06/02/2009

As their film White Lightnin' [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], directed by Dominic Murphy, has its European premiere tonight in the Panorama sidebar of the Berlinale, UK production house F&ME has unveiled a multi-film facility/housekeeping deal with leading UK facility company Molinare, which could prove attractive for European co-producers.

“In forging this new relationship, we are creating a partnership that can structure productions and co-productions in such a way as to maximize the UK tax credit potential not only for our own indigenous productions but also in the rapidly dwindling co-production market,” said F&ME Managing Director Mike Downey. “Together, we have developed a template that will bring back to the UK some of the co-production business that was lost in the wake of the demise of Section 48 and Section 42.”

Molinare, based off London’s Carnaby Street, is majority owned by Indian giant Century Communications. The company has invested over £4.5m in state-of-the-art technology over the last five years. Future F&ME productions set to use Molinare facilities include Iceland’s Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre by Julius Kemp, now in post-production; as well as Bulgaria’s Mission London by Dimitar Mitovski and Finland’s The Debt by Joona Tena, both set to shoot this year in the UK.

F&ME has three films at the Berlinale: White Lightnin’, competing for the First Feature Award and sold internationally by Salt Company; Nick Stringer’s documentary Turtle: The Incredible Journey, sold by Sola Media; and Croatian/Bosnian Buick Riviera, a triple winner at the latest Sarajevo Film Festival.

Upcoming projects include The Voyage of the Beagle by star filmmaker Stephen Daldry (The Reader [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), chairman of F&ME; Dominic Murphy’s Jesus Christ Airlines; and Viking by Iceland’s Egil Odegard.