News

Lukas Rinker, writer-director of the Screambox Original Holy Shit!, will next helm the survival thriller Frostbite, Variety has learned.

In the film, a controlled avalanche blast goes terribly wrong, and environmental officer Martia and her family find themselves trapped under the ice in a crashed cable car. Battling their wounds, the cold and inner demons, they soon learn that, just as bad as they want out, something wants in.

Zoe Boyle (“Sons of Anarchy”), Kris Hitchen (Speak No Evil), and Andrew Scarborough (“Downton Abbey”) are set to star.

Neopol Film and REinvent Studios are behind the project with Tonio Kellner, Andrea Simml, and Jakob Zapf producing.

“Frostbite takes the best from the disaster film genre and combines it with survival-thriller elements. Get ready to be taken on a high-tension cable car ride bound to go wrong in more than one way,” REinvent said. “Frostbite is sure to deliver an on-the-edge-of-your-seat experience.

REinvent Intl. Sales has closed the first distribution deals and has revealed the cast for Lukas Rinker’s English-language survival thriller film “Frostbite.”

Daro Film Distribution has bought the rights for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and the rights for Middle East and North Africa have sold to Falcon Films.

Zoe Boyle, Kris Hitchen and Andrew Scarborough have joined the cast.

In the film, a “controlled” avalanche blast goes terribly wrong, and environmental officer Martia and her family find themselves trapped under the ice in a crashed cable car. Battling their wounds, the cold and inner demons, they soon learn that, just as bad as they want out, something wants in.

The film will start shooting start in June with delivery set for December.

” ‘Frostbite’ takes the best from the disaster film genre and combines it with survival-thriller elements. Get ready to be taken on a high-tension cable car ride bound...

The UK’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) has selected 20 executives for the 2024 edition of Inside Pictures, the film and television business training and development programme.

Participants include Swedish producer Erik Hemmendorff, who has made all of Ruben Ostlund’s feature films including Palme d’Or winners The Square and Triangle Of Sadness, through the duo’s Plattform Produktion.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Also selected are Alex Gardener-Smith, head of commercial planning at Lionsgate UK; Charlotte Lopez, VP international sales at Studiocanal; and David Swetman, SVP content and commercial strategy at All3Media International.

Inside Pictures...

Writer/director Lukas Rinker made his feature debut with the comedic thriller Holy Shit! last year, and now he’s reteaming with his Holy Shit! collaborators Neopol Film and The Playmaker for the eco-horror movie Paws, about a killer polar bear! Variety reports that producers Tonio Kellner, Andrea Simml, and Jakob Zapf will be pitching Paws at Frontières, “a market and networking platform focused on genre film financing and co-production between Europe and North America”, next month. Loredana Rehekampff and Andreas Schmied are co-producing the project for Samsara Filmproduction.

Paws will tell the story of young scientist Nook, who’s on board a research ship in the Arctic. Reformed oil billionaire Fox is funding the crews’ efforts to fight climate change. Just when Nook learns that Fox’s interest is not so much in saving the planet but exploring and claiming fresh oil fields, their ship crashes. The crew search...

Neopol Film, a production company based in Frankfurt, and Munich-based sales agency The Playmaker have teamed for a second time with writer and director Lukas Rinker, following their collaboration on his debut feature, black comedy “Holy Shit!,” which was sold by The Playmaker to multiple territories last year.

Producers Tonio Kellner, Andrea Simml and Jakob Zapf will be pitching Rinker’s latest feature film project, eco-horror “Paws,” at Frontières, a market and networking platform focused on genre film financing and co-production between Europe and North America. Frontières is organized by the Fantasia Intl. Film Festival, in partnership with the Cannes Film Market, and takes place on May 20 and 21 in Cannes.

Loredana Rehekampff and Andreas Schmied will co-produce the project for Austria’s Samsara Filmproduction.

The film centers on young scientist Nook, who’s on board a research ship in the Arctic. Reformed oil billionaire Fox is funding the crews’ efforts to fight climate change.

The conference will form the centrepiece of the festival’s industry programme.

The FIlmfest München is traditionally the last opportunity for the German filmmaking community to meet up before the summer break, and this year’s edition has an industry programmed with a pronounced international dimension.

One of this year’s highlights is the two-day Cine CoPro Conference (June 29-30 ), hosted by the Filmfest and the Bavarian regional film fund Fff Bayern, in which around 40 German and UK producers, directors and screenwriters will come together to discuss opportunities for co-production between the two countries.

“he first thing that needs to...

‘Ach Du Scheisse!’ is the feature debut for Lukas Rinker.

Arri Media International will handle world sales for writer/director Lukas Rinker’s feature debut, the “confined space” comic thriller Ach Du Scheisse! (working title), which began shooting in Offenbach near Frankfurt on Monday (March 1).

The action takes place in real time over 90 minutes, as architect Frank (Thomas Niehaus) regains consciousness in a locked portaloo – known in German vernacular by local brand name Dixi Klo – on a building site where a detonation is being prepared.

As he seeks to escape this prison in a race against time before being blown to smithereens,...

Film sells to UK and Ireland, Australia/New Zealand and Japan.

UK sales outfit Film Seekers has secured its first deals on Eliza Schroeder’s drama Love Sarah, starring Celia Imrie.

Rights have been pre-sold to the UK and Ireland (Parkland Entertainment), Australia/New Zealand (Rialto), and Japan (New Select). Film Seekers said offers are also on the table for Airlines, South Korea and Benelux.

Love Sarah is about three generations of women who open a bakery in London and is now in production.

Bill Paterson, Shannon Tarbet, Shelley Conn and Rupert Penry-Jones co-star and Candice Brown, winner of UK...

Robert Davi is set to star in 8 Winds, which is said to be a neo-noir thriller along the lines of Robert Altman’s The Long Good Bye and Chinatown. Written and directed by Daniel J. Coplan, the pic centers on an over the hill filmmaker, a comedy club owner, and John Conover as they are drawn into an intrigue where a Russian Oligarch fights for control of California’s water. Davi is John T. Conover, an eccentric and reclusive billionaire who made his money selling bottled Wise Water. After his son commits suicide, he disappears from public view. 15 years later he is trying to make amends for some bad choices and ease his guilt. Leona Paraminski, Joe Sabatino and Chris Game co-star in the film which is currently shooting in Los Angeles. Exec producers are Eric Doctorow and Tom Skouras. Random Media will be releasing the film in this fall.

Great British Bake Off winner Candice Brown to make guest appearance.

Celia Imrie has signed to star in Love Sarah, a feel-good drama from first-time filmmaker Eliza Schroeder, written by Jake Brunger, an alumnus of the BBC’s 2017 New Talent Hotlist and BBC TV Drama Writers’ Programme.

The film is about a young woman who enlists the help of her mother’s best friend and her eccentric estranged grandmother to fulfil her late mother’s dream of opening a bakery in Notting Hill. It is now shooting in London.

Bill Paterson, Shannon Tarbet, Shelley Conn and Rupert Penry-Jones will co-star and Candice Brown,...