Luc Besson vs Johnny Depp

07/07/2006

Momentum Pictures is taking its chance today with the 71-print release of District 13, co-written and produced by Luc Besson and offered to UK male audiences as an alternative to the Johnny Depp vehicle Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, released nationwide by BVI.

The directorial debut of veteran French cinematographer Pierre Morel is a futuristic action thriller set in the France of 2013. David Belle, founder of the free-running movement who has a part in the film as a young rebel from the slums, gave several interviews to UK publications to promote the film.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Another French film, this time targeting arthouse audiences, is among the seven new releases of the day: Heading South [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
interview: Robin Campillo
interview: Simon Arnal-Szlovak
film profile] by Laurent Cantet (read Focus) is being released by Soda Pictures on 15 prints (including 12 in London).

Kate Gerova from Soda’s marketing department told Cineuropa: “We used a very press-led campaign as people are very interested in the subject of the film and the UK press are really fascinated by Charlotte Rampling, so we have taken out advertising in key press such as The Observer, Time Out and the Guardian. There is also an exclusive Q&A with Charlotte on the screen at the Green Cinema in London tonight”.

Set in post-colonial Haiti in the late 70s, the film was produced and distributed by Haut et Court in France and sold by Celluloid Dreams.

The intelligent and engaging subject matter, which mixes sex, race, social classes and colonial oppression, will take a bite out of the arthouse audience of The Wind That Shakes the Barley [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ken Loach
interview: Rebecca O’Brien
film profile], still playing in 105 cinemas across the UK and Ireland. Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning film kept its fifth position on the UK/Irish top chart last weekend, grossing over £1.1m and coming away with the second best screen average (after last weekend’s biggest opener, Dreamworks’ animated film Over the Hedge).