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Steve Hudson wrote & directs; ‘Amazing Maurice’ director Toby Genkel co-directs.

Asa Butterfield and Joel Fry will lead the voice cast of Stitch Head, an animated feature co-production from Gfm Animation, Gringo Films, Wild Bunch and Fabrique d’Images.

The film is currently in pre-production and will begin CG animation soon; Gfm Animation will launch worldwide sales on the title at this week’s European Film Market.

Stitch Head is based on the first book in the series of the same name by Guy Bass, first published in 2011. It tells the story of Stitch Head, a small creature awoken to almost-Life by...

In its last funding session of 2019, the funding institution has handed out a total sum of €2.7 million. The Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund (Ffhsh) has announced the recipients of the grants decided during its final funding session of 2019. A total sum of €2.7 million was split among 19 projects that are at different stages of production and six films in need of distribution support. Nine movies were selected to benefit from production support – namely, the animation Stichkopf by Steve Hudson and Toby Genkel, Sabrina Sarabi’s Niemand ist bei den Kälbern, Ayşe Polat’s thriller Eine Woche in Diyarbakir, Ali Beigy’s My Beautiful Country, Peter Meister’s Das schwarze Quadrat, the drama März by Constantin Hatz, Stefano Sollima’s adaptation of the Tom...

Munich-based world sales company Global Screen has picked up the rights to 3D animated feature “Stitch Head,” co-helmed by the director of box-office hit “Ooops! Noah Is Gone…” Global Screen will present the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market next month.

The film gives a humorous twist to the Frankenstein story, in which the monsters are the good guys and the humans are scary. The movie, directed by Toby Genkel and Steve Hudson, is based on the children’s books by British author Guy Bass.

The film is set at Castle Grotteskew, high above the little town of Grubbers Nubbin, where a mad professor brings to life his monstrous creations, and then forgets about them. Looking after the castle and its monsters is Stitch Head – the professor’s first creation.

Terrified that even the smallest sign of monstrousness will turn the townsfolk of Grubbers Nubbin into an angry...

Produced by Germany’s Gringo Films, “Stitch Head” will pitch at March’s Cartoon Movie in Bordeaux, a leading European event for animation coming down the pipeline. Fellow German studios Lavalabs and Studio Rakete co-produce.

“Stitch Head” will be a stereoscopic 3D animated feature directed by Toby Genkel, co-director –alongside Reza Memari– of the successful “A Stork’s Journey,” a German production from Ulysses Filmproduktion which secured a U.S. release through Grindstone and Lionsgate, and was sold by Global Screen.

“Stitch Head” is a family entertainment adventure-comedy intended for mainstream audiences. According to its producers, it’s a fun take on the Frankenstein myth, where the monsters are the good guys, and the humans are scary.

“It’s based on a simple premise: If a mad professor is obsessively bringing monstrous creatures to Almost-Life in his castle’s laboratory… then who takes care of the monsters? Who keeps them fed and clean?...

English-language farce revolves around correspondent who stages Isis-style kidnapping in bid to stay in Jerusalem.

Israeli director Oded Davidoff is gearing up to shoot his first English-language feature Live From Jerusalem, set against the backdrop of the city’s international news community.

The dark farce revolves around a reprobate British correspondent, enjoying the high life in the city, who stages his own Isis-style kidnapping to get out of an assignment to Darfur. The stunt finds him at the centre of a hunt by Israeli secret services as well as extremists.

Casting for the lead as well as the correspondent’s German and Palestinian crew has yet to commence.

Screenwriter Roy Iddan says he was inspired by his experiences working in the now defunct Fink’s bar – an institution Jerusalem frequented by politicians and journalists for 70 years until its closure in 2005.

“A lot of the patrons were foreign journalists,” says Iddan, who was a student...

This homage to "Pokémon" (by way of "Jurassic Park") is just the thing Nintendo needs to see so they'll get on a sequel to one of their most oddly-compelling entries franchises.

Far be it from us to suggest that an international company like Nintendo take its business cues from a fan-made trailer for a hypothetical movie, but yeah, how about more "Pokémon Snap" for the Wii U, a console that seems as if it were designed from the ground up with that game in mind.

The video, by the folks at Cinesaurus, imagines a thrilling, dangerous adventure in the world snapping photographs of mysterious monsters. Steve Hudson nails it as Professor Oak while Forest Gibson's Todd is a little rough around the edges--not bad, just kind of stiff for the material.

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McDonald’s underlies its Loose Change Menu campaign with an operatic score in a new ad from Ddb.

The ad – “Stretch” – features the bedraggled owner of a cluttered curio store using an elaborate contraption of tied together walking sticks to reach a distant $2 coin.

View the ad:

Credits:

McDonald’s:

Chief Marketing Officer: Mark Lollback VP/Director of Marketing: Madeleine Fitzpatrick Marketing Manager: Jenny O’Regean Senior Brand Manager: Vanessa Rowed

Ddb:

Executive Creative Director: Dylan Harrison Creative Directors: Cam Hoelter & Richard Morgan Creative Team: David Fraser & Dantie Van Der Merwe Managing Partner: Richard Morewood Senior Business Director: Sara Tomonari Senior Business Manager: Lisa Little

Partners:

Production: Prodigy Films Director: Steve Hudson Producer: Marge McInness DoP: Jeremy Rouse

The post McDonald’s turns operatic in new ad for Loose Change menu appeared first on mUmBRELLA.

McDonald’s has launched its major advertising campaign for the summer season.

The campaign celebrates the characteristics of summer, from hopping feet on hot pavements to bikinis, wet suits and cold ice cream, to the tune of Do Summer by Electric Dreams.

The campaign was created by Ddb Sydney. Last year, Leo Burnett re-emerged on the McDonald’s roster, picking up summer campaign duties.

Credits:

Client: Chief Marketing Officer: Mark Lollback VP/Director of Marketing: Madeleine Fitzpatrick Senior Brand Manager: Jennifer Lim Brand Manager: Luke Pavan Ddb: Executive Creative Director: Dylan Harrison, Ddb Sydney Managing Partner: Richard Morewood, Ddb Sydney Creative Directors: Cam Hoelter and Richard Morgan, Ddb Sydney Senior Producer: Amanda Bennie, Ddb Sydney Account Director: Carly Pratt, Ddb New Zealand Partners: Production: Prodigy Films Director: Steve Hudson Producer: Marge McInness Dop: Jeremy Rouse Music: Electric Dreams

The post McDonald’s launches summer ad offensive appeared first on mUmBRELLA.

Hyundai Motor Company Australia has launched a campaign to promote its new model, the New Generation i30. The Tvc uses a montage of pieces of dialogue from one man’s life to create the the lyrics to the Queen anthem, ‘I Want To Break Free’. The editing style is known as supercut, a technique which has been hugely popular online.

The campaign, created by Innocean, runs across television, online, print, Pos, and cinema.

Innocean creative director Scott Lambert told Mumbrella that the ad represented a departure from Hyundai’s traditionally “sophisticated, clean style of commercial for a more emotive feel”, with more colour and tone than the brand usually employs. The rights to the music cost “around $200,000″.

It’s not the first time the Queen song has featured in a Tvc, with satellite navigation system brand Tom Tom using the song in a viral video released last year which starred John Cleese.

Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare Head-on, Javier Bardem, Imelda Staunton: European Film Awards 2004 European Film Academy Documentary – Prix Arte Aileen: Life And Death Of A Serial Killer by Nick Broomfield & Joan Churchill / UK * Darwin's Nightmare by Hubert Sauper / Austria / France / Belgium Die SPIELWÜTIGEN (Addicted to Acting) by Andres Veiel / Germany La Pelota Vasca, La Piel Contra La Piedra (Basque Ball, Skin Against Stone) by Julio Medem / Spain Le Monde Selon Bush (The World According to Bush) by William Karel / France Mahssomim (Checkpoint) by Yoav Shamir / Israel The Last Victory by John Appel / The Netherlands Touch The Sound by Thomas Riedelsheimer / Germany / UK / Finland European Film Academy Short Film – Prix Uip * Prix Uip Ghent: J'attendrai le suivant… by Philippe Orreindy / France Prix Uip Valladolid: Les Baisers des Autres by Carine Tardieu / France Prix Uip Angers: Poveste La Scara "C" by Cristian Nemescu / Romania Prix Uip Berlin: Un Cartus De Kent Si Un Pachet De Cafea...

Burning Inside, the second feature film by West Haven, Ct filmmaker Nathan Wrann, will be making its world premiere at the Connecticut Film Festival on May 8. The film is a tense thriller about a man who wakes up from a coma to begin a new life only to be plagued by vague, violent memories of his past. Or, are they just evil hallucinations? Either way, “John Doe” is out for revenge.

Following this film festival screening, Burning Inside will be released on DVD on May 11 by the brand new distributor Channel Midnight Releasing, which was created by filmmaker James Felix McKenney and producers Lisa Wisely and Chase Tyler. (And, yes, the title of the film comes from the song by Ministry.)

The Connecticut Film Festival runs May 4-9 in Danbury, Ct and features a mix of movies and music. While the festival will be screening a combination of short films and features,...

Berlin -- Danish filmmakers Susanne Bier (“Things We Lost in the Fire”) and Andreas Thomas Jensen (“Adam’s Apples”) are teaming up to co-write the drama “Julius” about a holocaust survivor who meets his twin sister he thought died in the camps.

Bier and Jensen collaborated on Bier’s Oscar-nominated drama "After The Wedding," (2006) with Jensen writing the screenplay based on Bier’s original story.

The Nrw Filmboard has backed "Julius" with 80,000 euros ($108,000) in development funding for Cologne-based Zentropa International, which will produce the film. It’s an inside job for Bier and Jensen, who worked with Zentropa on "After The Wedding" and individually on several other projects. Jensen most recently wrote the script to Zentropa’s "Antichrist" from director Lars von Trier.

German director Bay Okan and his shingle Bajan Film received $808,000 from Nrw for his drama "Grapes of Hope," a German-French-Romanian co-production starring veteran Mario Adorf and German-Turkish...

Brussels -- Former French culture minister Jacques Toubon has been re-elected president of European film fund Eurimages at the group's board meeting in Iceland.

However, Toubon's fourth and final term is for just one year: In November 2009, he will be replaced by Arte vice president and former Ard president Jobst Plog for a two-year mandate.

The agency also announced $5.5 million in grants for 13 feature movies, including "Dragnet," directed by Britain's Steve Hudson. Over the past two decades, Eurimages has funded 1,225 European co-productions with $500 million.

• Sam Riley and Anton Corbijn should pack lite on November 28th as Control, by far the best Brit indie film of the year, leads the way in terms of noms for the 10th at the British Independent Film Awards. And When Did You Last See Your Father? has also received a fair share of noms with 7, followed by Hallam Foe with six and Eastern Promises with five. Newcomer Sam Riley is a shoe-in for the acting and most promising newcomer awards, although it would be a treat to see Kierston Wareing take something home for her bit in Ken Loach's It's a Free World.... The jury comprises actors Hayley Atwell, Archie Panjabi, Kathy Burke, Tony Curran, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Matthew Macfadyen; directors Annie Griffin, Menhaj Huda, Neil Marshall and Peter Webber; London Film Festival artistic director Sandra Hebron; producer Mark Herbert; cinematographer Brian Tufano; distributor Will Clarke; and musician Nitin Sawhney.

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