Big studios have poured money into foreign-language films – but is this just a backdoor way to dominate overseas markets?

When the horror film The Orphanage opened big in its home country of Spain in October 2007, distributor Warner Brothers wanted director JA Bayona to know he was loved. “We call him Jota,” says Richard Fox, executive VP of international at Warner. “He’s an amazing Superman fan, and I had a piece of kryptonite from the Bryan Singer version sent to my hotel in Barcelona. After this huge opening weekend, we went to a fish restaurant on Monday night to celebrate. I got there early, so I was sat there with my box of kryptonite, looking at the portraits on the wall: Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise, Zinedine Zidane. When Jota arrived, I gave him the kryptonite, and a guy took a photo. We sat and had a three-hour dinner. When we left, whose photo was now above Clinton’s, but Jota’s?”Bayona – the Catalan fanboy making it global – had found himself a prime spot in one of cinema’s newest growth areas. The Orphanage went on to take $78m worldwide, one of the largest non-English-language crossovers of the decade. Partproduced by Warner, it was a trophy example of Hollywood’s entry in the noughties into what, in studio parlance, was called “local-language production”: developing, or picking up for distribution, foreign-language films in their native countries. Since Warner, Sony and Disney first set up such operations in the late 90s, there have been dozens of these works: A Very Long Engagement (Warner, 2004), Night Watch (Fox, 2004), My Name Is Khan (Fox, 2010), Heartbreaker (Universal, 2010), to name a few your DVD player may have gobbled. Last year, there were apparently as many as 100 associated with the major studios. Continue reading Is Hollywood backing a blessing for local-language films – or a curse? →

A documentary about Father Bob Maguire, In Bob We Trust, is one of the best Australian films for years.

This year’s Melbourne International Film Festival was marked by the now almost  complete switch to digital projection – and by the triumph of the Americans.

To start with, there was Brian De Palma’s return to form with Passion, a sexy  corporate thriller in his most delirious, experimental vein. The director of pop classics from Carrie to Scarface, De Palma might have been born to exploit the  possibilities of an era when images circulate ever more rapidly and freely – when  anyone can become a star on YouTube, or secretly photograph others using a mobile phone.

The origins of that era are explored in Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess – a  deceptively quaint study of 1980s computer geeks, shot in black-and-white on an  analogue video camera, that was another of the best films at MIFF. (Stanley Kubrick,  the primary influence, would surely have loved it.) Other highlights among the lowbudget American ”indie” films were Joe Swanberg’s beautifully shaped romantic  comedy Drinking Buddies and Dan Sallitt’s unorthodox coming-of-age story The  Unspeakable Act. Continue reading Doco shines among imports at MIFF →

Cannes may not have been a triumph for British films, but hopes are high for Venice and Toronto with some promising movies due.

A man-eating alien, set loose on the Scottish Highlands and played by a glamorous American star, may not look like a fitting figurehead for a major British film industry revival, but Scarlett Johansson’s role in Jonathan Glazer’s long-awaited Under the Skin is the most eye-catching offer in an extraordinary lineup of premieres next month.

These include a dozen promising British features, from costume drama to a comedy about a doppelganger to an honest look at middle-aged marriage, made by celebrated new film-makers such as Richard Ayoade, Steve McQueen and Ralph Fiennes as well as by established names including Stephen Frears, Terry Gilliam and Roger Michell.

All have been selected for coveted screenings at the leading film festivals in Venice and Toronto, where festival directors are already hailing the strongest British lineup for many years. Continue reading Coming soon … a fine crop of world-class British films →

By Don Groves –INSIDEFILM – [Thu 08/08/2013]

As a solo producer, Unicorn Films’ Lizzette Atkins has a remarkably diverse and prolific development slate. Atkins is preparing projects for directors Sue Brooks, Matthew Saville and Ana Kokkinos plus a slate of low-budget horror movies. While they span a variety of genres, Atkins says there is a common thread: all are director- driven.

She founded Unicorn Films last year after nine years as a partner in Circe Films, whose credits include Jon Hewitt’s steamy thriller X, Lawrence Johnston’s Night and Eddie Martin’s Lionel, a feature documentary on Aboriginal boxer Lionel Rose. Her latest production, Anna Broinowski’s Aim High in Creation! had its world premiere on Wednesday at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
Continue reading Lizette Atkins prepares projects with Sue Brooks, Matthew Saville, Ana Kokkinos →

The film project from Australian writer-director Jocelyn Moorhouse is described as “Unforgiven” with a sewing machine.

7:10 PM PDT 8/7/2013 by Pip Bulbeck – THR

SYDNEY — Kate Winslet and Judy Davis have signed on to star in the latest feature from Australian writer-director Jocelyn Moorhouse, producers Film Art Media said Thursday.
The Dressmaker, billed as a stylish drama with comic undertones, centers on Tilly Dunnage (Winslet), who returns after many years in Europe to her small Australian outback hometown with revenge on her mind. Tilly, a talented couturier, returns to the remote country town from which she fled as a child after being accused of murder. She wants to make amends with her eccentric mother, Molly (Davis), but first must unravel the secrets of her past. Moorhouse describes the tale of love, revenge and 1950s haute couture as “Unforgiven with a sewing machine”.
Continue reading Kate Winslet, Judy Davis to Star in Revenge Dramedy ‘The Dressmaker’ →