News

Exclusive: France tv distribution has acquired international rights to Aurelien Peilloux’sChemical Bond,starringGalatéa Bellugi, Stefan Crepon and Emmanuelle Devos, and will launch sales in Cannes.

Memento Distribution will releaseChemical Bondin France.

Bellugistars as a brilliant and ambitious chemistry student starting her thesis at a prestigious laboratory with a famous and demanding scientist (Devos) who develops a friendship with her co-researcher (Crepon). They are studying a molecule that could become a revolutionary cure for depression, but the student faces a heart-wrenching choice when their project does not turn out as planned.

It is produced by Delante Productions and Melocoton Films...

Studiocanal has racked up several deals on Cedric Klapisch‘s “Colours of Time” ahead of its world premiere in the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Colours of Time” tells the story of four cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and retrace the steps of their ancestors in 19th century Paris, most specifically Adèle, who had a unique destiny after living her hometown to search for her mother in Paris in 1895. She discovered there a city on the cusp of modernity, bustling with new-found avant-garde creativity, with the rise of photography and the birth of Impressionist painting. The script was penned by Klapisch and Santiago Amigorena, who collaborated on many films, including “Peril Jeune,” “Ce qui nous lie,” “Deux moi” and “En corps.”

Both a coming-of-age tale and family drama, the film stars up-and-comers such as Suzanne Lindon, who plays Adele who previously broke through in “Spring Blossom” which she wrote,...

Cedric Klapisch, one of France’s most celebrated filmmakers who notably directed cult French movies such as “The Spanish Apartment” and “Peril Jeune,” will once again explore youths in his next movie, “Colours of Time,” but this time in 19th century Paris.

The movie, budgeted at 15.6 million euros ($16 million), is being represented internationally by Studiocanal which unveiled a trailer to distributors during the Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.

The film weaves coming-of-age tale and family drama, starring a cast of up-and-comers such as Suzanne Lindon, Abraham Wapler, Zinedine Soualem, Paul Kircher and Vassili Schneider, alongside seasoned actors such as Sara Giraudeau, Cécile de France, Olivier Gourmet and Vincent Macaigne.

In “Colours of Time,” four cousins leading very different lives discover they share a mysterious family history. “In 1895, their ancestor Adèle, then aged 21, leaves her hometown to search for her mother in Paris. She discovers a city on the cusp of modernity,...

Warner Bros Discovery, Sony Group Corporation, Netflix, and Amazon are donating tens of millions of dollars to LA wildfires recovery and rebuilding efforts.

The donations come as the ravaged Los Angeles region was bracing for the return of high winds early on Tuesday morning that were forecast to blow through Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning and said there was extreme fire danger.

Warner Bros Discovery has donated $15m to ”immediate response and rebuilding efforts”, and has been paying for hotel rooms and temporary housing, rental cars, meals, and counselling for more than 1,000 employees impacted. The...

Warner Bros Discovery, Sony Group Corporation, Netflix, and Amazon are donating tens of millions of dollars to LA wildfires recovery and rebuilding efforts.

The donations come as the ravaged Los Angeles region was bracing for the return of high winds early on Tuesday morning that were forecast to blow through Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning and said there was extreme fire danger.

Warner Bros Discovery has donated $15m to ”immediate response and rebuilding efforts”, and has been paying for hotel rooms and temporary housing, rental cars, meals, and counselling for more than 1,000 employees impacted. The...

Writers Guild of America (WGA) has postponed Monday’s nominations announcement as the Los Angeles region ravaged by wildfires braced for the return of high winds through Wednesday.

The Guild, which had previously rescheduled the announcement for Monday amid the wildfire crisis, said in a statement: “Due to ongoing wildfires in the Los Angeles area, we will be delaying the announcement of Writers Guild Award nominees until further notice.” The ceremony is scheduled for February 15 in New York and Los Angeles.

Sony Group Corporation said it will donate $5m to relief organisations supporting first responders, community relief and rebuilding efforts,...

Filming has begun on Anthony Dechaux’s thriller The Price To Pay (La Guerre Des Prix) for France tv Distribution which has snapped up international rights and will launch sales at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

Ana Girardot and Olivier Gourmet star in the film about a woman who works for a large retail chain whose brother runs the local family farm in Normandy. An advocate for organic, local farming practices, she heads to Paris to attempt to drive change from within the large corporation and defend local producers’ interests but gets embroiled in a system that challenges her values.

Filming has begun on Anthony Dechaux’s thriller The Price To Pay (La Guerre Des Prix) for France tv Distribution which has snapped up international rights and will launch sales at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

Ana Girardot and Olivier Gourmet star in the film about a woman who works for a large retail chain whose brother runs the local family farm in Normandy. An advocate for organic, local farming practices, she heads to Paris to attempt to drive change from within the large corporation and defend local producers’ interests but gets embroiled in a system that challenges her values.

Studiocanal has boarded Cedric Klapisch’s time-jumping family drama Colours Of Time (La Venue De l’Avenir) about cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and retrace the steps of their ancestors in 19th-centuryParis.

The supercharged cast of local stars is headed by Suzanne Lindon, Vincent Macaigne, Zinedine Soualem, Paul Kircher, Vassili Schneider, Sara Giraudeau, Cécile de France, Olivier Gourmet and Abraham Wapler.

Klapisch has written the script with Santiago Amigorena and produces with Bruno Levy via their Ce Qui Me Meut banner.

Studiocanal will unveil the film to buyers at the Paris Rendez-Vous later this month.

The...

Paris-based sales house WTFilms heads to AFM on the hunt for buyers for Abel Ferry’s horror thriller Squealers (Gibier) about a deadly cat-and-mouse game between rebellious eco-activists and a slaughterhouse owner.

The film stars Olivier Gourmet and Consent breakout star Kim Higelin, alongside Bruno Lochet, Marie Kremer and Michaël Erpelding. The story follows a group of young protestors who gather damning evidence at a meat processing plant, only to be caught by the owner and his security team who attempt to reclaim their incriminatory footage in what becomes a thrilling pursuit for survival.

Ferry is best known for 2009 slasherHigh...

Paris-based sales house WTFilms heads to AFM on the hunt for buyers for Abel Ferry’s horror thriller Squealers (Gibier) about a deadly cat-and-mouse game between rebellious eco-activists and a slaughterhouse owner.

The film stars Olivier Gourmet and Consent breakout star Kim Higelin, alongside Bruno Lochet, Marie Kremer and Michaël Erpelding. The story follows a group of young protestors who gather damning evidence at a meat processing plant, only to be caught by the owner and his security team who attempt to reclaim their incriminatory footage in what becomes a thrilling pursuit for survival.

Ferry is best known for 2009 slasherHigh...

The BBC has acquired French crime thriller Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime, which follows the true story of one of France’s most prolific sexual predators.

The six-part series looks at a string of sexual assaults in northern France in the late 1980s, along the same road by the Sambre river. As the police fail to get to grip with the extent of the attacks or make a connection between cases, it is only 30 years later when a culprit is caught.

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries The Staircase and the drama Laetitia, recounts the legal case of a serial rapist. The cast includes Alix Poisson (The Returned, Six Women), Clémence Poesy (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Tenet), Olivier Gourmet (Oussekine, La Promesse), Noémie Lvovsky (Camille Rewinds, Farewell, My Queen), Jonathan Turnbull (Soldiers) and Pauline Parigot (Soldiers, Hpi).

The show follows the progression of the investigation and its...

The BBC has picked up Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s TV thriller Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime.

Starring Alix Poisson and Clémence Poesy, the series is based on true events and follows the extraordinary legal case of a serial rapist who attacked women across three decades in the same location. The France Télévisions thriller came fresh off the back of the smash success of French movie Anatomy of a Fall.

Produced by Federation Studios, Sambre starts in Northern France in the late 1980s, where women are being sexually assaulted along the same road by the Sambre river, with attacks taking place early mornings and in a similar style. The justice system is overwhelmed by the accumulating cases. It will take 30 years to catch a man, who never stopped attacking women and is responsible for at least 54 cases of rape or sexual assault,...

Outplay Films’ “Turtles,” directed by David Lambert, has landed U.S. distribution with Dark Star Pictures. The film, which stars Dave Johns, Olivier Gourmet and Brigitte Poupart, follows a long-married couple who are headed for divorce.

The official synopsis reads: “Since Thom and Henri met 35 years ago, their love for each other has never faltered. The seemingly perfect life they had built in Brussels started to go awry when Henri retired from being a police officer. Now, Henri’s days seem to stretch endlessly, each one as bland as the next while his feelings for Thom are fading fast. They drift away from each other a little more each day, to the point that their house has become a battleground. Thom’s love for Henri remains strong though and he is not ready to give up. He will do anything to save his relationship and rekindle their love, even if...

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries “The Staircase,” has once again struck a chord with “Samber,” a limited series about a French serial rapist that explores the damages of sexual violence against women and children.

“Samber,” a six-part thriller series directed by de Lestrade, charts the true case of Dino Scala, a seemingly ordinary family man who sexually assaulted and raped more than 50 women and minors over three decades in Northeastern France. In spite of several victims filing complaints, Scala was able to slip through the cracks of France’s judicial system and benefited from a complacent stance toward sexual abuses. He was eventually arrested in February 2018 and found guilty of 17 rapes, 12 attempted rapes and 27 sexual assaults or attempts. In June 2022, Scala was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Represented in international markets by Federation Studios, the six-part series has captured the zeitgeist in France, which is undergoing a...

Xavier Gens (Frontiers, Cold Skin) is back this week with the brand new action thriller Mayhem!, and IFC Films has provided us with an exclusive clip to whet your appetite today.

Mayhem! will be available in theaters and everywhere you rent movies on January 5, 2024.

The film’s trailer was loaded up with rave reviews that praised the fight choreography in Xavier Gens’ latest, and our exclusive clip spotlights one of those violent fight sequences.

Check it out below, with the previously released trailer underneath the clip.

In the film, “Sam (Nassim Lyes) is a professional boxer about to be released from prison in France, but while on parole, his past catches up with him and he is forced to flee the country. Five years later, he has rebuilt a simple life on an exotic island in Thailand with his wife Mia and her daughter Dara, working multiple jobs to support...

The original title for Xavier Gens’s Mayhem! was Farang, a word that describes the main character’s status in Thailand. A martial artist and ex-con, Sam (Nassim Lyes) is also a foreigner, and a Westerner at that, having fled his native France. The title change is understandable, meant to reach the broader audience that might take interest in the film’s bloody revenge story, though it risks setting the wrong expectations. After all, long stretches of Mayhem! pass with little in the way of actual mayhem, especially in its first hour.

The film, written by Gens and Magali Rossito, initially focuses on Sam’s daily life after he’s released on day parole and does an honest day’s work at a construction site. But trouble soon finds Sam, and after a brief chase and scuffle that leaves one man dead, Mayhem! essentially hits reset and jumps forward five years.

IFC Films has released the trailer and key art for the upcoming film “Mayhem” starring Nassim Lyes, Olivier Gourmet, Vithaya Pansringarm.

Sam (Nassim Lyes) is a professional boxer about to be released from prison in France, but while on parole, his past catches up with him and he is forced to flee the country. Five years later, he has rebuilt a simple life on an exotic island in Thailand with his wife Mia and her daughter Dara, working multiple jobs to support his family and buy a piece of land to build a restaurant. As his life begins to improve, a job gone wrong puts Sam in the crosshairs of local crime lord Narong (Olivier Gourmet), who retaliates with brutal violence. Crushed but still alive, Sam is left with only one purpose: to seek merciless and bone-breaking vengeance.

Director: Xavier Gens...

French filmmaker Xavier Gens (Frontiers, Cold Skin) is back with brand new action thriller Mayhem!, and IFC Films has unleashed the trailer and release date this week.

Mayhem! will be available in theaters and everywhere you rent movies on January 5, 2024.

The film’s trailer is loaded with bone-crunching action and multiple rave reviews that praise the fight choreography and the nonstop action on display in Xavier Gens’ latest.

Watch the official trailer for Mayhem! below.

In the film, “Sam (Nassim Lyes) is a professional boxer about to be released from prison in France, but while on parole, his past catches up with him and he is forced to flee the country. Five years later, he has rebuilt a simple life on an exotic island in Thailand with his wife Mia and her daughter Dara, working multiple jobs to support his family and buy a piece of land to build a restaurant.

"What have you done?!" "You woke up the beast." IFC Films has revealed a new US trailer for the intense action film set mostly in Thailand titled Mayhem! (aka Farang), the latest creation from the French genre filmmaker Xavier Gens (of Frontier(s), The Divide, Cold Skin). The film already opened in France in June and premiered at the 2023 Neuchatel Fantastic Film Festival in the summer, now set for an early January release in the US. Sam is an exemplary inmate. A few months before his release from prison, he is diligently preparing for his reintegration. During a leave, his past catches up with him and an accident leaves him only one choice: escape. Five years later, after rebuilding his life in Thailand, he has founded the family he had always dreamed of. But Narong, the local godfather, forces him to plunge into delinquency again. When Sam wants to stop everything,...

Revenge is a dish best served cold, as they say. Xavier Gens’ new action epic Mayhem! is actually titled Farang in its own language, which in Thai refers to someone who is of Western ancestry. This can be said about the film's lead character; Samir, played with a ferocious intensity by the dashing Nassim Lyes. Samir is a French ex-convict who is out for blood after the mob tracks him down and wreaks havoc on his now-peaceful existence. Mayhem! just screened at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles to a crowd that was cacophonous with shrieks and applause as Samir fistfights his way through an endless stream of villains.

We've seen this tale time and time again on the big screen, but Mayhem! stands out for its no-holds-barred violence that would certainly make martial artists and stunt coordinators — especially folks behind The Raid films — proud.

'The Past Ain't Through With Us'...

French industry to descend on La Rochelle to premiere high-end drama series to the world.

Disney+’s French original Irrésistible, Canal+ legal drama Conviction, TF1’s Behind Closed Doors from Coda producers’ Jerico TV and Swedish thriller Evil are among the French and European titles that will premiere at France’s Festival de la Fiction, taking place in La Rochelle from September 12-17.

The event, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, has long been a popular ‘back-to-school’ festival for the French industry, with a strong focus on French series, Its international appeal is growing and it has become a significant launchpad for European content.

French filmmaker Xavier Gens (Frontiers, Cold Skin) is back with brand new action movie Mayhem!, and Variety reports today that IFC Films has acquired the film for distribution.

IFC Films will release Mayhem! sometime in 2024. First up, the movie will premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs through August 9, 2023.

The film stars Nassim Lyes as Sam. “When he gets out of prison, he finds it difficult to escape the reach of a local gang lord. He heads to Thailand, but searching for a kidnapped family member brings him square into the bullseye of the underbelly he was trying to escape.”

Olivier Gourmet, Loryn Nounay, Vithaya Pansringarm and Sahajak Boonthanakit also star.

“Xavier Gens has crafted an energetic and propulsive film, showcasing some of the most impressive fight choreography we have ever seen,” said Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks’ Film Group.

“While winking at films like ‘The Raid’ and ‘Taken,...

IFC Films has acquired Xavier Gens’ action spectacle “Mayhem!” (“Farang”) from Studiocanal ahead of its premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival.

Produced by Vincent Roget (Same Player) and Dimitri Stephanides (WTFilms), “Mayhem!” will be released in 2024.

“Xavier Gens has crafted an energetic and propulsive film, showcasing some of the most impressive fight choreography we have ever seen,” said Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks’ Film Group.

“While winking at films like ‘The Raid’ and ‘Taken,’ Xavier has made a film which stands on its own as an iconic new member of the hand-to-hand action canon. We are thrilled to be working with the immensely talented team to bring this riveting story to theaters,” he added.

Shot in France and Thailand, “Mayhem!” stars Nassim Lyes as Sam. When he gets out of prison, he finds it difficult to escape the reach of a local gang lord. He heads to Thailand,...

Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s new strand in which, each fortnight, we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are appearing in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. So we’re going to do the hard work for you.

This week we visit French director Xavier Gens’s Thailand-set fight-fest Farang, which has shown independent French action movies can hold their own in cinemas and find international buyers. Released against a real-life background of fury towards the police following the killing of a French teenager during a traffic stop in June, the film has shown there remains an appetite for genre movie in the country.

Name: Farang

Country: France

Distributor: Studiocanal

Networks: Canal+, France Télévisions

Where to watch: Due...

"Why are they after me like that?" "They can't stand what you represent." Goldwyn Films has released an official US trailer for Simone: Woman of the Century, a French biopic about a woman named Simone Veil. She passed away in 2017 at the age of 89, but during her time she was a French magistrate, Holocaust survivor, and politician who served as Health Minister, and President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. "One of the prominent women in France in the 20th Century." The film explores her life, as a leading politician, human rights campaigner, and feminist -- through a series of non-chronological memories. Similar to the Bob Dylan film I'm Not There; this one is from the director of La Vie en Rose. "An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era." The French film stars Elsa Zylberstein as Simone Veil,...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the trailer for “Simone: Woman of the Century,” a biopic of Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who became health minister of France and championed the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France.

Directed by Olivier Dahan, best-known for his Oscar-winning Edith Piaf biopic “La Vie en Rose,” “Simone” boasts powerful performances by Elsa Zylberstein and Rebecca Marder. The key cast is completed by Elodie Bouchez, Sylvie Testud and Olivier Gourmet.

The film was a box office hit in France, where it was released by Warner Bros and ranked as 2022’s third highest-grossing French-language hit with over 2.5 million tickets sold. Samuel Goldwyn Films is planning to release the film in U.S. theaters, opening in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 18, followed by a wider rollout.

Since starring in “Simone,” Zylberstein has set up two production banners in France and the U.S. and is actively...

The Fantasia Film Festival, North America’s largest genre film festival, has released the first wave of titles for its upcoming 27th edition.

There’s world premieres for Theresa Sutherland’s Lovely Dark and Deep, which features Barbarian star Georgina Campbell; Victor Ginzburg’s Empire V; Jared Moshe’s Aporia, led by Judy Greer and Faithe Herman; and Where The Devil Roams, from directors Toby Poster, John Adams and Zelda Adams, also known as The Adams Family.

Other world bows in Montreal include Xavier Gens’ Mayhem!, which stars Nassim Lyes and Olivier Gourmet; horror auteur Larry Fessenden’s Blackout; Nicholas Tomnay’s What You Wish For, with Nick Stahl playing a chef with a gambling problem and from the producers of The Florida Project; and Ryan Ward’s Daughter of the Sun.

Fantasia’s first titles includes a world premiere for Jenn Wexler’s The Sacrifice Game, the follow-up to the debut feature The Ranger,...

"Your emotions affect you too much." Kino Lorber released this Belgian thriller in the US already - if you haven't seen or heard about this yet, you may want to check it out. On the Edge is the US title for a Belgian thriller made by a Chilean filmmaker named Giordano Gederlini. It premiered last year and already opened around Europe, and is now available in the US to watch as well. A man seemingly falls onto the subway rails and later dies at the hospital. The train driver who was on duty at the time of the incident happens to be his estranged father. While on the trail of his son's murderers, Leo will be closely watched by the police, also investigating. They soon discover that Leo’s skills in tracking & apprehending violent criminals are not those of a mere metro driver. Taken with a Belgian twist? The film stars Antonio De La Torre,...

Series is adaptation of diaries of Dutch author Etty Hillesum, who was murdered in Auschwitz.

Hagai Levi, showrunner of The Affair and Scenes From A Marriage, is writing and will direct the series The Girl Who Learned How to Kneel, which is being produced by Arte France with France’s Les Films du Poisson and the Netherlands’ Topkapi Films.

The loose adaptation of the diaries of Dutch author Etty Hillesum is set in Amsterdam in the late 1930s and early 1940s during the German occupation before she was deported and murdered in Auschwitz. Hillesum was 27 when she wrote the diaries,...

Series is adaptation of diaries of Dutch author Etty Hillesum, who was murdered in Auschwitz.

Hagai Levi, showrunner ofThe Affair and Scenes From A Marriage, is writing and will direct the series The Girl Who Learned How to Kneel, which is being produced by Arte France with France’s Les Films du Poisson and the Netherlands’ Topkapi Films.

The loose adaptation of the diaries of Dutch author Etty Hillesum is set in Amsterdam in the late 1930s and early 1940s during the German occupation before she was deported and murdered in Auschwitz. Hillesum was just over age 40 when she wrote the diaries,...

Lille’s Series Mania Forum is kicking off today with a packed schedule of talks, screenings and competitions.

Fighting it out in International Competition are the likes of Prime Video’s Toni Collette starrer The Power, Haven of Grace from Magnetic Beats director Vincent Maël Cardona, and Quoc Dang Tran’s Apple TV+ series Drops of God.

They compete against Greek series Milky Way, which opened the festival, Viaplay’s futuristic Russell Tovey drama The Fortress, Red Skies from Israel, The Actor from Iran and Fleeting Lies from Spain. Each will have its world premiere at the event.

The Power is a fantasy series set in a world where the physical balance of power between men and women switches when electric arcs emerge from the fingers of teenage girls all around the world. Debuting later this month, it comes from Sister, the UK producer behind Chernobyl and is based on Naomi Alderman’s sci-fi novel.

With an International Panorama spangled by gems – think Spain’s “Apagón,” Sweden’s “Blackwater,” and Canada’s “Disobey” and “Little Bird” – Series Mania also weighs in this year with one, if not the, strongest and most mouthwatering of international competitions in its history.

Including the opening and closing series, Amazon’s “Greek Salad” and Netflix’s “Transatlantic,” nearly all the global streamers have titles in the lineup, from Apple TV+’s “Drops of God” and Paramount+’s “Fleeting Lies.” The lineup also features some A-List international writing talents, such as the U.K.’s Jack Thorne and Israel’s Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen, whose “The Virtues” and “No Man’s Land” rank among the most memorable of recent Series Mania competition titles, and closing the festival, out of competition, “Unorthodox’s” Anna Wenger.”Fleeting Lies” also represents one of the first series from Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar’s El Deseo label in Madrid,...

Event closes with Anna Winger’s Netflix series Transatlantic.

Series Mania will kick off its 2023 event with Cédric Klapisch’s Amazon French Original series Greek Salad before serving up 32 world premieres, an industry Forum, and closing with Anna Winger’s Netflix series Transatlantic.

The International Competition of the annual television festival and industry event includes Franco-Belgian Arte series Grace of Heaven, Apple TV+, France Televisions and Hulu Japan’s Drops of God, Paramount+’s Spanish Fleeting Lies, Reshet 13’s Israeli series Red Skies, Viaplay’s Norwegian The Fortress and Prime Video’s US series The Power. Among the titles from...

French sales company to showcase comedy and drama slate at Rendez-Vous.

Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded Jean-Pierre Améris’ Take A Chance On Me and Pierre Jolivet’s Green Tide, expanding the company’s star-powered French slate.

Indie Sales’ French language line-up also includes Noémie Lvovsky’s The Great Magic, Mathias Gokalp’s The Assembly Line, Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s A Tale of Shemroon and Marc Fitoussi’s Two Tickets to Greece.

Take A Chance On Me stars popular French singer turned actress Louane Emera, whose credits include The Belier Family, who plays a young woman juggling between odd jobs to support her agoraphobic father.

Exclusive: Other Angle Pictures has picked up international rights to the stacked ensemble erotic horror Alone At Night (previously known as 18 & Over).

The slasher pic is directed by Jimmy Giannopoulos from a screenplay by Giannopoulos and Diomedes Raul Bermudez.

The film follows Vicky (Ashley Benson), a young woman looking for an escape after going through a tumultuous breakup. After retreating to a friend’s remote cabin in the woods to clear her head, she continues modeling sexy lingerie for her devoted followers on 18 & Over, an adults-only, live-streaming website. But when the power goes out, Vicky discovers something terrifying awaiting her in the dark — a masked killer wielding a crowbar who’s hellbent on bringing her night to a grisly end.

Benson (Pretty Little Liars) stars alongside Pamela Anderson (Baywatch), Luis Guzmán (Traffic), model Winnie Harlow, musician G-Eazy, rapper Aap Nast, Paris Hilton, Lindsey Pelas (Extraction), John Robinson (Lords of Dogtown...

Vincent Maël Cardona, whose 2021 pic “Magnetic Beats” won a prize at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and a Cesar Award for best first film, is set to direct “De Grâce,” a sprawling crime thriller unfolding in the northern French port city of Le Havre.

The series is being co-produced and commissioned by Arte France, and is produced by Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin at Ego Productions, a Mediawan company. Belgium’s Savage Films is co-producing. Mediawan Rights is representing the show in international markets.

Set to start shooting on location in Le Havre on Aug. 8, “De Grâce” features a strong ensemble cast including Olivier Gourmet (“The Minister”), Margot Bancilhon (“Five”), Panayotis Pascot (“Mon chien stupide”), Pierre Lottin (“Notre-Dame on Fire”), Astrid Whettnall (“Baron noir”), Philippe Rebbot.(“L’amour flou”) and French rapper Gringe.

“De Grâce,” penned by Maxime Crupaux (“Cherif”) and Baptiste Fillon, tells the story of Pierre Leprieur (Gourmet), a native of Le Havre who...

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “On the Edge,” a Belgian crime thriller by Giordano Gederlini (“Les Miserables”) from Le Pacte.

The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber senior VP Wendy Lidell and Le Pacte’s head of sales Camille Neel out of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema market. The event, which runs from March 3-13, is hosted by Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center.

“On The Edge” marks the sophomore outing of Gederlini, who co-wrote Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated film “Les Miserables.”

The gritty, twisty noir is set in Brussels, where Leo, a Spanish metro driver, sees his estranged son right before he falls onto the rails and dies. After discovering that his son was involved in a bloody heist, Leo sets off to track down the criminals responsible for the murder under the watchful eye of the police.

The film stars Antonio de la Torre (“A Twelve-Year Night...

Arna Media, the Russian distribution company run by Nadezda Motina, has secured the rights to “Brother and Sister,” “The Tank,” “Little Allan – The Human Antenna” and “The Colors of Fire” for its theatrical pipeline.

Arnaud Desplechin’s family-drama “Brother and Sister” stars Marion Cotillard, Melvil Poupaud and Golshifteh Farahani. Cotillard and Poupaud play the titular siblings who, following the death of their parents, reunite after decades of silence. It is a companion film to Desplechin’s 2004 César award-winning movie “Kings and Queen.” The project is produced by Why Not Productions and is in post, set to be completed by May. Arna acquired the rights from sales agent Wild Bunch.

Clovis Cornillac’s “The Colors of Fire” is the female-powered thriller based on Pierre Lemaitre’s bestseller. The film, which stars Lea Drucker, Benoit Poelvoorde, Olivier Gourmet, Fanny Ardant and Cornillac, follows Madeleine (Drucker) through 1920s Paris on a journey to...

Le Pacte is set to host market premieres for Édouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” and Giordano Gederlini’s “On the Edge” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, which takes place this week.

“Adieu Paris” stars an ensemble cast, including some of France and Belgium’s best-known actors, notably Benoît Poelvoorde, François Damiens, Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Nanty, Pierre Arditi and Ludivine Sagnier. The dialogue-driven comedy takes place entirely at a Parisian bistro. Camille Neel, head of international sales at Le Pacte, said the film will appeal to traditional French films lovers and admirers of iconic actors. “Adieu Paris” is the fourth directorial outing of actor-turned-helmer Baer, who last directed “Ouvert la nuit” in which he starred opposite Audrey Tautou and Sabrina Ouazani. The film, produced by Cinéfrance Studios, Les Films en Cabine, Le Pacte and Artémis Productions, had its world premiere at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon, France.

“On the Edge...

"If history makes men, some men make history." Samuel Goldwyn Films has released an official US trailer for the French biopic drama De Gaulle, about the legendary French politician Charles de Gaulle. The film takes place during World War II, just as France is dealing with the Nazi army invading their country. It already opened in France last year, and is finally arriving in the US this fall. Set in France, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France... Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus. Starring Lambert Wilson as Charles de Gaulle, with a cast including Isabelle Carré as his wife Yvonne, plus Olivier Gourmet, Catherine Mouchet, Pierre Hancisse, Sophie Quinton, Gilles Cohen, Laurent Stocker, Philippe Laudenbach, and Tim Hudson as Churchill. This French biopic seems as campy...

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights to the drama De Gaulle, with plans to release it in theaters and on digital platforms on October 22.

De Gaulle is a biopic centered on Charles De Gaulle (Lambert Wilson), the French military officer and statesmen who led government-in-exile Free France against Nazi Germany during World War II.

It picks up with the newly appointed French General in May of 1940, as he leaves his wife and children behind to join the Government in Paris. Facing the defeatist attitude of French Chief of State Philippe Pétain, who is ready to negotiate with Hitler, De Gaulle has only one purpose: to continue fighting.

Gabriel Le Bomin (Our Patriots) wrote and directed the film, which also stars Isabelle Carré (Romantics Anonymous), Olivier Gourmet (The Son) and more.

Aïssa Djabri and Farid Lahouassa served as the project’s producers, with Christopher Granier-Deferre exec producing.

The acquisition...

In the road paved by the Koreans during the last decade, it was a matter of time before a Japanese director followed the same path, although Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film is not a Hollywood one, but an international production involving companies from France, Japan, and Belgium. Let us see if his effort was a “Snowpiercer” or a “Last Stand”.

Stephane is a unique fashion photographer, who uses daguerreotype in his photo shoots in a secluded mansion in the suburbs of Paris, a very difficult process that demands from the model to stay completely still for more than an hour. The results, however, are remarkable, and Stephane is quite sought in the world of photography. On the other hand, he is a troubled man who is tormented by his wife’s death, to the point that he tries endlessly to immortalize her by photographing his 22-year-old daughter in...

Spain Stars of Tomorrow will launch at this summer’s Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest.

Spanish actor Antonio de la Torre will be the mentor for the first Spain Stars of Tomorrow, the newest edition of Screen International’s long-running talent spotting series which will launch at this summer’s Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest.

De la Torre holds the record for the most actor nominations (14) at the Spanish Film Academy awards, the Goyas, since his breakthrough in Daniel Sánchez Arevalo’s Dark Blue Almost Black in 2006 which won him the best supporting actor award. His second win, for best actor, came...

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier to star.

Algerian director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche is set to shoot crime thriller The Temple Woods Gang this autumn in France, with UK firm Reason8 Films handling worldwide rights.

The film will shoot on location in Paris and its suburbs, plus Bordeaux, Marseille and Nice.

It follows a US private investigator and a retired loner from the Temple Woods housing project who get caught in a conflict between a gang of robbers, and the henchmen of a wealthy prince the gang has attacked.

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier, Vincent Rottiers, Slimane Dazi, Olivier Gourmet and Nabil Djedouani lead the cast.

Le Pacte has nabbed the distribution rights to two features ahead of the Cannes Film Festival. The Paris-based outfit will be in charge of worldwide sales for a thriller from “Les Misérables” writer Giordano Gerdelini, and a family drama from “Diane Has the Right Shape” director Fabien Gorgeart.

Gerdelini’s “On the Edge” (original title “Entre la vie et la mort”) was shot last year and is in post-production. It is set in Brussels and centers around Leo (Antonio de la Torre), a Spanish metro driver who sees a young man in distress on the edge of the train platform. He recognizes his son Hugo right before he falls onto the rails and then dies at the hospital.

Leo had not seen his son for years, and soon will discovers that he was involved in a bloody heist. While on the trail of his son’s murderers, he is closely watched by the police,...

Swann Arlaud, Mélanie Thierry, Olivier Gourmet and Denis Podalydès shine in the cast of the director’s second feature, produced by Karé Productions and sold by Indie Sales. Revealed in the Critics’ Week of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival with The Ordinary People, Mathias Gokalp will complete filming on his second feature, L’Établi, on Friday 16 April. The shoot began on 8 March. Shining in the cast are Swann Arlaud, Mélanie Thierry, Belgian actor Olivier Gourmet and Denis Podalydès (who recently filmed for...

Elsa Zylberstein stars as the iconic French stateswoman and women’s rights campaigner.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired US rights to Oliver Dahan’s biopic Simone, A Woman Of The Century about iconic French stateswoman and women’s rights champion Simone Veil.

Paris-based sales company Other Angle Pictures has also pre-sold the film to Spain (Caramel Films), Latin America (Impacto Cine), Australia (Moving Story), Canada (Az Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Portugal (Films4You) and Taiwan (Creative Century Entertainment).

Talks are also underway for Italy and Japan.

One of the most prominent women in France in the 20th century, Veil was a teenager...

Gaumont is set to unveil sprawling period thriller “The Colors of Fire,” based on Pierre Lemaitre’s international bestseller.

Directed by Clovis Cornillac, “The Colors of Fire” is headlined by a prestigious cast, including Lea Drucker (pictured), the Cesar-winning actor of “Custody,” as well as Benoit Poelvoorde (“Sink or Swim”), Olivier Gourmet (“Karl Marx”), Fanny Ardant (“DNA”), Alice Isaaz (“Elle”) and Cornillac.

Set for delivery in the second half of 2021, “The Colors of Fire” is budgeted at $16 million — a big budget by French standards — and is being produced in-house by Gaumont, as part of the company’s recent mandate to fully finance and produce select films. The movie is in post and shot entirely in Paris.

Lemaitre, author of “The Colors of Fire,” previously wrote “See You Up There,” whose film adaptation directed by Albert Dupontel won five César Awards and sold more two million theatrical admissions in France.

“Although...

If there's one thing films about farming have consistently shown us in recent years, from Britain to Iceland (The County) and beyond, it's that toxic masculinity thrives like wheat in the environment.

This time it's France where men rule the roost and women are thin on the ground and where, for once, the English title of the film gets to the heart of its emotions more than perhaps the more poetic French name La Terre Des Hommes (The Land of Men). Naël Marandin, writing with Marion Doussot and Marion Desseigne-Ravel, takes us to rural dairy country, where Constance (Diane Rouxel) is trying to keep her family farm afloat alongside her dad (Olivier Gourmet) and fiance Bruno (Finnegan Oldfield). With auction prices for their stock dropping - like many details here shown to us in an immersive cattle market scene rather than simply relayed through dialogue -...