Carnaby acquires Andrea Bocelli-narrated ice-skating doc ‘Intimissimi On Ice’

London-based sales outfit Carnaby International has acquired worldwide sales rights to ice-skating film Intimissimi On Ice: A Legend of Beauty.

The company is set to screen promo footage from the filmed event at the American Film Market (AFM) in Los Angeles from next week, which will act as its official sales launch.

The film, which was shot at The Arena Di Verona in Italy and is part of the Opera on Ice series of events, is narrated by Andrea Bocelli and combines opera and figure skating.

It also stars Japanese figure skating champion Shizuka Arakawa, American ice-dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and Canadian pair-skating duo Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford.

Director Damiano Michieletto said: “Working on this project with such amazing talent and people from all around the world was one of the highlights of my career.

“The beauty of this show and the amount of people who worked hard to make it happen is unlike anything I have ever seen in my career. We’re thrilled to be working with Carnaby to bring this incredible production to audiences worldwide.”

Andrew Loveday, joint CEO of Carnaby International, added: “I’m proud to be working alongside such a talented team on this phenomenal special event. We’re excited to bring this into the market.”

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‘Gun Shy’ Starring Antonio Banderas Lands at Saban

Olga Kurylenko also stars in the film helmed by Simon West.

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Saban Films has acquired North American distribution rights to Simon West’s Gun Shy, starring Antonio Banderas and Olga Kurylenko.

The action film was written by Toby Davies and Mark Haskell Smith. West and Jib Polhemus produced under the Simon West Productions banner alongside Harry Stourton.

Adapted from the novel also written by Haskell Smith, Gun Shy (formerly titled Salty) follows Turk Henry (Banderas), an aging mid-level rock star whose supermodel wife (Kurylenko) is suddenly kidnapped while they are vacationing in Chile. Accustomed to his extravagant lifestyle and lacking basic life skills, Turk finds himself perplexed in having to navigate the back alleys of Santiago and South American jungles to save his wife from the renegades.

Gun Shy is a supremely entertaining film,” said Saban Films’ Bill Bromiley. “Our audiences will delight in Antonio Banderas’ raucous performance and director Simon West’s unique and wild vision.”

Gun Shy will be released in theaters on Sept. 8 in key cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Ness Saban and Bromiley negotiated the deal on behalf of Saban Films, with London-based Carnaby International handling worldwide rights.

Carnaby launches Middle East-set sci-fi ‘The Shrine’

UK sales outfit Carnaby International has acquired worldwide sales rights to sci-fi thriller The Shrine and will be introducing the project to buyers at Cannes.

Set against the backdrop of war in the middle east, when a US drone strikes a rebel convoy, a blackout engulfs the Syrian-Turkish border. The US and Turkish military team up to investigate, stumbling upon a shrine at a mosque in a deserted town. What they find buried beneath will test the soldiers’ faith.

Sebastian Pearson is producing for his banner Pearson Films, his previous credits include Snatch and Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels as an associate producer. Anthony Hickox (Waxwork, Hellraiser III) will direct and has penned the screenplay.

Production is slated for early 2018, with cast to be announced at a later date.

The deal was brokered by Carnaby’s joint CEO Sean O’Kelly with Seabastian Pearson.

Pearson commented: “Our original Idea was to take a high concept, action sci-fi idea and set it in a Mosque amongst the Syrian conflict to highlight the craziness of all religious prejudices. Much like Get Out used classic horror to highlight racism in the US”

Cannes: Nick Frost to Play ‘Captain Pugwash’ in Chinese-Backed Live-Action Movie

 

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Stewart Cook/REX/Shutterstock (4106675i) Nick Frost 'The Boxtrolls' film premiere, Los Angeles, America - 21 Sep 2014
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Stewart Cook/REX/Shutterstock (4106675i)
Nick Frost
‘The Boxtrolls’ film premiere, Los Angeles, America – 21 Sep 2014

British actor Nick Frost is set to play classic British children’s character “Captain Pugwash” in a live-action movie from Atticus Pictures, Carnaby International and China’s Costar Culture & Media. Carnaby is introducing the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market this week.

“Besides Winston Churchill and Henry VIII, Captain Horatio Pugwash seems like a role I was born to play. I cannot wait to get going,” said Frost.

Frost will play the bumbling and cowardly pirate, created by John Ryan, who has been a British children’s favorite since first appearing as a comic strip in 1950. A black-and-white animated television series featuring the character first appeared on the BBC in 1957, running until 1966, followed by a color series which first aired in the mid-1970s. Another more recent animated version was produced in 1997.

The film will see the cowardly captain on a mission to rescue cabin boy Tom’s father, who has been marooned on a volcanic island with a hoard of treasure protected by an army of angry ghosts. Jason Flemyng has also been announced to appear.

Written and directed by John Hay, who won an International Emmy for best kids TV movie/miniseries for his 2011 television drama “Lost Christmas,” the film will be produced by Elliot Jenkins and Justin Johnson for Atticus Pictures alongside Andrew Loveday and Sean O’Kelly for Carnaby International and Jiang Jun for Costar Culture & Media. Costar and Carnaby will co-finance the project.

Interlude in Prague: An exclusive look into recreating the sumptuous world of Mozart

Exclusive in The Independent

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Though Mozart’s cinematic story has been somewhat dominated by the towering classic that is Amadeus, new film Interlude in Prague looks to take inspiration from one of his most famous works, Don Giovanni.

Though the dates and locations here are real, the film makes daring use of Mozart’s opera to paint a new, fictitious story about the composer, in a similar manner to 1998’s Shakespeare in Love.

Taking place over the course of several visits to Prague, Mozart (Aneurin Barnard) is invited to the city by Baron Salok (James Purefoy), who bears a certain reputation for vanity and self-obsession.

That said, Mozart feels immediately at home with his new patron, and launches work on a new opera to be staged at the Nostitz Theatre.

However, Saloka’s betrothed, Zuzanna Lubtak (Morfydd Clark), a talent soprano, falls in love with Mozart and the pair begin a passionate affair, one that has disastrous and tragic consequences.

Directed by John Stephenson, the film also stars Les Miserables‘ Samantha Barks, Ade Edmondson, and Dervla Kirwan.

We’ve got an exclusive look at the making of the film, exploring both its use of magnificent real locations, and the creation of its extravagant, intricate costumes.

Interlude in Prague hits UK cinemas 25 May, before arriving on DVD and Digital HD from 29 May.

Dates announced for BEAUTIFUL DEVILS theatrical release!

 

 

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BEAUTIFUL DEVILS, a 21st-Century take on Shakespeare’s tragedy of Othello, will be released theatrically in the UK in March. Shifting the play’s action from the streets of Venice to the music scene of trendy East London, the film brings together a cast of emerging British actors to update this classic timeless story of jealousy and betrayal.

Osy Ikhile (Mission:Impossible – Rogue Nation, Kill Your Friends)

Rachel Hurd Wood (Dorian Gray, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Elliot James Langridge (Primeval)

Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider)

 

UK theatrical screenings:

VUE SHEPHERD’S BUSH

22 MARCH 19:00 (SOLD OUT)

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43151

VUE CARDIFF

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43254

VUE BIRMINGHAM

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43147

VUE CROYDON GRANTS

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43150

VUE STAINES

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43148

VUE ISLINGTON

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43149

VUE READING

22 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43152

ODEON BRIGHTON

22 MARCH 20:30

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43310

ODEON GUILDFORD

22 MARCH 20:30

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43312

ODEON TUNBRIDGE WELLS

22 MARCH 20:30

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43314

CROUCH END PICTUREHOUSE

22 MARCH 20:30

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43146

VUE CHESHIRE OAKS

24 MARCH 19:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43249

ODEON WIMBLEDON

29 MARCH 18:00

https://www.ourscreen.com/tickets/buy/43331

 

 

Berlin: Olga Kurylenko Talks Getting ‘Salty’ With Antonio Banderas

Leaving James Bond behind, the actress takes on comedy as a kidnapped supermodel wife of an aging rock star.

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Former Bond girl (Quantum of Solace) and Terence Malick muse (To the Wonder) Olga Kurylenko turns on the laughs alongside Antonio Banderas in Simon West’s comedy Salty, about an aging rock star whose supermodel wife is kidnapped by shipless pirates. Carnaby is screening the film to buyers at the EFM.

Is this your first comedy role?

I’ve been part of other comedies before, but the roles were never that big. I think this is the biggest and also the first time I really got the taste of comedy. It’s so much fun.

How funny is Antonio Banderas?

He’s hilarious. He’s very natural. He’s Spanish, so has this fire in him. He was going pretty far with the characters.

He wasn’t just doing his Puss in Boots voice all the time?

No, although I love that! What a shame he wasn’t doing it.

Could you be the pampered wife of an aging rock god, like your character?

If I could, I would have done it already! Believe me, I had many opportunities. I was a model, and it’s quite easy to end up surrounded by people who look for those kinds of wives. So if you wanted it, you just grabbed the opportunity. But you have to want it, and I did not. I think I’d die of boredom. But never say never!

You’re also in The Death of Stalin. Is this a different sort of comedy?

It’s a satire, so it’s not that first-degree comedy. But Armando Iannucci is an amazing writer – everything he writes is brilliant. But my role there was not very funny.

Who do you play?

I play Maria Yudina, who was Stalin’s favorite pianist. She was very insolent and hated him. And despite of this, he still admired her work. She was quite a strong woman and didn’t care about the regime and didn’t want to obey.

How are your piano skills?

I had to learn lots of big pieces – Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 23” and Chopin’s preludes … so basically I’m playing a lot of piano! But I did seven years of music school when I was a kid so I know how to play and read music.

Who should play the next James Bond?

There are so many guys. We have an actor in Salty, Ben Cura, who could be a good James Bond, but maybe he’s too young. He’s only 28.

Review: THE YOUNG OFFENDERS (Empire)

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” Raucously funny and winningly played, this is the best Irish comedy since Sing Street.”

★★★★

Cork scallies Conor MacSweeney (Alex Murphy) and Jock Murphy (Chris Walley) cycle to the coast in search of a washed-up bale of cocaine, only to be pursued by a dogged Garda sergeant (Dominic MacHale) and a disabled drug dealer (PJ Gallagher) with a nail gun.

Only a handful of memorable movies have been filmed in County Cork, but writer-director Peter Foott’s debut deserves to be mentioned alongside John Huston’s Moby Dick, John Roberts’s War of the Buttons, Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Neil Jordan’s Ondine. Despite taking its cue from the 2007 seizure off the West Cork coast of a record €440m-worth of cocaine, this freewheeling tale also owes much to such comic pairings as Laurel and Hardy, Craggy Island clerics Ted and Dougal and Lenny Abrahamson’s Dublin wasters, Adam & Paul.

Bonding because everyone else thinks they’re eejits, 15 year-olds Alex Murphy and Chris Walley dream of living in a mansion with topless girls and an English butler. In reality, Walley steals bikes to ease the pain of being abused by drunken father Michael Sands, while Murphy trades insults with widowed mother Hilary Rose, who runs a market fish stall and considers Walley a bad influence on her impressionable son. She’s right to be concerned, as who else would think of cycling 100 miles to Three Castle Head on the off chance of finding a bale of coke washed up from a captured trawler?

Once Murphy and Walley have an idea in their heads, however, there’s no shifting it and Foott follows their misadventures with a wittily non-judgemental empathy, as encounters with sticky lollies and confused chickens preface more menacing confrontations with a jobsworthy cop, a clubfooted drug dealer and a neighbourhood thug. The dialogue is as sharp as Paddy Jordan’s views of the Munster countryside, while the young leads are well worth a re-teaming. But what most impresses is the way Foott nimbly exploits every seemingly insignificant detail in slotting together the hilariously convoluted plot.

Guardian rising star of 2017: INTERLUDE IN PRAGUE’s Morfydd Clark

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Seen next in Interlude in Prague, rising star Morfydd Clark was recently profiled in The Guardian:

In her professional debut, Morfydd Clark was upstaged by a lamb. She’d nabbed the title part in Blodeuwedd – “it’s the Welsh Juliet” – staged on a Snowdonian hillside in 2013. But as if elaborate Welsh-language poetry and swarms of midges weren’t challenging enough, one evening “this lamb came on – it was in July when they’re really not little and cute anymore – and baaa-ed loudly through the love scene.”

Lamb aside, Clark has had little problem holding her own on stage, and these days her fellow performers include Glenda Jackson, Dominic West and Rhys Ifans. She’s played the actual Juliet opposite Freddie Fox’s Romeo, won praise from critics in Gary Owen’s Violence and Son at the Royal Court, and starred in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Donmar. She rounded off 2016 by playing Cordelia opposite Glenda Jackson’s King Lear at the Old Vic.

“I knew her as a politician and found her fascinating; she wiped the floor with anyone, because she can perform,” says Clark, who was thrilled to play her daughter, especially getting a “cuddle” each night while playing dead.

Do we need to see more gender-blind casting? “With Shakespeare, there’s no reason not to,” Clark insists, before adding that it’s no substitute for writing towering parts for women. “I want men to be asking to play great female parts!”

Still, she’s had no problem winning juicy roles, and they keep her coming back to the theatre. Clark has given notable screen performances in The Falling and opposite Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, but while she loves films, “as a girl, often the characters you’re auditioning for in the theatre are more significant”. She was raised in Cardiff, and dropped out of school at 16, having struggled with dyslexia and ADHD. “I had zero confidence, I didn’t do well, I was in trouble a lot.”

Her mother, who works in child development, told her: “You’re not sitting here, wasting your life”, and so Clark applied to the National Youth Theatre of Wales, the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain and Welsh National Youth Opera. She got in to all three. “It was totally life-changing. Not just being on stage, but spending time with adults who didn’t just tell me off.”

After attending the National Youth Theatre of Wales, she studied at Drama Centre London – a wrench to leave her beloved Cardiff, but now very much home. In 2017, she will be seen in Interlude in Prague, a film about Mozart, and is currently auditioning for plays. She says: “I’ve done two Shakespeare tragedies, so I’d desperately like to do comedy. It would be nice not to die.”