UGC International looks to the future
This year, the French company UGC International presided by Saïd Ben Saïd was back on the Croisette for some very interesting deals, especially in terms of pre-sales. As Eva Diederix, international sales manager, revealed, Le Concile de Pierre by Guillaume Nicloux (starring Monica Bellucci and Thomas Kretschmann) was very successful amongst buyers : many territories already bought it although the film will only start shooting next September and shall be completed during Summer 2006. On the Old Continent, Le Concile de Pierre was bought by Spain (DeA Planeta [ex Planeta 2010]), Benelux (Les Films de l’Elysée), Switzerland (JMH Distribution), Greece (Spentzos Film), and all Eastern European countries. Moreover, an agreement is about to be signed with Germany —while the deal is already done with Italy (01 Distribution), since Rai Cinema is one of the co-producers.
UGC International has many projects to sell at the moment (especially André Téchiné’s Le combat de l’ange and Claude Miller’s Un secret) of which buyers are looking forward to reading the scripts. In the meantime, the company keeps selling Enfermés dehors, directed and interpreted by Albert Dupontel (also starring Yolande Moreau). This film, which is still in post-production but should be released soon, in October 2005, was bought by Switzerland, Russia, and Benelux (Les Films de l’Elysée). The same territories also bought L’Hypercondriaque by Gérard Bitton and Michel Munz (who directed Ah !Si j’étais riche and wrote both episodes of the famous La vérité si je mens), a comedy starring Clovis Cornillac which is nearly completely shot and should be ready for release in the beginning of 2006. Indeed, this film was sold to JMH Distribution (Switzerland) and Les Films de l’Elysée (Benelux). The latter also pre-bought Le Héros de la famille , Thierry Klifa’s second feature, the cast of which is quite fancy (Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Lanvin, Emmanuelle Béart, Miou Miou, Géraldine Pailhas). This film will start shooting in October and should be ready in Spring 2006. Finally, UGC International completed the sales of Francis Veber’s Tais Toi! by selling it to Cinefile (UK).
(Translated from French)
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