Cannes Briefs: Red Sea Media Picks Up 2; UMedia & ‘Amazing Mr Jones’; Ealing Metro Re-Brands; Lionsgate UK’s Buying Spree; Weinstein Co. Presents Short Film Series
Red Sea Media Acquires 2 Titles For Marché du Film
Red Sea Media has acquired worldwide rights, excluding North America, for two new titles: horror-thriller Sacrilege and comedic horror pic Hell Baby. Red Sea will introduce both at the upcoming Marché du Film. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, Sacrilege is produced by Rick Dugdale of Enderby Entertainment through Enderby’s horror division Tony-Seven Films, Sean E. DeMott through Execution Style Entertainment and Chris M. Bonifay through Limb from Limb Pictures. Sacrilege is about a family who takes back their son 3 years after he is kidnapped & brainwashed by a devil worshipping cult. Now, he would like nothing more than to watch them get murdered. With the cult surrounding their cabin, the family must fight for their lives while trying to undo the damage. No cast has yet been announced. Hell Baby tells the story of an expectant couple who move into a haunted fixer-upper in New Orleans — a house with a demonic curse. Things spiral out of control and only the Vatican’s elite exorcism team can save them — or can they? Rob Corddry, Leslie Bibb, Riki Lindhome, Rob Huebel, Michael Ian Black, Paul Scheer, Keegan Michael Key, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon star. Darko Entertainment’s Hell Baby was written and directed by Robert Ben Garant & Thomas Lennon and produced by Jeff Culotta, Ted Hamm, Sean McKittrick and Peter Principato.
UMedia Boards ‘Amazing Mr Jones’
uMedia will produce Michael Caton-Jones’ The Amazing Mr Jones alongside Lauri Apelian’s Ocean Sky Entertainment and Jens Meurer at Egoli Tossell and also will handle international rights. Written by Robert Payne and directed by Caton-Jones, The Amazing Mr Jones tells the story of a beautiful woman, married to a wealthy politician, who places an advert seeking a lover who can give her the orgasm she has never experienced. When she meets a younger man, an ex-serviceman from a very different background, they at first struggle to connect across the social divide. Despite the initial embarrassment, they develop a real relationship and begin to learn from each other as a passionate but complicated affair begins. The Amazing Mr Jones is currently in the midst of casting.
Ealing Metro Re-Brands As Management Takes Majority Stake
Ealing Metro CEO Will Machin and company directors Natalie Brenner and Sam Parker have acquired a majority stake in the sales outfit and will re-brand as Metro International Entertainment. The management team now owns 70% of Ealing Metro with Ealing Studios and financiers Prescience retaining 30%. Prescience’s James Spring and Tim Smith remain on the board. Metro International’s current slate includes revenge thriller Last Man Out with Pierce Brosnan; Better Living Through Chemistry with Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Michelle Monaghan and Ray Liotta; Nina with Zoe Saldana and David Oyelowo; and Half Of A Yellow Sun with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton. It’s also in pre-production on Bailout with Jack Black; the Julian Fellowes-scripted Crooked House; and Destroyer with Paul Bettany, Matthew Goode and Luke Evans.
Lionsgate In Six Pick-Ups
Ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Lionsgate UK has acquired six new films for distribution. It’s grabbed IM Global’s race-against-time pic Locke with Tom Hardy, Tom Holland and Olivia Colman; Indomina’s Peter Capaldi comedy Born To Be King with Kate Hudson and Ewan McGregor; Sierra/Affinity’s Civil War drama The Keeping Room with Sam Worthington, Hailee Steinfeld and Brit Marling; and Horns from director Alexandre Aja and starring Daniel Radcliffe. It’s also boarding two films that are about to shoot: family comedy What We Did On Our Holiday with Billy Connolly, Rosamund Pike and David Tennant; and Love, Rosie with Lily Collins and Sam Claflin.
‘Life Is Amazing’ For Weinstein Co. & Lexus
The Weinstein Co. is partnering with Lexus on the Lexus Short Film series Life Is Amazing. The grouping of five films will get a red carpet premiere on May 19 at the Olympia theater. The filmmakers were selected by Harvey Weinstein and TWC COO David Glasser based on previous work and were then commissioned for a three-six minute film capturing the theme that “life is amazing.” The movies hail from Spanish director Cristina Molina, multi-disciplinary studio Special Problems, AFI grad Justin Tipping, Hong Kong’s Chan Chung Ki and Japan’s Mitsuyo Miyazaki.
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