Protagonist Pictures arrives in Cannes clutching four new titles
by Kaleem Aftab
- The new films by Phil Morrison, Edward Hall, Mitch Jenkins and Hong Khaou have been added to the Cannes slate of the British outfit
At the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film (14-23 May), Protagonist Pictures will kick off sales for Blithe Spirit by director Edward Hall, starring Dan Stevens and Judi Dench. The film has already secured deals in Spain, Greece/Cyprus and the UK/Ireland. Currently in pre-production, the movie tells the story of a best-selling crime novelist, Charles (Stevens), who suffers from terrible writer’s block and is struggling to finish his first screenplay. Charles’ quest for inspiration leads him to invite the eccentric mystic Madame Acarti (Dench) to perform a séance in his home.
Buyers will also be able to see a sizzle reel of Satan Is Real, which stars Ethan Hawke and Alessandro Nivola in director Phil Morrison’s recounting of the true story of two brothers bound together by love and music, but ripped apart by their personal demons. Rights throughout the world are available.
Protagonist Pictures has also boarded Mitch Jenkins’ mystery The Show, written by Alan Moore. Starring Tom Burke, Ellie Bamber and Moore himself, the Northampton-set film has world rights available. Exclusive footage is available to be viewed at Cannes.
More exclusive footage is also available for Monsoon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hong Khaou
film profile], Hong Khaou’s follow-up to his Sundance debut, Lilting [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. The movie tells the story of a man on a trip to Vietnam in order to put his parents’ ashes to rest. Henry Golding and Parker Sawyers star.
The British outfit will also be showing exclusive images from Christopher MacBride’s The Education of Fredrick Fitzell, the French-US-Belgian co-production The Sound of Philadelphia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jérémie Guez, starring Matthias Schoenaerts and Joel Kinnaman, and Coky Giedroyc’s How To Build a Girl, based on the novel by Caitlin Moran, starring Emma Thompson and Paddy Considine.
There will be a first market screening of Two/One [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by writer-director Juan Cabral, one of the world’s great commercial directors. It is a high-concept story about two men on opposite sides of the world who have a mysterious, invisible connection. Kaden (Boyd Holbrook) is a world-class ski jumper in Whistler, Canada, unexpectedly presented with the chance to reconnect with his teenage sweetheart. Khai (Song Yang), meanwhile, is a corporate executive in Shanghai, China, faced with the fact that the girl he fantasises about on the internet has just started working in his office.
The British company’s slate also includes Argyris Papadimitropoulos’ Monday [+see also:
film review
film profile], an untitled Drake Doremus project, Julie Delpy’s My Zoe [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julie Delpy
film profile], William Nicholson’s Hope Gap [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters, Steph Green’s Call Jane and Hope Dickson Leach’s The Cradle.
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