19/05/2007

London based sales company Intandem Films is introducing in Cannes Julian Schnabel’s next project, The Lonely Doll, scripted by Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands), as well as Blatant Pictures’ new slate of genre films worth $25m each.

“This is our fourth Cannes, and we are starting to see the benefit and results of our work,” Intandem CEO Gary Smith told Cineuropa. “We’ve spent the last 12 months putting together our line-up and the films that we represent reflect what we do: we get involved in quality films and genre titles in the $15-$30m range that will appeal to distributors and wide audiences”.

The Lonely Doll, based on the true story of author and model Dare Wright, will start shooting within the next 12 months. The film is being produced as part of the Number 9 Films “SuperSlate” consortium set up with Film4, the UK Film Council and the Irish Film Board.

The first film to hit the screens will be Anand Tucker’s And When Did You Last See Your Father?, starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent. The film has been pre-sold to Sony Pictures for the US and Icon for the UK and Australia.

Another “SuperSlate” film is the $25m comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges. The film, based on Toby Young’s book about the publishing industry, will be ready for Cannes 2008. Territories pre-sold include RCV for Benelux, Sandrew Metronome and Lusomundo for Portugal.

The second major source of products targeting the lucrative market of under 35 year-olds will come from L.A. based Radical Publishing and Blatant Pictures. Headed by Barry Levine and Jesse Berger, who used to work for Dark Horse (Hellboy), Blatant Pictures will work with Intandem on the sourcing of “comic to film properties” with mass appeal.

Also in the horror/thriller genre is Gallowwalker starring Wesley Snipes, pre-sold to VCL (Germany), Metropolitan (France), Nordisk (Scandinavia) and Toshiba (Japan).