24/05/2013 - Non-exhaustive round-up of various French announcements that emerged in the second half of the Film Market, which closes tonight

The Film Market at the 66th Cannes Film Festival closes tonight after ten days of intense activity for French international vendors and distributors, but also for producers who unveiled their new movie projects, all hustling to benefit from the super-powerful media spotlights afforded by the Croisette (read the Wild Bunch news, the article on Rezo-Gaumont-Memento, the projects of Cantet and the biopic Saint-Exupéry, and the summary at the end of the first week). Quick look at other new films revealed during the Cannes Film Market:

China has become more enticing to the French since the signing two years ago of a coproduction agreement between the two countries. In fact, EuropaCorp will produce the 4th, 5th and 6th episodes of its franchise, The Transporter, with the Chinese company Fundamental Films. As a reminder, amongst the group’s many other project titles, Lucy by Luc Besson stands out, with Scarlett Johansson in the cast. EuropaCorp’s international sales team has also kept busy, notably with a quick-fire series of pre-sales of the home-production Brick Mansions starring Paul Walker, and the Yves Saint-Laurent project by Bertrand Bonello.

In perfect synchronization, the former partner of Luc Besson, Pierre Ange Le Pogam, who is now flying solo with his company Stone Angels, is also showing an interest in China and has entered into a partnership with Seven Stars, the two companies agreeing to coproduce and distribute action movies in their respective countries, starting with Shanghai, which will be filmed at the beginning of 2014.

Memento Films International also stood out with, amongst other things, multiple sales of its contender in Cannes, The Past by Asghar Farhadi (review), including an important acquisition by Sony Pictures Classics for the United States.

Les Films du Losange (interview of Agathe Valentin) pulled off a good deal with L’inconnu du lac [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie, presented in Un Certain Regard and notably sold to the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy.

In its very rich line-up, StudioCanal did particularly well with Shaun The Sheep, an animation project with Aardman Animations, which is well on its way to being sold to all the major territories worldwide.

The Parisian production company One World Films revealed that Viggo Mortensen will top the bill in Loin des hommes by David Oelhoffen, which is inspired by a short story by Albert Camus.

MPM Films will coproduce Zama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile] by Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel (to be filmed in the spring of 2014, notably with the Spanish company El Deseo as a partner) and handle the sales of For Those Who Can Tell No Tales, the next film by Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic.

In this non-exhaustive list, we can also mention Pyramide Distribution which has acquired Selfish Giant by British director Clio Barnard (appreciated at the Directors’ Fortnight – review) and MK2 International which chalked up good 

(Translated from French)