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Exclusive: After The Crucifixion, Cold Skin to delve into world of stag parties.

French genre director Xavier Gens, best known for horror pics like Hostile or thriller Hitman, has boarded his first comedy Budapest, based on the true story of two college friends who set up a stag party agency to escape the corporate rat race.

Manu Payet and Jonathan Cohen play the two entrepreneurs who start organising special stag party breaks to Budapest and other eastern European cities, promising to fulfil their clients’ wildest dreams.

The money starts rolling in but their lives start to unravel as the requests get more and more outlandish to the point that one party puts in a deadly request.

“My decision to try my hand was driven by the script. I could myself shooting it and it made a break after shooting two genre films back-to-back,” said Gens, referring to The Crucifixion and Cold Skin. “I also wanted...

Pressurized: Sagnier and Co. in a Charming Rom-Com Straitjacket

For his first solo film as director, Alexandre Castagnetti nabbed the talented Ludivine Sagnier to headline his romantic comedy, Love is in the Air (or Amour & Turbulences as it’s known in its native tongue), and it’s an entertaining enough showcase for the star who we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in darker roles where she’s terrorized at the hands of Ozon, or singing poppy confections in Christophe Honore’s films. Here she’s the protagonist in what feels like a very Americanized, situation dictated farce about love, thankfully less strained than many Western counterparts (though the six credits in the screenplay seem unnecessary considering the little lolly this ends up being).

A moderately successful sculptor, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) is about to leave New York and return to Paris after a demure exhibit. A stroke of good luck has...

Bond movie wins film prize and BBC2's Twenty Twelve scoops comedy, while London 2012 cauldron takes visual arts gong

James Bond movie Skyfall, London Games comedy Twenty Twelve and the Olympic cauldron were among the winners at the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts awards.

The 23rd James Bond outing won the film prize at the awards ceremony, hosted by Lord Bragg in London at Tuesday lunchtime.

Continuing the Olympic theme, the visual arts award went to Thomas Heatherwick's London 2012 cauldron, while Twenty Twelve helped the BBC to a clean sweep in the TV categories, picking up the comedy prize.

Tom Stoppard's BBC2 adaptation of Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End won the drama award, in an all-bbc shortlist also featuring Shakespeare adaptations The Hollow Crown and police thriller Line of Duty.

Tom Hiddleston picked up the Times breakthrough award for his acting in The Hollow Crown and films including War Horse and Avengers Assemble.

Los Angeles (Jan. 29, 2012) – The stunt performers and coordinators from “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” and “Game of Thrones” are recipients of this year’s Screen Actors Guild Honors for Outstanding Action Performances by Film and Television Stunt Ensembles, it was announced today from the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards red carpet by Screen Actors Guild Awards Committee Chair JoBeth Williams and Awards Committee Member Scott Bakula. Screen Actors Guild’s Stunt Ensemble Honors commend work within the stunt community during 2011 and recognize stunt performers and coordinators. Nominees that were chosen by their respective SAG Awards film and television nominating committees — each consisting of 2,100 SAG members from around the country, randomly selected anew each year — were announced on Dec. 14, 2011. Balloting procedures to choose the final recipients were sent to the nearly 100,000 eligible voting members of Screen Actors Guild on Dec. 30. Voting closed on Friday, Jan. 27 at noon Pt.