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Issue 1776 June-July 2014

Bewitched

ScreenTech’s guide to the latest in VFX ■ Debate: supporting young talent ■ Karlovy Vary ■ Malta territory focus

stop in toronto and start something big.

TIFF Industry saw a 97% increase in attendance at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival Conference. To service this growth for 2014, we’ll expand our footprint in the Festival Village with: • a larger Conference venue • more meeting space in our Industry Centre • new outdoor promotional opportunities to support film sales • increased capacity for Press & Industry screenings Visit tiff.net/industry for more updates and to register today!

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‘From anger to activism’

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Not just for target penalties and rewards but for responding to the realities of shrinking budgets where some companies need financial help to support new entrants or apprentices. The Iron Lady and Belle producer Damian Jones spoke of the former UK Film Council diversity funding that helped him hire more people from diverse backgrounds on his sets; that fund no longer exists but he hopes the BFI will introduce similar measures later this year (the BFI’s diversity policy will be announced in coming months).

The role of agents is also one to consider with both talent development and diversity. I’ve heard several agents use the cop-out line that they only represent the kind of talents that are being hired, but surely if they took more punts on talented BAME actors, writers and directors, that can lead to more hirings. Identity Agent Group is one leader in both diverse and new talents, and more agencies should follow its lead. It’s not just a cultural argument, it’s also smart business. It’s often noted that British white people are in the minority in London. So media, and media companies’ employees, should be reflecting underserved audiences.

Getting young people from a range of communities to understand the opportunities in film is crucial. Certainly, the digital revolution lowers barriers to entry. As the British Council’s Rachel Robey points out, the BFI Film Academies working with 16 to 19 year olds across the UK help throw open the net. Her colleague Will Massa says those diverse voices are increasing but they must have support structures. BAME mid-level and executive-level employees will be key to keeping this support in place.

There is a mountain of work ahead to make the film industry more diverse, but it feels like people are becoming more s willing to make the climb. n

Hot Rocks

Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

Rocks In My Pockets

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iversity and talent development are two of the hottest topics in the creative industries. In this issue, Screen reports on its recent discussions devoted to diversity (during MBI’s Creative Week, page 4) and supporting new talent (during a Cannes roundtable, page 6). What struck me revisiting these highlights is that they can’t be separate discussions. The industry is only going to become more diverse if diverse talents get the right support; and a variety of young talents need support to build sustainable careers in the industry.

I’m happy to say it felt like Creative Week’s Diversify panels did move on the discussions from our first Diversify conference in November last year. The mood has moved “from anger to activism”, as one attendee said.

The challenge now is making sure that activism is heading in the right direction.

The TV Collective founder Simone Pennant called for the creative workforce to stop paying the licence fee until the BBC delivers more diversity. But I prefer the suggestion of Channel 4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy for “targets with teeth”, meaning financial rewards or penalties for diversity in the workforce.

Surely the BFI, Creative England, Film4 and BBC Films must also be held more accountable for diversity. Even if targets aren’t yet feasible for film productions, there needs to be transparency.

Information should be available about all film productions receiving public monies, and the diversity of their casts, crews and stories. Even if the data shows the film business to be overwhelmingly upper class and white at the moment, that data is crucial (Creative Skillset’s very useful employment census is only part of the picture). Targets can only be set once we have that baseline of data.

The discussion also has to be financial.

As Screen reports on page 14, Karlovy Vary will offer its first animated feature in its main competition, Signe Baumane’s Rocks In My Pockets. Baumane is a unique talent, and Rocks In My Pockets, her first feature-length film, is described as a fantastical tale about five women of the director’s family, including herself, and “their battles with depression and madness”. The Latvia-born, New York-based film-maker says: “In some ways Rocks In My Pockets is an old-fashioned detective story. Me digging into family history, searching for clues, figuring things out — why some of us have obsessive suicidal thoughts, why we break down, what makes us who we are and in the end what saves us.”

The film premieres on July 7 in Karlovy Vary’s Grand Hall. Zeitgeist Films has US and Canadian rights; New Europe Film Sales is handling international sales. For more, check out Baumane’s blog at rocksinmypocketsthemovie.wordpress.com.

June-July 2014 Screen International 1

Contents

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Issue 1776 June-July 2014

31

Bewitched

ScreenTech’s guide to the latest in VFX ■ Debate: supporting young talent ■ Karlovy Vary ■ Malta territory focus

June-July 2014 cover image Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, ScreenTech, from page 23

International correspondents Asia

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42

Liz Shackleton lizshackleton@gmail.com Australia Sandy George +61 2 9557 7425 sandy.george@me.com Balkan region Vladan Petkovic +381 64 1948 948 vladan.petkovic@gmail.com Brazil Elaine Guerini +55 11 97659915 elaineguerini@terra.com.br France Melanie Goodfellow +33 6 21 45 80 27 melanie.goodfellow@btinternet.com Germany Martin Blaney +49 30 318 063 91

37

18

screen.berlin@googlemail.com Greece Alexis Grivas +30 210 64 25 261 alexisgrivas@yahoo.com Israel Edna Fainaru +972 3 5286 591

June-July 2014

dfainaru@netvision.net.il Korea/deputy Asia editor

Analysis

Festivals

31 Big and Bigger

nordic territories

4 creative solutions

14 karlovy varied

IMAX is set for a huge summer, continuing its global expansion

Jorn Rossing Jensen +45 202 333 04

Highlights from MBI’s inaugural Creative Week

The lowdown on the Karlovy Vary festival and a chat with honouree Anonymous Content

32 laser canon

Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318 hjnoh2007@gmail.com

jornrossing@aol.com scotland

6 tapping into talent

Allan Hunter +44 (0) 7904 698 848

Supporting the next generation of film-makers

Territory focus

Are laser projection’s benefits enough to encourage theatres to make the investment?

spain

16 miike’s new cut

37 treasure island

34 sound investments

Juan Sarda +34 646 440 357

On the set of Takashi Miike’s Yakuza Apocalypse

Why Malta is becoming a big draw, plus a look at local productions

The latest audio technology turns it up

allan@alhunter.myzen.co.uk

jsardafr@hotmail.com UK Geoffrey Macnab +44 (0) 20 7226 0516 geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk subscriptions Screen International Subscriptions Department, 3 Queensbridge, The Lakes, Northampton NN4 7BF tel +44 1604 828 706

People 10 raising the game Altitude’s Andy Mayson talks about the company’s distribution push

12 icon on target

ScreenTech 23 maleficent shines Producing the stellar effects for Disney’s fantasy blockbuster

Regulars 42 reviews Critical analysis of Walking On Sunshine and The Fault In Our Stars and more, plus the top titles from Cannes including Winter Sleep, Mr. Turner, Maps To The Stars and Foxcatcher

Icon Film Distribution CEO Ian Dawson discusses its new slate

27 post in synch

Screen International ISSN 0307 4617

LipSync Post celebrates its 30th anniversary

48 ask the experts

All currencies in this issue converted according to

18 the star turns

29 stand and deliver

exchange rates that applied in June 2014

Partying with the 2014 UK Stars of Tomorrow

How Schedule 2 presents films at their best

As the blockbuster season kicks off, we quiz industry experts about their favourite action heroes

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2 Screen International June-July 2014

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10-20/7/14

IN FOCUS CreatIve week

Creative solutions At MBI’s inaugural Creative Week, some 800 delegates heard about the latest inspiring work across new and old platforms. Andreas Wiseman highlights the discussions across a variety of industry issues

C

onsolidation, convergence, fragmentation, big data, diversity and the UK VFX boom were some of the main talking points at the inaugural Creative Week, launched by MBI brands Screen International, Broadcast, shots, ALF and Brad.

Executives from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Facebook, Twitter, Google/YouTube, Warner Bros and Double Negative were among experts to address more than 800 delegates from the UK film, TV, media, advertising and tech industries at the fourday event held at BAFTA in London.

During his keynote, ITV chief executive Adam Crozier cited Netflix’s incoming $170m (£100m) project The Crown to highlight the growing importance of drama internationally, and as an example of “growing convergence” between the TV and digital sectors: “We’ve seen big new dramas coming through [ITV], and without giving any names away, when we look to sell rights to various countries, some of the biggest bidders will be companies you wouldn’t associate with broadcast,” he said.

Closer to home, Crozier hinted that the original commissioning strategy for the broadcaster’s new pay channel ITV Encore will put an emphasis on high-quality dramas that might be too niche for the main channel.

The ITV chief executive explained that the creation of Encore would allow ITV to make original drama without the same pressure of delivering audiences in excess of 5 million.

He highlighted the critical acclaim of “particular niches” with shows such as Mad Men or Game Of Thrones, which do not get “huge audiences” but are “terrifically high quality”, as the type of shows he would like to “add to the ITV offering”.

‘The investment in the market means all boats are rising as the tide rises’

Digital decisions Earlier in the day, Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham, like Crozier, highlighted the growing importance of the digital sphere in informing commissioning decisions. He lifted the lid on how the broadcaster’s 10,000-strong online panel Core4 is being used to test programme ideas and titles.

However, Abraham made clear that Core4 was a “soft guidance tool” for chief creative officer Jay Hunt and her team, rather than a substitute for commissioners’ intuition or understanding of the channel’s audience.

“Before, when we had a programme idea, there might have been traditional phases of pre-tests, or dial test reactions to a pilot… [but now] if Jay wants to test two or three alternative titles overnight, she can do that. If she wants to understand social attitudes towards an issue, she can do that,” Abraham said.

He added that the tool was available at Channel 4’s “fingertips, at all times”.

The members of Core4 form a subset of Channel 4’s 11 million registered 4oD viewers

4 Screen International June-July 2014

and offer the broadcaster a deeper level of data and engagement. Input from the smaller database allows Channel 4 to conduct fast-turnaround surveys into areas such as marketing concepts and scheduling suggestions. Core4 also gives the broadcaster insight into the devices its members own and their socialmedia usage.

Abraham added that Channel 4 now has the ability to analyse billions of pieces of data within minutes and is using that information in a number of ways.

Josh Berger

Josh Berger, Warner Bros Entertainment

ThE agEnda Key events at Creative Week ■ Diversify ■ Media Summit ■ VFX Summit ■ International TV Forum ■ VFX Evolved ■ Screen presents the UK Stars of Tomorrow

Consolidation benefits The pros and cons of consolidation were a hot topic among the host of high-profile TV production bosses speaking at Creative Week.

All3Media chief executive Farah Ramzan Golant was keen to stress the super-indie will preserve its autonomy following its acquisition by Discovery and Liberty Global. The former AMV BBDO boss ruled out quotas or guarantees between All3’s 19 indies and Discovery’s portfolio of channels.

“We already serve Discovery, we are one of their biggest suppliers in the States — we don’t want preferential terms, we don’t want quotas and they don’t want to guarantee anything to us. We have to be free, in a free market, to serve the best customers in the right way,” Ramzan Golant said.

“What we negotiated is the autonomy to take the best idea to the best home, to get the best audience and best return. The dynamics of the joint venture are legislatively constituted that way because if anything is done that constrains the growth of All3Media, then the other shareholder is put out.”

She added that while it was important to look after the interests of its new owners, it was even more important to ensure its production groups — including Lime Pictures, North One Television, Objective and Studio Lambert — were given the space to grow. vFX powerhouse The UK’s growing VFX industry was a key focus across the week.

Josh Berger, president and MD, Warner Bros Entertainment UK, Ireland and Spain, explained to delegates that the Harry Potter franchise was key to setting up the UK film industry to be a world leader in visual effects, paving the way for Gravity’s recent success.

Berger noted that with the first Harry Potter

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Theo Wood

our business provides for our staff are exceptional,” said the exec. “They are long hours but the pay is fairly good and the work is absolutely fantastic.”

Krishnan Guru-Murthy (left) and Trevor Phillips

film in 2000, less than 15% of the VFX work was done in the UK. By the final film’s production in 2010, more than 85% of the effects were done locally.

“There was an expansion of the skill base, the assets, the sheer number of people working in the industry.” It was that base of skills and talent that Warner could again tap into for the ground-breaking Gravity, with London-based Framestore leading the VFX. Warner Bros itself is part of that growth after acquiring Leavesden Studios. And that growth will have a positive effect on the attractiveness of the UK’s film sector to other significant film players, predicted Berger.

“The investment in the market means all boats are rising as the tide rises. Our coming in and investing certainly brings other people to come have a look. The level of production here is substantially up. There is a lot of competition for that space. When Star Wars decides to come here, that’s a long-term, hundreds-of-millions-of-pounds investment; that’s great news no matter where [which studio] it is made.”

The tax credit system is another key to the UK’s current boom, Berger added. “Some estimates say the production would drop 50% if there were no tax credits,” he said.

Double Negative MD Alex Hope characterised the DNA inherent to the UK’s growing VFX sector: “The UK has a group of companies run along sound business lines that compete fiercely with each other but are also collaborative. The growth of the sector since the late 1990s has been built on that bedrock.

“Turnover grew 500% between 1998 and 2004,” continued Hope. “The UK took significant market share from the rest of the world.”

Today, VFX companies occupy a more central role in the film-making process than ever before. Hope added: “Fifteen years ago, VFX

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‘We have to be free, in a free market, to serve the best customers in the right way‘ Farah Ramzan golant, all3Media

Alex Hope

was viewed as a post-production industry.

That isn’t the case today. Digital technology now allows us to empower directors from the very beginning of the film-making process.

That’s what VFX should be in the future. We should be the vanguard of digital change across the production process.”

Creative Week’s VFX Summit also addressed some of the pressing challenges facing the sector. Growing the UK’s talent pool remains vital.

“There are challenges to what we do in the UK,” said Hope. “We’ve seen other countries, such as Canada, for example, really push forward their talent bases and take advantage of the tax credits they have.

“We have a wonderful talent base in the UK but at Double Negative 50% of our staff are non-Brits and that demonstrates a restriction to the indigenous talent pool here.

That’s a challenge for all of us.”

In a later session, Pat Joseph, chief creative officer of The Mill, countered a recent survey by union BECTU that revealed working conditions in the sector to be draining and unpredictable. “I think the opportunities that

targets with teeth The industry-wide lack of diversity remains a burning issue for all UK creative industries and the topic was high on the agenda at Creative Week. Broadcasters and indie production companies should be hit with financial penalties for failing to reach targets introduced to boost diversity, said a panel of TV executives.

The “targets with teeth” objective was laid out by Channel 4 newsreader Krishnan Guru-Murthy. The suggestion was supported by Trevor Phillips, ex-chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission; BECTU diversity officer Janice Turner; and Maroon Productions founder Paul Blake.

“Past initiatives have not delivered and we now need to have the quota argument,” Guru-Murthy said. He added that broadcasters must take ownership of targets, which should be attached to Ofcom-enforced financial penalties. Production companies should also be accountable, he argued. He also suggested that plans to boost diversity in TV have the support of prime minister David Cameron, which could be crucial if legislation is required.

Turner said creative industry unions have written to the Arts Council England and the British Film Institute to call for enforceable targets, alongside transparency and accountability; the letter will also be sent to Ofcom.

Phillips said TV does not take the “same risks” on black, Asian and minority ethnic people as it does on other people. He suggested a UK version of American football’s Rooney Rule, which could require a woman or BAME candidate to appear on every major job shortlist. Of the 62 board members at the BBC Trust, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB and Ofcom, only the BBC’s Sonita Alleyne is nons white, he added. n With reporting from Matthew Campelli, Alexandra Chapman, Chris Curtis, Jake Kanter, Wendy Mitchell and Peter White.

David Abraham

June-July 2014 Screen International 5

Roundtable emeRging talent

tapping into talent Industry experts gathered at a Creative England, British Council and Screen International roundtable in Cannes to discuss ways to support new film-making talent. Andreas Wiseman recaps the key discussion points

D

uring Cannes, Screen worked with the British Council and Creative England to host a roundtable discussion on how the industry can offer better support to emerging talents. A global panel was convened to look at what is working where, and the lessons that can be learned. The wide-ranging session considered the value of short films, film schools and mentor schemes; the role of low-budget film-making schemes; and the call for more diverse voices.

Wendy Mitchell Does it feel like new talent is getting a better chance today compared to 10 years ago, before the proliferation of digital work?

Lizzie Francke The key thing for me is the diversity of voices coming through. It’s a very different culture to when I started out in the business. That’s very exciting.

Rachel Robey What’s happening with the BFI Film Academies around the country is very interesting. That 16-19 age range is key.

I’m based in Nottingham and there’s a really strong academy programme there. You can throw open the net to a really wide and diverse range of young people.

That’s important because later down the line — even if you’re applying to make a short film with a budget of just a few thousand pounds — you’re still up against people who might have made four or five short films, so it’s key that early-stage development is maintained because that’s where you really can capture diversity.

Chris Moll How does this compare with abroad?

Vinca Wiedemann I was just thinking that in Denmark, even before kindergarten, kids are used to using iPads. Even before they get to school they’re used to making short films.

This kind of culture is a great help for our support schemes.

The new generation of film-makers is so much more trained in film language from the beginning of their lives. This is where our challenge is — not so much in providing access to media, which it used to be, but encouraging the development of film-making.

At the Danish Film School, we’ve just introduced 50-minute film into the curriculum. Everybody was so sceptical about it, and now everybody thinks it makes total sense.

Students should be challenged by the longer

6 Screen International June-July 2014

The panel ■ Mary Burke, producer,

Warp Films (UK) ■ Lizzie Francke, senior

executive, BFI Film Fund (UK) ■ Anna Godas, co-founder and CEO, Dogwoof (UK) ■ Zak Hilditch, director of Cannes’ Directors Fortnight title These Final Hours (Australia) ■ Emily Kyriakides, senior producer, Lighthouse (UK) ■ Will Massa, film adviser, British Council (UK) ■ Chris Moll, head of film, Creative England (UK) ■ Caroline Norbury, CEO, Creative England (UK) ■ Michel Pradier, project financing director, Telefilm Canada (Canada) ■ Rachel Robey, producer at Wellington Films and film adviser, British Council (UK) ■ Kristina Trapp, CEO, EAVE (Luxembourg) ■ Paul Welsh, producer, Edge City Films (UK) ■ Vinca Wiedemann, head of the National Film School of Denmark (Denmark) Moderator Wendy Mitchell, editor, Screen International (UK)

Emily Kyriakides

Mary Burke

formats because they are learning so much quicker than the previous generations.

Moll The low-budget feature is the new short.

Mitchell Zak, your first few features were pieced together without much ‘official’ support. Would you recommend that path?

Zak Hilditch Over the past 10 years, I’ve made three of what I would call ‘backyard features’, getting support from friends, people I went to university with, etc. But shorts were key to creating a good experience on These Final Hours, which was made through Screen Australia’s Springboard programme. The programme gives you the opportunity to develop the hell out of the feature project while also working on a short on which you implement some of the working ethos of a feature.

Paul Welsh I’ve worked on the last two rounds of Springboard. The majority of the directors in recent rounds have gone on to other filmmaking processes. I think it’s essential to go through some kind of shorts process. We can say there are too many shorts, but there are too

Vinca Wiedemann

many features too. Not everyone is a featurefilm storyteller. The drop-off is enormous.

We’ve toured a lot of our shorts around Scotland and we’ve had a fairly successful rate in terms of showing them in festivals, but the drop-off to making features once you’re on your own two feet is sharp.

Wiedemann It’s vital to bridge the gap between the good initiatives and the industry. Industry needs to take responsibility for nurturing the new talent. Even with New Danish Screen [at the Danish Film Institute] it became really difficult to get the industry to take responsibility for new producers.

Kristina Trapp I couldn’t agree more. It’s one thing to scout for talent, which is very important, but it’s another to take risks and develop that talent. You have to create the structures, the skills and the network for people to really be a part of the industry because it’s so competitive now. You really have to provide for them on a long-term basis.

Michel Pradier We always refer to new

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Theo Wood

The round-table debate held at Radisson Blu hotel, in Cannes

Kristina Trapp and Michel Pradier

Lizzie Francke

scriptwriters and directors but we rarely refer to the producer.

Robey We set our company up 14 years ago and we set it up from nothing in the provinces. We didn’t have access to anybody, but we were given the opportunity to shadow Robert Jones at the UK Film Council. That three weeks of shadowing made the most enormous difference to us.

Mitchell Emily, can you tell us about how mentoring works at Lighthouse?

Emily Kyriakides What I would say is that no one mentoring relationship is like another.

We try to ensure everyone is prepared and there are several milestones that are hit in the

Will Massa

www.screendaily.com

Rachel Robey

‘In Denmark, kids are used to using iPads.

Even before they get to school, they are used to making short films’ Vinca Wiedemann, national Film School of Denmark

Chris Moll

nine-month collaboration. It’s a really involved process that takes a lot of time, and sometimes the best matches aren’t necessarily the obvious ones.

Nicky Bentham and Barbara Broccoli are a brilliant example of the two-way process. Both have taught each other a lot about their different worlds. [Broccoli has gone on to executiveproduce Bentham’s The Silent Storm.]

It doesn’t always work, however. There are some great film-makers out there who are pretty lousy mentors.

Mitchell Mary, you worked with Paul Wright on For Those In Peril, which was in Cannes Critics’ Week last year. He had made a num-

ber of acclaimed shorts beforehand. Did that make the process easier?

Mary Burke Having seen his shorts at the NFTS show and having met him, it was clear Paul had a humility and a punk-rock spirit that fitted with what we were trying to do at Warp. I knew Lizzie at the BFI and Katherine Butler at Film4 loved his work, so from an early stage I had buy-in from two of our key financing relationships at Warp. That made the development process much more honest.

Mitchell Do we need more schemes like Microwave and iFeatures?

Moll By taking a cohort of people and supporting them on a longer-term basis you »

Zak Hilditch

June-July 2014 Screen International 7

Theo Wood

Roundtable emeRging talent

‘I am always shocked at how many producers don’t understand the business models behind successful production companies’ Chris Moll, Creative england

create a network and a community. When we talk about film-making communities, that’s the living, breathing example of it. You’ll always end up in a situation where there will be a certain amount of natural wastage. You have to accept that as part of the process. But it does provide a certain, secure environment for people to fail in that way. I think that’s a really good thing.

My concern always with any sort of microbudget or low-budget schemes is, ultimately, how do you involve the industry? We’ve been very lucky because we have a broadcaster relationship [the BBC is a partner on iFeatures] so at a certain basic level you say a broadcaster is pre-buying your film. But ultimately we do have to accept the fact that some of those films will not be theatrical releases but will be on a platform like Vimeo instead.

Robey But that’s fine. Getting films out there is very, very hard. If schemes have a one-infour theatrical distribution strike rate, I think that’s actually very good.

Moll A producer’s understanding of the business is so important, however. I’m always shocked at how many producers really don’t understand the business models or the models behind successful production companies.

Pradier At Telefilm, instead of making the project the centre of attention, we’ve tried to put the production company in the centre.

That’s our client. If you want to create a sustainable industry, you must have more entrepreneurs.

Francke Talent relationships remain key.

How producers and directors grow together is so important. Look at Ang Lee and James Schamus, for example. But there are real challenges to that. Agents often don’t want directors to have multiple projects with the same producer, for example.

Mitchell Anna, how much harder is it to sell a film from a first-time director to audiences?

Anna Godas It really is case by case. It’s the distributor’s job to know about audiences but I think directors and first-time writers or producers should know about the business they’re getting into and how it really works.

It’s a serious business with real deadlines. It’s a bigger market than you think.

Mitchell How effective are today’s film schools?

Francke I think that trade film schools are so important. Film-maker training should be dealt with in similar ways to architecture training.

8 Screen International June-July 2014

Caroline Norbury

Paul Welsh

Moll It’s key that today’s film schools have close ties with the industry, with industry running the schools and also teaching at them. Another thing is teaching entrepreneurship and collaboration. Research shows that those who collaborate are more successful later down the line.

Mitchell What changes would you most like to see where new talent is concerned?

Wiedemann I want to intensify and fortify the education of screenwriters. I want to renew the auteur model so that you can be an auteur and still work with a writer. I think it’s important the pool of stories is enlarged because we have a need for more stories.

The other idea is that I want to invent a

Anna Godas

‘Directors and first-time writers or producers should know about the business they’re getting into. It’s a serious business with real deadlines’ anna Godas, Dogwoof

new thing called ‘low-budget production design’. We often have great scripts, great producing, but really poor images.

Moll I think diversity is a key issue. The stats are not good enough in terms of female voices and minorities. I suspect there’s a cultural gap in terms of communication with those communities. We have to start breaking that down.

Will Massa I assess on various schemes and I’ve noticed that applications from diverse voices are increasing. It’s quality thresholds that are a problem. I think there’s an increased awareness about opportunities in these communities but I think the support s structures aren’t necessarily there. n

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IntervIew AltItude

Big Game

Distribution slate ■ 20 Feet From Stardom Dir: Morgan Neville

(March 28) ■ A Promise Dir: Patrice Leconte (August 1) ■ All Cheerleaders Die Dirs: Lucky McKee

and Chris Sivertson (September 12) ■ Amy Dir: Asif Kapadia (winter 2014-15) ■ Bolshoi Babylon Dir: Nick Read (spring

2015) ■ La French Dir: Cédric Jimenez

(TBC 2015; with Picturehouse) ■ Fruitvale Station Dir: Ryan Coogler (June 6) ■ The Hooligan Factory Dir: Nick Nevern

(June 13) ■ Love Is Strange Dir: Ira Sachs (winter

2014-15) ■ The Nightmare Dir: Rodney Ascher (winter

Raising the game Altitude’s joint CEO, Andy Mayson, tells Wendy Mitchell about how the company has expanded smartly and why distribution is the next focus

A

ltitude Film Entertainment can offer a new example of how to grow vertically and organically.

The company was launched in May 2012 by ex-Optimum Releasing head Will Clarke, joint CEO Andy Mayson (formerly of Exclusive Media) and Mike Runagall (ex-Pathé International).

The idea was that Clarke and Mayson would spearhead the production side of the business while Runagall ran Altitude Film Sales. Building from those two businesses and three employees, the company now boasts 12 employees across three integrated businesses: production, sales and UK distribution.

“We wanted to be smart in the way we’ve structured and timed it,” Mayson says. “It sounds like a lot [more employees] but we still keep it very entrepreneurial. The staff is still very lean. We’re not trying to be a studio, we’re trying to create an integrated British company,” Mayson tells Screen. “Each sector feeds off each other.”

Production is robust — films shot this year include their biggest outing to date, adventure story Big Game starring Samuel L Jackson; and Owen Harris’s Britpop-era dark comedy Kill Your Friends starring Nicholas Hoult. Bradley Quirk left Pathé to join Altitude as head of development in March.

Mayson says a film like the $13m Big Game shows what the company is capable of delivering. “We want to make quality, commercial films that we’re proud of. Big Game has used all our expertise. Will and I have complementary skills. Will could get Samuel L Jackson on board and I could help pull together the financing.”

10 Screen International June-July 2014

‘We’re not trying to be a studio, we’re trying to create an integrated British company’ andy Mayson, altitude Film entertainment

The film includes both German and Finnish soft money, a small amount of equity investment and a US bank loan.

Another big title being prepped is Cannes hot seller SAS: Red Notice, a $20m Andy McNab adaptation being made with Parabolic Pictures and Vertigo Films. Nick Love will direct Luke Evans and the film is likely to be set up as another European co-production. And James Watkins, The Woman In Black director who is a key talent partner for Altitude, is lined up to produce The Loch, an upcoming horror film to be directed by Simon Duric. roster of titles The sales arm now has about 20 titles it is actively selling, including the productions already mentioned plus Son Of A Gun starring Ewan McGregor; documentaries Pulp: A Film About Life, Death & Supermarkets and Bolshoi Babylon; and Christopher Smith’s holiday family title Get Santa starring Jim Broadbent.

The next focus will be growing the distribution arm, which hired Momentum veteran Hamish Moseley as head of distribution in late October 2013. The outfit’s first release was documentary 20 Feet From Stardom, a modest success at $325,000 (Altitude acquired the film before its Oscar win). Next to launch theatrically will be Ryan Coogler’s Sundance 2013 winner Fruitvale Station on June 6 and Nick Nevern’s comedy spoof The Hooligan Factory on June 13.

The company also recently signed a home entertainment partnership with Spirit Entertainment, which is working on a full slate of

2014-15) ■ Spooks: The Greater Good

Dir: Bharat Nalluri (summer 2015; with Pinewood) ■ Welcome To New York Dir: Abel Ferrara (August 8) ■ When Animals Dream Dir: Jonas Alexander Arnby (winter 2014-15)

releases including library titles such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Austin Powers, Belleville Rendez-vous and Exit Through The Gift Shop.

The distribution arm will not automatically take UK rights to Altitude’s productions or sales titles, only when the fit is right.

“We have great partners like StudioCanal, eOne and Lionsgate, so we don’t exploit all our productions ourselves in the UK,” Mayson says. Yet he is clear the distribution outfit will take on some ambitious releases. “We aren’t just dealing in small films; we’re set up to do larger movies too,” he says, pointing to forthcoming titles such as Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse documentary and the big-screen adaptation of Spooks. “But committing to really large MGs [minimum guarantees] is not really what we’re doing now.”

Altitude plans 12-18 theatrical releases per year, which will be busy with its lean staff.

“You have to be really entrepreneurial about it,” Mayson adds. “The combination of three businesses adds value to each one but it’s a challenge with resources.”

In the hyper-competitive UK distribution market, he says Altitude “is trying to be clever, not just taking a formulaic approach” with its marketing. “We look at each release with a blank sheet of paper and be creative with ways to reach the market. We’re taking on quality commercial titles with the possibility to break out.”

Being knee-deep in distribution also helps to inform Altitude’s work across the value chain. “You can’t develop and produce in a vacuum,” Mayson reiterates. “And also being a sales company, distribution helps you stay s close to the market.” n

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To Leech dir. Stephen Leslie BFI/Lighthouse; Thirteen Blue dir. Zaklin Lentzou, London Film School; Thumb Wars dir. Lisa Keogh, Northern Ireland Screen; Beach Boy dir. Emile Langballe, NFTS; The Age of Curious, dir Luca Toth, Royal College of Art;

IntervIew Icon

The Guest

Icon on target After investment eight months ago, the relaunched Icon Film Distribution is ready to fill a gap in the UK distribution market. CEO Ian Dawson talks to Wendy Mitchell about the team and its new slate

I

t has been a busy eight months for relaunched Icon Film Distribution. Since the company’s investment deal with Jerome Booth’s New Sparta in September 2013, the outfit has staffed up to 17 employees and has acquired a slate of more than a dozen films. Four of those were deals done in the Cannes Marché, including hot titles It Follows by David Robert Mitchell, JC Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, Drake Doremus’s Equals and Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut The Legend Of Barney Thomson.

“All of these projects are distinctive and they all have strong creative elements,” Icon CEO Ian Dawson tells Screen. “These are great directors working with great casts on great projects… we want to work with filmmakers and collaborate with them.”

Icon’s next theatrical launch — and its first solo release as a relaunched company, signalling the end of its Lionsgate output deal — will be Jim Mickle’s Cold In July, a Texas-set thriller starring Michael C Hall and Don Johnson, on June 27. Adam Wingard’s The Guest, starring Dan Stevens and Maika Monroe, will launch on September 5.

“Our aim is to find quality films that have clear audiences. We want films that have a chance to break through theatrically,” he adds, noting the diversity of a slate that features horror titles and family animation Postman Pat: The Movie.

Dawson tells Screen the company is faring

12 Screen International June-July 2014

well as it re-enters a competitive UK distribution market. “We saw a gap for a quality team of people to work on 12 films a year… it feels like a good size to be able to do a good job.”

Of the changing market in recent years, he notes: “Some of the previous independent distributors are now part of bigger multiterritory companies, so that becomes a less focused international business. We can be a bit faster on our feet to take advantage of the gap we see in the market.”

Up to speed The company’s quick path to relaunching is thanks to assembling an experienced team that can hit the ground running. Those include Norman Humphrey as COO and executive chairman (he was instrumental in structuring the deal with New Sparta); Ben Friedman (ex-Weinstein Company) as acquisitions manager; Zak Brilliant (Icon veteran) as head of theatrical; Sophie Wong (ex-Sony) as head of TV and digital sales; Jeremy Baum (ex-eOne) as head of theatrical sales; Allan Jamieson (ex-Momentum) as financial controller and Chris Warrington (ex-Organic) as head of marketing.

The company has 17 employees as of the end of June; that’s up from five, when the former incarnation of Icon was running its bare-bones operation. “This team is fired up about the industry and excited to work with these films and film-makers,” Dawson says.

‘We can be a bit faster on our feet to take advantage of the gap we see in the market’ Ian Dawson, Icon Film Distribution

‘Quote to go here over a IcoN’s few linesINItIal from slate here to here and here toYear here ■ A Most Violent dir JCand Chandor ■ The Babadook dir Jennifer Kentlines continue over a few ■ Cold In July dir Jim Mickle (June 27) from here to here too’ ■ Equals dir Drake Doremus Persons Name ■ The Guest dir Adam Wingard (Sept 5) ■ It Follows dir David Robert Mitchell ■ Kill The Trumpet Player dir Don

Cheadle ■ Laggies dir Lynn Shelton ■ The Last Five Years dir Richard

LaGravenese ■ The Legend Of Barney Thomson

dir Robert Carlyle

“Everyone is passionate to make this work.”

Handling about one theatrical release per month is manageable at the current size, he notes. “That way we don’t have to build a bigger team to work on multiple titles at once.”

Dawson has noticed some shifts in the years that Icon wasn’t as active in distribution. “There have been a lot of changes,” he says. “The home-entertainment market has changed substantially. There is more supermarket focus in the retail world and physical rentals are almost non-existent. Also, Netflix and LoveFilm have changed people’s watching habits more generally. The entry of Netflix and LoveFilm has created a more competitive environment. The more opportunities there are for customers to see film content, that should be better for the market generally.”

Icon is now concentrating only on UK distribution (not international sales or production as with the former incarnation; there are no ties anymore with Len Blavatnik’s AI). But Icon has a sister company, New Sparta Films, which is working in film investment, development and production. There is no official deal in place between the companies but Dawson says: “Whenever we can, we’ll work together.”

Dawson would like Icon to get involved with projects at an earlier stage. “We’d like to be involved where we can help put a project together, not when it’s finished and there’s a bidding war. That’s the smarter way to do s business.” n

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FESTIVAL FOCUS KARLOVY VARY

Karlovy varied

Karlovy Vary (July 4-12) offers an eclectic guest list — ranging from Lech Walesa to William Friedkin — and screens close to 200 films. Artistic director Karel Och gives the lowdown to Michael Rosser

‘We have an unusually strong presence from the former Eastern Bloc, while also launching films by renowned film-makers from other territories’ Karel Och, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

T

he 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 4-12) promises a welcome relief from the more intense events of recent months. “It is a festival where one can watch movies, talk to film-makers and buy their films without coming home exhausted,” says artistic director Karel Och. That said, the festival, based in the Czech spa town, has a wealth of features and events packed into its nine-day run, with nearly 200 films comprising the programme.

“We are extremely happy about this year’s main competition line-up,” says Och, a longtime programmer at Karlovy Vary who was appointed artistic director in 2010. “We have an unusually strong presence from the former Eastern Bloc, while also launching films by renowned film-makers from other territories.”

Seven world premieres and five international premieres will be in contention for the Crystal Globe, won last year by Janos Szasz’s The Notebook. These include Rocks In My Pockets, the first animation to be selected for the main competition, which New York-based, Latvia-born film-maker Signe Baumane describes as a “funny film about depression”.

There are also two Czech films: Miroslav Krobot’s laconic rural drama Nowhere In Moravia, and athlete doping drama Fair Play from Andrea Sedlackova. From outside the former Eastern Bloc, titles include Jeff Preiss’s US bohemian drama Low Down, starring John Hawkes and Elle Fanning, and Paris Of The North from Icelandic film-maker Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson.

An additional 19 world premieres are featured in other competition strands including

14 Screen International June-July 2014

(Above) The picturesque Czech spa town hosts 26 world premieres and 16 international premieres

IN COMPETITION ■ Adventure, Nariman

Turebayev (Kaz-Fr) ■ All Yours, David Lambert

(Bel) ■ Corn Island, George

Ovashvili (Georgia-GerFr-Czech Rep-Kaz) ■ Fair Play, Andrea Sedlackova (Czech RepSlo Rep-Ger) ■ Free Fall, Gyorgy Palfi (Hung-Fr-S Kor) ■ Low Down, Jeff Preiss (US) ■ Nowhere In Moravia, Miroslav Krobot (Czech Rep) ■ Paris Of The North, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson (Ice) ■ Patchwork Family, Pascal Rabaté (Fr) ■ Perpetual Sadness, Jorge Perez Solano (Mex) ■ Rocks In My Pockets, Signe Baumane (US-Lat) ■ Welcome Home, Angelina Nikonova (Rus)

East Of The West, Documentary and Forum Of Independents, of which the latter will have an official opening film for the first time — Burma-Czech Republic co-production The Monk, directed by Maw Naing Aung.

“We have seen more humour in films selected for East Of The West — sometimes black or dry but still humour, which is refreshing,” says Och of the strand that features first or second features by directors from central and eastern Europe, the Balkans, Turkey or the former Soviet Union.

Special guests Invited guests include US director William Friedkin, who will receive the festival’s Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema and present a restored version of his 1977 action adventure Sorcerer.

The festival will host Nobel Prize winner and former president of Poland, Lech Walesa, who will introduce a director’s cut of Walesa: Man Of Hope, Andrzej Wajda’s 2013 biopic of the iconic leader. “Mr Walesa is a legend and the festival will treat him as such,” says Och. Karlovy Vary will also present its President’s Award to Czech writer-director Zdenek Sverak and present a tribute to the work of US production company Anonymous Content (see opposite).

This year’s festival retrospectives will focus on UK director and artist Ben Rivers; director, screenwriter and producer Anurag Kashyap from India; and “neglected” postwar Italian film-maker Elio Petri, who won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 1970 and the Palme d’Or in 1971. Och says the comprehensive retrospective on Petri,

who died in 1982, will be “a true revelation” for audiences.

Karlovy Vary also continues to grow its industry programme. A total of 47 films were submitted for its lauded Works In Progress programme, which offers $13,600 (¤10,000) in services to the most promising project.

Andrea Szczukova, head of the festival’s industry office, says 15 projects will be selected ahead of the 10th Industry Days (July 6-9). “I was surprised to see at least one project from each country that can submit films — and many are co-productions between the countries, which is quite a new thing too,” says Szczukova.

The section has proved a strong launch pad and last year’s winner, Blind Dates from Georgia’s Levan Koguashvili, went on to play at Toronto and Berlin, and features in Karlovy Vary’s 2014 programme. In addition, Mina Djukic’s The Disobedient was selected for Sundance and Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s The Owners played as a Cannes special screening.

Karlovy Vary’s expanded industry activities include a workshop for distributors, now in its second year; the Pitch & Feedback strand featuring Czech and Slovak films in development; Doc Talents From The East, showcasing upcoming documentary projects from central and eastern Europe; and panels on TV drama and co-operation with Hollywood, offering advice to international producers looking to break into the Hollywood system.

Szczukova adds: “Major sales companies and many European distributors attend our industry days because they really have time to watch festival films, learn about upcoming s projects and talk about movies.” ■

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Dramatic leanings Ahead of Karlovy Vary’s tribute to Anonymous Content, CEO Steve Golin tells Jeremy Kay about how his company is finding its niche as talent continues to migrate from film to television drama

S

teve Golin sounds like he has been caught off guard when he phones in early June; a busy man dropped into a hall of mirrors. Hollywood’s movers and shakers often get fidgety when pushed to reflect on their achievements, but Golin — whose Anonymous Content is the subject of a tribute at Karlovy Vary — has good reason to be distracted.

It emerges that Triple Nine, the police drama from Anonymous and equity investor Worldview Entertainment, has just started production that day in Atlanta.

By that stage of his discussion with Screen, the veteran producer of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Babel and Wild At Heart has long settled into his curiously engaging staccato delivery. Pause. Unload. Pause.

Unload.

“We don’t have blockbuster taste. We do movies we care about and TV we like,” says Golin. “We like drama, which is very, very difficult to do in the movie business right now.

And that’s what’s so exciting about TV.” And on the tug-of-war between film and TV for talent that has been stirred up in recent years by a free movement of personnel. “The migration of talent to one-hour drama is phenomenal and we’re finding our niche,” says Golin, who is stepping up the TV business at Anonymous, the production and management company he launched in 1999 after he and Joni Sighvatsson sold their production company, Propaganda Films, to PolyGram in the late 1990s.

The second season of feted HBO series True Detective is in the works and The Knick,

“We’re not giving up. But we are diversifying.

The TV business is an annuity, because you can do six, seven seasons of Breaking Bad as opposed to doing one movie.”

Golin’s passion is dramas. And there’s the rub. “The type of movie we like is very difficult to finance and get audiences to go out to see.

Sensibility-wise, that has been a tough hurdle.

“There are always good screenplays, but drama is a dirty word. I would love to have a franchise, but I don’t see myself doing what Marvel does. I just don’t have the sensibility for it. I wish I did.”

True Detective

ANONYMOUS CONTENT’S KARLOVY VARY SELECTIONS ■ Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, dir Michel Gondry (2004) ■ Winter’s Bone (pictured below), dir Debra Granik (2010) ■ True Detective, full TV series (2014)

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‘[Features are] in our DNA. We’re not giving up. But we are diversifying. The TV business is an annuity’ Steve Golin, Anonymous Content

a historical drama about New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital directed by Steven Soderbergh, will air on Cinemax in August.

“We just did a fairly substantial deal with Paramount for TV. They act as a studio for us and will do our international distribution and production. We will develop what we want to develop and package it,” explains Golin.

Cinephiles need not tremble: the company behind Being John Malkovich, The Fifth Estate, 50 First Dates and Winter’s Bone remains invested in features.

At the same time Golin has assembled a talent stable graced by Jennifer Lawrence, Ryan Gosling and Idris Elba, as well as growing a commercials division whose clients include Nike, Coca-Cola and Citibank. “[Features are] in our DNA,” says Golin.

Future focus Golin won’t give up and has the clout and taste to continue to mine success in features.

The upcoming drama Len And Company, starring Rhys Ifans and Juno Temple, is a rare example of a film that Anonymous financed and may land a slot in Toronto or Sundance.

The development pipeline includes Spotlight, Thomas McCarthy’s tale about the Catholic Church scandal with Mark Ruffalo attached to star; and Idris Elba thriller and Cannes market hit Bastille Day with Vendome Pictures.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will direct The Revenant, based on the 2002 Michael Punke novel, The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge. Tom Hardy is rumoured to be joining Leonardo DiCaprio in the cast.

“It’s a pre-Western wilderness picture set in 1820s Montana,” says Golin. “It’s been a long road. Ten years. It was set up at Warner Bros and I gave it to Alejandro a few years ago and it went to New Regency.”

The film is earmarked for a September shoot, possibly in Canada, and carries a “substantial budget”. The cost is believed to be around $60m but Golin will not comment, although he volunteers that it is more costly than most of the films he has done.

The combination of Inarritu, DiCaprio and Hardy is about as sure-fire Oscar bait as it gets, but Golin prefers to focus on the process and see what comes.

“You always hope your movies will be well-received and will be awards contenders.

I don’t want to focus on that because it’s the tail wagging the dog.

“The kind of movies that I gravitate towards are the ones that, when they’re done well, have a chance to be in contention for s awards.” ■

June-July 2014 Screen International 15

Set report yakuza apocalypSe

Takashi Miike on the set of Yakuza Apocalypse

Miike’s new cut Japan’s Takashi Miike returns to his action roots with a suitably off the wall gangster-vampire story, Yakuza Apocalypse. Jason Gray visits the set

D

irector Takashi Miike watches an LED countdown timer on a homemade bomb as his crew work busily nearby. He smiles like a kid.

Regarded as an alchemist of genre-bending and blending, Miike’s latest film Yakuza Apocalypse (Gokudo Daisenso) — in production at Nikkatsu’s studios — boasts a compelling concept: yakuza vampire action.

The scene being set up — a short but

explosive fight in a confined office — is monitored from next door’s set, a smoky mahjong parlour complete with vintage slot machines.

“I have memories of shooting in Nikkatsu stages six and eight as an assistant,” says Miike wistfully (a part of the lot that was sold off this year). Early in his career Miike worked as an AD and second unit for masters including Shohei Imamura, Toshio Masuda and Kazuo Kuroki.

‘Miike is the first director I’ve worked with other than Gareth Evans.

He’s very good, with a unique character’ Yayan Ruhian, actor

Yakuza Apocalypse — a genre-bending yakuza vampire action title

16 Screen International June-July 2014

Other Yakuza Apocalypse sets are at various stages of completion. There is an ageing cinema facade with an ultra-realistic patina.

In one of the hangars, an entire wooden nomiya yokocho (bar-lined alleyway) is being painted and dressed for upcoming fights and chases. The three-week production is predominantly being held at the studios, as Japan remains as difficult as ever to acquire shooting permits and other assistance, particularly in Tokyo.

Just outside, Indonesian action star Yayan Ruhian (The Raid) works through the fight choreography with Yakuza Apocalypse’s lead actor, Hayato Ichihara (Rookies, Box!). Disguised as a ponytailed Akihabara geek for part of the story, Ruhian opens his plaid shirt, revealing an upper body that looks like a bronze breastplate. “Kick me as hard as you can,” he tells Ichihara, who is no action slouch himself. They go through their moves at an impressive speed, with Ruhian’s legs swivelling and arcing effortlessly.

“My aim is not to shoot an all-out action film,” states Miike, who previously directed the first two Crows Zero films. “It’s not action per se that I’m interested in but what comes out of the struggle between the main characters.” Miike’s past answers regarding gory violence and horror (Lesson Of The Evil, 13 Assassins and Audition to name a few) have been similar. It’s all in service to the drama at hand, which is perhaps why Miike excels at so many types of films.

Working in sync After some on-set small talk about weekend box office, word comes in that the scene is set. Everyone assembles quickly to stage a run-through. Ruhian kicks Ichihara right out of frame repeatedly. Miike chain-smokes cigarettes as he hustles between the monitors and the neighbouring room, making performance, blocking and framing adjustments. Everyone is in sync, with many of the crew having worked under their leader for years.

Indeed, both Yakuza Apocalypse screenwriter Yoshitaka Yamaguchi and producer Shinjiro Nishimura were assistant directors on Miike’s big-budget Yatterman (also shot at Nikkatsu). Nishimura comments on the new story’s origins: “Yakuza are unique to Japan so we combined that with vampire action. Regular people who get bitten become yakuza [sporting tattoos] and overrun the city, while the real gangsters are thrown into chaos.”

Nishimura, who is fluent in English, has become a key producer at the studio as it focuses more on international co-productions in a shrinking domestic market. He honed his practical and legal skills on recent Mo Brothers title Killers, with a large portion of the production shot in Jakarta. “When I saw The Raid I knew I wanted to cast Yayan and got to know him a bit over there.”

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The scene wraps. Ichihara sits back with fans and an ice pack on his neck. Yakuza Apocalypse reunites the 27-year-old star with Miike for the first time since 2008’s God’s Puzzle. “He has the same energy and freshness,” Miike says. “Unlike some other actors looking ahead in their careers, he puts everything he has into the moment.”

Ruhian, conversely, is bone dry and has the demeanour of someone who has just enjoyed reading a good book. “Miike is the first director I’ve worked with, other than [The Raid’s] Gareth Evans,” Ruhian explains.

“Miike is very good, with a unique character.

Whatever I do, I make it fun for myself. I like Japan. I’m making new friends.”

Quick change In a territory where almost every feature with a medium-to-large budget is based on either a TV show, novel or manga, how did such an original project come together?

“Maybe you know that I was supposed to make a Hollywood film,” says Miike — Second World War Japan-set action project The Outsider had a lot of industry buzz when Joel Silver took it on, with Tom Hardy set to star and Miike directing. Hardy then

dropped out at the beginning of the year and the project is on hold.

Arguably the hardest-working director in Japan, Miike immediately set about finding another project to fill the gap. “We got together and brainstormed ideas. So, thanks to Tom Hardy for making Yakuza Apocalypse happen,” he says, without a hint of irony.

When questioned about his legendary pace, 53-year-old Miike answers without hesitation: “I have no reason to slow down.

I still have a lot of new ideas.”

Production on Yakuza Apocalypse wrapped just before Nikkatsu launched sales in s Cannes. The film is slated for a 2015 release. n

Yakuza apocalYpse Director Takashi Miike Writer Yoshitaka Yamaguchi producers Shinjiro Nishimura (Nikkatsu),

Shinichiro Masuda (Nikkatsu), Misako Saka (OLM) cast Hayato Ichihara, Yayan Ruhian Status In post for a 2015 delivery International sales and local distribution

Nikkatsu

Yakuza Apocalypse

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June-July 2014 Screen International 17

UK stars of tomorrow 2014 laUnch party

The Star turns Screen’s 2014 UK Stars of Tomorrow celebrated at Bafta as part of MBI’s Creative Week. 3 Mills Studios and Air New Zealand sponsored the party, with support from Creative Skillset and MAC cosmetics

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18 Screen International June-July 2014

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UK STARS OF TOMORROW 2014*

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maisie williams actress; with agent Louise Johnston

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Fionnuala Halligan, UK Stars of Tomorrow curator, with michael Berliner producer; chris foggin director

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Agent Marnie Podos with Krysty Wilson-Cairns writer

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callum turner actor

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aisling franciosi actress; Rebecca O’Brien, producer, Sixteen Films

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si Bell cinematographer; laura tarrant-Brown production designer; simon halsall writer-director

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Screen editor Wendy Mitchell (far left) welcomes the UK stars of tomorrow 2014 to the stage

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Dawn King writer; and roberto oliveri writerdirector, at the Mahiki after-party

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mcKell David actor

10 marlon smith writer; Daniel fajemisin-Duncan writer 11 sarah Brocklehurst producer 12 calvin Demba actor; Keri collins director 13 matt halsall writer-director; Kate phillips actress * 2014 UK Stars of Tomorrow in bold

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June-July 2014 Screen International 19

Theo Wood

Event sponsors

V I S UA L I Z I N G T H E F U T U R E

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PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

CASE STUDY EDGE OF TOMORROW Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s source novel All You Need Is Kill wasn’t set in London but London became “ingrained in the DNA of the story”, making the decision to shoot Warner Bros’ sci-fi Edge Of Tomorrow a “no-brainer” for producer Erwin Stoff.

Based at Leavesden Studios, the film shot on location in London, which included landing a helicopter in Trafalgar Square one Sunday morning in late November 2012.

“What started out as a bit of a joke quickly turned into a reality when we began to get a sense of what was actually possible,” recalls Stoff. “The level of co-operation we got was unbelievable.”

Edge Of Tomorrow shooting at Trafalgar Square

Call of the capital As Film London celebrates its 10th anniversary, Adrian Wootton talks about changing the perception of the capital, doubling film production and expanding into other creative sectors. Ian Sandwell reports

S

ome 10 years ago, producer Eric Fellner of Working Title set Adrian Wootton, chief executive of Film London and the British Film Commission, a challenge: to open up the “visual vocabulary” of London.

“We did a survey at the inception of Film London about perceptions of filming in London and it was pretty negative,” says Wootton. “The biggest single thing we’ve done over the past 10 years is to change that. And that has been borne out in the facts and figures, with billions of pounds worth of inward investment that’s flowed into London and the 100% increase in film-making.”

The doubling of film production arguably comes down to London having the complete offer as a film-making hub, as well as a willingness to ensure anything can be achieved. As Wootton puts it: “The fact that Tom Cruise could fly into Trafalgar Square with Edge Of Tomorrow indicates how much filmmaking is accommodated now in London.”

Other productions to have shot in London recently include features as diverse as Guardians Of The Galaxy and Jupiter Ascending to Belle and Pride, the latter of which was selected to screen as the closing night film in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.

Edge Of Tomorrow producer Erwin Stoff is clear about what attracted him to shoot the Warner Bros sci-fi film (see box, above) in London. “It was very financially advantageous

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‘We have a fantastic opportunity to make London the content capital of the globe’ Adrian Wootton, Film London and the British Film Commission

to be working in London and there’s probably no finer craftsman than English crews.”

Part of Film London’s success in opening up the city for filming has been in bringing together the boroughs, locations, facilities and studios through the London Filming Partnership, which now has more than 250 members.

“Film London is invaluable in promoting 3 Mills Studios as part of the myriad locations and facilities available for filming in the capital and for facilitating shooting in all the London boroughs,” adds Derek Mills, studio executive, 3 Mills Studios.

London’s resources are arguably no better exemplified than with the city’s world-class VFX facilities, largely located in Soho, currently primed to take advantage of the enhancements to the UK Film Tax Relief. Wootton describes them as a “global powerhouse” and William Sargent, CEO and co-founder of Framestore, believes the Oscar-winning success of Gravity consolidates that status.

“Gravity is now the benchmark that the next generation are starting from. Avatar was the previous one and it’s encouraging that now it’s the British time to be the lead game-changer,” Sargent adds.

Wootton is keen to recognise the government’s support for the organisation. “The government listens to the industry saying that we can provide jobs and growth if you provide us with support around tax reliefs. Without

putting those fiscal incentives in place, we couldn’t have achieved what we have achieved.”

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, adds: “The UK creative sector tax reliefs have created an unparalleled opportunity to grow our production industries, which are vital drivers for our economy. Working with Film London, our goal is to maintain the momentum, with the fruits of this important creative industry being enjoyed on screens of all sizes across the globe.”

Film London’s success in making London a global production centre has been recognised by the mayor, with the organisation’s remit being extended to work across all content industries including television, animation and games. This has seen Film London launch new branding to ensure its visual identity is now in line with its expanding remit.

Producer David Parfitt, chair of Film London, is excited by what the future holds: “By extending our work across television, animation and games, I am confident we can go on to support growth in the wider creative industries.”

So what does Wootton think the next 10 years will hold? “The major thing over the next decade is content and technological convergence,” he says. “I think we have all the building blocks there to capitalise on that convergence and we have a fantastic opportunity to make London the content capital of the globe.”

June-July 2014 Screen International 21

SCREENTECH ■ VFX ON MALEFICENT ■ LIPSYNC POST ■ SCHEDULE 2 ■ IMAX ■ LASER TECHNOLOGY ■ AUDIO TECHNOLOGY

Maleficent shines Digital Domain’s Kelly Port tells Elbert Wyche how he created technical processes to produce the stellar effects for Disney’s fantasy blockbuster Maleficent

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ven for a 19-year veteran of the visual-effects industry, working on Disney’s Maleficent presented a unique set of technical challenges.

Kelly Port has contributed to 26 films and counting during nearly two decades at Los Angeles-based visual-effects company Digital Domain, overseeing visual effects on films such as Thor, Percy Jackson & The

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Olympians: The Lightning Thief, Star Trek and Gran Torino.

That’s precisely why Disney, Digital Domain veteran Carey Villegas and the film’s director, Robert Stromberg, recruited Port as Maleficent’s visual-effects supervisor.

Port’s strong technical foundation, having worked on the development of groundbreaking software at Digital Domain, made

him the perfect choice. “The biggest goal for us was challenging ourselves to take it to the next level,” Port recalls. Which is exactly what he and his team had to do when creating the whimsical and intricate pixies, who are introduced in a pivotal opening scene of the film. “It was actually one of the last scenes that we did. We had, at that point, done quite a few scenes already and had »

June-July 2014 Screen International 23

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screentech VFX on MaleFicent

(Clockwise from left) The pixies’ detailed costumes featured multiple layers of organic materials; the VFX team was tasked with making the witch’s wings a reflection of her inner emotions as well as her independence; each feather was modelled individually; photo-realistic scans of the actresses — including Imelda Staunton — were used to create the slightly stylised pixies

gotten a lot of practice. It was a beautiful sequence that we were all proud of,” he says.

Although slightly stylised, the pixies also needed a likeness to the actresses who portrayed them (Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton and Lesley Manville). To accomplish this, Port and his team turned to University of Southern California-based Institute for Creative Technologies, which created high-resolution scans based on photogrammetry of each of the actors. “We needed them to be photo-realistic and we didn’t want to be confused by any of the stylistic treatments that we were putting on,” says Port.

The costumes for each pixie were incredibly detailed, made of multiple layers of different materials, all of which were organic.

Twigs, flower petals, grasses, dandelion fluff and weeds had to interact and collide against their own bodies in the individual layers of the costume.

“Animators had to move forward with dialogue even before the design of the pixies became finalised. Using a proprietary flight motion transfer tool developed by Digital Domain, facial animation could be translated into pixie animation relatively quickly,” Port explains.

In a case of necessity prompting innovation, the complexities of the pixie characters led Digital Domain to improve on its existing technologies. “We were able to create an animation interface and make improvements to already existing work that we’d done. That enabled us to do the facial animation and other animation almost in real time,” adds Port.

Working with the film’s director, Robert Stromberg, was a natural and productive fit for Port. “Robert has an incredible visual and design background, having been production designer on several films, including

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winning Oscars for Avatar and Alice In Wonderland. He certainly has the background and the language to talk to visual-effects studios and me and my team, in a way that certainly benefits us. There’s no explaining necessary — he gets all the technology, he gets the visuals.” emotional heft The titular character, played by Angelina Jolie, presented its own set of challenges.

Maleficent’s wings were an important part of the character’s identity. Port remembers Stromberg and senior visual-effects supervisor Villegas presenting him with a clear directive: “Maleficent’s wings needed to reflect her inner emotions but they also needed to reflect an independence as well.”

Each feather was modelled individually, with hundreds of feathers on each wing.

‘It’s critical that VFX are not used just because you can’ Kelly Port, Digital Domain

“After we received the photography, we had to decide whether it was easier to just paint out Angelina’s stunt rigs or just swap in a digital double for all or a portion of her body.

Often, it was easier to swap in a digital double.” Port and his team made use of a digital double in scenes that involved flight, which were merged seamlessly with live action. For the transitions to be smooth, the digital double had to be exact in every way. Port calls the feat “some of the most highly accurate and detailed digital doubles we’ve ever worked on”.

Port has a very practical view of the importance of visual effects in storytelling and how it should be implemented in filmmaking. “For me, visual effects are a tool, and should always be thought of as a tool to support the film. It can be abused, for sure.

VFX plays a varied and very important role, but to me it’s critical they are not used just because you can,” he says. “They always need to serve the purpose of the film and move the story along. That’s when they’re most successful. With Maleficent, we knew what was working well and what to pay attention to. We were very proud of how eves rything came together.” n

June-July 2014 Screen International 25

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Screentech LipSync

Testament Of Youth

Post in Synch LipSync Post celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and has invested in more than 50 feature films. Wendy Mitchell talks to financial director Norman Merry about the company’s flexibility and the diversity of its work

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efreshingly, LipSync Post does not boast about the need to be the biggest in the business. This post-production company, housed in two sites on London’s Wardour Street, employs more than 70 people and works across television and feature film.

“We don’t want to go massively huge — we want to do more quality work, keep it interesting and enjoy it,” says financial director

Norman Merry. “The diversity of projects is really nice at the moment. It’s a real range.”

LipSync has been celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. It started out from an office in Barnes doing shortform, such as founder Peter Hampden’s work on the trailer campaigns for Basic Instinct. The company moved to Soho in 1998, taking over 123 Wardour Street in 2000. In 2002, it became one of the first post houses in the UK to work on digital

lipsync’s current film projects in post-production ■ Bill (Cowboy Films, Punk Cinema, BBC Films),

dir Richard Bracewell ■ The Dead Lands (General Film Corporation),

dir Toa Fraser ■ The Face Of An Angel (Revolution Films, BBC

Films), dir Michael Winterbottom ■ Girls Night Out (Ecosse Films), dir Julian Jarrold ■ London Road (Cuba Pictures, BBC Films),

dir Rufus Norris ■ Second Origin (Antartida Produccions, Ipso

Bill

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Facto Productions), dir Carles Porta, Bigas Luna ■ Testament Of Youth (Heyday Films, BBC Films), dir James Kent ■ Trespass Against Us (Potboiler Films, Film4), dir Adam Smith

‘We have flexibility. We can say yes immediately, we can shake on it there and then.

We’ve never pulled out of an investment’ norman merry, lipsync

intermediates, which has become one of its areas of expertise (James Clarke serves as head of DI and Stuart Fyvie as senior colourist).

In 2006, the company made a riskier move, by starting to make equity investments in film — mostly UK films with budgets of less than $16.8m (£10m). As of now, LipSync has worked on 70-plus features and invested in about 50 of those, starting with Sean Ellis’s Cashback and including We Need To Talk About Kevin, Great Expectations, Nowhere Boy, Made In Dagenham and forthcoming titles including Testament Of Youth, The Face Of An Angel and Get Santa.

Merry and company see investing in productions as well as doing post for films as a savvy business move (“It has increased our business enormously,” Merry says) and as a way to keep the UK production scene thriving; yet they do not plan to start their own in-house production team. “We’re very good at post-production. We don’t develop films, that’s not our skillset,” says Merry. “Part of our job is managing expectations and getting post done on time and on budget.”

One thing that makes LipSync attractive as an investor, or indeed a post-house, is that the company’s size means it can be nimble. “We have flexibility. Peter Hampden and I own the company and we have our own group of investors,” Merry explains. “We can say yes immediately, we can shake on it there and then. We’ve never pulled out of an investment.” ‘interesting’ work “We do most of our work on mid-range VFX,” Merry explains. “A lot of our staff can come from The Mill or MPC, there they might have just been painting one shot for a Hollywood film, but here they can do more interesting work on a smaller film. We don’t work on a film where you need 300 people working on the same shot in one day.” They do, however, count nearly all the studios as clients, having worked with Warner Bros for more than 25 years, for example.

Recent projects for post-production services include Cannes trio Mr. Turner, Catch Me Daddy and Snow In Paradise. Forthcoming releases include A Little Chaos, What We Did On Our Holiday, Hyena and more. There are also bigger productions — the company did VFX work on Kick-Ass and Total Recall.

TV is a growing area of LipSync’s business, with Beverley Horne joining as head of TV post. “TV works quite well with the film side.

It helps us keep a steady workflow through the peaks and troughs of film,” Merry adds.

The company is working on several coproductions, including Testament Of Youth (with Denmark) and Second Origin (with Spain). “We hope to do even more co-productions as the tax breaks become more attractive,” Merry says. “The UK’s very much where it’s happening in Europe… and with the changing tax breaks, films not shot here can s come back to do post.” n

June-July 2014 Screen International 27

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SCREENTECH SCHEDULE 2

Stand and deliver Schedule 2, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and opened a New York outpost, makes sure films are seen at their very best. Michael Rosser meets Rebecca Hawkes, chief of the ‘technical police’

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oody Allen doesn’t hand his film spools to just anyone. So walking into the London office of Rebecca Hawkes, managing director of Schedule 2, the first thing to catch Screen’s eye are two spools from the director’s Manhattan Film Center.

“You don’t get spools anymore because of the demise of 35mm, so he [Allen] let me keep them,” says Hawkes, who founded technical film services company Schedule 2 in 2003.

The Manhattan director is among several high-profile names with which the company has built long-standing relationships, including Jeremy Thomas’s Recorded Picture Company and HanWay Films, The Weinstein Company and AV Pictures.

Schedule 2 works with producers, sales companies and distributors to supervise post-production and deliver features from camera to screen (the company takes its name from the section of a sales agency agreement that deals with delivery). This delivery ranges from 35mm to Digital Cinema Package (DCP) and video on demand (VoD) formats.

“When I started on my own in a tiny office on Brewer Street, I thought it would be a very small business but it just continues to grow,” says Hawkes, who has been involved in the international delivery of more than 500 features, working with directors from Allen to Roman Polanski, Bernardo Bertolucci, Terry Gilliam and Wim Wenders.

The London-born executive began her career at Kay Film Laboratory — later known as MGM-owned Metrocolor — in 1983. After gaining knowledge of film and the post-production process she began work in the technical departments for major distributors and sales companies, including Thorn EMI, Cannon International, Capitol Films, Cori Films and Goldcrest Films International.

While working within sales companies, Hawkes became aware of the crucial role of the technical services department, ensuring that distributors’ requirements are met and materials are delivered correctly and on time.

Combining her technical knowledge and relation-

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quality of content,” says Hawkes. “The idea is to garner more work Stateside and with New York’s new tax incentive, part of which is for post-production, I think we’re going to see more films go that way for post.”

The new office, which officially opened its doors on May 1, will serve as a satellite office providing regional support for clients in North America.

One of the biggest developments being navigated by Schedule 2 is the rise of digital delivery onto VoD platforms.

“I think every film-maker should now be making their film iTunes-ready,” says Hawkes. “But there is a misconception that, because it’s digital, delivery is free. Some assume that because there’s a hard drive, that’s enough. Well, it’s not enough. Apple have very slick hardware and they want the pictures to look good on-screen.”

The problem is arising with digital delivery that “distributors want everything for nothing and you have to explain the amount of work that goes into what we do and the large checklist involved in delivering correctly”.

Magic In The Moonlight

ships fostered with key facilities around the world, Hawkes launched Schedule 2, which has celebrated a decade in business.

“I am passionate about how films should look and get highly irritated if they don’t look good,” she says. “I believe that what the director sees when he’s shooting should be replicated everywhere it goes.”

With Karen Redfern, who oversees technical operations and post-production, and Roy Carroll, director of international distribution and technical services, the team is now 10 strong.

Expansion Last month, Schedule 2 opened its first US office, in New York. “I’d been thinking for about a year that the US would be a good market to get into because I feel they have more genuine concern for the protection and

IN THE PIPELINE Upcoming titles handled by Schedule 2 ■ Kidnapping Freddy Heineken, dir Daniel Alfredson ■ Robot Overlords, dir Jon Wright (pictured) ■ Brooklyn, dir John Crowley ■ Carol, dir Todd Haynes ■ The Guest, dir Adam Wingard ■ The Riot Club, dir Lone Scherfig ■ Slow West, dir John Maclean ■ Mr. Turner, dir Mike Leigh ■ Magic In The Moonlight, dir Woody Allen

‘There is a misconception that, because it’s digital, delivery is free. Some assume that because there’s a hard drive, that’s enough. Well, it’s not enough’ Rebecca Hawkes, Schedule 2

Post service Going forward, Hawkes wants Schedule 2 to become more of a facility. “We don’t have all the expertise and we definitely don’t have all the machinery but I’d like to think that a filmmaker could come to us and we could help them with their post-production,” she says.

“We can offer supervision services, take delivery of that film, ensure it’s technically correct for worldwide distribution and exhibition, and deliver to each and every distributor and platform at a cost-effective price.”

Hawkes also foresees “a completely different world” where the traditional parcels that are couriered out will be replaced by “distributors ordering materials online and downloading them”, a change that has already begun.

For now, Hawkes is getting ready to deliver Allen’s latest, Magic In The Moonlight. “They are the only films I’ve ever worked on in all my career that are perfectly delivered,” she adds. “It’s a well-oiled system. There is never a problem.”

On other features, when problems with picture or sound do arise, Hawkes describes her company’s role as like the police. “We make sure the highest quality is adhered to throughout the whole process — we’re the s technical police.” ■

June-July 2014 Screen International 29

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SCREENTECH IMAX

I

t wasn’t just Tom Cruise causing a stir in London’s Leicester Square at the end of May. On May 30, the IMAX screen in the Empire Leicester Square officially opened for business, showing Cruise’s blockbuster Edge Of Tomorrow.

The fact IMAX now has a home in the UK’s starriest square is part of the company’s strategy to have hubs in notable locations around the world.

“It will be a great advantage to do premieres and press events in Leicester Square, in the heart of London. It’s alongside the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles [formerly Grauman’s], Lincoln Square in New York and Potsdamer Platz in Berlin,” says Andrew Cripps, IMAX’s president, EMEA. Just across the River Thames, the BFI IMAX is the highest-grossing IMAX site in the world.

More big-earning sites are coming — and international is key. First-quarter box office from IMAX titles saw twothirds from international markets. IMAX has announced its first commercial theatre deal for Scandinavia, with Nordic Cinema Group, and an IMAX is set to open in autumn 2015 at the SF Bio anchor multiplex at the Mall of Scandinavia in Stockholm in autumn 2015.

“It is part of our new strategy to get into new markets,” Cripps says of the Scandinavian move, which follows recent deals in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Estonia and Slovakia.

Flying success The company will be debuting its first laser system in Russia in 2015 — where IMAX already has 58 screens — and booking another local-language Russian project, Nikolai Lebedev’s Flight Crew, to open in October 2015. This follows the success of Russian hit Stalingrad, which also went down well in China, where it earned more than $11.5m (¤8.5m).

Flight Crew is a reimagining of the 1979 hit film Air Crew. Greg Foster, IMAX Entertainment CEO, says: “When there was state-sponsored cinema, 100 million people saw the original film.”

He adds: “In Russia the business is working well — we’re seeing incredible growth there. Stalingrad was a huge success. Russian local-language films are a bit of an anchor.”

China is another territory of special importance to the company for future growth. There are 184 IMAX screens open, with a backlog of 238. Chinese local-language offerings include Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home. “[IMAX Corp CEO] Richard Gelfond saw the opportunity there 15 or 16 years ago. He is why that market is working for us,” says Foster. “We invest in our business in China.” IMAX’s revenue in the

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The IMAX screen being installed at London’s Empire Leicester Square

Big and bigger IMAX is set for a huge summer, continuing its global expansion. Wendy Mitchell talks to company executives Andrew Cripps and Greg Foster ‘It’s part of our new strategy to get into new markets’ Andrew Cripps

territory last year grew 26%, to $56.5m (¤41.5m) from 2012.

Earlier this year, the company sold a 20% stake in its Chinese subsidiary IMAX China to media veteran Li Ruigang’s CMC Capital Partners and private equity firm FountainVest.

New hubs Back in the US, an interesting trend has been emerging away from the biggest cities. “Markets we wouldn’t normally think of as IMAX markets are places where an

‘Russian locallanguage films are a bit of an anchor’ Greg Foster

entrepreneurial exhibitor has decided to make IMAX an anchor and use it as a regional hub,” Foster explains. These include Warren Theatres in Wichita, Kansas, and Galaxy Theatres’ site in Sparks, Nevada, which Foster notes “has gone from being number 125 in the country to being number five. It becomes a regional hub.” In the US, IMAX has 378 sites open, with 38 in backlog.

Educational content In addition to screens, IMAX is pushing ahead in the content business. Last month, the company confirmed a $50m (¤36.7m) fund — with $25m from the Knights of Columbus — to invest in a portfolio of 10 large-format educational documentaries.

On the Hollywood side, Disney has confirmed that Star Wars Episode VII will be released in IMAX, though there is no word yet if the film will be shot using IMAX cameras; Michael Bay has shot part of Transformers: Age Of Extinction with an IMAX 3D cameras and the format’s biggest fan Christopher Nolan has again shot a “significant part” of his next film, Interstellar, using the cameras.

“We hope and expect that more new films in 2015 and 2016 will use our cameras,” Foster says. “Film-makers design their films not for an iPad or iPhone — they dream about playing them on the s biggest screen in the world.” ■

IMAX BY THE NUMBERS ■ 840 theatres ■ 57 countries ■ 431 theatres in backlog ■ 117 open in Europe ■ 53

backlog in Europe

TOP 5 EURO MARKETS 1. Russia 58 (33 screens open, 25 backlog) 2. UK 40 (25 open, 15 backlog) 3. France 13 (all 13 open) 4. Netherlands seven (six open, one backlog) 5. Ukraine seven (five open, two backlog)

UPCOMING RELEASES ■ How To Train Your Dragon 2

(DreamWorks Animation, Fox; international only) ■ Transformers: Age Of Extinction (Paramount) ■ Guardians Of The Galaxy (Walt Disney Pictures) ■ Interstellar (Paramount, Warner Bros) ■ The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies (Warner Bros)

June-July 2014 Screen International 31

screentech laser technology

laser canon A better 3D experience and cheaper running costs bode well for laser projection’s success, but are its benefits enough to encourage mainstream theatres to make the investment? John Hazelton reports

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ver the remaining months of 2014, cinema audiences around the globe will get their first taste of laser projection as early adopter exhibitors in Europe, the US and Asia finally put the new technology to use in what may initially be just a few dozen big-screen auditoriums.

How audiences respond will help determine whether laser technology, with its promise of greatly improved image quality and a much better 3D experience, turns out to be the future of exhibition or just a flash in the projection booth.

Brightness is laser technology’s most obvious selling point. The handful of laser projector models currently on the market produce up to 60,000 lumens of light output, which is twice as much as even the most powerful xenon lamp-based digital projectors. That output, say technology companies, means that a 3D feature can be screened at 14 foot-lamberts (a measure of the light reflected back from the screen to the audience) rather than the three to four foot-lamberts achievable with standard digital 3D. Laser projection also produces better contrast, gamut (the range of colours that can be represented) and uniformity than standard digital projection.

32 Screen International June-July 2014

On the downside, laser projectors are currently much more expensive than their standard counterparts, costing in the region of $300,000 to $500,000 each, compared with $50,000 to $90,000 for a xenon-based projector. The initial cost is offset partially by lower operating costs, since laser light sources can last up to 30,000 hours — compared with perhaps 1,000 hours for a xenon lamp — and consume less power than standard sources.

Regulation might have been another negative for laser projector companies but suppliers have been able to secure exemptions from US health and safety regulations governing laser light shows and are expecting, they say, to reach similar agreements in other regions.

Technology companies — which over the past two years have demonstrated laser projectors in trade-show screenings of visually ambitious features such as Hugo and Samsara as well as a short commercial run of G.I. Joe: Retaliation — are taking a variety of approaches to the laser rollout. the tech developers Not surprisingly, giant-format cinema company IMAX is a big proponent and has put $40m — its biggest ever spend — into laser

‘Show 3D at the same light levels as 2D and that’s going to keep the audiences coming back to buy that 3D ticket’ Don Shaw, Christie

research and development. IMAX’s 6P dualhead projector system (see sidebar, opposite) — co-developed with imaging company Barco using patents licensed from Eastman Kodak — is the result of what the company’s chief technology officer Brian Bonnick describes as “a very detailed ground-up approach. We have deviated in the design of the product so we can take advantage of the other things beyond brightness that lasers bring to the equation.” Those things, says Bonnick, include reduced “pixel drift”, fewer visual anomalies and “very, very high contrast”.

Aiming initially to convert its biggest, 80 foot-plus screens, IMAX has signed more than 60 laser deals with exhibitors around the world — covering such iconic locations as the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles (formerly Grauman’s) and the Empire Leicester Square in London — and expects to complete its first couple of system installations towards the end of the year.

Christie has entered the market with a fibre-coupled laser projection system using 6P colour laser modules. The system is already running in one location in China and Christie expects to complete installations in at least two US locations — including the iconic Seattle Cinerama owned by

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Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen — by the end of the year.

The Christie laser system, says the company’s senior director of entertainment solutions Don Shaw, is “a scalable solution.

If you need 10,000 lumens right now, you’d buy two laser modules. If you need 60,000, you’d buy 12. Because our lasers are modular you can build the system up as you need.”

He continues: “Lasers — at least right now — are the lion’s share of the cost in a laser projection system so it makes sense that you can choose how many lasers you want, as opposed to buying one system that’s got 60,000 lumens whether you need them or not.”

In addition to working with IMAX, Barco is also offering its introductory laser projector — a direct-coupled 6P model — to other companies with large-screen auditoriums and will, by the end of the year, have installed more than 20 systems for exhibitors including Kinepolis in Europe, Cinemark in the US and Jinyi in China.

Barco, says vice-president of digital cinema Todd Hoddick, is initially focusing its sales push on the top end of the cinema market: “Today, because lasers are so expensive, it makes more sense to start at the top end — that’s where the greatest benefit exists for exhibitors.” Hoddick adds, though, that “we will eventually bring laser all the way down and through the cinema market”. the 3D boost The technology providers argue that even when it is only employed on a cinema circuit’s biggest screens, laser projection will still benefit exhibitors — particularly in the area of 3D take-up, which has recently been falling in the US. Showing 2D films at 14 foot-lamberts and 3D films at three to four foot-lamberts “has contributed to the demise in 3D business that we’ve seen in the last couple of years”, says Shaw. “That’s really what we’re pitching — show 3D at the same light levels as 2D and that’s going to keep the audiences coming back to buy that 3D ticket instead of the 2D ticket for the same show.”

And in time, say the tech companies, a decline in the cost of laser light sources should mean the total cost of ownership of a laser projector — the initial purchase price plus running costs over time — will fall below that of a xenon-based projector.

“The cost of lasers has to come down,” says Hoddick. “The speed is what we don’t know. It’s a function of scale, so the more lasers that Barco, Christie and others purchase the faster that price will come down.

I think we’ll see laser take off in 2015 in a meaningful way. But I don’t think it’s really economically compelling for the mainstream until maybe 2016 or 2017.”

Mainstream cinema owners — many of

www.screendaily.com

‘Laser technology will improve, it will become cheaper and less powerconsuming’ Eddy Duquenne, Kinepolis

whom have only just finished paying the cost of switching from film to digital projection and some of whom reputedly turn down the brightness on their digital projectors to save money — will certainly take some persuading. But upmarket exhibitors who see the latest technology as a marketable commodity might be easier to convince.

Eddy Duquenne, CEO of Belgium-headquartered European exhibitor Kinepolis, says he was “blown away” by laser-projection demonstrations that preceded his company’s recent deal with Barco to install the new systems at four flagship cinemas in Belgium, Spain and France.

Getting into laser projection now, says Duquenne, is “an investment in customer experience. It’s the promise to our customers to give them the ultimate cinema experience.”

Having experimented successfully with

premium ticket pricing for its early digital screenings, Kinepolis might consider a small extra charge for its first laser screenings, says Duquenne. And in the longer term, he suggests, laser projection could develop in the same way digital projection has since Kinepolis and other early adopters first bought into that technology some 15 years ago.

“Laser technology will improve, it will become cheaper and less power-consuming,” Duquenne predicts.

Eventually, the Kinepolis CEO suggests, the total cost of owning a laser projector might fall below that of a digital system, making laser equipment with a range of power outputs viable for the majority of screens.

“If the manufacturers succeed in getting to that point,” says Duquenne, “I think laser s is definitely the future.” ■

BRIGHT STARS: LASER TECH-SPEAK High-brightness laser projectors come in terms of despeckling (the avoidance of Transformers: Age Of Extinction in two types. A fibre-coupled projector twinkling effects on the screen) and image consists of a standalone projection head uniformity. linked by cable to an external rack of laser Technology companies also tout laser light source modules. Proponents argue projectors for their ability to offer a 6P — or that fibre-coupled projectors are better 6-primary — solution for colour separationbecause they are more flexible — laser based 3D, which works by generating modules can be added or removed to adjust separate images for each eye and delivering the output for different-sized screens — and them through filtered glasses. keep the heat and noise of the lasers away A 6P system creates each image with from the projection head. its own set of three primary colours — red, A direct-coupled projector has its laser green and blue — for a total of six primary light source integrated with the projection colours, eliminating the need for filtering head in a single unit and uses an external or polarising mechanisms that reduce chiller to maximise the lifetime of the laser light levels. A 6P system offers more components. Direct-coupled projectors, brightness, higher contrast, better colour say their vendors, have a lower total cost of reproduction and compatibility with lowownership and offer the best performance gain white screens.

Barco DP4K 60L, a directcoupled projector

June-July 2014 Screen International 33

screentech audio

(Below and left) Barco and Dolby are battling it out to become the industry standard, together having achieved 1,050 installs worldwide by the end of the year

Sound investments With the dust barely settled on digital switchover, exhibitors have begun investing in new audio technology to further differentiate their offer from home cinema. Adrian Pennington reports

W

hile digital projection enabled many theatres to leap to 4K or 3D, sound systems have not been refreshed for a quarter of a century since the introduction of surround sound. That is now changing with a new generation of audio platforms variously described as immersive, 3D or object-based, which promise a richer, more naturalistic aural experience.

“Immersive sound is the next big opportunity in creating a theatre experience that is of the highest quality that you cannot find in your home,” declared DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg at CinemaCon last year.

“Audio is the next big area in terms of trying to keep the cinema exhibitor ahead of the curve,” says Vue CEO Tim Richards.

The technology field has narrowed since 2012 to a straight choice between Dolby Atmos and Barco Auro 11.1, which together will have amassed 1,050 installs worldwide by the end of 2014, around 250 of them in Europe, with 1,500 estimated within a year.

That is the fastest rate of adoption of any cinema sound system to date, according to IHS Technology.

Boasting 650 installs (or commitment to install) worldwide, Dolby is the front runner.

Its European Atmos sites include select Odeon and UCI screens in Spain (Cinesa),

34 Screen International June-July 2014

Germany and the UK; Vue, Olympic and Showcase in the UK and US; Gaumont Pathé in France; and Cinema Star, Formula Kino and Mori Cinema in Russia. Barco has its technology in or pending at 500 sites including Berlin Cinestar in Germany, Omniplex in Ireland and India’s EGA, but none in the UK. Some theatres, notably Cinecitta in Germany and Premiere in the Czech Republic (both Atmos) are surcharging for enhanced audio at the box office, but most are marketing the upgrades as part of their premium large format (PLF) packages. IMAX aside, IHS Technology counts more than 50 ownbrand PLF worldwide, such as Cinemark XD, Showcase XPlus and Vue Xtreme.

“Exhibition is coalescing around premium screens to drive revenue,” says IHS director, head of film and cinema, David Hancock. “In mature markets where cinema is fairly static or slightly declining, anything that re-energises cinema, as digital and 3D have done, is imperative. Consumers have a short attention span so you’ve got to keep improving the experience.”

Vue is fitting immersive audio into “a significant number of Xtreme screens across nine markets”, says Richards. “We’re very happy with sound at our existing screens but you can always take it to another level, especially for customers willing to spend a little more for an incredible experience.”

‘The battle is between different platforms and is more akin to competition between Apple and Android operating systems’ Wilfried Van Baelen, Auro

Vue has installed Atmos at its Glasgow, Gateshead and Cramlington flagships but also has its own proprietary audio system on test and is about to demonstrate Auro 11.1.

“One of the benefits of a larger circuit is the ability to test a lot of different systems. We’ll make a decision [on wider rollout] just after the summer,” Richards adds.

Overseeing a programme of upgrades of its ISense PLF with Atmos, Odeon and UCI commercial director Andy Edge says: “We want to keep at the forefront of available technologies and see innovation in sound as part of that.” the content pipeline Odeon and Vue maintain that decisions are taken on sound quality and consumer feedback but the economics of install and a pipeline of content mixed in immersive audio are major contributing factors. Rival vendors are competing to woo studios and signing up post facilities with software tools to enable the sound mix (there are 35 Auro-equipped facilities worldwide compared with Atmos’s 55).

Dolby leads here too, with more than 100 titles including Gravity, the first Atmosmixed film to win Oscars for sound mixing and sound editing. Barco has 40 Auromixed titles, including I, Frankenstein, and a trump card in Katzenberg, who committed a run of 15 DreamWorks Animation releases

www.screendaily.com

— beginning with Rise Of The Guardians — in the format, with many also in Atmos.

Because each system requires a separate mix and separate deliverable, most tentpole movies (The Amazing Spider-Man 2, How To Train Your Dragon 2, The Expendables 3 and Transformers: Age Of Extinction among them) actually receive a dual mix.

While allowing studios to cover all bases, this further complicates the post-production process by adding to the burgeoning and costly number of files for Digital Cinema Package (DCP) distribution. Critically, for exhibitors, each format requires a specific audio design and loudspeaker layout leading to calls for a standard means of playing back immersive audio content regardless of the installed system. choosing a standard With costs ranging from $50,000-$200,000 (£30,000-£120,000) per screen depending on system and size, the Union Internationale des Cinémas (UNIC) and North American Theatre Owners (NATO) issued exhibitor requirements for immersive sound technologies demanding delivery of all audio tracks on all films or agreement of a one-size-fitsall playback solution, which industry standards body SMPTE is currently exploring.

All sides are keen to avoid a repeat of the costly and cumbersome introduction of digital sound, when the industry was forced to accept three competing digital sound formats: Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), Dolby Digital and DTS. “The battle is between different platforms and is more akin to competition between Apple and Android operating systems,” says Wilfried Van Baelen, CEO of Auro Technologies and inventor of Auro 11.1. “More speakers are not necessarily best for an immersive experience or for the economics of the auditoria.”

A standard is “likely but not a given”, says Hancock, who believes studios will not want to carry the burden of multiple audio files for much longer.

“Exhibitors want to play content and not worry about what content is available,” says Brian Claypool, Barco’s business development director. “An open standard will keep the freedom of choice for theatres to choose the system that makes best economic sense for them.”

The winner could potentially dominate big-screen audio for a generation, making millions from studios, exhibitors and licensing to consumer electronics manufacturers.

The home, mobile and in-car markets are the ultimate goal of Barco, Dolby and even DTS, which does not have an immersive audio technology but does have a protocol called Multi Dimensional Audio, which it hopes will form the basis of a common workflow and common deliverable, ensuring it stays part of s the equation for home entertainment. ■

www.screendaily.com

SENSE IN SOUND: SETTING AN AUDIO STANDARD

‘An open standard will keep the freedom of choice for theatres’ Brian Claypool, Barco

BY THE NUMBERS 150 titles mixed in

immersive audio formats to date 1,050 immersive audio installs worldwide by 2015 $50,000 to $200,000

cost to outfit immersive audio per screen

Channel-based sound systems (5.1, 7.1), of which Auro 11.1 is a continuation, mix sounds into a predetermined number of channels for playback in a theatre over the corresponding channels (which could be one speaker or a speaker array).

In contrast, Dolby Atmos treats unique sounds as objects to be steered around the room based on vector metadata that accompanies the audio file. The playback system renders each object in real time related to the installed speaker layout.

Auro 11.1 works from a theatre’s existing surround-sound infrastructure with additional loudspeaker layers for height and overhead, whereas Atmos requires up to 64 loudspeakers and is the main reason Auro is considered the more economical solution.

“The immersive effect we achieve in audio as a result of our configuration is just as good, if not better, than an objectbased approach,” says Barco business development director Brian Claypool.

With 128 additional audio objects capable of being flown anywhere around the speaker set-up, sound mixers eulogise about Atmos.

“Where sounds felt degraded or effects cheated in 5.1, now we can create moments that have a beauty and richness,” describes Glenn Freemantle, sound designer and supervising sound editor on Gravity.

Supervising sound editor Erik Aadahl helped prepare Transformers: Age Of Extinction for an Atmos

mix: “One thing we are playing with is the idea of psychoacoustics [sound perception] in which we can use the ceiling array to spin a room in a 360-degree arc that is just impossible with one plane of speakers in 7.1.”

There are other immersive audio choices.

Germany’s Ionoso was the first to develop object-based audio but has had limited success outside of China, South Korea and Romania. The consensus is that it will take SMPTE 12-18 months to devise an openformat, playback standard. One sticking point would appear to be Dolby’s insistence on retaining the keys to its object-based master file format.

“We could incorporate Auro into the Atmos workflow and derive 11.1 from the object-based master — and it is possible to include Atmos in the Auro workflow — but [Dolby] is closed,” says Claypool.

Guy Hawley, senior director, cinema sales and services, EMEA at Dolby, says: “We are keen to ensure the industry standardises on technologies that are proven to work in the real world. We’ve put a lot of effort into supporting the development of objectbased audio standards.”

It is likely that within two years there will be a distribution standard called PLF Audio or Immersive Audio incorporated into the DCP, which exhibitors will be able to render automatically into their Atmos or Auro-certified theatre on reception.

Adrian Pennington Transformers: Age Of Extinction has a Dolby Atmos mix

SPEAKERS’ CORNER: VIVE AUDIO In another audio innovation, industry stalwart Christie — known for its digital projectors — is moving into audio with the launch of Vive Audio, a series of speaker solutions compatible with Dolby Atmos, 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound and Barco Auro, as well as other cinema audio formats.

The Vive Audio portfolio — which includes line-array speakers, subwoofers, ceiling speakers and amplifiers — has been designed to get the most of the DCI format for digital cinema sound. Innovations in Vive Audio are the use of ribbon technology and the abandonment of the traditional horn design used in most cinema speakers,

‘With Vive Audio we have the unique opportunity to re-architect and re-engineer audio for motion picture playback’ Patrick Artiaga, Christie

allowing for up to four times larger optimal listening areas.

The offerings can be customised for small auditoriums — or even postproduction cinemas — up to large-format cinemas using immersive sound.

“With Vive Audio we have the unique opportunity to re-architect and re-engineer audio for motion-picture playback,” says Patrick Artiaga, Christie’s director of business development. At CineEurope, the company will demonstrate Vive Audio, which has already started installing at select cinemas in the US, Mexico and China.

Wendy Mitchell

June-July 2014 Screen International 35

EUROPEAN FILM MARKET  IT ALL STARTS HERE.

513 Feb 2015

8,400 Participants 490 Exhibitors 1,500 Buyers 790 Films 1,100 Screenings WWW.EFM-BERLINALE.DE

EFM_2015_Screen_245x335_RZ.indd 1

15.04.14 22:57

MALTA TERRITORY FOCUS n OVERVIEW n LOCAL PRODUCTIONS

TREASURE ISLAND An improved film rebate and renowned water facilities make Malta a big draw. Melanie Goodfellow reports

M

alta is fast becoming one of the world’s most attractive international locations hubs for high-budget feature films following the introduction of an improved film rebate in April 2014. Under the initiative, approved visiting productions will benefit from a basic 25% rebate, with an additional 2% if they feature Maltese cultural elements.

Further enhancements include the inclusion of eligible post-production costs up to $208,000 (¤150,000) and the extension of the incentives to TV and transmedia productions.

Alongside the improved financial measures aimed at attracting foreign productions, Malta Film Commission (MFC) is also keen to bolster the indigenous film-making community. The

island is planning to launch a $1.4m (¤1m) co-production fund aimed at encouraging collaboration between Maltese and international companies to produce films and TV series for global distribution. The island also has treaties with a number of European countries and Canada.

“We’re continuing to invest in servicing but we also want to invest in the »

Malta’s capital, Valletta

www.screendaily.com

June-July 2014 Screen International 37

TerriTory focus MalTa

indigenous industry… both in terms of training and giving them the right tools to access the international market. Often the problem for local companies is that they don’t have the financial muscle to partner with foreign companies to work together on a project,” says MFC chief Engelbert Grech. “It’s early days but we’re seeing increasing numbers of local line producers moving over into producing.”

Other measures include a $680,000 (¤500,000) investment in training courses for some 150 people working in the local industry, run in conjunction with a number of international institutions including the UK’s National Film and Television School.

“Since 1925, Malta has provided a magnificent backdrop to some of the world’s best

producers. Film is part of our culture. The Maltese are driven by the passion and love for films, not to mention their expertise that they have skilfully gained throughout the years,” Grech adds.

Malta stands in for Israel in World War Z, produced

by Brad Pitt’s Plan B for Paramount Pictures

ancient meets modern As well as doubling for Ancient Rome, Troy and Alexandria, Malta is adept at housing contemporary dramas. Shoots over the past few years have included the Gaza-set Pigs Have Wings, as well as Marc Forster’s zombie thriller World War Z produced by Brad Pitt’s Plan B for Paramount Pictures, in which the island doubled for modern-day Israel. HBO’s TV fantasy drama Game Of Thrones has also shot on the island.

Over the years, facilities and a pool of qualified crew have developed in Malta. Locals are often willingly utilised in mass crowd scenes, with some productions employing as many as 2,000 at a time. Average pay rates for extras are around $85-$100 (¤60-¤70) a day, including food allowance. The country has also provided secondary actors. Camera, audio, lighting and grip equipment can easily be sourced. However, post-production facilities for film are limited in the region.

One of Malta’s main draws are the water tanks at Mediterranean Film Studios.

Indeed, Malta was a pioneer in the watershooting business, constructing one of the world’s first surface-water tanks, known as the shallow tank, in 1964, followed by a larger tank, the deep tank, in 1979, which gave the island its unique selling point. A third indoor tank was built in 1996 for Michel Gondry’s award-winning Levi’s jeans commercial, featuring a drowning fisherman being rescued by mermaids. Most recently, the tanks have played host to the shoots of Asterix & Obelix, Universal’s Captain Phillips and RPC’s Kon-Tiki, as well as earlier films such as Troy, Swept Away and U-571.

On dry land, the 17th century Fort Ricasoli is a popular backdrop. A huge fake amphitheatre set, used by productions including Gladiator and Troy, stands within its walls.

The site was recently shut to the public due to damage caused by sea erosion, but MFC, which manages the site, confirms it is still open for shooting. Alongside the sets, there is space for all other film departments.

Beyond the water tanks and fortress, Malta’s towns and natural landscapes have also provided locations. The Maltese capital Valletta, boasting a mixture of architectural styles, has been the backdrop for The Devil’s Double, Midnight Express, Munich and Kon-Tiki.

Gozo, Malta’s sister island, is also a popular destination. Productions on Gozo include s Sinbad and Games Of Thrones. n

the lowdown on malta Which TV productions and commercials have shot recently in Malta?

In addition to HBO’s Game Of Thrones, all 12 episodes of Impossible Pictures’ Sinbad shot in Malta. Stylewar/Stink’s Volvo — Command The Extreme commercial was shot in the tank facility in 2012.

What financial incentives are available?

Malta offers a 27% rebate on eligible costs, subject to state approval. The basic rate is 25% plus an additional 2% for productions with a Maltese element. The incentives take the form of a cash grant given to eligible productions on qualifying expenditure incurred in Malta.

Post-production has recently been added as an eligible cost, to a cap of $208,000 (€150,000). The island has also launched a co-production fund aimed at encouraging local production companies to become involved in

38 Screen International June-July 2014

international projects, offering development and production grants.

What are the key locations?

The water tanks facility is regarded by many as the best in the world, in addition to the surrounding clear blue sea.

is there a minimum spend requirement? No. are the incentives easy to combine with those in other territories?

Yes, they take the form of a cash rebate on qualifying costs incurred in Malta.

Do incoming productions need to bring their own crew to Malta?

No, just heads of departments (if required) as Malta boasts a large, highly trained workforce with experience throughout various film departments.

can incoming TV productions and commercials access the incentives?

TV productions, mini-series, animation and documentaries are all eligible, provided they are partially produced in Malta.

Do crews speak english?

Everyone in Malta speaks English along with a good level of Italian. Productions from France, Germany and Russia have also filmed locally with ease.

What are the major film studios in the territory?

Mediterranean Film Studios, which houses the water tanks.

first point of contact Malta Film Commission

www.mfc.com.mt

www.screendaily.com

A buoyant industry Rebecca Cremona’s Simshar — Malta’s first fully fledged home-grown feature — marks a turning point for the indigenous film-making community. Melanie Goodfellow reports

M

alta may have welcomed scores of foreign film shoots to its shores over the past century but it has had surprisingly few indigenous film productions of its own. At least until now.

Having spent decades servicing foreign productions, the local film-making community has increasingly branched out into producing and/or directing its own projects.

This has been spurred on by the boost to the tax incentive scheme and planned co-production fund aimed at encouraging local productions, which was announced by the film commission last April.

Leading the way is Rebecca Cremona’s debut feature Simshar. The film is inspired by the 2008 real-life disappearance of a fishing boat — carrying three generations of the same family — after it caught fire off the coast of Malta. The drama intertwines the true story of the crew as they attempt to survive in the sea, with the imagined tale of a group of illegal immigrants who have been picked up from the water in a separate incident.

The film, budgeted at $1.4m (¤1m), was shot entirely in Malta over 29 days between November 2012 and April 2013 at Mediterranean Film Studios, in open water and further island locations. Developed long before the recent drive to bolster local productions, it took Cremona five years to bring the film to fruition. She raised the budget through Malta Film Commission’s Malta Film Fund, private investors and the island’s tax incentives. She was also able to draw on local crew. “I really wanted to bring this story to the screen but it’s been a real labour of love. Everything else has been on hold,” says Cremona.

The film features a cast of mainly local actors as well as crew normally employed in the local film services industry, including first assistant director Robert Bonello and editor Daniel Lapira, who have worked on foreign productions including the recent Sinbad TV series. “We all got our training through the services industry. It’s interesting because our way of working is quite American — especially when you look at how we work with assistant directors and call sheets,” explains Cremona, who has also studied film in the UK and Los Angeles.

Watershed moments Former Malta Film Commission chief and film finance consultant Luisa Bonello describes the film as the most ambitious Maltese feature ever and a watershed moment

www.screendaily.com

Simshar

Rebecca Cremona on the set of Simshar

for the local industry. “There has never really been anything on this scale before out of Malta,” she says.

Bonello recently boarded the film in an executive producer role and she is working to help Simshar secure an international festival slot as well as a sales company.

Like many in Malta’s film-making community, Cremona’s initial fascination with cinema grew out of the big-budget foreign productions hitting the island during her childhood and adolescence. “I remember Cutthroat Island [1995] shooting here when I was a kid. Later, when Gladiator [2000] came, my friends and I would drive around the island looking for its base camps and try to sneak our way on set,” says Cremona.

She is among a growing number of Maltese film professionals attempting to develop and produce their own projects.

Respected line producer Katryna Samut-

‘Our way of working is quite American — especially when you look at how we work with assistant directors and call sheets’ Rebecca Cremona, film-maker

Tagliaferro, for example, is taking part in European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) Producers Workshop this year — through which she is developing the family film Moo. Samut-Tagliaferro is the first Maltese producer to participate in EAVE with a project.

The $4.4m (¤3.2m) project, about a farm girl and her pet cow, is written by successful Maltese children’s TV writer Marie Briguglio.

“It is hard to co-produce out of Malta.

We’re not part of Eurimages and because there’s no history of Maltese films it’s hard to tap into the MEDIA funds, but the commission’s co-production fund could be a step in the right direction,” says Samut-Tagliaferro, whose production manager credits include Asterix And Obelix: God Save Britannia and Captain Phillips.

Pierre Ellul, who produces and services under the Falkun Films banner, is also developing a trio of fiction features including the provisionally titled Sunday Mass, set against the backdrop of 1960s Malta. He also previously produced and directed documentary Don Dom, about local political corruption.

Ellul, whose recent production manager work includes Kon-Tiki, also took a producer credit on holiday comedy Malta All Inclusive, from Denmark’s Hella Joof, alongside Oscarwinning lead producer Mie Andreasen.

“I mix servicing and my own projects. I enjoy both and it also works financially,” Ellul says.

Successful local TV producers Abigail Mallia and Carlos Debattista of Take Two, a youthful TV production company with a slew of hit local comedies under its belt, plan to shoot their debut feature, a political satire s entitled Limestone Cowboy, in September. n

June-July 2014 Screen International 39

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REVIEWS HigHligHts of tHe montH’s new films in Review. foR full Reviews coveRage, see Screendaily.com

REVIEWS In bRIEf Maleficent Dir Robert Stromberg. US. 2014. 97mins

This impressively made spin on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty is essentially a vehicle for the many talents of Angelina Jolie but that does not stop it from being a thoroughly entertaining fantasy romp. It may be a little too dark for the young kiddie marketplace but, as Oz The Great And Powerful has shown, there is a keen audience for elegantly made fantasy fare. Jolie is front and centre for pretty much all of the film as the ‘real’ story of Maleficent, the iconic evil character from Disney’s 1959 version of Sleeping Beauty, is revealed. As of June 8, the film’s terrific opening conjured up $128.2m in North America and $208m internationally after 12 days.

Mark Adams CONTACT DISNEY

WolfCop Dir/scr Lowell Dean. Can. 2014. 80mins

WolfCop is a real genre movie pleasure. Bloody, funny, action-packed and pretty smart, it may never offer anything particularly original to the long line of werewolf films that go before it, but it is made with real relish for the horror rules, has some clever twists and never shirks when it comes to the gore. Already something of a cult item thanks to a savvy marketing campaign and strong word-of-mouth from its Cannes market screenings, WolfCop opened in Canada on June 6 and while likely to be a fixture at genre festivals, it should also be picked up by niche distributors. A strong trailer and good reviews will aid international distribution.

Mark Adams CONTACT RAVEN BANNER ENTERTAINMENT www.ravenbanner.ca

Zombeavers Dir Jordan Rubin. US. 2014. 76mins

If ever a title said it all: a high-concept guilty pleasure, Zombeavers is a B-movie that revels in its horror parody stylings, low-budget gore and shrill performances. It may be something of a one-joke film but it is a great joke and one that is nicely stretched out, though in admittedly familiar fashion. The debut feature from comedy veteran Jordan Rubin, Zombeavers will be a nice addition to any genre festival and despite a no-name cast could well have the cult appeal to work for niche distributors and as a home-entertainment title. Short and sharp, Zombeavers is a whole lot of horror fun.

Mark Adams CONTACT EPIC PICTURES GROUP www.epic-pictures.com

42 Screen International June-July 2014

Walking On Sunshine Dirs Max & Dania. UK. 2014. 97mins

A gloriously frothy summer delight, there is an oldfashioned cheerfulness and warm-hearted glee to UK musical Walking On Sunshine as it takes a familiar tale of romance and broken hearts to the Italian coast and layers in a whole bunch of toe-tappingly familiar hits from the 1980s. Despite the lack of a starry cast, it wins in terms of sheer infectious enthusiasm.

The film is a blending of Mamma Mia! and Summer Holiday but it has its own sense of wide-eyed, candycovered innocence and joy, and while cynical critics may dismiss it out of hand it could prove to be a real audience-pleaser if handled well. Like Mamma Mia! before it, all Walking On Sunshine needs is good word of mouth and bad summer weather to help drive holiday audiences into the cinemas.

Co-directors Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini have had music-themed cinema success with UK dance film StreetDance, but Walking On Sunshine offers the additional challenges of singing, choreography and a cast that has limited experience of the genre. Smartly the film-makers have kept things straightforward and traditional in terms of the romances that drive the story and made sure the songs mesh nicely with the script.

Walking On Sunshine opens with fresh-faced Taylor (Hannah Arterton, sister of Gemma) arriving in sunny Italy for the wedding of her sister Maddie (Annabel Scholey), who is getting married after a whirlwind romance. A bright and breezy dance scene at the airport sets the tone for the film as it launches into a series of romantic complications that offer little in the way of surprises but are a whole lot of fun.

It turns out the desperately hunky Raf (Giulio Berruti), who Maddie is to marry, is the same exholiday flame that Taylor was madly in love with before she went off to college. And naturally she cannot bring herself to tell her sister of their prior relationship.

Things become additionally complicated when Maddie’s older-man former lover Doug (a very funny Greg Wise) arrives in Puglia to try and win her back, setting the scene for grand romantic gestures, misunderstandings, sexual misadventures, a bit of drama during a wedding ceremony and a whole lot of song-and-dance scenes, all set against the most idyllic of backdrops.

Arterton and Scholey are delightful as the very different sisters. Arterton’s Taylor is sweet, gentle and haunted by her summer love, while Scholey’s Maddie is a vibrant force of nature.

There is also much fun to be had around the support cast. Wise — in a role similar to that of Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia! — is a natural as the charming cad who pursues Maddie. He relishes the singing and dancing, and is blessed with unassailable charisma and energy.

Comedian Katy Brand has some of the best lines as Maddie’s friend, while UK The X Factor winner and singing star Leona Lewis brings real appeal — and a great voice — as Taylor’s friend Elena. Lewis also gets to belt out her cover of the title song, Katrina and the Waves’ Walking On Sunshine.

Mark Adams CONTACT IM GLOBAL

www.imglobalfilm.com

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WIntER SlEEp

MapS to thE StaRS

SubScRIptIonS

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s beautifully shot and precisely performed Palme d’Or winner holds rich rewards page 44

This darkly comic film from David Cronenberg makes up in brio what it lacks in dramatic coherence page 47

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REVIEWS In bRIEf 22 Jump Street Dirs Phil Lord, Christopher Miller. US. 2014. 111mins

As sequels go, 22 Jump Street hits the nail fair and square on the head, coming up with a comedyaction delight that also slyly pokes more than a little fun at the notion of sequels. Sometimes the good-natured self-referencing gets in the way but at its heart the film is a real pleasure. It brims with visual gags, clever wordplay and breezily silly action scenes. The sequel should more than overtake the $200m international total of its clever — but less inspired — predecessor. That stars (and producers) Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum share such an easy chemistry and are happy to poke fun at their established on-screen personas is what gives the film its innate charm.

Mark Adams CONTACT SONY

A Million Ways To Die In The West Dir Seth MacFarlane. US. 2014. 117mins

The Fault In Our Stars Dir Josh Boone. US. 2014. 126mins

Director Josh Boone’s adaptation of John Green’s bestselling novel about two teenagers who meet at a cancer support group and fall in love, The Fault In Our Stars is engagingly plotted and anchored by rich characterisations. This smart tearjerker, that confirms the star presence of Shailene Woodley, saw a strong number one opening weekend in the US ($48m), bolstered by $16.6m from 17 international territories.

Indiana teenager Hazel Lancaster (Woodley) has for three or four years been dealing with a terminal cancer that leaves her lungs weak and prone to filling up with fluid. She has a good relationship with her parents (Laura Dern and Sam Trammell), even if their doting sometimes drives her stir crazy. Meanwhile, at a youth group, Hazel meets the rakish Augustus Waters (Ansel Elgort, who in a slightly weird twist plays Woodley’s brother in Divergent and its sequel).

Augustus, who is accompanying his friend Isaac (Nat Wolff ), lost a leg just below the knee to cancer, cutting short a promising high-school basketball career. After Hazel shares with Augustus her love of a novel about the struggle with disease, An Imperial Affliction, he tries, and eventually succeeds, in arranging for a trip to Amsterdam to visit its reclusive author (Willem Dafoe, in a nice supporting turn).

Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber, who in addition to co-writing the breakout hit (500) Days Of Summer also proved they know their way around an adaptation with The Spectacular Now, remain remarkably faithful in their modification of The Fault In Our Stars, jettisoning a few extraneous

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supporting characters but successfully juggling the source material’s disparate tones.

There is a dollop of self-referentiality and an acerbic wit that belies the staid conventions of ‘cancer cinema’ but The Fault In Our Stars also locates profound feelings via some pointed speechifying about the depth of love and remembrance by a few versus many, and a stirring sequence in which the three friends share eulogies.

Neustadter and Weber also use the fictional novel An Imperial Affliction as a way to provide a bit of take-it-orleave-it parallel commentary about the expectations of life and relationships in correlation to pop-cultural representations. If there are a few quibbles, one is that Hazel’s view of herself — she calls herself “a grenade” and worries about mitigating the fallout from when she finally explodes — does not entirely square with the supportive family life we see.

Elgort’s performance rounds into form but early on is somewhat over-articulated. Everything he says is charming to the nth degree and met with unfettered delight, to the point that it invites exasperation. Once the movie stops labouring to convince viewers how appealing this character is, we are better able to enjoy the warm rapport of the leads. Woodley is open and ever-present — note-perfect in capturing the emotional swirl of living and losing. It is well-modulated work in movies like this and last year’s The Spectacular Now that confirm Woodley’s intelligence and canny instincts.

Brent Simon CONTACT 20TH CENTURY FOX

Seth MacFarlane has a knack for the bratty, offkilter joke — the problem is that even when a gag lands, it does little to leaven his generally sour, juvenile comic tone. The director and star’s latest film, A Million Ways To Die In The West, has its share of memorable humorous bits — but a comedy with this many stabs at laughs can’t help but deliver some winning moments. Despite a likeable and breezy turn from Charlize Theron, this Western satire buckles under its creator’s self-indulgence and self-satisfaction, as it limped to an uninspiring $30.3m North American box office and $19.8m internationally after two weeks.

Tim Grierson CONTACT UNIVERSAL

Earth To Echo Dir Dave Green. US. 2014. 89mins

Feeling like a cut-price mash-up of ET, Stand By Me and Super 8, sci-fi adventure Earth To Echo has some digital-age visual style but nothing like the emotional depth of its coming-of-age movie models. A handful of decent visual-effects shots is not likely to make up for the little-known cast and flimsy drama. Directed and scripted respectively by feature first-timers Dave Green and Henry Gayden, the film turns around Alex (Teo Halm), Tuck (Brian Bradley) and Munch (Reese Hartwig), teen best friends who come across Echo, a tiny alien creature stranded on Earth.

Overall it lacks enough real peril to produce a significant dramatic arc.

John Hazelton CONTACT RELATIVITY MEDIA www.relativitymedia.com

June-July 2014 Screen International 43

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REVIEWS

Cannes Reviews in bRief Two Days, One Night Dirs/scrs Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne.

Bel-Fr-It. 2014. 94mins

The impossible choices forced on workers by downsizing, flexible contracts and the declining power of the unions are thrown into stark relief in the Dardenne brothers’ latest film. While it may lack the breathless dramatic energy of earlier works such as The Promise or The Child, this is still a powerful, finely scripted issue movie, made all the more incisive by Marion Cotillard’s raw performance as a woman fighting to save her job while suffering from depression. The story of someone forced to canvas her fellow workers to persuade them to give up a bonus payment in order to allow her to keep her job is one that you can imagine Ken Loach taking on. But the undogmatic, compassionate focus on Cotillard’s character, Sandra, and those she meets builds a nuanced portrait of a struggling community that is classic Dardenne brothers.

Lee Marshall CONTACT WILD BUNCH

www.wildbunch.biz

Party Girl

CANNES fILM fESTIVAL

Dirs/scrs Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel Theis. Fr. 2014. 95mins

A fascinating, raw and often powerful interweaving of fact and fiction, Un Certain Regard opener Party Girl plays like a gritty soap opera at times, slowing the introduction of its lead characters and becoming more engaging as the film draws on. Playing a version of herself, the vibrant Angélique Litzenburger is a dominant character whose conflicted personality is the beating heart of the film. Using non-professional actors and with a storyline loosely based on their own lives — a hardliving nightclub ‘hostess’, juggling work and family life, agrees to marry a punter — the film’s neo-realist roots shine, with the film-makers noting an explicit link to Maurice Pialat and John Cassavetes.

Mark Adams CONTACT PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL www.pyramidefilms.com

Mommy Dir Xavier Dolan. Can. 2014. 134mins

Five years on from his dazzling debut I Killed My Mother (J’ai Tue Ma Mere), Xavier Dolan provides a captivating companion piece in Mommy, reflecting all the maturity he has gained as a film-maker in the intervening years. This is a rich, warm exploration of the intense bond between a mother and a son, with knockout performances from a trio of Dolan regulars — Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clement and Antoine-Olivier Pilon — creating vivid, complex characters. An emphatic return to form after the overwrought theatrics of Tom At The Farm, Mommy should delight Dolan fans and potentially attract a wider audience to his work.

Allan Hunter CONTACT SEVILLE INTERNATIONAL international.eonefilms.com

44 Screen International June-July 2014

Winter Sleep Dir Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Tur-Ger-Fr. 2014. 196mins

The first thought that springs to mind once Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s sprawling, richly rewarding Winter Sleep (Kis Uykusu) reaches its end, is that one should never see this at a festival with a film tucked in before and another one straight after it. For if Ceylan takes his own sweet time to reveal the full scope of his story, never allowing any consideration of length or pace to trouble him, his audience should do the same to fully appreciate one of the more rewarding film achievements of the year.

No doubt every festival in sight will pick up the Palme d’Or winner and every self-respecting arthouse cinema will programme it, but it is worth looking beyond the ‘masterpiece’ label that will be stuck on it, to discover a deeply felt, powerfully delivered observation on Turkish society, with reflections that could resonate elsewhere.

Shot in a small Cappadocia village, a mind-bogglingly wild, natural location with a small hotel in the middle of it and a lot of poverty all around, the plot — if one can call the extensive, elaborate conversations taking place a narrative — focuses for a while on the relations between three main characters.

Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), a middle-aged former actor, has inherited the hotel and land around it. He deems himself a thinker — one of his projects is to write a history of Turkish theatre — and pretends to be immersed in his intellectual activities such as writing think pieces for an obscure magazine. He delegates the management of the property to his assistant, Hidayet (Ayberk Pekcan), expecting him to take care of all the unpleasant chores and save Aydin the need to dirty his hands.

Necla (Demet Akbag), Aydin’s sister, is a bitter, sharptongued divorcée who has retreated to her brother’s hotel to pester and criticise him. Nihal (Melisa Sozen), Aydin’s much younger wife, desperately tries to fill the

void of her existence with social work, of which her husband disapproves, mainly because he feels left out.

As the title indicates, it all takes place in winter, which already establishes the adequate climate for the proceedings. The characters spend most of the time indoors, in a kind of pressure cooker simmering with conflicts that must finally erupt in every direction.

Nothing is left quite untouched, whether it is the application or abdication of religion in the moral, ethical and emotional fabric of these three characters or their social responsibilities, which they interpret wrongly, either on purpose or because of sheer ignorance — not to mention the unbridgeable distance separating them from the less-privileged classes.

Though most of the attention in the first part is lavished on Aydin, his wife and his sister, more characters appear as the film progresses. They include teacher Levent (Nadir Saribacak), who needs a stiff drink to air his opinions; Imam Hamdi (Serhat Mustafa Kilic), whose schemes are intended to keep the bosses happy; and his hot-blooded brother, Ismail (Nejat Isler), whose pride is stronger than his instinct for self-preservation.

Ceylan’s cast performs with such precision that even Bergman would have applauded. Gokhan Tiryaki’s camerawork beautifully records the quiet force of their delivery, and the choice of the unique and striking Cappadocia location, where lodgings are built not on but inside huge mountain rocks, takes the breath away.

And in case anyone misses the moral of the story, just watch what happens to the wild horse captured in an early sequence, to be tamed on Aydin’s request.

Dan Fainaru CONTACT MEMENTO

www.memento-films.com

www.screendaily.com

Cannes Reviews in bRief Force Majeure Dir/scr Ruben Ostlund. Swe-Den-Fr-Nor. 2014.

119mins

A sardonic psycho-comedy-drama inspired by the selfishness of our survival instincts, Ruben Ostlund’s fourth feature is his best yet. Force Majeure (aka Turist), revolving around a Swedish family’s unexpectedly conflictual skiing holiday, has now sold widely and was a buzz hit in Cannes. Imperfect human behaviour is still under the microscope here, as in the director’s previous work, but though at times he likes to watch his specimens wriggle on pins, or stick pins into each other, there is a new sense of compassion as well as a striking visual unity. Combine this with Ostlund’s knack for rescuing comedy out of the jaws of drama, and you have a title with surefire appeal for discerning arthouse audiences.

Lee Marshall CONTACT COPRODUCTION OffICE www.coproductionoffice.com

Timbuktu CANNES fILM fESTIVAL

Dir Abderrahmane Sissako. Fr-Mauritania. 2014.

100mins

Mr. Turner Dir Mike Leigh. UK-Fr-Ger 2014. 149mins

Fictionalised art-historical biography has been one of the most fraught sub-genres in cinema. For all their virtues, films such as The Agony And The Ecstasy (Carol Reed on Michelangelo) and Lust For Life (Vincente Minnelli on Van Gogh) have demonstrated the pitfalls of trying to peer closely into the working lives of great artists, and the dangers both of hagiography and of presumptuous psychologising.

In his portrait of the visionary British painter JMW Turner, Mike Leigh not only avoids these perils, but offers a film as successful in its tiny details as it is in its epic amplitude: Mr. Turner works at once as a wartsand-all portrait of the painter and his circle, and as a large-scale evocation of Victorian England. It brings alive its period so energetically that the viewer comes to inhabit Turner’s age as intimately as we have inhabited the everyday Britain of Leigh’s contemporary films.

Built around Timothy Spall’s superb lead — but democratically highlighting many performances among its sprawling cast — Mr. Turner is hugely entertaining, deeply moving and will be especially tickling for anyone with a taste for sometimes grandiloquent, sometimes juicily profane period language. An eminently marketable tour de force that promises to expand Leigh’s faithful international following, Mr. Turner shows one old master saluting another with irreverent brio.

Building on the achievements of his previous 19thcentury venture, Topsy Turvy, Leigh and his team offer another detailed picture of the English past — with credit due to production designer Suzie Davies, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and researcher Jacqueline Riding. Structured fragmentarily, the film covers the last 25 years of Turner’s life, shown as a solitary, cantankerous figure devoted to his art — some-

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times tender, sometimes harsh or neglectful of his intimates, sometimes (we feel) deeply knowable, but at others seemingly opaque.

After a prelude showing Turner painting in Holland, the film skates from episode to episode. He comes home to London where he is greeted by his father, a retired barber (Paul Jesson), with whom he has a gruff but tender rapport, and his housekeeper, Hannah Danby (Dorothy Atkinson), who loves Turner and is sometimes his partner in brusque sex, but who is generally treated by him as a menial; in fact, much of the film’s emotional power comes from the sorrows of this mistreated and psoriasis-afflicted woman.

Other key figures include Mary Somerville (Lesley Manville), who joins Turner for an experiment in light and magnetism; marginalised and embittered painter Benjamin Robert Haydon (Martin Savage); and Sophia Booth (Marion Bailey), in whose Margate boarding house Turner takes a room, and whom he courts.

Overall, though, Mr. Turner is up there with cinema’s finest art-biography evocations — the likes of Peter Watkins’ Edvard Munch and Paul Cox’s Vincent. It is an ensemble film par excellence, but Spall (who won the best actor prize in Cannes) makes a magnificent focal point, as a deeply eccentric, proudly individual man, huffing and grunting like a turkey, sometimes expressing deep pain, and flaunting his knowledge of the classics — a man suffused with the proverbial lust for life.

Moving, scholarly and serious as it is, Mr. Turner may be the most entertaining art biopic yet made — a grand canvas of inexhaustible riches.

Jonathan Romney CONTACT SUNRAY fILMS

At a time when the world is shocked by the acts of the Boko Haram cohorts in Nigeria, Abderrahmane Sissako’s film forcefully suggests the new scourge of Africa seems to no longer be colonialism, but the terror inflicted on its habitants by Muslim extremists. The screenplay is based on an incident that took place in the north of Mali. In 2012, during the brief spell they ruled the region, Islamic Jihadists executed a couple for living together and bringing up their children without having been properly married. Working from this basic premise, the script draws a firm line between the simple, pious but reverential faith of the locals and the brutal, inhuman conduct of the invaders.

Dan Fainaru CONTACT LE PACTE

www.lepacte.com

Goodbye To Language Dir/scr Jean-Luc Godard. Fr. 2014. 70mins

Initially it seems like a conceptual joke to imagine as rarefied an auteur as Jean-Luc Godard working with as commercial a medium as 3D. Then you remember that Godard, along with Antonioni, was actually a pioneer in turning from celluloid to video and electronic media in the 1970s. Goodbye To Language (Adieu Au Langage) follows in the eye-searing wake of Godard’s recent features, taking the fragmentation even further than in his Film Socialisme. There’s little point debating whether this film is in any conventional sense ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than his recent work. It is as fascinating as it is confusing, and wherever Godard is treasured Goodbye To Language will be welcomed, as long as the proper projection facilities and goggles are available.

Jonathan Romney CONTACT WILD BUNCH

www.wildbunch.biz

office@sunrayfilms.co.uk

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June-July 2014 Screen International 45

REVIEWS

Cannes Reviews in bRief Foxcatcher Dir Bennett Miller. US. 2014. 134mins

The dark and tragic story of the unlikely relationship between a repressed and deeply eccentric millionaire and two champion wrestlers, Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher is a taut and unnerving drama likely to attract awards attention thanks to three very different lead performances that dovetail perfectly. While much attention will be heaped on Steve Carell’s prosthetic nose and his moody performance as troubled millionaire John Eleuthere du Pont, it is the nuanced performances by Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum that act as the perfect balance to Carell’s obsessive. There is a sense of scale to the film, given its astute use of locations as well as an intriguing balance between a moneyed American family and two blue-collar wrestlers.

Miller won the best director prize in Cannes.

Mark Adams CONTACT ANNAPURNA INTERNATIONAL www.annapurnapics.com

Leviathan Dir Andrey Zvyagintsev. Russ. 2014. 141mins

Thoroughly Russian down to the smallest detail, this is an astounding portrait of a world going to the dogs under the full protection of law and order — and the Holy Church. Its images will stun audiences even before they find out what it is all about.

The northern Russia landscapes — bathed in a chilly blue light — are the backdrop, and Philip Glass’s mighty waves of sound leave no doubt that an unusual experience is about to unfold on screen.

This tale of graft, betrayal and larceny is so universally familiar that one could imagine it unfolding anywhere. It won best screenplay in Cannes.

Dan Fainaru CONTACT PYRAMIDE INTERNATIONAL www.pyramidefilms.com

The Salt Of The Earth Dirs Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Fr. 2014. 109mins

A Wim Wenders documentary has become a much more enticing prospect than a new Wim Wenders drama. Oscar nominations for Buena Vista Social Club (1999) and Pina (2011) attest to the way the documentary form seems to bring out his best, and The Salt Of The Earth is no exception as it pays tribute to the life of photographer and environmentalist Sebastiao Salgado. Working in partnership with Salgado’s son, Wenders has created a film in which the simplicity and sincerity of purpose are entirely in keeping with the humility of the subject. Hauntingly beautiful images are matched with illuminating testimony to create an absorbing portrait that should be rewarded with a lengthy life in all markets and would make a fantastic one-night special presentation in cinemas, museums and galleries.

Allan Hunter CONTACT LE PACTE

www.le-pacte.com

46 Screen International June-July 2014

CANNEs FILM FEsTIvAL

The Wonders Dir/scr Alice Rohrwacher. It-Switz-Ger. 2014. 110mins

A strange mix of coming-of-age film and troubled modern pastoral, The Wonders (Le Meraviglie) proves Alice Rohrwacher’s spikily original debut, Corpo Celeste, was no flash in the pan. Delving partly into the director’s own family background, The Wonders captures something profound about the passage to adulthood as a mix of hormonal drama and dream state. Anchored by a fine cast, dominated by the natural performance of firsttime Romanian-Italian actress Maria Alexandra Lungu in the central role of Gelsomina, this resonant film will place Rohrwacher in the canon of Italian directors to watch (the film won Cannes’ Grand Prix).

Monica Bellucci’s turn as a past-her-sell-by-date TV soubrette should not kid anyone about The Wonders’ target audience: it is resolutely arthouse, though at the wider end of the spectrum and with solid international potential for curious, patient viewers. If The Great Beauty was showy modern opera, this is intimate contemporary chamber music.

On one of its many levels, The Wonders is a film about the challenges of growing up in an unorthodox family.

Twelve-year-old Gelsomina (Lungu) is the oldest daughter of a couple of former student revolutionaries, he German and she Italian, who have moved to the Tuscan countryside to keep bees and build their own utopia.

Home is a crumbling, draughty farmhouse with floor mattresses for beds. Family patriarch Wolfgang (Belgian dancer Sam Louwyck) is a taut, feral soul at war with the world and the daughters he loves; the mother, played by the director’s older actress sister Alba Rohrwacher, is stressed and overworked, and Gelso — as she is nicknamed — has stepped into the breach, mothering her sisters and helping out dad with the bees.

The emotional arm-wrestle between Wolfgang and

Gelso, both stubborn loners in their own ways, spills over into Gelso’s manipulative/affectionate rapport with the next sister down, plump mother’s girl Marinella (Agnese Graziani). Two younger sisters run wild, on the fringes of Gelso’s emotional attention. And then there’s Coco (Sabine Timoteo), a lonely German woman who lives and works with the family. Is she a relative, a friend? For Gelso, as for the audience, she’s just there.

Two new plot balls eventually thicken the blend: the first is the family’s seaside stumble onto the location shoot of a promo for Il Paese Delle Meraviglie, a madly kitsch ‘best farm produce’ local TV talent show that raids the area’s Etruscan past with more artistic licence than a 1960s peplum movie. Bellucci plays the fairygodmother presenter of the show, a woman mutely startled by her own superficiality, but seen as a marvel by the daughters. Second turn-up is the arrival of a German juvenile offender, Martin (Luis Huilca Logrono), sent to work on the farm as part of a rehabilitation programme.

Rohrwacher listens to her characters, lets them take the story in unexpected directions, at the same time building resonance out of recurrent symbols and triggers. One of these is the slow drip of honey from a vat into a bucket that needs changing before it is full — a country ritual, a promise of sweetness, but also a distillation of paternal tyranny. Bees are both threats and wonders: they cannot be relied on to stay in the hive, but can also be persuaded to perform miracles — emerging from Gelso’s mouth in a party trick that gives the film its Italian-release poster image.

Lee Marshall CONTACT THE MATCH FACTORY www.the-match-factory.de

www.screendaily.com

Cannes Reviews in bRief Lost River Dir/scr Ryan Gosling. US. 2014. 105mins

It may well be strong on evocative imagery and a vibrant sense of danger and moodiness, but Ryan Gosling’s heavily hyped directorial debut turns out to be an over-cooked affair that lacks much-needed wit and humour to go alongside its self-aware art intentions. There is a great deal of goodwill out there for the charming and smart Gosling, but it is unlikely to extend to Lost River — especially since he has no on-screen role — once poor word of mouth leaks out. There is a strong cast doing their very best here, and they come out with reputations pretty much intact, but in a bid to make an intellectually sound, dark fairy tale, Gosling has failed to make a film that succeeds as entertainment.

Mark Adams CONTACT sIERRA AFFINITY

www.sierra-affinity.com

The Homesman Dir Tommy Lee Jones. US. 2014. 122mins

CANNEs FILM FEsTIvAL

Maps To The Stars Dir David Cronenberg. Fr-Can-Ger-US. 2014. 111mins

The long-awaited spawn of the union between director David Cronenberg and writer Bruce Wagner is Mulholland Drive, Sunset Boulevard and The Player wrapped up into one darkly comic, Gothic-tinged package.

Cannes was always going to be the right launchpad for a film that is on one level a bitter but tasty satire on the amorality of Hollywood, channelled with verve and gusto by some of those who belong to the star system that is being sent up: Julianne Moore (Cannes’ best actress prize-winner), John Cusack, Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson. But the Cannes critical and industry-insider reaction to a film whose targets are just one degree of separation from its audience may not be a fair litmus test once Maps To The Stars makes its own way in the big wide world.

Outside of our celluloid cage, it is going to be the kooky and in the end surprisingly edgy story of a screwed-up Tinseltown family’s implosion that counts for more than the references to Harvey Weinstein, points on an actor’s contract and Scientology (“I’m thinking of converting as a career move,” says Jerome, the chauffeur/actor/screenwriter played by Pattinson).

The film doesn’t quite get away with its attempt to reconcile satire with pathos, but it comes perilously close.

Hollywood is a network and Cronenberg’s film — which takes its name from the guides to celebrity houses used by star-struck tourists — focuses on a small slice of this mesh. There is the Weiss family, made up, when first presented, of New Age TV selfhelp psychologist and celebrity therapist Stafford (Cusack), brattish, prematurely old child-star son Benjie, just back from rehab (Evan Bird, impressive), and his highly strung, hard-bargaining manager mother Cristina (Olivia Williams).

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And there is also one of Stafford’s regular clients, the no-longer-young actress Havana Segrand (Moore, having a whale of a time), a monstrously ambitious woman haunted by envy of younger rivals and the shadow of a dead actress mother whose most famous role the nipped-and-tucked diva is hoping to reprise in a remake directed by an arthouse darling.

It is not immediately obvious who Agatha (Wasikowska) is, the seemingly sweet and shy girl from Florida, who arrives in town by bus and engages the services of a private limo driven by Jerome. She lands a job as Havana’s personal PA — or ‘chore whore’ — thanks to Carrie Fisher (playing herself in a cameo). We soon work out that Agatha, whose face and body are scarred by burns, is the Weiss family’s elder daughter, sent into care after starting a fire in which she and Benjie nearly died while mum and dad were out.

Wasikowska is the lynchpin of the film’s success, her always believable, sympathetic, occasionally scary performance as a car-crash of a teenager serving to dramatically ground the comedy and tow it into darker waters.

It is a baggy, audacious mix that makes up in brio what it lacks in dramatic coherence. And Cronenberg’s go-to composer, Howard Shore, delivers one of his best scores yet for the dry Canadian maestro, a menacing undercurrent that picks up on some of the ethnic New Age sounds of the world it depicts, but shifts them into A Clockwork Orange territory.

Eschewing the romance and adventure of the old West, The Homesman paints a poignant picture of an era that crushed the spirit of those who barely endured through the harshest conditions. Time is marked in children lost, failed crops and bitter winters that steal the sanity of your nearest and dearest. After Clint Eastwood’s farewell to the genre in Unforgiven, Tommy Lee Jones is among a handful of actor/directors, alongside Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall, who still believe in the Western and have the clout to make films in that genre. His faith is well rewarded in The Homesman, a film that is beautifully crafted in all departments and is especially noteworthy for the cinematography of Rodrigo Prieto, who captures a sense of vast, desolate plains, dusted by snow, bathed in bleak sunlight and devoid of a human presence as far as the eye can see. No wonder early settlers felt dwarfed and defeated by the land.

Allan Hunter CONTACT EUROPACORP

The Tribe Dir/scr Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy. Ukr. 2014. 130mins

One of the most bold challenges to screen at Cannes, Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s ambitious debut is an oddly immersive film that makes its audience work hard, but in the end delivers something rare and original. As the opening intertitle states, “The film is on sign language of deaf-anddumb. There is no translation, no subtitles, no voiceover on purpose.” The grammar may be muddled, but the message is clear — the film is made up entirely of deaf sign-language users. With no spoken language, music or subtitles to act as guides, the audience is immersed in the visuals and ambient sound and must work to follow the story of teen gangs, sexual encounters and hazing rituals.

Lee Marshall CONTACT EONE FILMs INTERNATIONAL www.eonefilmsinternational.com

www.europacorp.com

Mark Adams CONTACT ALPHA vIOLET

www.alphaviolet.com

June-July 2014 Screen International 47

ASK THE EXPERTS Compiled by Andreas Wiseman

As the blockbuster season kicks off, we ask…

‘Who is your favourite action hero?’

“Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley is smart, charismatic and sexy. She has been the template for strong action heroines that have followed in her wake.”

“Tintin. The artwork, design and context appear simple but are in fact complex. Tintin is one of the first modern, alternative comic-book heroes.”

Gorka Bilbao International sales manager, DeAPlaneta (Spain)

Clare Binns Director of programming and acquisitions, Picturehouse Cinemas and Picturehouse Entertainment (UK)

“James Bond. He was and still is the ultimate action hero, effortlessly saving the day while sweeping up women and driving and/or destroying the best cars.”

Thomas Benski CEO, Pulse Films (UK)

TOBIAS ALEXANDER SEIFFERT, DIRECTOR ACQUISITIONS AND SALES, SENATOR ENTERTAINMENT (GERMANY)

“Superman. He’s got superhuman powers including the chance to go back in time and stop Zack Snyder and Bryan Singer from delivering two god-awful films.”

Gianluca Chakra Managing partner, Front Row Filmed Entertainment (UAE)

48 Screen International June-July 2014

“Neo, from The Matrix films. The Wachowskis took a classic archetypal protagonist and infused it with a philosophical question that burns in all of us: ‘What does it mean to be truly free?’”

Sarah Gabriel VP of sales, Lotus Entertainment (US)

“He’s from a film from 1980 called Hero At Large,, with John Ritter, about a struggling actor who, still wearing a Captain Avenger costume, stops a robbery and so becomes a hero overnight. I remember seeing it on TV back in the day and loving it. It’s very funny but also, without overdoing it, raises the question of whether being a superhero would really be all that great.”

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