline ‘Cry/Fly’, Image Acquires ‘Day Of The Falcon’ For U.S.; Arclight Acquires ‘Bronx Bull’
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The Turning, a 17-part omnibus Australian film based on short stories by Tim Winton, is enlisting some of Oz’s top actors. Hugo Weaving, Rose Byrne and Miranda Otto will join a group that includes Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska. The portmanteau is a series of overlapping stories about the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives set in a fictional Western Australian coastal town over 30 years. Produced by Robert Connolly’s Arenamedia, the film marks the directing debuts of Blanchett, Wasikowska and David Wenham. Among those directing other segments are Connolly, Tony Ayres, Anthony Lucas and Stephen Page. The first two segments are in the can. Turning is backed by Screen Australia, with Footprint Films/Madman Entertainment handling the Australian release and LevelK repping international sales at the American Film Market. – Don Groves…
Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy have been set to star in the drama Cry/Fly from Latin American writer-director Claudia Llosa. Melanie Laurent also in talks to co-star as a French journalist, Variety reports. Cry/Fly is set in Minnesota and northern Canada over two time periods and tells the story a mother whose six-year-old daughter is terminally ill. A dramatic event separates the mother from her child and falcon-keeper son, but 20 years later, the son is persuaded by a journalist to embark on a search for his now-famous mother. Shooting begins in February.
Image Entertainment has landed U.S. rights to Day Of The Falcon, starring Antonio Banderas, Mark Strong, Freida Pinto and Tahar Rahim. It plans a theatrical release after an ultra-VOD release in first-quarter 2013 for the Jean-Jacques Annaud film, about the rivalry between two Emirs in the Arabia Peninsula in the early 20th century just as oil is being discovered, and the rise of a young dynamic leader who unites the tribes of the desert kingdom. The co-production between Quinta Communications and Doha Film Institute had its worldwide premiere at Tribeca last year and Warner Brothers and UPI released overseas. The U.S. deal was negotiated by Bill Bromiley and Jess DeLeo on behalf of Image and by Jeff Berg as well as Brigitte Segal and Tarak Ben Ammar of Quinta for the film….
Arclight Films has acquired the Jake LaMotta biopic The Bronx Bull, directed by Martin Guigui and with a cast that includes William Forsythe, Joe Mantegna, Paul Sorvino, Natasha Henstridge, Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Sizemore and Robert Davi. It will sell international rights to the pic based on the book written by Chris Anderson, Sharon McGehee and LaMotta….
AnnaLynne McCord, Billy Zane and Viva Bianca have been set to star in the revenge thriller Scorned, from Leprechaun director Mark Jones, who co-wrote the script with Sadie Katz. Producers are Lance Thompson of Portsmouth Pictures, Charles Ison and Martin Sprock of Horse Head Pictures, and Lightning Entertainment president Robert Beaumont. Lightning’s Audrey Delaney and Marc Bienstock are executive producers alongside Seth Willenson, and Lightning is handling international sales. The pic, in postproduction, revolves around a couple (McCord and Zane) who decide to spend a romantic weekend together. But when an unexpected text from Sadie’s best friend (Bianca) to him reveals a love affair between the two people closest to her, she becomes hell-bent on revenge….
Peace Point Rights and Stealth Media Group have completed an agreement that will see Peace Point Rights service worldwide TV, home entertainment and digital distribution rights for Stealth Media’s film catalog of more than 250 films, in addition to selected future titles. The films in the deal include Plots With A View (Alfred Molina, Naomi Watts, Christopher Walken, and Lee Evans), Donovan’s Echo (Danny Glover, Bruce Greenwood) and Beyond Friendship (JJ Feild, Tom Conti and Ian Holm)….
Fleur De Lis Film Studios announced actor and martial artist Gary Daniels (The Expendables) will lead the cast of the action-adventure Blackwater, to be directed by veteran stuntman and producer B.J Davis. Daniels plays a Special Ops trooper who switches sides and sets out to seek justice for the oppressed he was hired to police. John D. Schofield is producing….
Roskino has joined New World Distribution as a marketing partner to bring the Russian political film Generation P from director Victor Ginzburg into theaters in over 50 U.S. markets on November 16. Generation P, based on Russian novelist Victor Pelevin’s book, centers on the new Russia — defined by $100 dollar bills, guns, high-stakes advertising and digitized politicians — and the distorted mirror image of the Western world. Roskino is Russia’s only state-run organization in charge of promoting Russian films internationally. The film is screening Monday at AFM.
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