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Imagineers Studio, the Paris-based production company with a focus on French and European superheroes, is in production on Tristan Aurouet’s Fantax set to start shooting in Paris and the UK in the summer of 2025.

The live-action film is about Fantax, a once beloved superhero, who is haunted by the death of his daughter but must fight against a society that rejects him.

The film is adapted from popular French comic book series created by J.K. Melwyn-Nash (aka Marcel Navarro) and artist Chott (Pierre Mouchot) in 1946. Imagineers Studio was founded by Florent Lamy of Elevate Artist Management (Eam) who...

[Editor’s note: “Selfie” is one of more than 100 movies originally scheduled to screen at the SXSW Film Festival in March. After the coronavirus outbreak forced the festival to cancel, event organizers partnered with Amazon Prime to make seven of those features available to stream for free through Weds., May 6.]

Many a screenwriter has cursed the advent of cellphones and the internet in the last 30 years, as they must contrive ever more original ways of stranding their characters and depriving them of contacts and information: the distinctly 21st-century peril of disconnection. As compensation, however, this technology has gifted them with a world of new ways for characters to seduce, pursue and destroy each other. In vehicles that range from the embarrassingly sanctimonious to the eerily funny (“Ingrid Goes West”), the cellphone has emerged as the go-to supervillain of the age.

The various ways in which that humble device can shatter lives, egos and...

At the start of April, SXSW and Amazon announced that films from this year’s canceled SXSW would stream for free on Prime Video, giving some filmmakers the opportunity to get their projects seen by Us audiences after the Covid-19 pandemic nixed plans for the annual festival, and now the full lineup has been confirmed.

Only a small section of filmmakers who were set to debut their titles at SXSW have taken Amazon up on its streaming offer, but 39 projects will be available to watch from April 27 to May 6.

“This is really an unprecedented time. People are waiting for the new normal. And others are waiting for the return to normal,” SXSW director of film Janet Pierson remarked to THR. “We’re just trying to make best of a complicated situation. And this was a concrete and exciting offer from Amazon to give a wider swath of filmmakers an opportunity...

Online film festival to include narrative and documentary features, shorts and episodics.

Udated: A little over five percent of the 135 features originally selected for SXSW 2020 have opted in to Amazon Prime Video and SXSW’s Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection, set to stream from April 27-May 6.

The online festival will comprise 39 films overall – seven narrative and documentary features, short films and episodic titles – and will be available in front of the Prime Video paywall, free to all Us audiences with or without an Amazon Prime membership.

Prior to Tuesday’s publication of the list, several leading sales...

SXSW and Amazon are moving full steam ahead with a virtual festival that is set to launch April 27.

Officially titled Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection.

The slate includes 39 films, composed of narrative and documentary features, short films, and episodic titles.

Filmmakers in the official 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup were invited to opt in to take part in this online film festival, which is set to play exclusively on Prime Video in the U.S. from April 27 to May 6.

The one-time event will be available in front of the Prime Video paywall, free to all U.S. audiences with or without an Amazon Prime membership — all that is needed is a free Amazon account.

“SXSW has always championed creators forging their own paths to success, often with just the right mix of passion, vision, and radical experimentation to make their dreams happen,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film at SXSW.

After canceling its 2020 event, the SXSW Film Festival announced earlier this month that it would join forces with Amazon Prime Video to provide a free streaming home for selected offerings from this year’s event. The “Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection” has set a launch date of April 27, and will include 39 titles. The virtual lineup includes a number of short films, both narrative and documentary, plus a handful of narrative and documentary features. It also includes three of the Episodics section’s more buzzy titles, including Amazon’s own newly launched sci-fi series “Tales from the Loop.”

“SXSW has always championed creators forging their own paths to success, often with just the right mix of passion, vision and radical experimentation to make their dreams happen,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film, SXSW, in an official statement. “There is no one-size-fits-all, especially in these uncertain times, and we...

Amazon Prime Video and SXSW have set a 39-film launch on April 27-May 6 for Prime Video presents the SXSW 2020 Film Festival Collection. That is the virtual version of the Austin-Texas festival that got canceled in the pandemic. As Deadline reported, filmmakers accepted to SXSW were given the option to have their films play in this online film festival, and have their films viewable free to anyone who has a free Amazon account.

“SXSW has always championed creators forging their own paths to success, often with just the right mix of passion, vision and radical experimentation to make their dreams happen,” said Janet Pierson, Director of Film, SXSW. “There is no one-size-fits-all, especially in these uncertain times, and we knew this opportunity would be of interest to those filmmakers who wanted to be in front of a large audience now. We believe people will be captivated by this selection of intriguing...

WTFilms, the sales company behind Quentin Dupieux’s Jean Dujardin-starrer “Deerskin,” which is opening Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, has boarded “Escobar by Escobar,” a documentary series about drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Pascal Richter will direct the four-part series, which is based on “Pablo Escobar: My Father” by Juan Pablo Escobar, who reflects on his father’s legacy. He became the man to kill when his father died in 1993, and spent his life looking over his shoulder after inheriting $30 billion.

“There have been countless films about Pablo Escobar, but with this documentary series we’re tackling an angle which has rarely been dealt with, shedding light on the aftermath of Escobar’s death and the consequences on the lives of his close ones,” said WTFilms co-founder Dimitri Stephanides.

Victor Robert, a well-seasoned French TV host and journalist, is producing the documentary series through his Paris-based company 10.7 Production and optioned the book.

French-Martinican rapper-turned-actor Joeystarr, a seemingly busy thespian, whose work has yet to cross the Atlantic and reach USA audiences, despite a rush of recent films, has signed up for another.  He'll star in French helmer Tristan Aurouet's 3rd feature film, titled 36 Heures à Tuer  (36 Hours To Kill) - another crime drama it would appear (he's done a number of those recently) for Joeystarr. Details on plot are currently being kept underwraps, but shooting is set to begin in November of this year. Aurouet will be directing from a script penned by Matthieu Le Naour, Alexandre Coquelle, Romain Lévy and Mathieu Oullion, reports Cineuropa. Cyril Colbeau-Justin and...

PARIS -- Gallic sales and distribution company TF1 International and Spyglass Entertainment have signed a deal to remake French narcoleptic comedy "The Secret Adventures of Gustave Klopp" for the U.S., the companies said Thursday.

The original film, called "Narco" in France, stars Guillaume Canet as a victim of narcolepsy, whose dreams become reality as he embarks on an unforgettable adventure.

Directed by Tristan Aurouet and Gilles Lellouche and produced by Alain Attal's Les Productions du Tresor, the movie sold more than half a million tickets when it was released in the territory in 2004. TF1 International has sold the original film in more than 20 countries.