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Issue 1779 November 2014

LA Stars

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of Tomorrow 2014 ■ China territory focus ■ AFM preview ■ Bringing Paddington to life

LEADER

Closing the digital divide

UK office MBI, Zetland House 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ Tel: +44 (0) 20 3033 4267 US office 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, #707, West Hollywood, CA 90069 E-mail: firstname.lastname@screendaily.com (unless stated) Editorial Editor Wendy Mitchell +44 (0) 20 3033 2816 US editor Jeremy Kay +1 310 922 5908 jeremykay67@gmail.com News editor Michael Rosser +44 (0) 20 3033 2720 Chief critic and reviews editor Mark Adams +44 7841 527 505 Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray +44 (0) 20 3033 2817 Group art director, MBI Peter Gingell +44 (0) 20 3033 4203 peter.gingell@mb-insight.com Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman +44 (0) 20 3033 2848 Asia editor Liz Shackleton, lizshackleton@gmail.com Contributing editors Sarah Cooper, John Hazelton, Louise Tutt Contributing reporter Ian Sandwell Sub editor Adam Richmond Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 Sales manager Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Sales manager Nadia Romdhani (maternity leave) UK, South Africa, Middle East Andrew Dixon +44 (0) 20 3033 2928 France, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia, Scott Benfold +44 (0) 20 3638 5050 Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux, eastern Europe Gunter Zerbich +44 (0) 20 3033 2930 Italy, Asia, India Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768 ingridhammond@libero.it VP business development, North America Nigel Daly +1 323 654 2301 / 213 447 5120 nigeldalymail@gmail.com US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth +1 323 868 7633 nikki.screeninternational@gmail.com Production manager Jonathon Cooke +44 (0) 20 3033 4296 jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com Festival and events manager Jessica Stacey +44 (0) 20 3033 2870 jessica.stacey@mb-insight.com Group commercial director, MBI Alison Pitchford +44 (0) 20 3033 2949 alison.pitchford@mb-insight.com Subscription customer service +44 (0) 1604 828 706 help@subscribe.screendaily.com Sales administrator Justyna Zieba +44 (0) 20 3033 2694 justyna.zieba@mb-insight.com Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam +44 (0) 20 3033 2717 conor.dignam@mb-insight.com Screen International is part of Media Business Insight Ltd (MBI), also publisher of Broadcast and shots

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WENDY MITCHELL EDITOR

here are a lot of bright spots the international film business would like to emulate from China’s film boom. One of the most interesting developments that Liz Shackleton reports on in her insightful 2014 China territory focus (from page 33) is how the country’s internet companies are making major investments in film production and other content. There is now serious, dedicated film production investment coming from a trio of China’s digital companies known as BAT — search company Baidu, ecommerce outfit Alibaba and messaging and gaming specialist Tencent. Some of their growth in content is from smart acquisitions or joint ventures. Major directors such as Wong Kar Wai and Peter Ho-sun Chan are working with Alibaba after its acquisition of film and TV producer ChinaVision. Baiduowned streaming platform iQiyi has invested in Jiang Wen’s hotly anticipated Gone With The Bullets. “If we have our own IP, we can use the same property to produce movies, TV series, animation and games,” iQiyi founder and CEO Gong Yu tells Screen. It’s something the West’s digital operators haven’t quite figured out. Yes Netflix and Amazon are investing in original content, but you could argue Netflix is more aligned with a pay-TV model like HBO than as a purely digital company. There are a lot of major online players that haven’t moved into the content space and could reap the benefits if they did. We should see Facebook, Twitter and Vine paying for more original content. Yahoo! has resurrected NBC’s TV show Community but could be doing that a hundred times over. Vimeo has a $10m fund to attract original content to be uploaded to its site, but more might be needed to

make an impact. Three years ago YouTube announced $100m in investments for the creation of YouTube channels. Those plans have mostly flopped. YouTube owner Google said in September that it would invest in helping stars from its platform to create highquality content of various formats and lengths. Hollywood producers are already said to be part of those discussions. Mobile phone companies should also be investing in original content — maybe not features but quality short-form content. I, like many other consumers, would think about switching mobile-phone providers to one that had exclusive content from my favourite directors and stars. What’s in it for the digital players? Affirming their unique place in the market and attracting subscribers, of course. Getting eyeballs for their advertisers. Data mining with original content. The power, and profits, of film are not just about theatrical distribution; there is distribution across other platforms, brand tie-ins and licensing of other products ranging from games to emoticons to apps and cuddly toys and live and online experiences. Why can’t a company like eBay back a family film and then sell the related products to its millions of customers? The other elephants in the room are the internet service providers (ISPs). We hear ad nauseam in the UK about how pay-TV giant Sky should be made to invest in UK film production. Yet I think the real question is why ISPs aren’t compelled to back production. The ISPs shouldn’t be untouchable. More than 70% of US internet usage is the streaming of content — predicted to rise to 84% by 2018. So if the main reason people are paying for an ISP subscription is content, and content is allowing those businesses to thrive, why s shouldn’t ISPs be made to invest in it? ■

Arresting Citizen My highlight of the 2014 BFI London Film Festival was Laura Poitras’ excellent Citizenfour, about National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. This is a documentary unlike anything we’ve seen before — Poitras herself is of course part of the story, as she was contacted by Snowden when he was looking to expose worrying levels of government surveillance. What’s so remarkable is that the film documents history as it was being made: Poitras started filming within minutes of meeting Snowden, alongside The Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, in a Hong Kong hotel room — she’s filming before they even know his name. Thankfully, Snowden doesn’t come across like the ego-driven Julian Assange. He makes for a compelling subject on screen — and Poitras’ elegant style makes the film tense and exciting. This might be the most powerful and relevant film of the year, and as we head into Oscar season surely it’s a shoo-in for a nomination if not the win. It’s one of those rare movies that might just change how you think about the world.

Citizenfour

November 2014 Screen International 1

Contents

November 2014 cover image LA Stars of Tomorrow 2014, p25

International correspondents Asia 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 screen.berlin@googlemail.com Greece Alexis Grivas +30 210 64 25 261 alexisgrivas@yahoo.com Israel

November 2014

Edna Fainaru +972 3 5286 591 dfainaru@netvision.net.il Korea/deputy Asia editor Jean Noh +82 10 4205 0318 hjnoh2007@gmail.com Nordic territories Jorn Rossing Jensen +45 202 333 04 jornrossing@aol.com Scotland Allan Hunter +44 (0) 7904 698 848 allan@alhunter.myzen.co.uk Spain Juan Sarda +34 646 440 357 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 E-mail help@subscribe.screendaily.com Screen International ISSN 0307 4617 All currencies in this issue converted according to exchange rates that applied in October 2014

2 Screen International November 2014

Analysis 4 Ready for business What silver linings can AFM offer?

13 Aiming high

36 changing content

Liza Marshall and Kris Thykier on Archery

How three internet companies are having a major impact on the Chinese film industry

14 The band leader Ehud Bleiberg looks back on a 30-year career

38 the next big things

The Race producers reveal their approach to the defining story of the 1936 Olympics

In pictures

A preview of some of the hottest forthcoming Chinese films

20 The science of sheep

The best in marketing, distribution & exhibition

19 A track record

Aardman Animations veterans on the silent comedy inspirations for their latest adventure

People 6 Shifting up a gear Phil Hunt on Head Gear Films’ ambitions

8 Behind Everyman… Screen recognises the achievements of Andrew Myers, CEO of Everyman

16 Screen awards 2014 22 stars out in London Screen’s UK Stars of Tomorrow at the BFI LFF

Feature focus 25 la stars of tomorrow

Screentech 41 a perfect Paddington Director Paul King and the Framestore creatives on bringing children’s favourite Paddington to the big screen

Regulars

New talents from the UK and Ireland

42 reviews

Territory focus

Top titles from London, Rome and Busan including Testament Of Youth, Fury, Trash and Paradise In Service

10 Strength in numbers

34 A territory transformed

48 ask the experts

Wild Bunch CEO Vincent Grimond on the company’s impending merger with Senator

The might of the Chinese film market and the changing trends in finance and production

Market regulars give their advice for getting the best out of AFM

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IN FOCUS AFM

fter a quiet Berlin, a low-key Cannes and a traditionally sleepy Toronto for international sales, word is that AFM could complete a grand slam of muted markets. Eleventh-hour announcements are not unheard of and there are rumours Quentin Tarantino may drop in to trumpet The Hateful Eight, but at time of writing the independent film business was steeling itself for a distinct absence of showboating in Santa Monica. Buying and selling films in the space of a week offers a mere sketch of the detailed industry that exists year-round, however there is nothing like a market to bring things into sharp focus and the picture of 2014 so far is one of hard graft. The difficulty in assembling A-list packages stems from a perfect storm of mediocre screenplays, the ongoing talent exodus to TV, a furiously competitive US distribution arena that has seen notable flops such as Transcendence, and the alarmingly slow rate at which digital is filling the DVD void. It is difficult to ignore these words spoken by Alison Thompson in her recent keynote at Film London’s Production Finance Market: “As we all know, the situation now is just about as bad as it can be.”

Finding the ‘right stuff’ Yet opportunity knocks for the tireless entrepreneur willing to look anew at the life cycle of a film and, in these times of pioneering entertainment technology, perhaps even redefine the notion of what a film can be. The global business is awash with capital sources including a cavalcade of investors and content-hungry behemoths such as Alibaba from China (see page 36), while international buyers remain hungry for exceptional entertainment and Netflix continues to throw about its weight. Sales companies attest to that company’s value as a pay-TV buyer but privately they will be intrigued and wary of how their brilliant new partner’s production and windowsmashing distribution ambitions play out. “We’ve got great deals with Netflix in the UK and Canada,” says eOne Films International president Harold van Lier. “They have been incredibly supportive of our movies. They’re expanding territorially and are very hungry for material.” Van Lier and eOne film production president Xavier Marchand are ramping up the homegrown slate and forging ties with the likes of David Lancaster’s Rumble Films as they assemble a reliable supply line of content. “There’s always that angst with salesmen to go to the production team and say, ‘Have you got anything?’, but ulti-

4 Screen International November 2014

Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel becomes a busy marketplace

Ready for business As A-list projects become more difficult to package, talent heads to TV and the Netflix effect remains uncertain, can AFM offer a silver lining, asks Jeremy Kay mately you have to go out with the right stuff.” Van Lier will show footage from Captain Fantastic starring Viggo Mortensen and hopes to treat buyers to something from Trumbo and Eye In The Sky, both of which recently started production. “As a buyer we’re focusing that much more on directors,” he says, citing a lack of “great scripts” in the marketplace. “In Cannes we jumped on films by Denis Villeneuve and JA Bayona. We have distributed Prisoners and The Impossible before.” The London-based sales chief believes the theatrical experience will endure so long as savvy audiences are served original material. Furthermore his taste for auteurs removes the need to always sign A-list stars. “A lot of actors are busy for the next year and don’t want to commit, even six to eight months from now,” says Fortitude co-principal Nadine de Barros, w h o re c e n t l y boarded the thriller Urge starring indemand Pierce Brosnan.

Fortitude wants to mount more productions. Everybody does. De Barros does not say it, but home-grown product is one way of avoiding what one seller refers to as “irresponsible” over-priced bidding by sellers on desirable third-party packages.

‘Netflix has been incredibly supportive of our movies. They’re expanding territorially and are very hungry for material’ Harold van Lier, eOne Films International

Halle Berry has mixed ﬁlm with TV work such as Extant

Taking to TV De Barros knows a thing or two about television and is preparing three mini-series to diversify the business. “There’s no shame any more in doing TV,” she says. “You’ve got Halle Berry doing TV and she’s still doing movies and sells really well.” It is particularly tricky to attach talent at this time of year. “There are all these companies trying to get movies packaged at the same time based on this artificial timeline. AFM, Sundance, Berlin — these don’t mean anything to actors,” she says. “There are some stars that work in certain individual markets and those who work across all the markets,” adds Vincent Bruzzese of research group C4, who cites Emma Watson and the enduring staple Bill Murray as two stars who can generate wide excitement among buyers. Red-hot Ethan Hawke must surely be added to that list. Recent editions of AFM have hosted a number of buyer presentations by A-list talent. This was virtually unheard of five years ago because the market is not officially part

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of a festival and there is little reason for talent to be present. Last year, tub-thumping by Russell Crowe for The Water Diviner, Elton John and Tom Hardy for Rocketman, and Don Cheadle for Kill The Trumpet Player spurred pre-sales and injected much-needed glamour into the event. A US distribution deal, as Bruzzese notes, “trumps everything.” Thompson, who is quietly building London-based Sunray Films after the closure of Focus Features International, touched on this as a jumpingoff point in her London keynote. “I am encouraged by what’s happening in the US in that there does seem to be very renewed competition in distribution,” she said. “There are now some premiere VoD windows that are really beginning to work.” Lionsgate and Tribeca Enterprises are about to launch SVoD service Tribeca Short List and digital players such as Netflix, Amazon, IFC, Magnolia, Gravitas, Amplify, Vimeo, Hulu et al continue to build their empires. At a time of clear bifurcation in the overloaded theatrical business, digital channels provide ample opportunities for aggregators and producers alike and sellers are well aware of the need to engage. “This is part of the new future,” says Content Media president of film Jamie Carmichael. “It’s part of the polarisation of big film and specialised arthouse films in the cinema and everything else is coming to you on the small screen. The biggest trend is the convergence of everything. If you just have the old model where you’re only doing film sales with no library and nothing else and you’re not funded by a hugely capitalised group, it’s going to be complicated.” Carmichael cites the company’s production alliances with the likes of Preferred Film & TV and Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions as critical, illustrating again the premium on excellence in product supply. He and his cohorts have worked hard to build a brand that caters to film, TV and digital. “We look at every film, country and right and dissect it to work out the best way to do them. It’s not just about the three sales guys I

The company is producing TV series Marseilles in France and Narcos in Colombia. Then there is the four-film Adam Sandler deal that has drawn the ire of exhibitors after it emerged the films will premiere on the streaming service. Giants of the US exhibition circuit have already refused to carry Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, which Netflix and Imax said would premiere simultaneously online and in the largescreen format in August 2015. It remains to be seen whether the first-run feature aspirations of Netflix will land the independent suppliers of its pay-TV business in hot water with exhibitors.

Nightcrawler

‘There are some stars that work in certain individual markets and those who work across all the markets’ Vincent Bruzzese, C4

Is Quentin Tarantino AFM-bound with The Hateful Eight?

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have in film; it’s the 13-14 of us I have across the group in film, TV and everything.” Digital is reshaping the landscape and cannot be ignored. As the contracting advertising market caused TV sales to dwindle, Netflix came in and established a growing pay-TV network across nearly 50 countries and forced its way on to the table. Sales companies have no choice but to engage, even if, as some point out, Netflix minimum guarantees effectively act as flat licensing fees that put an end to overages. With HBO and CBS cutting the cord, it would take a reckless soul in the independent space to not get behind the great unbundling of entertainment. Another side to this is that like YouTube and others, Netflix owns a lot of proprietary information on consumer behaviour. An article in The Atlantic claimed the company had identified more than 76,000 genre categories based on viewer patterns. This is great for algorithms that keep visitors on the site. It could also be applied forensically to create content that customers do not even know they want until it comes out.

A shifting AFM For now, everybody is waiting to see what will happen, rather like the wait for the avalanche of prestige AFM projects. “The soufflé rises when it’s ready,” says Sierra/Affinity CEO Nick Meyer, whose company is behind the acclaimed autumn festival trio of Nightcrawler, Whiplash and Rosewater and is also pushing into production. “It’s as close to AFM as the talent and producers and agencies can make it. Buyers want something that’s a viable theatrical movie and that leads the rest of the train [ancillary distribution].” Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) president Jean Prewitt has noted a broad divide among the needs of members. “The larger companies have been much more engaged with us as we fight with the US government to get implementation of open market regulations in China and for the ability to import theatrical films into China,” says Prewitt. Meanwhile the more modestly sized membership will appreciate how IFTA and AFM top brass have set up umbrella stands for groups such as Japan’s JETRO and converted hotel rooms in the Loews to accommodate shared space for those keen to keep costs down. At time of writing Prewitt and her team had already sold 40 slots. “That demand wasn’t there five, 10 years ago for a relatively small space and people working in s a group setting.” n

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend

November 2014 Screen International 5

INTERVIEW HEAD GEAR

Shifting up a Gear London-based Head Gear Films is having a boom year backing larger-scale films starring the likes of Julianne Moore and Mickey Rourke. Phil Hunt tells Michael Rosser about fostering more relationships with the US

t has been an extraordinary year for Head Gear Films, the London-based film investment firm led by Phil Hunt. After spending a decade investing in around 70 movies, the past 12 months have seen activity ramp up significantly with $34.8m ploughed into 27 features including Samuel L Jackson thriller Big Game and crime drama Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch. Head Gear’s sister international sales company, Bankside Films, has also enjoyed a period of major growth with a string of successes in the international marketplace. Hunt points out that while Head Gear has a growing appetite to invest in third-party productions, the finance company will always back Bankside titles. “With Head Gear’s backing, Bankside has become much more aggressive in its acquisitions policy and we are now financing and distributing films of larger scale with worldclass writers, directors and cast,” says Hunt. One success story to come out of the arrangement is Belle, Amma Asante’s period drama about a mixed-race woman raised by her aristocratic great-uncle in 18th century England, which made more than $15.5m at the box office. “We put some late-stage development finance in after seemingly everyone had passed on the project,” Hunt recalls. “Bankside saw its potential so we helped piece the finance together. It was a great movie, a great deal and also performed at the box office. It did everything we always hope films will do.” Titles on Bankside’s AFM slate that Head Gear has co-financed include Julianne Moore drama Freeheld, Mickey Rourke feature Ashby and Morgan Matthews’ X+Y, which debuted at Toronto. Hunt, a former advertising and music photographer who began producing films in the mid-1990s, says part of the shift is down to confidence in judging what films can deliver. “With the wealth of experience we have accumulated over the years, we now have the knowledge to make better Belle judgments on which

6 Screen International November 2014

Phil Hunt

‘As long as the deal fulfils our criteria, we can move very quickly’ Phil Hunt, Head Gear

films we believe will find the right audience with the right budget,” he says. The long way round This is no overnight success. Hunt first looked to launch a company 12 years ago after meeting writer-director Greg Cruttwell on UK indie film Chunky Monkey. They brought in a third partner, investor Compton Ross, and Head Gear Films was launched in 2002. “We started out as a production company and went into business to create fantastic movies,” recalls Hunt. “We spent a couple of years developing material and produced [2004 crime thriller] Rabbit On The Moon as the first film Head Gear had invested in.” Hunt says their model reflects the US system. “It is like we’ve adopted some of the American model of putting finance in ourselves to be able to better control production,” he says. “I’m not from a financial background and nei-

‘We now have the knowledge to make better judgments on which films we believe will find the right audience with the right budget’ Phil Hunt, Head Gear

ther is Greg, but Compton is, having worked as a company director for over 30 years in international commerce and industry. The common element is we just want to create great movies.” The seed of Bankside Films was first planted in 2006 when Head Gear struck a pact with Australia-based sales outfit Beyond Films. At the time, Hilary Davis and Stephen Kelliher were running Beyond’s London office. “We all began talking about forming a sales company and decided to create Bankside Films as an integrated group, allowing us to work together but also as standalone companies,” Hunt says. Davis and Kelliher left Beyond and Bankside launched in 2007. “Head Gear’s success today is as a direct result of Bankside,” Hunt emphasises. “Head Gear has been there from the start to assist with financing Bankside movies but also offer bespoke financing solutions to films around the world from tax credits to providing bridge finance equity.” The outfit has funded up to 100% on Bankside projects such as Ashby and has gone as high as 50% outside of its sister company. Investment to date has ranged from $80,000 to $7.2m on films with budgets from $560,000 to $65m. Asked about the future of Head Gear, Hunt predicts: “The door is wide open. We want to invest in everything from documentaries to animation and studio films. As long as the deal fulfils our criteria, we can move very quickly.” Head Gear’s upcoming investments include crime drama Trespass Against Us, starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson, Rufus Norris’s London Road and Martin Amis adaptation London Fields. Ahead of AFM, Hunt says he wants to foster relationships between Head Gear and US partners. “My goal for AFM is to get this message out loud and clear to LA,” he says. “You’ve got four or five similar companies in your town who can provide large chunks of finance. Well, there’s one in London too that can move quicker and more efficiently than the ones in LA. It all comes back to the love of s film and supporting talent.” ■

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Interview Andrew Myers

Behind Everyman… Andrew Myers, CEO of Everyman, leaves the media group with a turnover that has doubled — and recognition at last month’s Screen Awards for achievement in exhibition. Wendy Mitchell reports

ithout being rude to the competition, Andrew Myers recalls a favourite audience Tweet about a trip to an Everyman cinema: “If you’re on a date, go to Cineworld. If you REALLY like her, take her to Everyman.” That was one small piece of evidence that Myers was succeeding in building a strong brand. He came in as CEO of Everyman Media Group in summer 2009, from the world of corporate finance, as an outsider to the film industry. And he now steps down as CEO — leaving the company by the end of 2014 — with a string of accomplishments. “I was going to stay for two months and it turned into five years,” he says with a laugh. When Myers joined Everyman, the company — established in 2000 with entrepreneur Daniel Broch’s purchase of a Hampstead cinema dating back to 1933 — had acquired the Screen Cinemas group a year earlier. Five years later, it has refurbished its Belsize Park, Baker Street, Walton-on-Thames and Screen On The Green, Islington, sites, and opened new cinemas in Maida Vale, Leeds and inside Oxford Street’s Selfridges. Plans are afoot for sites in Birmingham, Canary Wharf, Bristol and Harrogate. Box-office grosses have grown from $7.2m (£4.5m) in 2009 to $13.6m (£8.5m) in 2013, while turnover grew from $8.5m (£5.3m) to $18.5m (£11.5m).

‘We had to build a brand. We wanted to create this environment of hospitality, of comfort, of a serviceoriented business’ Andrew Myers, Everyman

UK LOCATIONS ■ Baker Street, London ■ Belsize Park, London ■ Everyman At Selfridges,

London ■ Hampstead, London ■ Leeds ■ Maida Vale, London

Cultural change “The portfolio was underinvested, in terms of people, of infrastructure and understanding what the brand was. It needed a cultural change and a freshness,” Myers remembers of his early days at the company. “The Screen group had great locations and great potential, and we wanted to take the business beyond just running a small, great cinema in Hampstead,” he says. “We had to build a brand. We wanted to create this environment of hospitality, of comfort, of a service-oriented business.” And that they have, with the Everyman name now synonymous with quality programming in bespoke, comfortable surroundings, catering to the types of patrons who don’t rustle bags of popcorn or use their mobile phones during screenings. “The challenge was to make people say, ‘It’s Saturday night, I want to go to the Everyman.’ Not, ‘What movies are out this week?’ The ideal scenario is that even if you see a film that’s not great, it could be a great evening.” He doesn’t take all the credit, of course. He

8 Screen International November 2014

Myers is adamant the cinema world needs to stand up more often for what it does offer. “The cinema industry has to bang its drum about what a great offering we have. We can’t be apologising that tickets aren’t as cheap as they were in the 1930s, the cinema-going audience is a tenth compared to that time… People complain more about cinema prices than the theatre or music. “We’re a great place to spend money. It’s better value than going bowling with your family for an hour.” He says Everyman’s expansion has been timed well, with the digitisation of cinemas and the consumer’s re-embracing of highstreet life. Of the VoD threat, he says Everyman’s box offices have done well with films that were launched day-and-date on multiple platforms. “Windows will gradually become more of an issue for exhibitors,” he warns. “The industry has to be proactive… In 50 years people will still be gathering in communal spaces, watching stories.” Myers will continue to advise Everyman in the future. He has known incoming CEO Crispin Lilly, a veteran at Cineworld, for years and says “it’s nice to hand over to someone who can take the business forward”. With Myers’ entrepreneurial spirit, he is looking for “new challenges… I like change”. But he adds: “I’ll struggle to find an industry s as engaging as this one.” n

■ Oxted

pays tribute to the “brave, ambitious” board led by chairman Paul Wise and including executive director Adam Kaye, for taking smart risks such as reducing capacity at Screen On The Green. “We renovated it from 300 seats to 125 seats. And we increased admissions and turnover. That wasn’t customer research, that was our gut feeling,” Myers says. Taking the brand north to Leeds was another gamble, as was the cinema at Selfridges. “You have to have a leap of faith; there’s no guarantee of success. With this joint venture with Selfridges, we want to shift people’s perceptions of what cinema can do.” Coming in as an outsider to the world of film, he says: “The main thing I was surprised about was how people in this industry genuinely love film. I thought it might be thought of more as a product. There is a genuine love for film at the core of the industry.” He says challenges ahead for the exhibition industry will include engaging the large part of the population that doesn’t go to the cinema.

■ Reigate ■ Screen On The Green,

Islington, London ■ Walton-on-Thames ■ Winchester

Newly opened Everyman cinemas in (right) Selfridges, London, and (below) Leeds

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Interview Vincent grimond

Strength in numbers Wild Bunch CEO Vincent Grimond talks Melanie Goodfellow through the company’s impending merger with Germany’s Senator Entertainment

ild Bunch and Senator Entertainment, two of Europe’s most high-profile film companies, are set to enter a new era early next year when their recently announced merger is finalised. “It will create an entity far more powerful than the sum of the two parts,” says Vincent Grimond, CEO of Paris-based Wild Bunch, who will continue his role at the new entity. The resulting company (to be called Senator AG for now) will be one of Europe’s largest filmed entertainment groups, with projected annual revenues of some $236m (¤185m), based on 2013 figures, and a library of more than 2,200 titles. The merger is the fruit of past co-operation with Senator. Wild Bunch took a 50% stake in Senator’s distribution arm Central Film Verleih in 2007 and the companies also collaborated on acquisitions including The Reader and The King’s Speech. “When we set up Wild Bunch Germany one of our main headaches was the bookings,” says Grimond. “Central chief Peter Sundarp is the god of bookings in Germany. Taking a stake made sense.” On Senator’s side, the Central deal generated a welcome cash injection for bosses Helge Sasse and producer Marco Weber, as they struggled to keep the company afloat, having taken the helm after insolvency proceedings in 2005. It was Sasse who first introduced Wild Bunch to Sapinda, the London-based German entrepreneur Lars Windhorst’s investment group that is bankrolling the merger. Sapinda, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, took a minority stake in the struggling Senator in July 2012 and is now overseeing a rigorous restructuring plan involving a $33.2m (¤26m) capital increase. “As Senator and Sapinda reflected on solutions to resolve the company’s difficulties, they started coming up with ideas that involved Wild Bunch,” Grimond says. “When we took a look at the benefits, it was a no-brainer.” In the meantime, Sasse announced his resignation in May 2014, following a $35m (¤27.4m) loss for Senator in 2013, saying he felt duty bound to take the rap. Alongside Grimond as CEO, Wild Bunch chief operating officer Brahim Chioua will be COO, and sales chief Vincent Maraval its chief content officer. Senator executive

10 Screen International November 2014

‘It reinforces the group and makes Wild Bunch a company that is more present, active and financially credible’ Vincent Grimond, Wild Bunch

Max Sturm will take on the role of chief financial officer. Under the deal Sapinda will buy out Wild Bunch’s existing big shareholders, Iris Capital and Stark Investments, to hold the largest individual share in the umbrella group. Through a shares swap, Grimond, Chioua and Maraval and fourth Wild Bunch co-founder Alain de la Mata will acquire stock in the new entity and also hold a blocking minority share. Grimond says the deal ticks a number of boxes for Wild Bunch. In particular, it fulfils the company’s long-held ambition for a strong presence in Germany, “the healthiest media market in Europe”. “It means we’ll be quoted on the German bourse,” he adds, revealing Wild Bunch had mulled a quotation on the Paris bourse in 2008 but was forced to put these ambitions on hold due to the global financial crisis. The then fledgling Wild Bunch had been steadily expanding at the time; buying French distributor Pan-Européenne, home entertainment company Wild Side, taking a stake in Italy’s Bim Distribuzione, launching

Vincent Maraval

Wild Bunch Germany and eventually taking a stake in Spain’s Vertigo in 2011. Much of this early growth had been bankrolled by investment funds, which either re-trenched or hit the buffers completely amid the downturn. “The crisis stopped us in our tracks,” says Grimond. “It was a difficult period and not just for us… a number of distributors went under. It took us some four years from 2009 to digest all that.” The next era This period of financial uncertainty finally looks set to come to an end with the merger, although Grimond says that it will be very much business as usual. “Will it change our day-to-day activities? No. But it reinforces the group and makes Wild Bunch a company that is more present, active and financially credible and because of that more powerful,” he says. The only big logistical change, he notes, will be the amalgamation of the staff and offices of Berlin-based Senator Entertainment and Wild Bunch Germany. Any changes to Wild Bunch’s overall strategy and activities will be in response to “outside forces” such as evolutions in film financing, currency fluctuations or the arrival of Netflix in France. “For a long time, we weren’t directly involved in production but that changed with Adele: Chapters 1 & 2 [aka Blue Is The Warmest Colour]. “Today, the fall in the euro against the dollar means we’re reappraising how we deal with US films, we’re also keeping a close eye on the impact of Netflix’s arrival in France and developments in the digital domain in general,” says Grimond. “We’re always asking ourselves questions. The s world changes and we change with it.” n

Brahim Chioua

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Liza Marshall & Kris Thykier Interview

ewly minted UK production company Archery Pictures combines two of the UK’s most prominent film producers: former Scott Free UK head Liza Marshall and former PeaPie Films boss Kris Thykier. Former Channel 4 and BBC TV executive Marshall became head of Ridley Scott’s outfit, Scott Free UK, four-and-a-half years ago. While there she produced features including Before I Go To Sleep starring Nicole Kidman, Welcome To The Punch with James McAvoy, and the upcoming Get Santa starring Jim Broadbent, as well as TV projects such as BBC2’s Britain In A Day and upcoming big-budget BBC1 drama Taboo starring Tom Hardy. One-time PR executive Thykier is well versed in producer partnerships having previously partnered with Matthew Vaughn at MARV Films, where the duo produced the likes of Stardust, Kick-Ass, Harry Brown and The Debt. Since leaving MARV to set up PeaPie, Thykier has gone on to produce Madonna’s W.E., Working Title’s I Give It A Year, Stephen Daldry’s Trash, Simon Curtis’s Woman In Gold, and The Weinstein Company’s Bradley Cooper-starrer Adam Jones, on which Thykier is an executive producer. He has Kasper Barfoed’s football drama Summer Of ’92 in post-production, while Asif Kapadia’s Ali And Nino is scheduled to shoot in February 2015. The London-based film and TV outfit, launched last month, was born out of Thykier and Marshall’s mutual desire for new beginnings and partnership. “Kris and I got to talking and we thought it would be more productive and fun together than to work on our own,” says Marshall. “We will be able to achieve twice as much.” Marshall’s departure coincided with speculation that she was a leading candidate to become the head of Film4. “Over the years I’ve been approached about a few different jobs and when that happens you start thinking about what you really want to do,” she says. “What I really wanted to do was be my own boss and create my own destiny.” Thykier adds: “To create a production business it became clear to me that I needed a partner. I’ve worked previously in successful partnerships so it felt natural to me.” Choosing to collaborate Going forward, Marshall and Thykier will be looking to build on their existing relationships and add new ones. “I’m fortunate to say there isn’t anyone I wouldn’t want to collaborate with again,” says Thykier. He adds: “I’m always looking for new people to work with. Liza and I both see the value in making sure talent who come to work with us have a shared ownership and partnership on projects so are incentivised

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Class Of ’92

Aiming high Liza Marshall and Kris Thykier talk to Andreas Wiseman about teaming up for their fledgling film and TV company, Archery Pictures

‘We want to create a home for talent where they feel supported and they have a fair share of profits’

‘To create a production business it became clear to me that I needed a partner... It felt natural to me’

Liza Marshall, Archery Pictures

Kris Thykier, Archery Pictures

In brief Liza Marshall ■ 2009-14 Scott Free UK, head of film and TV ■ 2004-09 Channel4, head of drama Kris Thykier ■ 2009-14 PeaPie Films,

CEO ■ 2007-09 MARV Films,

joint MD ■ 1992-2007 Freud

Communications, rising to vice-chairman

to work with us. We’re quite open to that.” Among projects in development are two with former Working Title production executive Debra Hayward, who herself recently set up Monumental Pictures with former Ruby Films executive Alison Owen. “I’ve known Debra all my working life so I’m sure we’ll be trying to find our own slates and our own directions but there’s no competition,” Thykier says with a laugh. With Channel 4 and director Peter Kosminsky, Archery is developing a TV drama exploring the reasons why UK-born Muslims are joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis). “I’ve spent 20 years working with scripts as a script editor and then producer so I’ve

had very close relationships with writers and directors,” adds Marshall. “We want to create a home for talent where they feel supported and they have a fair share of profits, so that it’s somewhere we can create a great environment for people to do their best work.” The company will look to raise finance through traditional revenue streams and has some support from private investment. The duo is already in discussions with US television executives about taking on inward investment series in the UK. “I don’t think a producer-for-hire model is a sustainable business proposition on its own,” says Thykier. “But you can turn that model into a business by hiring excellent staff. You can be a production house for American studios and international studios who want to be in the UK market and you can be involved creatively and build relationships with studios.” Key executives at Archery will include financial controller Neil Chaplin, senior development and production executive Pip Williams, head of physical production Mairi Bett and development executive Kitty Kaletsky. The duo are upbeat about the current production landscape in the UK, which they see as having a unique advantage over many other international markets, both financially and creatively. “I do think there’s a new wave of players coming to market looking for scripted product,” says Thykier. “And the UK does have a great advantage in the shape of its strong literary and theatrical traditions. That number of good writers gives us a seris ous competitive advantage.” n

November 2014 Screen International 13

INTERVIEW EHUD BLEIBERG

Posthumous

BLEIBERG’S AFM SLATE ■ Fear

Paris Horror anthology from Insidious producer Steven Schneider to shoot in February 2015 with five directors. ■ Posthumous Jack Huston — the lead in MGM-Paramount’s upcoming Ben Hur — stars opposite Brit Marling in the romance. First market screening. ■ Club Life The Orchard has a spring 2015 US release on the story from Radar Pictures (Spring Breakers) about a Manhattan club promoter. ■ Close Range Action star Scott Adkins takes the lead in the cartel thriller. In preproduction. ■ Strange Blood XLrator to release the horror tale in the US. First market screening.

The band leader Ehud Bleiberg looks back on his 30-year career, telling Jeremy Kay about his AFM slate and how he is adapting to new distribution models

hud Bleiberg fears complacency, even after 30 years in the business and more than 40 producer and executive producer credits under his belt, including Un Certain Regard Fipresci winner The Band’s Visit and Berlinale selection Adam Resurrected. “You realise that in one second everything can disappear and that gives you the strength to take risks,” says the Jerusalem-born producer and sales agent. He has just spoken about his service in two wars in the Israel Defense Forces in the 1970s. “It’s only film. It’s only money.” Bleiberg got into film after leaving Hebrew University and working in advertising and real estate. “I loved Italian cinema and one night after seeing [Paolo Taviani’s] The Night Of San Lorenzo I told a friend I was going to make films.” He went to film school in Jerusalem, put money into Chozeh Ahavah and Himmo, King Of Jerusalem, through which he met his lifelong friend Yoram Kaniuk, the author of Adam Resurrected. When Bleiberg met Yitzhak Ginsberg he had just tried his hand at licensing. “[Himmo] sold to 40 countries and I understood there was a global market.” Under the Dream Entertainment banner, Bleiberg and Ginsberg made the local hit Tel Aviv Stories and moved to Los Angeles to make English-language films. After 15 years together the partners engineered a complicated separation. Bleiberg

14 Screen International November 2014

‘Everybody tells you to turn off your mobile in the theatre. I am going to have the first US film to tell you to turn it on’ Ehud Bleiberg, Bleiberg Entertainment

Adam Resurrected

launched his self-titled venture later that year, in 2005. Since then, films have not been in short supply and so far Bleiberg cites Adam Resurrected as his crowning achievement as a producer. “I love the film. It will stay forever.” The $10m Holocaust story bears great personal significance — the family of Bleiberg’s father suffered terrible losses at Treblinka extermination camp, while the source material was the novel by his late, great friend Kaniuk. He chased the rights for the best part of a decade, partnering with German producer Werner Wirsing and hiring Paul Schrader to direct from Noah Stollman’s screenplay. Some time later he would watch with pride as the film played Telluride, Toronto, Berlin and other festivals. Cultivating freedom Bleiberg likes to keep things fresh. “I do a film in Israel once every two years. I do genre films, I do arthouse films and occasionally big films. I don’t want to be a slave to my operation, I want to be free to create.” Enabling Bleiberg to create is a small team that includes Nick Donnermeyer, operations and deliveries head Melanie Kollar and sales and development executive Tahira Martemucci. Donnermeyer runs Compound B — the genre label set up by Bleiberg in 2007 — and the acquisi-

The Band’s Visit

tions, development and marketing specialist and former office assistant has rewarded his employer’s faith. “Now he’s running that side of the company and is heavily involved in all of our productions. I greatly value his opinion.” Bleiberg produced The Iceman and is reuniting with Millennium Films on a remake of Hunting Elephants, the Jewish comedy smash Bleiberg produced and sold that starred Patrick Stewart and Bleiberg’s friend Sasson Gabai from The Band’s Visit. Nu Image will start sales on the remake at AFM. Red Granite’s new Blue Box International label will be selling The Curse Of Sleeping Beauty and Bleiberg represents US rights. He is adapting to a changing industry. “If you want to survive, you have to think out of the box. The buyers need to feed the pipeline and the pipeline today is VoD. “The Netflix and DIRECTVs of this world changed habits — they have become broadcasters,” he says. “They’re making series, so I got the idea of how I could get into this world.” The sales roster in Santa Monica is diverse (see box, above) and includes the second screen app-based thriller iLived. “Everybody’s telling you to turn off your mobile in the theatre. I am going to have the first US film to tell you to turn it on.” Bleiberg narrows his eyes. “People can sit in front of their computer and watch anything they want — you need to compete with that. It’s not easy but you need to create s opportunities.” ■

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THE GUEST LIST

The Screen Awards 2014, held October 23 at The Brewery in London, celebrated excellence in UK marketing, distribution and exhibition 12

20th Century Fox celebrates its win for Distributor of the Year — Studio

The team from Belle (20th Century Fox and Premier) wins PR Campaign of the Year

Rising Star winner Sam Clements from Picturehouse with Dan Simmons from Creative Skillset and host Edith Bowman

Organic’s Emma McCorkell and Deborah Rowland of We Are The Tonic hit the after-party dancefloor

The award for Cinema of the Year, 24 Screens or Fewer, went to Market Hall Cinema Brynmawr

Home Entertainment Campaign of the Year winners for The Machine, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Red & Black Films, Content Films, Shear Entertainment, East London Film Collective, ARPR and Incite

Premiere of the Year award went to Lionsgate UK and elevenfiftyfive for Chef

Exhibition Achievement Award winner Andrew Myers of Everyman with presenter/sponsor Phil Clapp of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association

Host and juror Edith Bowman

10 PR Team of the Year winners Universal Pictures 11 The scene at The Brewery 12 Documentary Campaign winners Altitude for 20 Feet From Stardom 13 Air New Zealand photo booth

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November 2014 Screen International 17

Race production report

‘‘T

he idea for a film about Jesse Owens was brought to me about four years ago by Luc Dayan of ID+, who is from the sports business rather than the film industry,” recalls producer JeanCharles Lévy of Forecast Pictures. Initially, film-maker Pan Nalin was hired to research the background for a story that would have followed Owens and Hitler. “But then we decided that what really interested us was Jesse,” Lévy explains. “So we spent the last three years with Stephen [Hopkins] on developing the story.” Lévy had previously worked with Hopkins on his 2000 thriller Under Suspicion. At the time, there was a rival US project about Owens to star Anthony Mackie also being developed. “Anthony is a good actor, but he is too old to play Jesse [at this particular stage of his life],” Lévy remarks. “Stephen and I both wanted to have a real 21-year-old as Owens who is suddenly confronted with all of this fame and other things at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.” Rising Canadian-born actor Stephan James — who recently shot the Martin Luther King Jr drama Selma — was cast as the legendary athlete; Saturday Night Live star Jason Sudeikis as his coach and mentor Larry Snyder; Jeremy Irons as the controversial head of the US Olympic committee Avery Brundage; William Hurt as Jeremiah Mahoney of the Amateur Athletic Union who led efforts to boycott the games in Berlin; and the Dutch actress Carice van Houten as film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. Joining forces For the financing of the film’s $31.6m budget Lévy and his partners decided not to be dependent on the US, structuring it instead as a Germany-Canada co-production with 35% of the budget from Germany and 65% from Canada. In addition, Lévy and Dayan joined forces with producers Karsten Brünig and Thierry Potok to set up the Berlin-based company Trinity Race GmbH. “Originally, it had been thought Trinity Race would be a single purpose company for Race,” Brünig says. “But now we are all at the stage where we want to continue producing together for the international market.” While Germany’s DFFF incentive kicks in automatically as the project fulfilled all of the criteria such as the cultural test, Lévy regrets

‘We wanted to have a real 21-year-old as Owens who is suddenly confronted with all of this fame’ Jean-Charles Lévy, Forecast Pictures

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Race in production at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium

A track record From the Berlin set of Jesse Owens story Race, Martin Blaney talks to the producers about their approach to the defining story of the 1936 Olympics that “we had to beg in order to get the funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg”. He suggests the award of just $253,000 (¤200,000) was particularly disappointing “especially when you have a film that takes place in Berlin and given what we’re doing in the [Olympic] Stadium”. “It’s completely crazy because we had almost the same thing in Canada,” Lévy continues. “We qualify for the tax credits but, due to some internal politics, Telefilm Canada didn’t fund the film. Instead, they gave a loan to the Canadian producers so that they could be involved.” Principal photography began in Montreal on July 24 and continued for four weeks at locations in Berlin before wrapping on October 5. Post-production and extensive CGI work will be undertaken back in Montreal. Meanwhile, sales company Mister Smith Entertainment has sold every territory except for the UK, Japan, Australia and France (as of press time), with Focus Features planning the US release for April 8, 2016. This is timed just ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Berlin Olympics and could be part of the mother company NBCUniversal’s overall strategy for its coverage of the Rio Olympics that summer. SquareOne Entertainment’s Al Munteanu, who will be distributing the film in Germany,

In production Dir Stephen Hopkins Scrs Joe Shrapnel, Anna

Waterhouse DoP Peter Levy Cast Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons, William Hurt, Carice van Houten, David Kross, Adrian Zwicker, Barnaby Metschurat Prod cos Forecast Pictures, ID+, Totally Commercial Films, Solofilms, Trinity Race GmbH Prods Jean-Charles Lévy, Luc Dayan, Kate Garwood, Stephen Hopkins, Louis-Philippe Rochon, Dominique Séguin, Karsten Brünig, Thierry Potok Exec prods Al Munteanu, Christopher Charlier, Ben Grass, Scott Kennedy, Bonnie Timmermann, George Acogny, Nicolas Manuel, Jonathan Bronfman World sales Mister Smith Entertainment

‘There will be different approaches for marketing to American and European audiences. In the US, it’s a rags-to-riches story’ Al Munteanu, SquareOne Entertainment

also worked with Lévy on the development of the screenplay and tossed around casting ideas as well as investing in Race as an equity partner. “The fact we have a US distributor on board so early means we have Focus taking the lead on the timing of the release, so we would be likely to go day and date with them,” Munteanu says. “Our marketing strategy in Germany will be based on the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 and how Owens’ triumphs upstaged Hitler,” Munteanu explains. “There will be a different approach for marketing to an American audience as opposed to a European one — in s the US, it’s more of a rags-to-riches story.” n

November 2014 Screen International 19

PRODUCTION REPORT SHAUN THE SHEEP

The science of sheep On the set of Shaun The Sheep The Movie, Aardman Animations veterans are taking inspiration from silent comedy to guide the flock to the big screen. Wendy Mitchell reports

haun the Sheep’s home is usually on bucolic Mossy Bottom Farm but when I meet Shaun for the first time, it’s inside a large, unassuming industrial estate on the outskirts of Bristol: the home to the production side of Aardman Animations. It’s summer 2014 and I’m visiting the production of Shaun The Sheep The Movie. I do get to ‘meet’ Shaun; I have the surreal experience of holding one of a number of models (made of plasticine and silicone) used in shooting. There are 21 Shauns in this production (along with 110 sheep and 197 human models). It is a character Aardman knows well; Shaun made his first appearance in the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit short film A Close Shave in 1995. He has gone on to star in his own TV series (140 episodes and counting, sold to 170 territories worldwide). Aardman Animations is now partnering with StudioCanal on the production of the stop-motion animation feature, which tells the story of Shaun, Bitzer and the flock going into the big city to rescue the Farmer in an “epic adventure”. David Sproxton, executive chairman and co-founder of Aardman, says: “It’s a massive great franchise for us… he’s become a major feature film star.” Shaun’s first feature is another first for Aardman — the first time the animation stalwart has pacted with StudioCanal for financing and production. Sproxton says: “One of the things we learned with our American deals [DreamWorks then Sony] is that we’re European. Our sensibility plugs more easily into Europe and the rest of the world. StudioCanal are great. It was an obvious fit when we started working on this project. They understood our sensibilities better than some Americans.” The production has moved along more quickly than many animation shoots, as producer Julie Lockhart says: “We’re doing this quite fast. Usually we’d work 18 months on the script and story but that only took 12 months. It helps that we knew the characters so well; it’s a familiar world.” Strong, silent type The story had to be honed carefully, and the feature film has no dialogue. As Sproxton says: “We love silent comedy; great cinema doesn’t need dialogue. It plays to our own core strength, which is visual comedy.” Having Shaun’s biggest fan on board

20 Screen International November 2014

Shaun the Sheep takes a break during filming

‘The DNA of Shaun is so strong, we’re not changing anything we’re just pressing in deeper’ Richard ‘Golly’ Starzak, Aardman

IN BRIEF ■ Production Aardman

Animations and coproducer StudioCanal ■ Distribution ■ Finance

StudioCanal (UK, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand) ■ Writer/directors

helped. Richard ‘Golly’ Starzak (born Goleszowski) — Aardman’s first employee in the 1980s who created the Shaun TV series — co-writes and co-directs the film with Mark Burton. Golly says: “The DNA of Shaun is so strong, we’re not changing anything we’re just pressing in deeper.” Yet he admits that “going dialogue free added a frisson of fear” when creating a 75-minute feature. They watched silent comedies for inspiration, with Golly noting, “Buster Keaton had a classic deadpan face, and Shaun has a deadpan face.” Burton points out that eschewing dialogue means perhaps being even clearer before production about the characters’ emotions. “We can have very tense conversations about Shaun’s emotional state. You have to take it seriously when you’re dealing with characters. There’s no dumbing down.” Golly adds: “It’s the skill in storytelling.

Richard ‘Golly’ Starzak, Mark Burton ■ Producers Julie Lockhart, Paul Kewley ■ Executive

producers

Peter Lord, David Sproxton, Nick Park ■ International

sales

StudioCanal ■ Release

2015

date February

When you cut to an event you know what Shaun is thinking.” The film itself is not silent and Burton says they also watched Jacques Tati films and studied how he used sound effects as a character in the story. The pair of directors complement each other well. Burton says: “We bring different skillsets to it. Golly’s much the character writer and I’m more the story side.” They do live action rehearsals — and videos — of the scenes before animators shoot them, and Burton says: “Animators are great performers in themselves, it’s like working with an actor.” The set floor itself is busy but eerily quiet as 16 animators go about their work, working on 30 different sets in all. Each animator can expect to shoot two to three seconds per day. The Shaun-sized sets are charmingly obsessed with minutiae, with small but important details such as a coffee shop menu in the background of a window, or a tiny tag on a tiny camera in a lost property office. The level of attention to detail and skill at Aardman still impresses Golly. “One of the themes of the film is to appreciate the ones you love. That sounds corny but it’s true. I walk around the studio thinking, ‘These people are bloody brilliant.’” Even while this film is heavy in production, Shaun’s flock of fans will be excited to hear Golly say: “I’ve got a s sequel idea in mind.” ■

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Congratulations to 2014 UK Star of Tomorrow Rose Wicksteed, CSA.

Celebrating excellence in casting at the 30th Annual Artios Awards. Thu, Jan 22, 2015 in LA & NY www.castingsociety.com

IN PICTURES STARS OF TOMORROW 2014

Stars come out in London Screen International teamed with British Council to present Screenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s UK Stars of Tomorrow at an intimate industry dinner during the 58th BFI London Film Festival also supported by The Casting Society of America

22 Screen International November 2014

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Theodore Wood

14 Screen presents: stars at LFF 1 I nternational Film Festival Rotterdam’s Inge de Leeuw and Nienke Poelsma

9 T he Stars and US casting experts at a pre-dinner masterclass

2 2 014 Stars Aisling Franciosi, Mia Goth, Aimee-Ffion Edwards and Maisie Williams with 2013 Star Malachi Kirby

10 2014 Star Keri Collins and producer Gareth Unwin

3 P roducer/LFF juror Lorna Tee with Screen’s Wendy Mitchell 4 P roducers Pippa Harris and Liza Marshall 5 U TA’s Bec Smith with Stars 2012 alumnus David Leon 6 B ritish Council’s Briony Hanson with 2014 Stars Marlon Smith and Maisie Williams 7 P roducer Kris Thykier with Film4’s Sam Lavender

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11 Film London’s Deborah Sathe with Stars 2011 alumnus film-maker John Maclean 12 2014 Star Simon Halsall with British Council’s Will Massa 13 BFI’s Louise Tutt with Stars curator Fionnuala Halligan and film-maker Michael Winterbottom 14 Stars Chloe Pirrie and Aneil Karia with casting directors Susan Shopmaker and Matthew Lessall

8 2 014 Stars Krysty Wilson15 Casting directors Gary Cairns (left) and Dawn Davy, Jeanne McCarthy, King (right) with BBC Films’ Matthew Lessall and Rowan Woods (centre) Deborah Aquila

November 2014 Screen International 23

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09/10/2014 12:19

LA STARS OF TOMORROw

Chris Vance and Daisy Lewis

LA Stars of Tomorrow 2014 Proﬁles by Elbert Wyche. Photography by Frazer Harrison at Viceroy Santa Monica

hese days it is difficult to watch your favourite TV show or visit the cinema without being reminded of the proliferation of established or up-and-coming talent from the British Isles. Exports like Downton Abbey and Doctor Who and stars of the big screen such as Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley have become household names.

Rightly so. The talent that comes from across the pond has always been first-rate and it seems that US audiences, not to mention the movers and shakers in Hollywood, cannot get enough of our peculiar accents and quirky charm. This year’s LA Stars feature boasts nine individuals whose names emerged from a diligent trawl of agents, managers and publicists on both sides of the Atlantic.

Screen was looking for actors, directors, writers, producers and composers from Ireland and the UK who spend much of their time in Los Angeles and demonstrate a promising track record and/or a tantalising slate of upcoming projects. In short, entertainers who are about to pop. Screen wishes all the LA Stars the very best in their careers. Jeremy Kay, US editor

» www.screendaily.com

November 2014 Screen International 25

LA STARS OF TOMorrow

Chris Vance (previous page) Chris Vance’s route to acting and producing was far from traditional. Born in Paddington, London, and raised in Bristol, Vance attended Newcastle University and moved back to the capital to work as a civil engineer — a job he held until he was 30 years old. “Somewhere in my late 20s I decided to have a change in direction because I saw my whole life in front of me. I knew I needed to do something else, to experience something else before I committed entirely to a life of civil engineering,” Vance recalls. So he went to London to take creative writing and screenwriting courses. That led to drama training at the UK branch of The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. Vance dove into acting with all the enthusiasm and energy he could muster. Leaving the comfort of a steady paycheck for the uncertainty of the entertainment industry required a huge leap of faith. “It was a breath of fresh air for me. It wasn’t always easy at times but I was fully committed. I was willing to try anything. It was more than just the acting; it was the writing and directing and producing. I was trying to put plays on. So I really embraced the whole thing; the whole storytelling aspect. Through a combination of trial and error, things sort of worked out.” He got his first acting job through school connections in a version of Romeo And Juliet at Oxford University. But the actor-producer does not believe in the notion of big breaks: he views success in this industry as a progression of learning from every role or position held. That said, he pinpoints his stint in the Australian television show All Saints as the moment he was able to walk away completely from engineering. Following All Saints, Vance — who lives in Los Angeles — has appeared on US television series such as Prison Break, Mental, Burn Notice, Dexter and Rizzoli & Isles. When approaching a new project, Vance says he looks at it in its totality rather than focusing on the character he is intending to play. He explains: “For me it’s more about the writing and the piece as a whole. I’m willing to play a small role in what I think is a very good project. That makes me just as happy as taking on a challenge like a leading role in a television series. It doesn’t matter to me; it’s about the writing and what the story has to say.” Vance wears many hats on his latest project Transporter: The Series, inspired by the trilogy of Jason Statham films. The show, which had its US premiere in Octo-

26 Screen International November 2014

ber, has Vance as lead actor and executive producer. “My capacity is to oversee the production shooting. Pushing the writing team as far as they can go to improve the scripts and make sure we get production done every day. Sorting out the logistics of everything. It’s quite a big undertaking. It’s something that I want to do much more of. “I’d love to explore the feature film side because it’s not something that I’ve done much of. Right now, I still have so much to explore in terms of producing, directing and writing as well as acting.” A strong work ethic is at the centre of everything he touches, an attribute he credits to his father, who worked in the construction industry. “Success often doesn’t come easily in this business and you really do have to keep on top of your game, be patient and pursue it with an open heart.” Agent Jim Dempsey, Paradigm (310) 288 8000 Manager Erwin More, More/Medavoy Management (424) 298 2300

Daisy Lewis (previous page) Daisy Lewis knew unequivocally that acting was her destiny. Her huge personality led those that knew her to ask when she would make it happen. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever loved,” she says. Born in London, her family moved to the Dorset countryside when she was seven. Lewis trained at the National Youth Theatre from the age of 15 to 22. That is when her acting was on hold for a while. Her parents were very clear that if she wanted to pursue it, she needed to complete her academic studies first. Professional acting was out of the question. Lewis participated in the Royal Court Theatre’s young writers programme and wrote for The Sunday Telegraph. She also studied English literature at King’s College London. This year she came to the US, where she has an apartment in Los Angeles, and sold her first show to the CW network, on which she is co-creator and executive producer. The show, The Last Debutantes, is a period costume drama that centres on the final year of the season in 1958. “I’ve got a couple of other shows in development at the moment and a feature that I’m writing. So things are pretty busy,” says Lewis. She just shot Sons Of Liberty with Breaking Bad alumnus Dean Norris. She plays Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams. “A very influential, strong, kind, moral woman. What’s so interesting is that obviously it’s about the American fight for independence from the British.

My first American role is playing a woman who is attempting to free her country from the shackles of England. That was really fascinating.” She credits the role of Sarah Bunting on Downton Abbey as her big break. “The auditions, oh my god! It was so brutal,” she remembers. “They told me to get on a train with one other girl who had been shortlisted and we went to Highclere Castle, which is about an hour outside of London and I turned up at Downton Abbey. It was kind of like, ‘All this could be yours but first you have to get the part.’ It’s like showing a starving man a feast,” she says. For Lewis, success in this industry depends on several things. “I was lucky. I’m good but I was lucky and you need both of those things. It’s timing, hard work, heartbreak and luck. I do believe you can make your own luck.” When possible, she loves to play char-

acters that have a controversial edge to them. She’s naturally inclined to people and stories on the margins. “People who are neither one thing nor the other. I think every character, like every human, is complex.” She continues: “At the movies I like to have sweet and salty popcorn together. So I like sweet and salty characters together. And that’s hard to find in female characters.” As a writer and producer, it is difficult to find time away from the industry. When she does, she likes to go to Malibu and read on the beach. “In London, I love to go to the museums and libraries. With LA, it’s such a beautiful and natural environment and the weather’s so good. I like to be outdoors as much as I can.” Agent Nick LoPiccolo, Paradigm (310) 288 8000 Voiceover work Kathleen Trinh (310) 288 8000

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the director was Marc Forster and I desperately wanted to work with him. Cut to 10 years later and I get another Marc Forster script and a great role but I get it this time,” he says. Morris, who resides in Los Angeles, can be seen in a recurring role on the Fox series New Girl in which he plays Zooey Deschanel’s love interest, Ryan. Agent Nate Steadman, Gersh (310) 205-5839 Manager Jai Khanna, Brillstein Entertainment Partners (310) 275 6135

Giles Matthey

Giles Matthey (left) and Julian Morris

Julian Morris Julian Morris was a shy kid. As much as he wanted to be, he wasn’t very good at sports, so acting was what he did after school, just to have fun and make friends. While growing up in Muswell Hill, north London, Morris went to an afterschool acting programme run by Anna Scher, a place that was “less about acting and more about having fun”, he says. “She never taught acting. I mean, that’s what we did, but all we did was improvise.” Although he discovered that acting was what he loved, Morris never saw it as an attainable goal until a director from the Royal Shakespeare Company came to one of his classes and recruited the youngster to play roles in productions of Macbeth and Richard III. In his gap year before university, Morris signed with a UK agent and landed the lead role in an NBC pilot called Young

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Arthur. “The pilot was never picked up to series, however it did get me to America. I started getting other offers. I never went to university but I did end up having that career I always dreamed of in acting.” Morris may have managed to bypass a college education but learning is ingrained in his approach to everything he experiences. “Part of the reason why I love acting so much is it gives me another excuse to learn, to be other people, to explore. When you’re exploring character, you’re exploring the way other people are and how they live.” He is inspired by the careers of actors such as Michael Fassbender, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and James McAvoy. “I love the projects they associate themselves with.” There are no any specific characteristics Morris looks for when evaluating potential roles. Instead, his focus is on story and the visceral response it engenders inside him.

His role as Victor in Kieran Evans’ dark romance Kelly + Victor is one that remains one of the actor’s favourites. “That was a character that I thought would be a huge challenge. Victor was very unlike myself; this sort of young working class lad in Liverpool. The idea of playing him was enticing because there was so much for me to explore.” Another key role in his career came this year in director Marc Forster’s Amazon Studios series Hand Of God in which he plays Reverend Curtis, a conman turned preacher. The pilot, which can now be seen on Amazon, has been picked up to series and will go into production in the beginning of 2015. Before Morris moved to the US, he put himself on tape for a role in Forster’s feature film Stay, a role that ultimately went to Ryan Gosling. “I remember reading the script and being so excited and the character was so enticing. And of course

Giles Matthey’s family moved from Sydney to London when he was eight years old, and he knew very early on that acting was what he was meant to do. Looking up to actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Daniel Day-Lewis led Matthey to venture far from home to New York, studying drama at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. While there, Matthey formed a strong bond with his acting instructor. “Robert Ellermann, who was a fantastic teacher, got me to think in a deeper way. He changed my whole outlook and approach to acting. Although he was a teacher, he became more of a mentor in acting. I felt like the connection was a bit stronger than just teacher-student.” His first acting job was a single episode of The Good Wife in which he played a Dutch rapist, uttering a mere three lines. Next he had a role on the Kiefer Sutherland series 24. He got his big breakthrough auditioning for the role of Claude Crane, a faerie, on the HBO series True Blood. “I had no idea what the part was. It turned out to be nine episodes. It was a great character. The show’s creator Alan Ball was in the room during my audition. I had no idea who he was and then I researched the whole show and I was just wowed and knew it was a big deal.” Matthey followed his stint on the smash series with feature work alongside industry veterans and actors he holds in the highest esteem. He co-stars alongside the late Robin Williams in Dito Montiel’s film Boulevard, a role he says truly challenged him. “I’m excited about things that push you and help you to step to those extreme sides of yourself; not just playing your own general truth but playing an extreme version of that. With Boulevard I got to play a gay, ghetto southern pimp. That’s what’s really rewarding for an actor.” He is currently filming By Way Of Helena with Woody Harrelson. “I’m very excited for the release of those two films. Working with Robin Williams and »

November 2014 Screen International 27

LA STARS OF Tomorrow

Gerard Barrett

Woody Harrelson in the space of a year — I’m so lucky and so grateful that I’ve had the opportunity.” He is proud of the work he has done on television. “TV is so strong right now, if you look at things like True Detective and Homeland.” Yet film has a special place in his heart. “TV is much more regimented in its structure and its form. With film anything can happen. It has that special quality where if you’re working with a great director I feel you have a bit more freedom. Film is a special place where lightning can strike.” When away from set Matthey, who lives full time in Los Angeles, enjoys football, sushi and playing his Xbox to take his mind off of things. He is also something of an adrenaline junkie with a newfound hobby in skydiving. Agent Nick Collins, Gersh

(310) 274 6611

Gerard Barrett Pilgrim Hill had its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival in 2012, marking the beginning of what would be a life-changing two years for Irish director Gerard Barrett. The film also garnered the inaugural Bingham Ray New Talent Award at Galway Film Fleadh that summer. Born in the small village of Knockanore, in County Kerry, Barrett studied media and film studies at the Institute of

28 Screen International November 2014

Technology Tralee and made Pilgrim Hill in his final year as a thesis film. A 30-minute film was all that was required but he had other plans. “I just thought I could put as much effort into making a feature,” he remembers. He went to his local bank and borrowed $5,700 (¤4,500) and shot the movie with three crew members over seven days. “It was a great learning curve because I wrote, produced, directed and edited it. It really grounded me on how the industry works on all levels. I took that into my next film, Glassland, which I shot in January of this year.” It was at Telluride where Barrett was signed by his current agency WME. “I am lucky that James Farrell and Simon Faber at WME are people that get behind me so much and they know what I’m trying to do.” Barrett finds inspiration by studying the career of film-makers he admires. On a list of many are Jim Sheridan, Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan. “With Jim Sheridan, the way that he told very personal stories was something that inspired me from a young age. As I started to grow up, Paul Thomas Anderson influenced me in how he does his work with such originality. Christopher Nolan made his first feature film Following for, like, £6,000.” His newest film, Glassland, had its Irish premiere at Galway in July. At 26

years old, Barrett has made two feature films that have won awards and taken him around the world. “What’s interesting for me is I’m kind of growing up and living life as I make my films. What I’ve really wanted to do from my first and second film and obviously with my third coming up is explore the human struggle.” Pilgrim Hill is about a farmer living in rural isolation in Ireland. Glassland centres on a young man trying to keep his family from being ripped apart by addiction. He is currently in pre-production on an adaptation of a New York Times bestselling novel. Details remain under wraps, but Barrett hints: “My next film is about a girl whose life falls apart all of a sudden and she needs to keep going to stay alive. “What I’m after is to show how we handle struggle and how we keep going through the worst times,” says Barrett. “That’s what is keeping me up at night and what gets me up in the morning; exploring that.” As his career moves forward he hopes to broaden his horizons in terms of genre and style. “I can’t tell you where I want to go because I probably haven’t settled on what I really am yet, in a sense.” In the wake of his early triumphs, the Los Angeles-based Barrett is intent on staying humble. “I don’t take it for granted. There are so many people out there trying to break into the industry. It’s difficult and I’m so honoured.” Agent James Farrell, WME

(310) 285 9000

Amy Pemberton Amy Pemberton had a big break working with Derek Hough of Dancing With The Stars fame in the stage production of Footloose. After that she was offered roles in musical theatre. “I went on to play the lead in Rock Of Ages, then I did Jersey Boys. I was lucky to go back and forth between theatre and TV.” The Romford-born actress secured her first acting agent Michael Cronin, who was with The Narrow Road Company at the time, from her third-year agent showcase while attending the Arts Educational Schools in London (she would later move with Cronin to International Artistes, now Qtalent). Pemberton won her first television role in the UK children’s series The Mysti Show as a result. She continues her training in Los Angeles at Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop. “Just keeping the training going,” she says. “I was kind of lucky to start working pretty quick. I’ve had guidance along the way, mainly since I’ve been in LA and I haven’t been here long. I’ve definitely started enjoying having

some one-on-one lessons.” Her training paid off to land a key role in Noel Clarkestarring thriller Storage 24, a film she shot in London before her recent move to Los Angeles. “Storage 24 definitely opened up doors for me in the film world. It’s great when you finally get that film role. People go, ‘OK, we’ll see you now.’” She has two short films that will premiere this year: drama Kaufman’s Game and action film Death Machine. Willing to utilise her talent in every way possible, Pemberton has done extensive work in voice acting. She has done five years of voiceover work for the Doctor Who audio series playing opposite Sylvester McCoy. “All of a sudden here in the US [Doctor Who] has just blown up and I’ve been really busy with that,” she says. Pemberton has also recorded voiceover roles for Disney on the Marvel Heroes video game. “I’ve been recording the new Game Of Thrones video game. I’m one of the leads in that. I never thought that would happen. It’s amazing what LA has to offer in different ways. That in itself has been a big break for me. I love being in the studio, it’s so much fun.” The world of comedy is where Pemberton feels most at home. She finds inspiration in comedians such as Wanda Sykes and Ricky Gervais. The latter she has met on a couple of projects. “I’m a massive Wanda Sykes fan, of both her stand-up and every movie that she’s been in. If I ever get to work with Wanda Sykes I will be a happy lady. Ricky Gervais, he’s just so good. Comedy excites me. Most of what I’ve done on stage and screen and voice has been comedy stuff. It gives me a buzz,” she says. When not in the studio or in front of the camera, Pemberton acts as a patron for a charity that her father led before his death. “They’re called Headway. They are an international brain rehabilitation charity that runs units all around the UK and other places too. But my focus, obviously, is on where I’m from. I do a lot of work for them, fundraising. The work they do is fantastic.” Manager Justin Grey Stone, Management 360 (310) 272 7000

Nick Blood “I was born in Aylesbury, a little town north-west of London,” Nick Blood says. “I grew up around there, skateboarding and doing drama workshops and stuff. Just getting up to mischief, really.” A couple of local actors ran a drama workshop that kept the youngster and many other kids off the streets. “I didn’t come from a background where anyone was an actor,” he says. “I didn’t know any »

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Amy Pemberton and Nick Blood

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November 2014 Screen International 29

LA STARS OF TOMorrow

Brad Christopher

Tehmina Sunny

actors. I didn’t know how you went about becoming an actor.” He began going to the workshop when he was seven. “We just saw it as a youth club, originally, but as soon as I went I fell in love with it. And kind of without thinking, I knew this was what I wanted to do.” He found his way to London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in west London, graduating six years ago. After drama school he spent a few months going to auditions and ultimately decided to write a play. “I devised this short 15-minute physical theatre piece that we entered into the Old Vic Theatre’s competition, Old Vic New Voices. We won that. At that time the whole idea of getting paid for acting was still a bit of a fantasy.” After finding moderate success in theatre, Blood found a role on the long-running UK police series The Bill playing “a really camp gay fashion designer”. He continues: “I get bored playing stuff that’s too close to home. My attention span is pretty short so I like to vary it up.” Blood views a career in film and television as one that “ebbs and flows” — and he is up for it. He relocated to Los Ange-

30 Screen International November 2014

les and can be seen playing mercenary Lance Hunter on the hit ABC series Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is his first project in the US. He will also be seen in Danny Boyle’s UK television series Babylon, which has its US premiere in 2015 on the Sundance Channel. He has written a feature script with his writing partner, Ben Deery, and he has also written, co-written and directed a slew of short films that he hopes will garner some attention on the festival circuit. “The first one, called The Devil On Each Shoulder, I wrote and co-directed. The one I just directed was written by my writing partner — it’s called Hero. And then we’ve got another that I’ve written, which I’m hoping to direct in the hiatus from shooting Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is in April. So I’m starting to try to get a director showreel together.” When free time presents itself, Blood likes to attend live music events and spend time with friends and family. He says: “I’ve got a gorgeous niece and nephew that I miss a lot being over here.” Agent Steven Brown, ICM Partners (310) 550 4330 Manager Meg Mortimer, Authentic Talent and Literary Management (718) 422 0200

Tehmina Sunny London-born Tehmina Sunny is on a streak of high-profile projects that stem from her dream start in entertainment. Sunny’s first acting job was in Children Of Men for Alfonso Cuaron. Working on that film was more than a first job for her; it was, she says, an irreplaceable learning experience, a veritable film school on set. “Even if I wasn’t in any of the scenes, Alfonso would just let me hang out on set and watch,” says Sunny. “I had no idea how it worked, who did what. I was absolutely clueless about the whole process. It was so great that I was able to sit in a corner and take in what was going on.” Acting was not initially on Sunny’s radar. Her parents made it known early on that acting was not a viable option for their daughter. A strong education would be of paramount importance to her success in life. Sunny recalls: “Coming from an Indian family, it was always pushed that it would be academic subjects. That is what I would get my degree in. That’s

what I would have my job in. So going into acting was a 180-degree turn.” She pursued and excelled in academia. A graduate of the University of Leeds, Sunny studied business marketing and computer science. Fortunately, while at university there were opportunities for her to pursue her interest in the arts without sacrificing her other academic pursuits. It was just over six years ago that UK acting agent Joe Hutton at The BWH Agency asked if he could represent her as an actress. “I thought it was pretty bonkers. I asked him if he was joking. He persuaded me that he thought it would be a good idea and it just transformed my life and opened my eyes to something I wish I did study and I wish I did more when I was younger.” Sunny has a very clear view of the kinds of genres and roles that suit her best. “The genres that I really like are drama and thriller. They are the areas I seem to be put up for as well. It’s the niche that I fit in well. I like characters that are flawed and a little bit confused on a journey.” Living in Los Angeles, Sunny is making her presence known with a string of projects in television and film. Earlier this year she filmed a major part on 24: Live Another Day with Kiefer Sutherland. “I loved working with the team on 24. Just a fantastic team, the storyline was great and I loved the character I played.” She has also appeared in NCIS, Californication, Heroes and The Newsroom. She recently filmed the next instalment of the CSI franchise, the Patricia Arquette-produced CSI: Cyber. “That was great because I’ve always admired her work.” Sunny has also landed a project called Battle Creek from Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan, in which she will star alongside Josh Duhamel and Kal Penn. “It’s been a really great year and very versatile. I’ve been able to step into lots of fun characters.” On the feature side she acted in Roland Joffé’s upcoming epic romance The Lovers. She also has Jorge Garcia’s Running Out Of Time, which goes into production in the beginning of 2015, and is in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign to fund action thriller A Perfect Weapon. Sunny is also trying her hand at another skill. “I’ve found a really great script that I would like to develop and produce, so I’ve collaborated with the fantastic writer who wrote it. I’m taking that on board and putting on a producing hat and seeing how that goes.” Manager Melanie Greene, Affirmative Entertainment (310) 858 3200

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Ceiri Torjussen

Ceiri Torjussen was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He discovered his love of music at an early age. “I started playing the piano and the trumpet when I was about eight. As I got a little older I played in local bands, orchestras and jazz groups — all sorts of ensembles. I started composing when I was 16 or 17,” he says. Torjussen completed his undergraduate studies at the University of York in England, subsequently relocating to the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles to study composition. His first paying job in scoring came shortly after graduating USC, working as an orchestrator for composer Marco Beltrami. “I had been doing a lot of short films for the film-makers at USC. That led me to orchestrating for Beltrami, which allowed me to pay the bills, pay my student debt and other things.” Torjussen’s eclectic musical style was influenced by various genres. “I’m into the classics like Mahler and Stravinsky but I also like bands like Radiohead. I love Squarepusher, Aphex Twin. I’m also a huge jazz fan. Everything from bebop up to the present day.” Torjussen has positioned himself as the go-to composer for documentaries, hip indies and horror genre films. His most recent horror title, The Canal, opened theatrically in the US in October. When working on a film, Torjussen has a very specific approach. He views every film he scores several times, closely examining character and plot, creating a complete picture of the film. “Just to get the vibe of the film,” he explains. “After my solitary viewings, without music, I’ll discuss it with the director to see what he is after. Sometimes there’s a discussion. Often they’re strong on what they want and sometimes they’re not sure and it’s much more of an open question. From then on it’s about telling the story in whatever way it needs to be told.” Torjussen is staying busy. He worked on a documentary that premiered at Vancouver International Film Festival called Becoming Bulletproof, which follows filmmakers creating a Western. He is working on a short film for Disney and another documentary feature about the Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe, which will have its premiere in the first half of next year. For this composer, scoring is all about enhancing the visceral reaction to the film. “In Becoming Bulletproof, the music is reflecting the characters. It’s a lot of emotional music that is set in the scenes.” Contact Wenallt Studios s ceiri@ceiri.com n

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(310) 559 6128

November 2014 Screen International 31

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CHINA TERRITORY FOCUS ■ OVERVIEW ■ NEW MONEY ■ HOT PROJECTS

Gone With The Bullets

THE SMART MONEY W

Fu Jun, Beijing Buyilehu Film and Culture Co Ltd

hile the dust is still settling on Alibaba’s record-breaking IPO, China’s box-office figures continue to boggle. In the first nine months of this year, theatrical revenues increased by 32% to reach $3.55bn, nearly equal to the 2013 full-year total. Nine out of the top 10 films grossed more than $100m. As usual the spoils are almost equally divided between local and foreign films. In addition to the huge success of Trans-

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formers: Age Of Extinction, Hollywood enjoyed hits with X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes. But the distinctions between Chinese and foreign films are becoming increasingly blurred with the exchange of money and talent between the world’s two biggest film markets. In Screen’s third China special, we look at the many forms of Sino-US collaborations from co-productions and sales partnerships

to studio financing deals. We also look at the trends that are shaping domestic production as it gears up for another year-end bumper box office with releases such as Jiang Wen’s Gone With The Bullets and John Woo’s The Crossing. And no trend is bigger than the march into the movie business of China’s internet giants, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. We’ll be hearing a lot more about these digital behemoths. Liz Shackleton, Asia editor

November 2014 Screen International 33

CHINA OVERVIEW

A territory transformed The Chinese market once again proved its might with Transformers 4’s record-setting box office; but beyond the tentpoles are changing trends in finance, audiences and production. Liz Shackleton assesses the state of the industry in 2014

hould Hollywood have needed any more evidence that China is reshaping the global film business, it was delivered in spades this summer in the shape of giant robots and a $200m studio financing deal. First, Paramount’s Transformers: Age Of Extinction stomped across the China market this summer, grossing an astounding $320m, compared to its North American haul of $245m. The film was custom-made for China with local cast, locations and product placement; a format Chinese audiences jokingly refer to as “special delivery to China”. But while it may have made them smile, it didn’t stop them spending money at the local box office. The fourth Transformers film is now the highest-grossing film ever in China, smashing the $220m record set by Avatar in 2010. Around the same time, news broke that a Chinese conglomerate new to the film business, Shanghai-based Fosun International, would be investing $200m in former Warner Bros chief Jeff Robinov’s start-up Studio 8. Earlier talks between Robinov and Huayi Brothers appear to have foundered, although the Beijing-based studio says it may still be involved in Studio 8, possibly in a distribution capacity. The Fosun deal marks the first time a Chinese entity has made a significant investment in a Western film studio, and is unlikely to be the last. These two developments powerfully demonstrate what China has become to the international film business: both a major box-office territory and a potential source of finance for cash-starved studios, new and old. Robinov is not the only former studio chief pounding the streets of Beijing looking for partners, and Lionsgate shareholder Mark Rachesky is understood to be seeking a buyer for his 37% stake in the company, with Alibaba said to be a likely candidate. China is also a chaotic, maturing market, and while it may be developing fast, there are

34 Screen International November 2014

still many factors that can complicate doing business here. Whatever the agenda behind Chinese president Xi Jinping’s on-going crackdown on corruption, some private film companies that may have grown very fast due to political connections are now being investigated and could face major problems in the future. Even the success of Transformers 4 wasn’t without hiccups, with some of the sponsorship and product placement partners on the film attempting to delay its release, claiming they hadn’t been represented in the manner they expected. But the potential gains in this market are too large for anyone to ignore and Transformers 4 has opened the floodgates for similar collaborations. Sponsors aside, Paramount benefited hugely from working closely with its local partners — China Movie Channel, M1905.com and Jiaflix Enterprises — to not only introduce Chinese elements, but also market the film. In a territory where online marketing is everything, Transformers 4 hit all the right digital buttons and started to create noise a year before its release through the casting of local actors via a reality TV show. “We changed the marketing paradigm by blending what works in the China market with Hollywood-style publicity,” says Marc Ganis, cofounder of Jiaflix Enterprises, which oversaw the collaboration. “Working with our Chinese partners, we had a lot more statistics than most people have available to them, so we could track pre-sales and adjust during the run where to put our marketing resources. We could target, not just provinces, but as far down as regions and cities.” Of course, not every film is appropriate for this kind of collaboration, but what’s interesting about China is the many forms that Sino-foreign ventures are starting to take.

Transformers’ Bumblebee in the Qianmen district of Beijing, China

‘In future there will be three kinds of films — bigbudget movies with special effects; films that are closer to our life experience; and films that target a young demographic’ Yu Dong, bona film Group

(Left) Rise Of The Legend

The Continent

Increasingly, these tie-ups reflect the fact China doesn’t only want to be a source of finance and box office; it also wants to get involved in script development, VFX and the other technical aspects of international films. Building tentpoles Rather than bringing an existing franchise to China, Legendary Pictures is developing a Chinese-themed, English-language tentpole, The Great Wall, to be directed by Zhang Yimou. Paramount’s next big-ticket China venture, Marco Polo, to be directed by Rob Cohen, will be much more organically Chinese than Transformers 4, which was classified as an ‘assisted’ rather than ‘full’ co-production. In a similar vein, Dasym Entertainment and Talent International’s action comedy Skiptrace, directed by Renny Harlin and starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville, has

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Alamy

china box office top 10 (jan 1-Sept 30, 2014) Film title

Box office

1 Transformers: Age Of Extinction (US-Chi)

$321.4m (rmb1.98bn)

June 27

2 The Monkey King (Chi-HK)

$169.7m (rmb1.04bn)

Jan 31

3 Breakup Buddies* (Chi)

$157.9m (rmb970.2m)

Sept 30

4 X-Men: Days Of Future Past (US)

$117.6m (rmb722.3m)

May 23

5 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (US)

$117.2m (rmb720m)

Apr 4

6 Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes (US)

$115.8m (rmb711.5m)

Aug 29

7 Where Are We Going, Dad? (Chi)

$113.1m (rmb694.7m)

Jan 31

8 The Breakup Guru (Chi)

$108.1m (rmb664.4m)

June 27

9 The Continent (Chi)

$102.2m (rmb628.2m)

July 24

10 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (US)

$95.2m (rmb584.9m)

May 4

* Still on release

already started shooting at a range of Chinese locations. Chan developed the story of the film, which Dasym’s Charlie Coker describes as the star’s love letter to China. “This is one of the few real co-productions. The story is designed for Chinese audiences but has enough Western elements to appeal internationally,” Coker says. All these projects aim to hit the previously elusive double target of both Chinese and global audiences. But increasingly, foreign studios are also getting involved in Chineselanguage projects, which are primarily targeted at local audiences. DreamWorks Animation’s Shanghai-based joint venture, Oriental DreamWorks, is developing a whole slate of live-action and animated movies with local producers. Sony is an investor in Jiang Wen’s upcoming Gone With The Bullets; Universal recently boarded Wong Fei-hung biopic

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Release

Rise Of The Legend; and Fox aims to continue its string of successful Chinese-language productions with a remake of Bride Wars. But much has changed in the past decade since Warner Bros and Sony first had a crack at Chinese-language production in the early days of the modern Chinese film industry. The more commercial projects do not require overseas financing, so foreign studios have a more difficult time convincing Chinese producers that they add value. And while the market is booming, costs are rising, top talent is scarce and the viewing habits of local audiences are notoriously difficult to track and define. Bona Film Group founder and CEO Yu Dong observes that three strands of production are emerging. “In future there will be three kinds of films — firstly big-budget movies with lots of special effects; secondly films that are closer to our life experience, such as

Source: EntGroup Consulting

‘The market is maturing fast and it’s much more competitive than it was 10 years ago’ Dede Nickerson, Sony Pictures Entertainment China

So Young and American Dreams In China; and finally films that target a young demographic and are released during the summer holidays,” says Yu. “The third kind — films like Tiny Times and The Continent — create a lot of discussion both online and offline, which contributes greatly to their box office.” For overseas studios, the first kind of film offers the most potential for international exploitation, but they may find that local producers are more focused on the second and third types. These films are cheaper to make and even the bad ones can do well at the box office as marketing and distribution has become sophisticated, effective and almost exclusively digital in a short space of time. Audience changes But Dede Nickerson, head of production and strategic development for Sony Pictures Entertainment China, believes that Chinese audiences will start demanding better quality pictures as the market grows. “Audiences are becoming more discerning; if you’re going to spend a significant amount on a ticket, then you have high expectations,” says Nickerson, who brought Sony on board Gone With The Bullets and is developing a slate of Chineselanguage films including remakes of My Best Friend’s Wedding and Flatliners. “The market is maturing fast and it’s much more competitive than it was 10 years ago.” She adds that although the market is big, there is only room for so many $30m blockbusters and the small to medium-budget range is one of the most interesting spaces right now. “We see a larger volume of pictures in this bracket doing well. They’re being effectively marketed and distributed. The market is at the stage where you can’t look at projects as a standalone without considering the marketing and distribution,” Nickerson says. Meanwhile the practice of simply selling films to China on a flat-fee basis, outside of the revenue-sharing quota, is also becoming much more competitive and has recently produced some notable hits. Over the summer, The Expendables 3 grossed $73m, Brick Mansions $30m and Non-Stop $17m. This business is also developing into two-way traffic with a growing number of foreign independents, including IM Global, Arclight Films and Relativity Media also selling Chinese pictures overseas. However, local analyst EntGroup estimates that box office for flat-fee foreign films was down by 42% in 2013, accounting for just 8% of annual box office, which was due partly to the difficulty of securing strong timeslots in an increasingly competitive marketplace. As recent successes demonstrate, this business is also dominated by action titles, particularly with the rise of China’s less sophisticated Tier 3 and 4 markets. It may take time for foreign specialist fare to find a foothold in China, but as the market evolves so fast, it’s worth paying attention to potential entry points and emergs ing methods of distribution. n

November 2014 Screen International 35

Revolutionising content The three internet companies known collectively as BAT are having a major impact on the Chinese film industry. Liz Shackleton reports on what the major players are producing and why they want to sit across the entire value chain

Staff at Alibaba HQ, Hangzhou, celebrate the company’s September debut in US trading

hile China is transforming the global film business, there’s a force within the country that is reshaping its internal film industry: the digital triumvirate of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. Known collectively as BAT, these internet giants emerged from different corners of the digital universe — Baidu from search, Alibaba from ecommerce, and Tencent from its WeChat and QQ messaging platforms and online games — but all three are now diversifying away from their core businesses in an attempt to remain competitive. All three are also moving aggressively into film production. Earlier this year, Alibaba bought out Hong Kong-listed film and TV producer ChinaVision for $804m, later renaming it Alibaba Pictures and installing former China Film Group number two Zhang Qiang as CEO. A few months later, Baidu-owned streaming platform iQiyi announced the launch of iQiyi Motion Pictures, which plans to invest in eight films a year, starting with Jiang Wen’s Gone With The Bullets; rival Youku Tudou, in which Alibaba owns a 16.5% stake, set up Heyi Film; and Tencent announced the launch of film production arm Movie Plus (see sidebar). Alibaba’s film plans hit a speed bump when it discovered “accounting irregularities” at ChinaVision following the acquisition, but has brought in PwC to sort out the issues and is pressing ahead on plans to work with talent such as Wong Kar Wai, Peter Ho-sun Chan

36 Screen International November 2014

and Taiwanese director Giddens Ko. Most recently, the company said it would establish a joint venture with Hengdian World Studios, the huge facility just a few hours away from Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou. “We believe our collaboration will make us more competitive and help raise our game in terms of content innovation, investment, production and distribution,” said Zhang Qiang, when announcing the deal. These new outfits join Le Vision Pictures, the film affiliate of streaming platform LeTV, one of the first Chinese internet companies to see the value in moving upstream in the content value chain. Le Vision, which recently set up offices in Los Angeles, has produced films such as Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home and teamed with Youku Tudou on Old Boys: The Way Of The Dragon, based on a short film that became an internet sensation. Sohu, which also has a streaming platform, has so far been quiet on the production front, but recently acquired a 6.4% stake in Korean talent management company KeyEast. The value of IP Much like Netflix and its other US counterparts, these companies are using original content to attract subscribers and advertisers, scale back on high acquisition costs and achieve economies of scale. “If we have our own IP, we can use the same property to produce movies, TV series, animation and games,” explains iQiyi founder and CEO Gong Yu.

‘We aim to act as a catalyst along each segment of the value chain’ Allen Zhu, Youku Tudou and Heyi Film

These companies plan to work with traditional film studios while they learn the ropes, and eventually want to be involved in every part of the business. “We aim to act as a catalyst along each segment of the value chain,” says Youku Tudou senior vice-president and Heyi Film CEO Allen Zhu. “As a newcomer in this space, we’ll focus on script development, paying equal attention to those incubated on our platform and those from outside partners. We’ll also focus on investment, marketing and product placement.” Most of these companies already excel in film promotion and marketing. Although they’re streaming content through their online platforms, they also handle marketing and sell tickets for theatrical releases — all part of the much-touted online-to-offline (O2O) concept of using the internet to drive sales in physical outlets. According to EntGroup, around 17% of last year’s $3.54bn box office was generated through online purchases, of which two thirds came through mobile phones. And in further echoes of Netflix, these companies are also using ‘big data’ to create content they hope can dominate the market. Youku Tudou mined user comments on the original Old Boys micro movie to find key words that informed the script of the theatrical version, while iQiyi is analysing data to determine casting. “People like us working in this office have two characteristics — we live in big cities and we’re old,” says Gong. “We don’t represent

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Getty

CHINA NEW MONEY

the mainstream audience in China, but big data can help us with that.” After crunching the numbers, iQiyi discovered young TV actors Chen Xiao and Yuan Shanshan have bigger followings than major stars such as Andy Lau and Zhang Ziyi. While that may sound like a game-changer, Yu Dong, founder and CEO of traditional studio Bona Film Group, cautions that film industries can’t be built on data alone. Yu galvanised audiences at Shanghai International Film Festival, where he said “all traditional film companies will work for BAT eventually”. But he also says that “creating content requires the ability to understand art and commerce together. The technology, media and telecoms companies may have enough money to invest in films, but it requires years of experience to create good content.” Impending restrictions China’s new-age movie producers all seem to be hoping they’ll be fast learners. For those whose businesses have been based around streaming, such as Youku, LeTV and iQiyi, diversifying into production could also be a buffer against China’s shifting regulatory sands. China’s streaming business is a mostly ad-supported model — revenues reached $2bn in 2013 and are estimated to rise to almost $6bn by 2017. But there are questions over whether the industry can carve out a subscription model and now the government looks set to place restrictions on what has so far been a relatively free-wheeling sector. A few months ago, international media reported that Chinese authorities are considering a 30% quota on the proportion of foreign TV content allowed on streaming sites. While that hasn’t been confirmed, the government has been much more open about plans to limit the hardware and software that is used to stream content to set-top boxes and internet-enabled TVs. Worryingly for companies that have made big bets on China’s growing smart TV business, video-streaming companies were recently ordered to remove their internet TV apps from online stores. These restrictions are less likely to affect internet giants BAT, as streaming is a tiny part of their empires. But original content — whether they’re streaming, marketing or selling theatre tickets for it — is another tool to draw eyeballs into a digital ecosystem that is increasingly being accessed through smart phones and also includes ecommerce, social media, financial services and online games. Ecommerce is one area where battle lines are being drawn. Alibaba has an 85% share of China’s ecommerce market through its Taobao and Tmall sites — but Baidu recently bought out group-buying site Nu o m i a n d Te n c e n t invested in ecommerce platform JD. Wanda Group, a giant in the bricks-and-mortar

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THE KEY PLAYERS

Alibaba Pictures Group Owned by Alibaba Who to know Zhang Qiang, CEO Alibaba launched its film arm after acquiring Hong Kong-listed film and TV producer ChinaVision. The company plans to produce 8-10 films a year, working with directors such as Wong Kar Wai, Peter Ho-sun Chan and Giddens Ko. It is also setting up a joint venture with Hengdian World Studios.

Heyi Film

Gone With The Bullets

‘If we have our own IP, we can use the same property to produce movies, TV series, animation and games’ Gong Yu, iQiyi

Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of Alibaba

Owned by Youku Tudou Who to know Allen Zhu, CEO The film arm of streaming platform Youku Tudou plans to produce eight theatrical movies and nine internet films in its first year. Projects announced so far include The Master, co-produced with Beijing Century; Bad Sister, directed by Kim Taegyun; and Paris Holiday, co-produced with Hong Kong’s Universe Entertainment. The company is also adapting its web original shows such as Surprise, Yes Boss and Miss Puff for the big screen.

iQiyi Motion Pictures Coming Home

space, which is also ramping up its film investments, recently pacted with both Baidu and Tencent to create an $814m ecommerce venture that aims to drive business to Wanda’s hotels, cinemas and shopping malls. Competition is also heating up in the financial services sector. Both Alibaba and Baidu are raising money for films through China’s own version of crowdfunding — basically insurance products that offer risk-free returns to small investors — although this exercise seems to be more about marketing and preselling movie tickets than raising funds. Internet banking is a bigger game for BAT — Alibaba and Tencent already offer electronic payment systems, some financial services and were recently awarded licences to operate online banks. Ultimately, they want to be involved in every aspect of their consumers’ lives. And when they’ve conquered the Chinese consumer market, will BAT take on the rest of the world? Certainly, they are expected to expand overseas in the film business. Alibaba has already pacted with Lionsgate on a streaming venture and the company’s founder Jack Ma was recently in LA meeting with studio chiefs. With market caps of $226bn and $155bn respectively, Alibaba and Tencent look set to become global companies with the capacity to build global platforms. And when BAT have achieved world domination, they may not be so dependent on that narrow bottleneck called theatrical distribution to export s their films. ■

Owned by iQiyi Who to know Li Yansong, president Launched in July, iQiyi Motion Pictures plans to produce seven Chinese films and one Hollywood movie each year. The company has made an equity investment in Jiang Wen’s Gone With The Bullets, for which it has VoD and gaming rights. It is working with parent company Baidu on areas such as crowdfunding, marketing, ecommerce and online games.

Le Vision Pictures Owned by LeTV Who to know Zhang Zhao, CEO The first film company affiliated to a Chinese streaming platform, Le Vision produces and distributes Chinese films such as Coming Home and the Tiny Times franchise. It’s also developing international co-productions and works with China Film to acquire and handle marketing on foreign films such as The Expendables 2 and 3.

Movie Plus Owned by Tencent Who to know SY Lau, president, online media group Tencent announced in September that it plans to produce four or five films a year, starting with a film version of its QQ racecar online game and an adaptation of Mo Yan’s novel The Treasure Map. Production on the slate is expected to start in 2016.

November 2014 Screen International 37

CHINA HOT TITLES

The next big things From stories of modern romance in Beijing to Justin Lin’s Chinese-language debut and the controversial Crouching Tiger sequel, Liz Shackleton previews some of the hottest films coming out of China

he first half of 2014 was slightly quieter for local productions compared with 2013, which saw a string of midbudget domestic films, often with nostalgic or romantic themes, become huge hits at the China box office. Chinese films had a market share of 48% in the first six months of 2014, compared with 59% overall in 2013. Films that were both critical and commercial hits in the first half included Chen Sicheng’s romantic drama Beijing Love Story, Zhang Yimou’s Coming Home and Leste Chen’s mystery thriller The Great Hypnotist, the latter signalling a fresh trend toward high-quality, genre-oriented fare. Over the summer, youth-oriented films such as Tiny Times 3 and road movie The Continent provided competi-

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend Dir Yuen Woo-Ping Michelle Yeoh has returned to star in The Weinstein Company’s sequel to Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, based on the same series of Wang Dulu novels as the original film. The project recently created a storm of controversy when Netflix announced the film would premiere simultaneously in Imax theatres and on its platform in August 2015. Currently in production in New Zealand and China, it was scripted by John Fusco and also stars Donnie Yen. The Weinstein Company is co-producing with China Film Group and Pegasus Taihe Entertainment.

tion for Hollywood blockbusters. Both films are directed by film-makers with large online followings, which helped propel them to huge box-office results. Tiny Times 3, the latest film in a popular franchise directed by YA novelist Guo Jingming, grossed $82m. The Continent, the directing debut of blogger and rally driver Han Han, took more than $100m. Local productions look set to win

While some local films are making megabucks, the market remains concentrated around a small group of blockbusters

nies including Sparkle Roll Media Corp, Huayi Brothers, Shanghai Film Group, Home Media & Entertainment Fund, Tencent Video and China Film & TV Capital. The film is now in post-production and is being readied for release across Asia on February 19, 2015. Contact Clarence Tang, Golden Network Asia clarence@goldnetasia.com

Dir Wong Jing Chow Yun Fat is reprising his role as a legendary gambler in the sequel to Wong Jing’s From Vegas To Macau, which grossed $85m in mainland China over Chinese New Year. The film also stars Nick Cheung, who plays an IT expert and

accountant for the mob; Shawn Yue, replacing the film’s original co-star Nicholas Tse; and Carina Lau as the love interest. Andrew Lau (Revenge Of The Green Dragons) is also returning to produce the sequel, which is in post-production and scheduled for release over Chinese New Year 2015. Contact Angela Wong, Mega-Vision Project Workshop angelaolwong@ mvphk.biz

Dir Justin Lin Justin Lin, the Taiwan-born director behind the last four Fast & Furious films, is making his Chinese-language debut with this romantic comedy set in Los Angeles. Huang Xiaoming and Tong Dawei star as two best friends competing for the affections of a woman played by Vicky Zhao Wei. Currently in production, the film is co-produced by Beijing Enlight Pictures and Seven Stars Entertainment.

Dragon Blade Dir Daniel Lee

38 Screen International November 2014

From Vegas To Macau 2

ria. China-France co-production Wolf Totem, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, has been pushed back to early next year. While some local films are making mega-bucks, the market remains concentrated around a relatively small group of blockbusters. According to a recent China Film Association report, around half of the 600-plus films produced in China each year never reach the big screen. Although many film industries around the world might envy the money flooding into Chinese film production, it has also resulted in rapidly rising costs and projects that start shooting before they’ve been properly developed. However, as the list below demonstrates, a growing number of local productions are achieving technical excellence and tapping into local, as well as international, market tastes.

Hollywood Adventures

Contact The Weinstein Company international@weinsteinco.com

John Cusack and Adrien Brody star alongside Jackie Chan in this $65m epic action film, inspired by historical records of a missing legion of Roman soldiers that travelled to China. The film has been touted as the most expensive Chinese production of all time and has pulled together financing from compa-

back further market share in the fourth quarter; hits over the recent National Day holiday period (October 1-7) included Peter Ho-sun Chan’s child kidnap drama Dearest and Ning Hao’s road trip comedy Breakup Buddies. Meanwhile, Roy Chow’s Rise Of The Legend, starring Eddie Peng as martial artist Wong Fei-hung, is scheduled to open on November 21. In addition, three highly anticipated big-budget films are scheduled to open in December: John Woo’s star-studded romantic epic The Crossing (December 2); Jiang Wen’s Gone With The Bullets (December 18), set amid a courtesan pageant in 1920s Shanghai; and Tsui Hark’s 3D spy movie The Taking Of Tiger Mountain (December 24), about the battle of wits between a small military unit and a gang of bandits in 1940s Manchu-

Contact Zhang Yamin, Enlight Pictures zhangyamin@ewang.com

Love On The Cloud Dir Gu Changwei Dragon Blade

Angelababy and Chen He star in this romantic drama that revolves around a

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Women Who Flirt

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend

Love On The Cloud

group of aspiring film directors and actresses, and examines the impact instant messaging and social media are having on modern romance in Beijing. Produced by Huayi Brothers, the film is being readied for release in December. Gu Changwei previously directed Aidsthemed romantic drama Til Death Do Us Part (2011) and arthouse dramas And The Spring Comes (2007) and Peacock (2005).

the crew includes production designer Yohei Taneda (Kill Bill: Vol 1) and costume designer Yee Chung Man (Curse Of The Golden Flower).

Contact IM Global com

In production in China’s Shanxi province, the feature debut of young mainland Chinese film-maker Larry Yang is based on Ge Shuiping’s award-winning novel set in a remote village in the Taihang Mountains. When a husband and father who is new to the village dies suddenly, the villagers get to know his mute widow, who has the power to tell her story wordlessly. Co-produced by Hairun Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, the film stars Lang Yueting and Wang Ziyi, who both appear in Johnnie To’s upcoming Design For Living. The script won

info@imglobalfilm.

Monster Hunt Dir Raman Hui After gaining fame as a supervising animator and lead character designer for films such as Antz and the Shrek franchise, Raman Hui is making his Chinese-language, live-action feature directorial debut with this $30m 3D fantasy adventure. Bai Baihe, Kai Ko, Eric Tsang and Sandra Ng head the cast of the film about a monster king who tries to bring about unity between monsters and humans. Edko Films is producing and

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Contact Julian Chiu, Edko Films chiujulian@edkofilms.com.hk

Mountain Cry

the prize for best artistic potential at Beijing International Film Festival’s Pitch and Catch event. Contact Victoria Hong, Hairun Media victoria@hairunmedia.com

The Sword Master Dir Derek Yee

Dir Larry Yang

The cast of Hollywood Adventures

Hong Kong director Derek Yee’s first 3D project is based on wuxia novelist Gu Long’s classic work about an elite swordsman who is haunted by his skill and forced to fight a challenger who is determined to take his place at all costs. Bona Film Group and Yee’s Film Unlimited are producing with another leading Hong Kong film-maker, 3D pioneer Tsui Hark, on board as producer. Lin Gengxin, Peter Ho, Jiang Yiyan and Jiang Mengjie head the cast. The film is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2015 and the property is also being developed as a TV series. Contact Virginia Leung, Distribution Workshop virginia@ distributionworkshop.com

Women Who Flirt Dir Pang Ho Cheung Set in Taiwan and Shanghai, the latest romantic comedy from Pang Ho Cheung

(Love In A Puff, Love In The Buff) tells the story of a besotted graduate who has lessons in flirting so she can take her friendship with a former classmate to the next level. Huang Xiaoming and Zhou Xun head the cast of the Huayi Brothers production, which is currently in post-production and scheduled for release in late November. Contact IM Global com

info@imglobalfilm.

Zhong Kui: Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal Dir Zhao Tianyu Hong Kong’s Peter Pau is serving as producer, DoP and VFX supervisor on this big-budget 3D fantasy adventure starring Chen Kun and Li Bingbing. The film is produced by Desen International Media, which brought on board 3D stereographer Vincent E Toto (Dredd), Weta Workshop for character and set design, and Korea’s Macrograph for visual effects. Village Roadshow Pictures Asia, Warner Bros Pictures and Beijing-based Enlight Pictures have also signed on as co-financiers. Release is scheduled for February 19, 2015 over Chinese New Year. Contact Derek Huang, Desen International Media dingister@ s yahoo.com ■

November 2014 Screen International 39

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SCREENTECH ■ PADDINGTON VFX

Ben Whishaw voices the bear

Paddington co-stars Nicole Kidman

The perfect Paddington Expectations don’t come much higher than bringing family favourite Paddington to life. Director Paul King and the Framestore creatives tell Neal Romanek how they made the loveable bear fit for the big screen

our assignment: put one of the most beloved creations in UK children’s literature on the big screen. But be warned, everyone has their own favourite version of this character: some are devoted to the book’s original illustrations, others prefer the big stuffed toy versions they got for Christmas, still others argue for the 1970s stop-motion TV incarnation. And one last thing, audiences have never been less forgiving of sub-par visual effects than they are today. “There have been lots of different Paddingtons. People have different ones that are close to their hearts depending on what they grew up with,” says Paul King, director of StudioCanal’s Paddington, the first bigscreen appearance of Michael Bond’s famous talking bear. “It’s been a bit of a dream come true to work on something like this, which meant so much to me as a child.” King, whose past work includes directing UK cult comedy hit The Mighty Boosh, realised he was negotiating difficult terrain in creating a film version of the beloved bear. Oscar-winning visual-effects powerhouse Framestore was the company tasked with bringing Paddington to life. “We went back to Peggy Fortnum, the artist who illustrated the books originally,” says King. “She’s a sublime talent and her drawings capture such movement. Our Paddington is more of an alive character and more of a bear cub than the old television or toy Paddington bears, which seemed to evolve into more of a teddy bear.” King’s development of the character of Paddington with Framestore was a long pro-

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cess that included hours of study of both real bear cubs and the Paddington illustrations by Fortnum (who turns 95 in December). The challenge King had set Framestore was to concoct a completely realistic bear that would retain the same charm and vitality as Fortnum’s illustrated Paddington. “For a live-action film, I felt it was important for our bear to feel like a real bear, or as much like a real bear as possible. There’s a difficulty because a line drawing can capture movement and you can cheat. But for a three-dimensional character to be believable, you can’t do that kind of thing. So while we tried to stay faithful to the old ideas, we had to find a more realistic shape.” Bear necessities Framestore has a reputation for quality character animation. The company has excelled at making unreal characters real, with recent credits that include the scene-stealing Rocket Raccoon of Guardians Of The Galaxy and polar bears from The Golden Compass. “It’s not just a case of making it look photo-real, it’s a case of bringing that emotion out,” says Framestore’s Charles Howell, Paddington’s visual-effects producer. “It’s a case of the complexity of the rigging of his face and of his muscles to make sure his movement is believable to give the animators the opportunity to portray the sweetness of Paddington. “It takes huge amounts of craft from a number of different disciplines — it’s animators, it’s riggers, it’s people who simulate fur, it’s people who paint skin textures, it’s people who light him. It’s a whole

‘It’s Boudu Saved From Drowning, but with a bear instead of a tramp’ Paul King, director

BY THE NUMBERS ■ Total VFX shots

1,003 (862 excluding omits) ■ Total Paddington shots 651 (526 excluding omits) ■ Total number of VFX crew 500 ■ Countries of production UK and Canada

range of people that go into creating one character.” Colin Firth had originally been cast as the voice of Paddington but dropped out of the project of his own volition, believing he was not the right personality for the character. Ben Whishaw was Firth’s replacement and reference material of both actors’ performances was employed in helping craft Paddington’s character. The third part of Paddington’s personality was provided by acclaimed comedy performer Javier Marzan, who provided the physical comedy in the bear’s performance. “It was a collage of these three performers. Then the animators were able to bring more on top of that,” says Pablo Grillo, the film’s animation director. “The performance of Paddington was developed as a hybrid of parts and we did use a lot of references. “Paul is someone who is passionate and very particular about performance,” Grillo continues. “It was fantastic watching him work with the actors and in turn working with us in crafting the performances in fine detail. I think he grew to love the process of animation because he found that you’re very much able to engineer and control each of those beats in a performance.” “I’ve always thought that Paddington is a sort of Oliver Twist type character,” says King. “He’s a stowaway and he’s always a bit messy. I didn’t want that clean, cartoony CG feel that you sometimes get. I wanted him to feel livedin and a bit crumpled and have that feeling of bringing a stranger into your house. It’s kind of Boudu Saved From Drowning, but s with a bear instead of a tramp.” ■

November 2014 Screen International 41

REVIEWS Highlights of the month’s new films in Review. For full reviews coverage, see Screendaily.com

LFF Reviews in brief War Book Dir Tom Harper. UK. 2014. 95mins

A gripping and rather thrilling drama, UK title War Book is a beautifully cast movie that blends political thrills with a clash of personalities. It is ultimately a tense “what if…” story that could leave its audiences with sleepless nights but also appreciative of this striking story. War Book is the sort of emotive drama that might once have been a piece of high-brow television, while its oneroom setting also lends itself to the stage, as nine people — civil servants, a minister and a senior adviser — gather to shape policy in the event of an international nuclear attack. Director Harper and screenwriter Jack Thorne make the constricted structure crackle with thoughts, ideas and passion. Mark Adams CONTACT K5 INTERNATIONAL info@k5mediagroup.com BFI London film festival

Monsters: Dark Continent Dir Tom Green. UK. 2014. 116mins

In this bigger budget — yet still economical — sequel to Gareth Edwards’ near-homemade indie sci-fi hit Monsters, the action shifts to North African deserts. The genre template is the gritty, antiheroic war movie, with nods to Platoon, Jarhead and The Hurt Locker, but here the hapless GIs have to contest with IEDs as well as ETs. The performances of a mostly British cast are vivid and impressive, with especially fine work from Johnny Harris and Nicholas Pinnock. The Monsters films represent a strong, distinctively British science-fiction franchise that is likely to yield further sequels. Kim Newman CONTACT PROTAGONIST PICTURES www.protagonistpictures.com

Marc Quinn — Making Waves Dir Gerry Fox. UK. 2014. 82mins

A stripped-down, one-man documentary about UK artist Marc Quinn (whose work includes Alison Lapper Pregnant), Making Waves tracks the former YBA for a year as he trots around the globe making and promoting his art. While it lacks a narrative arc that might push it into wider exposure, Making Waves is fascinating and, with some judicious trimming, should enjoy healthy international arts-channel exposure. Director Fox, formerly with TV’s The South Bank Show, has a wealth of experience in this arena. For anyone interested in the world of modern art and sculpture, Making Waves makes oddly compelling viewing. Fionnuala Halligan CONTACT GERALD FOX

+44 779 884 4761

42 Screen International November 2014

Testament Of Youth Dir James Kent. UK. 2014. 129mins

Honour and duty are sentiments writ large over Testament Of Youth, writer Vera Brittain’s memoirs of the First World War. And these are forces strongly at play in James Kent’s dignified film adaptation, released to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of hostilities. Just as the 1979 BBC TV series introduced a new generation to Brittain, so should this film; her spirit shines through it. The loss of a generation of able young men was devastating in life and on the page, and loses none of its impact on screen, channelled through Alicia Vikander’s central performance and a strong supporting cast in a well-judged, moving production. Testament Of Youth should resonate strongly in the UK, where it will surely draw awards attention for Vikander, Kent (previously known for his TV work) and its craft team, in particular the work of the costume department. International exposure for this pedigree British production will depend on whether it can catch the imagination of audiences, particularly in the US. It’s a heart-breaker. Writer Juliette Towhidi has approached the task (and its deadline, which undoubtedly loomed over the production) with courage and restraint. This is a respectful affair, with few jarring notes, although the chronology of some of Vera’s nursing work has been altered, causing a little imbalance. The film benefits greatly from Vikander’s sympathetic, nuanced performance and a strong supporting cast, including an almost-unrecognisable Kit Harington, newcomer Taron Egerton (a Screen 2014 Star of Tomorrow, and Emily Watson and Dominic West as Brittain’s parents.

Testament Of Youth is, at 129 minutes, an ask. Audiences will know there is a price to pay for the first hour of cream teas, gilded youth, pink peonies and poetic dreaming. An untutored Vera wins her place at Somerville College, Oxford, where she will be taught by Miss Lorimer (Miranda Richardson). Her 18-year-old brother Edward (Egerton) and his friends Roland Leighton (Harington) and Victor (Colin Morgan) graduate from Uppingham and look forward to their bright, sunlit futures. Vera and Roland fall in love but a newspaper headline declares: “Archduke shot: Austria in turmoil.” Everyone is agreed, however, that war will be over by Christmas. “Now that it’s here, I have a dust and ashes feeling about it,” says Roland. When the blow does come, director Kent has the wisdom to muffle it: he shows a steady hand in the face of the coming onslaught and a confidence in Vera’s perspective, which he retains faithfully. He also displays some deft touches and the impact of the first deaths are cumulative, almost underplayed. Vera and her friends were writers and dreamers in a generation that gave us the great war poets, and Towhidi and Kent work hard to retain their lyricism. Testament Of Youth pummels the viewer with the pain and futility of war. It is a sad, sad film about the tragic loss of a generation, but the thought of Brittain moving through the years to deliver her message afresh is somehow a consolation in its final rallying cry. Fionnuala Halligan CONTACT PROTAGONIST PICTURES www.protagonistpictures.com

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Trash

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LFF Reviews in brief The Silent Storm Dir/scr Corinna McFarlane. UK. 2014. 98mins

Damian Lewis and Andrea Riseborough unleash their thunder on The Silent Storm, McFarlane’s well-intentioned feature debut, which shot on the remote Scottish island of Mull. There is plenty of scenery for the actors to chew but McFarlane’s story, about the fraught relationship between a minister, his wife and a troubled delinquent, is too frail to stand up to the tempest she has created. An over-wrought score, filled with choral foreboding, further adds to the apocalyptic sense of a film that has slipped its moorings and may be headed for the rocks. Fionnuala Halligan CONTACT WESTEND FILMS

info@westendfilms.com

Kung Fu Jungle Dir Teddy Chen. HK-Chi. 2014. 100mins BFI London film festival

Fury Dir/scr David Ayer. US. 2014. 134mins

The tone of the Second World War drama Fury is familiar but writer-director David Ayer brings to it his own rhythm. The umpteenth story about a ragtag group of US soldiers fighting the Nazis, Fury is strongest when it casts a weary, unemotional eye on the moral ambiguity that blossoms in such a barren, bloody landscape. That does not mean it is a particularly groundbreaking achievement but some nicely barebones performances, particularly from Brad Pitt, keep the film grimly riveting and thoughtful even when conventionality takes hold. Fury will require Pitt’s star power to sell a film that, while a war movie, is a little more subdued than genre fans may hope. That said, it is still appreciably violent, especially in the closing section when our outnumbered heroes take on an entire German unit. Ultimately, the question will be whether there is an appetite for a Second World War movie that often evokes other, more striking combat films such as Saving Private Ryan or even Inglourious Basterds. A $23.5m opening weekend in the US suggests there is a market. The film focuses on the final throes of the war: it is April 1945, and Wardaddy (Pitt) is leading his tank crew deep into German territory. Alongside the religious Boyd (Shia LaBeouf), uncouth Grady (Jon Bernthal) and taciturn Gordo (Michael Pena), Wardaddy is now joined by Norman (Logan Lerman), a younger man who recently joined the military but was never trained for combat, let alone working inside a tank. One of the refreshing elements of the film is that Ayer (End Of Watch) deglamourises the combat. Wardaddy and his squadron are not engaged in a noble or

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exciting mission: as they have for years, they are just moving to their next location so they can kill more Nazis in the hopes of ending this damn war. There is a stripped-down, almost blasé resignation to Ayer’s treatment of life as the conflict prepares to wrap up. Consequently, for a film called Fury, the story is actually muted: the crush of military rigmarole and the seemingly endless procession of missions consciously tamping down the excitement inherent in war movies. In Ayer’s previous films he has shown an interest in dramatising the ways men interact with one another in high-pressure jobs, particularly police work. He understands the complexity of macho bonding, as well as the testosterone overkill that can poison such relationships. But his great work exploring the codes of male behaviour is unfortunately mitigated by cardboard characters. In essence, Fury’s tank crew consists of The Stoic Leader, The Religious Guy, The Psycho Hothead, The New Kid and The Non-Descript Non-White One. Ayer pays homage to archetypes so musty that it is doubly disappointing when he fails to subvert our expectations. Also, a formulaic plotline gradually asserts itself, pushing Fury towards cliché. The film builds to an Alamo-like showdown between Wardaddy’s men and a heavily armed Nazi squadron, and while Ayer stages the battle effectively, the leanness of his execution cannot distract from the fact we have seen this sort of last stand on film many times before. Tim Grierson CONTACT QED INTERNATIONAL

www.qedintl.com

Just to be clear about this pacy and exciting martial-arts thriller, there is absolutely no jungle involved — not in the traditional sense. A concrete jungle or metaphorical one perhaps, but Chen’s impressively staged action romp stays close to Hong Kong as it charts its bloody, brutal and breezy story of two martial-arts masters caught up in a battle of skills and wills. The boxoffice power of Donnie Yen (who also serves as action director) and Wang Baoqiang (star of massive Chinese hit Lost In Thailand) combined with the sizzling martial-arts action should see it to success in the region. Yen’s profile from the Ip Man films could also move international distributors and other film festivals. Mark Adams CONTACT EMPEROR MOTION PICTURES www.emp.hk

The Falling Dir/scr Carol Morley. UK. 2014. 102mins

A dreamy and often delirious dark comedy/ psychological drama set in the late 1960s about a strange outbreak of mass hysterical fainting at a British girls’ school, Morley’s The Falling confirms her growing reputation and is the perfect platform for young UK acting talent in the form of Maisie Williams and newcomer Florence Pugh. Its self-conscious, leftfield oddness creates a murky atmosphere that relishes the sexual tension and longing that define the film. But while intriguing and refreshingly strange, The Falling often takes itself a little too seriously when becoming even more weird and bizarre might have been the right move. Mark Adams CONTACT INDEPENDENT FILM CO www.independentfilmcompany.com

November 2014 Screen International 43

REVIEWS

lff Reviews in brief Yellowbird Dir Christian De Vita. Fr. 2014. 89mins

Yellowbird is the first feature animation from the independent French studio TeamTO, which has until now focused on children’s television. Together with Haut Et Court, TeamTO has assembled a cast of international animators and voice talent to fly Yellowbird into the increasingly sophisticated arena of children’s feature animation. Focusing on an orphaned bird who must find the courage to lead a migration to Africa, Yellowbird has been formatted for international travel. Aimed at a very young audience, which will compare it unfavourably with Rio, it has the stiffness of European cartoons such as The Enchanted Forest, Animals United or Valiant, as opposed to the loose craziness of an Aardman production. It is a timid approach and twitchers will probably look to find Yellowbird working best on the holiday TV schedules. Fionnuala Halligan CONTACT SC INTERNATIONAL fumie@scfilmsinternational.com BFI London film festival

Robot Overlords Dir Jon Wright. UK. 2014. 88mins

An ambitious UK sci-fi adventure aimed at the family marketplace, Robot Overlords is an engaging action romp that moves at a nice pace but eventually is rather let down by effects that are compromised by the film’s low-budget origins. More in the vein of Doctor Who than Transformers, the casting of Gillian Anderson and Ben Kingsley helps to give the film a marketing edge though expectations will have to be managed for the film to break out. Robot Overlords is engagingly old-fashioned in form and structure, and is very much a film about youngsters taking control, fitting it more into the bracket of Explorers or The Goonies than an adult-orientated sci-fi effort. Mark Adams CONTACT EMBANKMENT FILMS www.embankmentfilms.com

Radiator Dir Tom Browne. UK. 2013. 93mins

Radiator is a small, tender, yet pleasingly acerbic film driven by an affecting lead performance from 87-year-old actor Richard Johnson — who should be an awards natural for those who can bear the darkly touching truthfulness of his performance. Shot for a mere $230,000 in the Lake District and London, Radiator faces a distribution hurdle due to its no-frills filming style coupled with a subject matter of elderly, not-entirely-sympathetic parents. The fact Eon’s Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli serve as executive producers may help. This is a thoughtful and often poetic film, with a truthful, off-key ring that makes it all the more poignant despite its cheery tone. Radiator deserves to be seen even if it is on a small scale. Fionnuala Halligan CONTACT GENEVIEVE STEVENS gen.stevens@gmail.com

44 Screen International November 2014

Serena Dir Susanne Bier. US. 2014. 106mins

There was a time when the logging drama was a staple of Hollywood output and there is undoubtedly an engagingly old-fashioned melodramatic quality to Danish director Susanne Bier’s star-heavy Serena. But despite the casting of Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, and the lush heightened drama that defines the film, there will nevertheless be more talk about why it has been sat on the shelf since it wrapped back in 2012. Which, to a certain extent, is a shame because the film is rather watchable, defined by impressive performances, striking production design and lustrous cinematography. As a tall tale of ambition, passion, jealousy, violence and tragedy — set largely against the backdrop of a remote logging camp in 1926 just as the Depression is taking hold — Serena is engaging enough. However, it spirals towards an increasingly heightened melodramatic climax that ultimately never sits easily alongside the more balanced storyline of the first two-thirds of the film. Adapted from Ron Rash’s 2008 novel, the story pitches straight into the rough lumber-camp life, where we soon see that logging baron George Pemberton (Cooper) is a determined but fair guy (he saves a logger from certain death within the first 10 minutes). Despite financial problems he is keen to carry on with his ambitious plans, but after a detour to ‘civilisation’ he is immediately entranced by Serena (Lawrence). She is a free and equally determined spirit but finds her match in George. Before you know it, the pair are married and heading back to his lumber camp in North Carolina — luckily she comes from Colorado lumber stock, though her family all died in a fire. Her arrival is met with dismissal by George’s business partner Buchanan (David Dencik) and bemusement by George’s heavily preg-

nant once-lover Rachel (impressive Romanian actress Ana Ularu). But Serena is one tough cookie; happy to face up to Buchanan and dismiss Rachel, telling George that “nothing that happened before even exists”. A fine sentiment but things don’t go well. Local sheriff McDowell (Toby Jones) is taking an environmental stance and is sniffing round bribes paid by George to officials; Serena loses a baby in a miscarriage; the banks threaten to withhold money and the loggers are being bitten by rattlesnakes. Plus George starts to take an interest in Rachel’s baby, much to the annoyance of the increasingly unhinged Serena. Things do head off into melodramatic territory as Serena bonds with moody hunter Galloway (a gloomy Rhys Ifans) who starts to act as her loyal henchman/ killer. There is a poorly staged fight scene on a train and a final climax that features arson and a panther attack but this final third feels too hectic and mannered, and verges on hysterical as the bodies start to fall and Serena’s mental instability takes over. But the sheer intensity makes it all rather watchable in a loopy soap opera sort of way, with Lawrence especially having a fine old time as a Golden Age femme fatale: all flowing blonde hair, slinky nightdress and bright red lipstick. Bradley Cooper’s role is less showy but his solid charm works well here and he convinces as a determined outdoorsman in the mould of John Wayne or Clark Gable. The real strength of Serena, though, is the stunning cinematography by Morten Soborg and the perfect costume and production design that help reinforce the film’s old-fashioned mood. Mark Adams CONTACT STUDIOCANAL

www.studiocanal.com

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rome Reviews in brief The Lies Of The Victors Dir Christoph Hochhäusler. Ger-Fr. 2014. 112mins

Hochhäusler’s film is a tasty, intelligent, humourtinged political newsroom thriller with a stylishly jaded world view. It premiered at Rome but could easily have made the cut in a bigger festival with a penchant for artsy genre fare. Though some local political targets and current-affairs references will be lost, upscale cineaste audiences should respond well even outside of Germany. The film’s core theme is reminiscent of series five of The Wire, as created by David Simon, whose terse summary of that wrap season could well serve as a logline for this Berlin-set drama: “It’s about what stories get told and what don’t and why it is that things stay the same.” Lee Marshall CONTACT THE MATCH FACTORY info@matchfactory.de

As The Gods Will Dir Takashi Miike. Jap. 2014. 117mins Rome film festival

Trash Dir Stephen Daldry. UK-Braz. 2014. 113mins

An entertaining and fascinating blend of Hollywood storytelling and Brazilian energy, Stephen Daldry’s Trash may well have the sheen of a classy foreignlanguage arthouse film (the involvement of Fernando Meirelles’ 02 Filmes shines through) but its beating heart is the classy combination of Daldry’s astute filmmaking skills and unique ability to bring the best out of his young child stars, and a savvy script from Richard Curtis (adapted into Brazilian-Portuguese by Felipe Braga). The Universal release, which had its world premiere as closer of Rio Film Festival and also screened at the Rome Film Festival, is an engagingly freewheeling romp through the grittier side of Brazil, focusing on political corruption and police brutality as it weaves its story of a handful of slum kids who come across information that could bring down a corrupt official. It will be a challenge for Universal’s marketing machine — this is no kids’ film given the violence involved — but good reviews and word of mouth could see it click with discerning audiences. The casting of Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara should help US awareness while Brazilian stars Wagner Moura and Selton Mello will pique Latin American interest but in truth the strength of the film lies with the three young performers. The film opens in pure City Of God style with one of the kids, Raphael (Rickson Tevis), staring down the barrel of an automatic, before the story jumps back several days to explain how the sticky situation was reached. Jose Angelo (Moura) is seen at a cemetery with a coffin for his daughter, busy writing notes and placing items in his wallet. Later his flat is raided by police but he manages to throw the wallet on to a passing garbage truck. He is tortured and killed by police but they realise what he has done and start to search rubbish dumps.

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Raphael finds the wallet and shares the cash with his friend Gardo (Eduardo Luis) but when the police come around offering a reward they decide to hang on to it for a few days hoping the reward might increase. The pair also show the wallet to their sewer-dwelling pal Rato (Gabriel Weinstein), who recognises a key as belonging to lockers at the train station. There they find a piece of paper and some kind of code. They head home to sneak into the house of priest Father Julliard (Sheen), so they can use his computer to find more about the names in the letter. Tough police inspector Frederico (Mello) suspects the boys are lying and in a rather brutal sequence injures Raphael and orders him killed, but his underlings cannot be bothered to do his dirty work. The plot thickens as the youngster overhears mention of mayoral candidate Antonio Santos (Stepan Nercessian) and his corrupt campaign. Things get rather complex as the boys — with the help of Olivia (Mara) — have to try and talk to a jailed relative of Angelo; infiltrate Santos’s beachside estate and decipher a code that will eventually reveal the truth behind what Angelo was up to. It all turns out to involve $4m in payoff money and more importantly Santos’s stolen ledger detailing who is paying him bribes. Daldry keeps things pacy and energetic, with the film interspersed with a direct-to-camera video the boys make, helping refocus the story when things look in danger of getting too complicated. Astutely, the director never resorts to using Rio de Janeiro as a simple filmic backdrop and elicits splendid performances from his three teenage leads who are brimming with energy and charisma. Mark Adams CONTACT UNIVERSAL PICTURES

The teen ‘death game’ genre splattered across our screens with Battle Royale before eventually becoming sanitised and Hollywood-ised in The Hunger Games franchise. Now it receives the Miike treatment: and who better than the prolific cult director to turn a violent, garish but also cannily emo last-man-standing manga into a violent, garish, cannily emo live-action film. He is clearly working here with a slightly larger budget than normal, though it is not one that stretches to 3D. Despite a mid-term drag, there is no denying the schlocky appeal of some of the set pieces. This is cinematic umami and part of the enjoyment, after that wild, body-strewn first scene, is simply seeing what the director, scriptwriter, production designer and CGI technicians will come up with next (the answer at one point being an evil windsurfing polar bear). Lee Marshall CONTACT TOHO CO

tohointl@toho.co.jp

Last Summer Dir Leonardo Guerra Seragnoli. It. 2014. 94mins

Rarely has high summer been as gelid as it is in first-time Italian director Seragnoli’s pseudothriller Last Summer, which premiered in the curious ghetto of the Italian Perspective sidebar at Rome Film Festival. With Fortissimo selling and Oscar-nominated Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi taking the lead role as a mother who is given a few days on a luxury yacht to say goodbye to her young son after losing a custody battle, one might have expected a bigger festival splashdown for this English and Japanese-language title. In the end it is a small family drama, a dinghy of a story hiding in a yacht of a package and it will take a good captain to steer the film to much sustained theatrical action. Lee Marshall CONTACT FORTISSIMO FILMS info@fortissimo.nl

November 2014 Screen International 45

REVIEWS

Busan Reviews in brief Revivre Dir Im Kwon-taek. S Kor. 2014. 93mins

Following a number of disappointments in recent years such as Hanji (2011) and Beyond The Years (2007), prolific South Korean film-maker Im returns to form with his 102nd film, Revivre. Although he remains committed to conveying parts of Korean culture, the veteran director’s latest feature appears to be an attempt, and a successful one, to bridge this desire with a less realist aesthetic, but does so in a form that retains his strong craftsmanship. One of Im’s signature traits is to adopt a non-linear narrative and disrupt the timeline, and so the film begins by revealing the death of a respected company vice-president’s wife who had been suffering from a brain tumour, but soon moves back in time to her diagnosis, and the unwavering care her husband administers as the woman’s condition worsens. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT FINECUT CO LTD

www.finecut.co.kr

Gangster Pay Day Dir Lee Po Cheung. HK-Chi. 2014. 97mins

Less concerned with visual spectacle and actionorientated Hong Kong cinema, Gangster Pay Day is more focused on melodrama, with a dash of humour, invoking a sense of nostalgia for the 1980s and ’90s when the genre was more popular. With no guns in sight, it will naturally disappoint those searching for an action-packed narrative, but Gangster Pay Day succeeds on its own terms with a compelling and entertaining portrayal of the city. Refusing to use the iconic Hong Kong city backdrop or even shoot much footage on the city streets, director and co-writer Lee (Single Blog) sets much of the story in enclosed spaces such as a teahouse, thereby providing an interesting portrait of a city built on relationships between the main and supporting roles. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT STAR ALLIANCE MOVIES (UK) CO LTD www.staralliancemovies.com

End Of Winter Dir Kim Dae-hwan. S Kor. 2014. 102mins

Korean films and television dramas dealing with the trials and tribulations of family life can often be dramatic affairs, but Kim’s impressive and dispassionate debut feature, End Of Winter, tackles such issues with a sensible sense of restraint — but with a rich yet subtle aesthetic — as it follows a family on the verge of turmoil after the father suddenly announces he wants a divorce. Without suitable closure or a climactic scene that reveals the family’s hidden troubles, it may disappoint some viewers. But those seeking a more absorbing tale of family meltdown that refuses to conform to the traditions of the melodrama are more likely to embrace the film. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT LOTTE ENTERTAINMENT www.lotteent.com

46 Screen International November 2014

Busan International film festival

Brotherhood Of Blades Dir Lu Yang. Chi. 2014. 106mins

A flowing and nuanced period actioner packed with terrific fight scenes and eschewing overused wire-work, Lu Yang’s Brotherhood Of Blades is engagingly complex (as are so many similar Chinese period films) but comfortable to follow and embrace, and certainly one of the best costume Chinese action films for a while. For a change, virtually all of its characters are driven by money rather than honour, giving it a novel spin and oddly makes its characters more realistic and sympathetic. The backdrop of sword-wielding heroes taking on the Ming’s dastardly secret police may well be familiar to fans of wuxia cinema, but the film — which opened in China in August and screened at Busan International Film Festival — is smartly constructed as it focuses on fights and drama with only occasional sidesteps to gentle melodrama. It avoids base humour, which should make it more accessible to international audiences who like their Chinese period action films tough and stylish. Set in the 1620s, the backdrop of the story is the fall of Wei Zhongxian, head eunuch and head of the imperial assassins, who had been in control of the Imperial court for eight years but lost his power during the rise of Emperor Chongzhen. The story of Brotherhood Of Blades focuses on three imperial assassins commissioned to track down and kill Wei and his followers. The poorly paid threesome are Shen Lian (Taiwanese star Chang Chen), who needs money to buy the freedom of a beautiful courtesan; gloomy head assassin Lu Jianxing (Wang Qianyuan) who is paying bribes to secure a promotion; and fresh-faced, though ill, Jin Yichuan (TV actor Ethan Li), who is paying off a blackmailer while tentatively romancing a doctor’s daughter. Chang and Wang especially are good as mature fighters driven by outside forces (Li’s role is the more tradi-

tional part of the genial younger man), and when their decisions see them caught up between Wei’s killers and manipulated members of the imperial assassins their sense of brotherhood shines through as the film spirals through an impressive series of action scenes and ends in an appropriately dark and oddly moving climax. Of the supporting cast, Taiwan’s Chin Shih-chieh has fun as the snarlingly evil Wei; Cecilia Liu is charming as the courtesan Zhou Miaotong, caught between the love of two men, and Zhou Yiwei is striking as the arrogant blackmailer who has to make some tough decisions. The only disappointing role is Dani Zhu’s thinly drawn daughter of the local doctor — she is given little to do but simper and be threatened. The film’s action scenes are impressively staged — favouring old-fashioned close-up bludgeoning swordplay and martial arts — resulting in a memorable and classy action film that may lack the star names but makes up for it with stylish fight sequences. Mark Adams CONTACT IM GLOBAL

www.imglobalfilm.com

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Busan Reviews in brief A Midsummer’s Fantasia Dir/scr Jang Kun-jae. S Kor-Jap. 2014. 96mins

South Korean independent auteur Jang (Sleepless Night) produces another understated and at times brilliant feature, teaming up with Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase (Still The Water) who acts as one of the film’s producers. Some audiences, however, might struggle with the protracted narrative. Given their respective styles, A Midsummer’s Fantasia adopts a realist aesthetic while mimicking Kawase’s enigmatic, documentary-like structure, likely limiting theatrical screenings to festivals and arthouses though it could generate a dedicated following were it to attract sufficient attention. Like with many realist dramas that have little to escalate tension, viewers may find the film a demanding experience. However, Jang has a talent for capturing moments in life and creating something that is layered and profound. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT MOCUSHURA gmail.com

Taksu

Busan International film festival

Paradise In Service

Dir Kiki Sugino. Jap-Indo-Thai-US. 2014. 97mins

Dir/scr Doze Chen-Zer Niu. Tai. 2014. 133mins

Set in Kinmen — a group of islands administered by Taiwan — in the late 1960s and ’70s amid tensions with mainland China, the latest film from Doze Chen-Zer Nui (2010’s Monga) provides viewers with much to reflect on, delving as it does on the delicate subject matter of military prostitution. But this is no social realist drama, rather a compelling coming-of-age story that resonates well beyond the closing credits. Paradise In Service opened this year’s Busan International Film Festival following its September release in Taiwan, and should have a solid festival run given how successfully the film tackles this period of contemporary history. On the international front, however, it does not have the same draw, making its prospects less certain — not least because it does not have a Chinese release date. The film takes place in 1969 as Taiwan maintained a standoff with mainland China. A large military presence was based on the island as tensions remained, although relations were not as turbulent as they were following the 1949 Battle of Guningtou (also known as the Battle of Kinmen) during the Chinese Civil War that saw the People’s Republic of China fail to take the islands of Kinmen (or Quemoy), located in the Taiwan strait. On Kinmen, 19-year-old conscript Pao (Ethan Juan) arrives for his three-year military service, and once it is discovered he cannot swim he is transferred from an Amphibious Reconnaissance Battalion to a unit known as the ‘831’ or ‘Paradise in Service’, which is essentially a military run brothel. There Pao begins to develop meaningful friendships, including with the illiterate Sergeant Major Chang Yunshan (Chen Jian Bin) who asks Pao to help him write letters to his mother. He also forms a relationship with prostitute Nini (Wan Qian) who has turned to prostitu-

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studio.mocushura@

tion to have her sentence reduced after she killed her abusive husband. It is through these relationships that Niu reveals the unfortunate and at times dangerous cycle that many found themselves in during this period, but like in Monga, he creates a warm ambience despite the bleak setting. This may appear at odds with the film’s themes, but it allows Niu to explore this period of history without laying blame, instead providing a layered perspective that focuses on individuals as well as the systems that govern them. Crucially, however, what lies at the heart of this feature is a coming of age story rather than a critique. Juan who also acted in Niu’s Monga and Love, demonstrates again he fits well into Niu’s films playing the endearing and charming Pao . The rest of the cast is also excellent, particularly Wan, a standout among a number of challenging female roles. Chen also works well as his character drives forward the narrative. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT ABLAZE IMAGE

www.ablazeimage.com

An elegant and wistful drama that takes intriguing sidesteps into intense sensuality, Korean-Japanese actress/director Kiki Sugino’s Taksu, which had its world premiere at Busan International Film Festival, is a thoughtful and provocative film that marks her out as a directing talent to watch. Measured and nicely mannered, the film allows its cast to really get into their roles, with Sugino — who also takes a lead role — favouring long takes and slow-developing drama to tell the story of a fractured relationship. Her growing reputation may intrigue buyers who followed her work with some key independent film-makers such as Koji Fukada who directed her in Au Revoir l’Eté. Mark Adams CONTACT WA ENTERTAINMENT waentertain.com

kousuke@

The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol Dirs Lee Sang-ho, Ahn Hae-ryong. S Kor. 2014. 77mins

Premiering in Busan to a significant amount of controversy, The Truth Shall Not Sink With Sewol is a courageous, informative and ultimately damning documentary that looks at how installing a diving bell following the tragic Sewol disaster in April met fierce opposition from the local coast guard. The film also lays blame to the government’s overall response, as well as the local media coverage of the sinking and rescue operation. On the international front with so many aware of the tragedy that struck the shores of Jindo island on April 16, leading to the deaths or disappearance of 304 people, the film is likely to attract much coverage and subsequent festival play. Jason Bechervaise CONTACT M-LINE

www.mline-distribution.com

November 2014 Screen International 47

ASK THE EXPERTS

We ask market regulars…

‘What’s your advice for getting the best out of AFM?’ Compiled by Andreas Wiseman

“AFM is not only an opportunity to focus on North American distributors, it’s also an opportunity to focus on international distributors that come to buy American films. All things are possible but AFM is essentially a market for genre films. I also think there should be a documentary about the last three days of the market, entitled The Decline Of Western Civilisation III: The Hollyweird Years.”

andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com

“Getting out for a run along the beach in the morning. It’s one of the rare markets where participants engage with their virtuous side.” Robert Walak president, production, acquisitions and TV, Europe, The Weinstein Company

Julian Richards head of production, Jinga Films

“Train for stairs and stares. Loews is so much easier if you don’t have to deal with the elevator. And learn the art of the 40-yard stare so you can ignore women in silver boob-tubes trying to hand you flyers.” Troy Lum managing director, Entertainment One Films, Australia

“One of the most helpful things is to attend the Pitch Conference hosted by IFTA and Stephanie Palmer. For the last few years Tobin Armbrust and Cassian Elwes have entertained us as well as ensured you didn’t waste years of your creative life on that script about your mother’s budgie.” Maxine Leonard president and CEO, Maxine Leonard Marketing & Publicity

CHRISTINE D’SOUZA agent, William Morris Endeavour

“I like to remind myself of Berlin in February while walking down the beach!” Bianca Obermaier acquisitions consultant, Weltkino

48 Screen International November 2014

Prepare for stairs at the Loews

“AFM is one of the only film markets where you can actually break bread with buyers and talk for a few hours without them running out the door to catch a premiere. Take the opportunity to co-ordinate dinners with execs in a more relaxed environment.”

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