A dozen new pick-ups for SF
by Annika Pham
Rasmus Ramstad, CEO of Scandinavian major Svensk Filmindustri AB (SF), said that his company picked up over a dozen new titles during the Cannes Film Festival.
For Scandinavia, SF acquired Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt & Sean Penn, and the sci-fi thriller Pandorum from Summit Entertainment.
From Focus Features, the company acquired Milk, starring Penn; Sam Mendes’s new film Hamlet 2; the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt (selected for Venice); and the upcoming A Serious Man.
From Pathe, SF pre-bought the horror film The Descent 2, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, as well as Danis Tanovic’s Triage, starring Colin Farrell. Brideshead Revisited sold by Handway, and the sci-fi film District 9 produced by Peter Jackson and sold by QED, were acquired just before Cannes.
Michael Moore’s sequel to Fahrenheit 911 was acquired from Paramount Vantage, together with Humboldt Park, while the US animated feature film Alfa & Omega and Why Did I get married were purchased from Mandate.
SF’s theatrical market share is around 18% in Sweden and 25% in the other Scandinavian territories, where the company also handles 20th Century Fox titles.
The company is enjoying the current release in Sweden of the local film Wolf, directed by Daniel Alfredson and starring Peter Stormare (number eight at the box office with over €902,430 grossed in nine weeks), and is expecting healthy returns from Sex and the City, opening on June 21.
SF’s biggest production to date, the sequel to the epic film Arn: The Knight Templar [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (over 1 million admissions at home), will open in Sweden on August 22.
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