28/11/2002

French producer, Les Productions Bagheera has entered the distribution arena with a new company called Bagheera Distribution. Most notably Bagheera produced Erick Zonca’s la Vie rêvée des anges.
The first film distributed by Bagheera, together with Euripide Distribution, was Eric Pittare’s Le Bruit, l’odeur et quelques étoiles onto French screens. On 27 November, the two companies co-distributed Renzo Martinelli’s Italo-French co-production, Vajont, starring Daniel Auteuil, Michel Serrault and Laura Morante.
Vajont was also co-produced by Bagheera Productions, Rai Cinema, the Martinelli Film Co., and SDP Films with a Euros 9 million budget and sold 1.2 million tickets during its Italian release. Vajont was distributed in France onto 125 screens with Bagheera Distribution covering the cost of the prints and Euripide those for marketing and sales. For François Marquis, the head of Bagheera Productions, Vajont represents the beginning of a new strategy for releasing niche and not mainstream titles.

(Translated from French)