CANNES - The Hollywood Reporter

theREPORT
CANNESDEALS
Stephen Frears’
Philomena Picked Up
by Weinstein Co.
The Weinstein Co. has inked a
deal for Stephen Frears’ Philomena,
paying $6.5 million for rights
in the U.S., Canada and Spain.
The film stars Judi Dench as
Philomena Lee, an Irishwoman
who searches for the son she was
forced to give up for adoption as
a teenager, and is based on BBC
correspondent Martin Sixsmith’s
2009 nonfiction book The Lost
Child of Philomena Lee.
British comedian Steve Coogan
stars opposite Dench in the film,
which he co-wrote with J e ff Pope.
Coogan plays a journalist who
helps Lee search for her son.
The title is being shopped to
distributors at the Cannes Film
Market by Pathe International
and BBC Films, the standalone
movie making unit of the U.K.
public broadcaster.
The film is produced by Coogan,
Gabrielle Tana and Tracey Seaward,
and executive produced by
Baby Cow’s Henry Normal, BBC
Films chief Christine Langan
and Pathe’s Francois Ivernel and
Cameron McCracken.
KA-CHING!
WHO’S INKING
ON THE DOTTED LINE
AT THE FESTIVAL
Peter Mullan Soccer Pic Stirs Early Buzz
By Stuart Kemp
Writer-director Peter
Mullan’s Paradise, a movie
about the founding of
legendary Scottish soccer
team Celtic Football Club by
a priest in 1887, is creating a
buzz among buyers.
The movie, billed as Gangs
of New York meets Field of
Dreams in Victorian Glasgow,
is being shopped in Cannes
by movie director and producer
Peter Broughan.
Mullan
Broughan, whose directing résumé includes Rob Roy,
tells THR he is exceptionally busy because he has a “project
that everyone wants.”
The movie details the true story of an Irish priest, Brother
Walfrid, who founded the soccer club at a Catholic church
Natascha Wharton oversaw
the film for the BFI’s Film Fund.
It marks a return to the big
screen for Frears after Lay
the Favorite last year. The director’s
Muhammad Ali’s Greatest
Fight for HBO will unspool
May 22 at a special screening
at the festival.
Image Entertainment
Takes Last Love
Starring Michael Caine
Image Entertainment has
picked up North American rights
to Last Love, the drama from
Mostly Martha director Sandra
Nettlebeck starring Oscar winner
Michael Caine.
Image plans to bow the film,
which Global Screen is selling in
Cannes, theatrically this fall.
Global Screen already has locked
up multiple pre-sales on the title,
with deals for Germany (Senator),
Spain (A Contracorriente)
and Benelux (A-Film) signed
ahead of Cannes and new territories
including Hong Kong (Edko
Communications) and Turkey
(MIR Productions) recently
boarding the project. The German
sales agent says it expects
in Glasgow on Nov. 6, 1887.
Buyers have been keen to
talk, and market insiders
are abuzz with reports that
Daniel Day-Lewis has been
linked to the role of Walfrid.
While nothing is signed,
Mullan reportedly is
expected to reach out to
Day-Lewis as the actor is
perceived as the perfect
Day-Lewis
choice to portray the soccerloving
priest.
Celtic became the first British club to win the European
Cup in 1967. It is one of the most popular sporting entities
in the world and is estimated to have more than a million
fans in the U.S. alone. Broughan is a lifelong fan of the team,
nicknamed the Hoops.
to sell out Last Love worldwide
before the end of the market.
Clemence Poesy, Jane Alexander
and Anne Alvaro co-star
in Last Love alongside Caine’s
lonely American widower in Paris
who learns to love life again after
a chance encounter with a beautiful
young woman.
Women’s Audio
Visual Network
Launches in Cannes
EWA, the newly established
European Women’s Audio Visual
Network opens for membership
at Cannes with the launch of its
website and a series of networking
events and strategy meetings.
The network will be overseen by
Spanish director Isabel Coixet,
who is Cannes’ Golden Camera
jurist this year. New Zealand-born
director Jane Campion is due to
add her support with a Cannes
meeting planned during the festival
with EWA’s executive director,
Francine Raveney.
In a letter to the EWA, Campion,
who won a Palme d’Or in
1993 for The Piano, wrote: “Film
is an extremely competitive
industry for everybody. In my
Jane Campion
Judi Dench
takes on the role
of a real-life
Irishwoman in
Philomena
Michael Caine
experience it is always best to
focus on the work. Just be your
brilliant self.”
Arab Film Power
Players to Partner on
Road Movie A to B
Some of the hottest Arab filmmakers
are ready to make an impact
outside their region with a road
movie unveiled here on Friday.
Emirati filmmaker Ali Mostafa
(City of Life), Saudi producer
Mohammed Al Turki (Arbitrage,
What Maisie Knew) and others
announced plans for feature film
A to B, which will mark the first
time that several people considered
to be the Arab movie industry’s
top pioneers will collaborate
on a major release.
A to B is about three young
Arab expats who go on a road
trip from Abu Dhabi to Beirut.
Mostafa will direct the film
based on a script from up-andcoming
Egyptian writer-producer
Mohamed Hefzy (My Brother the
Devil). The other producers are
Al Turki and the Lebanese Paul
Baboudjian, whose feature Here
Comes the Rain won the Black
Pearl award at the 2010 Abu
Dhabi Film Festival.
The team behind the project,
which will begin production in
the UAE in October, says the film
will be designed to “entertain
audiences in the Arab world and
beyond.” The news comes at a
time when Middle East filmmakers
increasingly are looking to
also make an impact overseas.
Abu Dhabi’s TwoFour54, which
supports local media and entertainment,
is an investor in the
project. Mostafa tells THR he
would love to premiere the film at
Cannes next year.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 10