16/05/2009

Following the announcement mid-week that Mickey Rourke was going to star in Larry Clark’s upcoming Mona Lisa, UK-based HandMade Films International closed several key territories at Cannes, including Benelux (Paradiso), Scandinavia (Svensk Filmindustri), Poland (Vision), the Czech Republic/Slovakia and Hungary (Intersonic), Turkey (TMC) and Brazil (Imagem)).

The US actor celebrated for his role in The Wrestler will star opposite former Bond girl, French actress Eva Green. In the US remake of Neil Jordan’s 1986 classic Mona Lisa, he will play George, an ex-con who, finding it difficult to make his way legitimately in the real world, takes a job as a driver for a high-class call girl who will lure him into certain danger.

Larry Clark, who was nominated for a Palme d’Or in 1995 for Kids, will direct the film in New York in August. The film is produced by HandMade. The Rourke deal was brokered by Rourke’s agent David Unger, Bill Sobel of Edelstein, Laird and Sobel and HandMade CEO Patrick Meehan.

From their Lerins Stand in Cannes, Handmade Film International headed by veteran sales executives Guy Collins and Mike Ryan, are negotiating half a dozen titles such as Menno Meyjes’ UK/Spain co-production Manolete [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Penelope Cruz and Adrien Brody; The Long Good Friday by Paul W.S. Anderson (in development); the UK/Spain animation film Planet 51 by Jorge Blanco; and Eloise in Paris, featuring Uma Thurman.