08/06/2006

London-based Hanway Films had a very good market at the last Cannes Film Festival, thanks mostly to two world premieres that sold across the board: Richard Linklater’s US competition title Fast Food Nation [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Hanway founder Jeremy Thomas, and UK/German horror-comedy film Severance by Christopher Smith (Creep [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

The European territories that had an appetite for Fast Food Nation include the UK/Ireland (Tartan Films), France (La Fabrique), Spain (Manga), Germany (Senator), Switzerland (Elite), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Benelux (A Films), Greece (Odeon), Portugal (Lusomundo), Poland (Monolith Films), Hungary (Best Hollywood) and the Czech Republic (Hollywood Classics).

Severance, one of the hottest titles at the market this year, was sold to Pathe (for the UK/Ireland), who will release it at the end of August, La Fabrique (France), Vertigo (Spain), Medusa (Italy), Scanbox (Scandinavia), Lusomundo (Portugal) and Monolith (Poland). Produced by N1 European Film Produktion in Germany with its usual UK partner Qwerty Films, as well as Dan Films, the film was supported by the UK Film Council and Isle of Man Film.

Starring Laura Harris and Danny Dyer, the film is the story of a weapon manufacturer who treats its sales team to a weekend retreat in Eastern Europe where they are attacked by war-crazed soldiers. Magnolia Pictures also picked up the film for the US.

Other sales concluded in Cannes include Becoming Jane [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julian Jarrold ( Kinky Boots), which was picked up by Eagle Pictures for Italy. The drama, based on Jane Austen’s true love affair with a young Irishman, stars Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy and Maggie Smith. Shooting in Ireland just finished at the end of May.

According to Hanway’s director of marketing and distribution, Jonathan Lynch-Staunton, another key title on the company’s line-up, Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgård, will be launched in the fall and has been sold “pretty much everywhere”.