At last count, Pyramide is selling the most films (6) which are showing in the Festival and its satellites. Four are in the Official Selections of the Cannes International Film Festival (Cannes Ff Premiere, Cannes Ff Special Screening, and Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard); one is in Critics’ Week / La Semaine de la critique and one is in Directors’ Fortnight/ Quinzaine des realisateurs.
Throughout the festival, we will watch not only their films to report on, but will keep an eye on the sales to some 60 international territories.
Pyramide International is part of the Pyramide Group which is also a domestic distribution company in France (Pyramide Distribution) and a French production company (Pyramide Productions). The company was founded in 1989 by Claudie Cheval, Fabienne Vonier, Francis Boespflug, Louis Malle and Michel Seydoux. Claudie also founded Ace which is still going strong today. (see current blog on Ace in Cannes).
Claudie brought Eric Lagesse into Pyramide International as a young man and, typically for everyone who is involved with Pyramide, he continues to work with them today as their CEO. Claudie was one of the most wonderful, warm and creative women in the business and unfortunately for us all, she died much too soon, on July 30, 1999 at age 48. Claudie set a tone of willing cooperation and support among the French film business colleagues. One can see at a glance when entering the Unifrance umbrella offices how the French international sales agents at the markets cooperate with each other. When reading how films in the Cannes Film Festival and the sidebars seem to be apportioned out to them when the titles are announced and there is no international sales agent attached yet, one surmises that there is a special kind of sharing going on among them.
Pyramide is one of the oldest and most respected of some 450 interntional sales agents. Last year they represented one of my favorite films of the festival, the Critics’ Week film A Tale of Love and Desire. Please read my blog about it here. The French government support of film as a cultural heritage allows the French sales agents to serve as the best examples of agents for the 7th Art to all other countries. As a world sales agent, Pyramide International has deliberately focused on the “film d’auteur” and promotes international sales of young directors.
As distributors in France itself as well as international sales agents, they also can boast of one of the top acquisitions executive in the business, Christine Ravet buys the films the French public lines up to see at their theaters as well as those that are sold internationally.
This year’s Cannes titles are described here:
Cannes Ff Premiere Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras is a coproduction of Greece, France, and Belgium.
Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras
Cannes Ff Special Screenings My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán is a production of Chile. Sales have already been made for UK and Ireland to New Wave; Benelux to Cineart; Italy to I Wonder, Ex-Yugo to Discovery.
My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán
Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but the first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc of Romania.
Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc
Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard The Worst Ones/Les pires is also eligible for the Camera d’Or. It is directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret of France.
Directors’ Fortnight Harkis/ Les Harkis directed by Philippe Faucon of France tells the story set during the Algerian War 1954–1962, when impoverished young Algerian men known as “Harkis” volunteered to join the French Army.
Critics’ Week in Competition The Pack/ La jauría directed by Colombian Andrés Ramírez Pulido is a coproduction of Colombia and France. It tells of a country boy, Eliú, incarcerated́ in an experimental juvenile correction center in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he committed a crime with his friend El Mono. Ordered to perform manual labour and undergo intensive group therapy, Eliú discovers that El Mono has been transferred to the same center, bringing with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.Pulido’s feature directorial debut follows a distinguished track record in short films that saw Damiana premiere in Competition in Cannes in 2017 a year after El Edén played in the Berlinale.
And in the Marche: I Love Greece. And who doesn’t?...
Throughout the festival, we will watch not only their films to report on, but will keep an eye on the sales to some 60 international territories.
Pyramide International is part of the Pyramide Group which is also a domestic distribution company in France (Pyramide Distribution) and a French production company (Pyramide Productions). The company was founded in 1989 by Claudie Cheval, Fabienne Vonier, Francis Boespflug, Louis Malle and Michel Seydoux. Claudie also founded Ace which is still going strong today. (see current blog on Ace in Cannes).
Claudie brought Eric Lagesse into Pyramide International as a young man and, typically for everyone who is involved with Pyramide, he continues to work with them today as their CEO. Claudie was one of the most wonderful, warm and creative women in the business and unfortunately for us all, she died much too soon, on July 30, 1999 at age 48. Claudie set a tone of willing cooperation and support among the French film business colleagues. One can see at a glance when entering the Unifrance umbrella offices how the French international sales agents at the markets cooperate with each other. When reading how films in the Cannes Film Festival and the sidebars seem to be apportioned out to them when the titles are announced and there is no international sales agent attached yet, one surmises that there is a special kind of sharing going on among them.
Pyramide is one of the oldest and most respected of some 450 interntional sales agents. Last year they represented one of my favorite films of the festival, the Critics’ Week film A Tale of Love and Desire. Please read my blog about it here. The French government support of film as a cultural heritage allows the French sales agents to serve as the best examples of agents for the 7th Art to all other countries. As a world sales agent, Pyramide International has deliberately focused on the “film d’auteur” and promotes international sales of young directors.
As distributors in France itself as well as international sales agents, they also can boast of one of the top acquisitions executive in the business, Christine Ravet buys the films the French public lines up to see at their theaters as well as those that are sold internationally.
This year’s Cannes titles are described here:
Cannes Ff Premiere Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras is a coproduction of Greece, France, and Belgium.
Dodo directed by Panos H. Koutras
Cannes Ff Special Screenings My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán is a production of Chile. Sales have already been made for UK and Ireland to New Wave; Benelux to Cineart; Italy to I Wonder, Ex-Yugo to Discovery.
My Imaginary Country/ Mi país imaginario directed by Patricio Guzmán
Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but the first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc of Romania.
Metronom is eligible for the Camera d’Or as it is the third film, but first fiction feature of director Alexandru Belc
Cannes Ff Un Certain Regard The Worst Ones/Les pires is also eligible for the Camera d’Or. It is directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret of France.
Directors’ Fortnight Harkis/ Les Harkis directed by Philippe Faucon of France tells the story set during the Algerian War 1954–1962, when impoverished young Algerian men known as “Harkis” volunteered to join the French Army.
Critics’ Week in Competition The Pack/ La jauría directed by Colombian Andrés Ramírez Pulido is a coproduction of Colombia and France. It tells of a country boy, Eliú, incarcerated́ in an experimental juvenile correction center in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he committed a crime with his friend El Mono. Ordered to perform manual labour and undergo intensive group therapy, Eliú discovers that El Mono has been transferred to the same center, bringing with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.Pulido’s feature directorial debut follows a distinguished track record in short films that saw Damiana premiere in Competition in Cannes in 2017 a year after El Edén played in the Berlinale.
And in the Marche: I Love Greece. And who doesn’t?...
- 5/10/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
After receiving an honorary Oscar in 2017 and an honorary Palme d’Or in 2015, iconic auteur Agnes Varda received a career tribute at the 17th Marrakech Film Festival during a star-studded ceremony on Sunday.
Varda’s tribute was introduced by Cannes Film Festival’s artistic director Thierry Fremaux and French actress Chiara Mastroianni. Martin Scorsese, who presented the tribute to Robert De Niro the day before, was there as well and came up on stage to pose with Varda, along with her children, the director Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda, the artist Jr, who collaborated with Varda on “Faces, Places,” and Melita Toscan du Plantier, director of Marrakech Film Festival.
“Francois Truffaut used to say that in the (French film industry), the boss was Jean Renoir. When it comes to women, the boss is Agnes Varda,” said Fremaux, who started off his speech with a few words on three revered industry figures who have recently died,...
Varda’s tribute was introduced by Cannes Film Festival’s artistic director Thierry Fremaux and French actress Chiara Mastroianni. Martin Scorsese, who presented the tribute to Robert De Niro the day before, was there as well and came up on stage to pose with Varda, along with her children, the director Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda, the artist Jr, who collaborated with Varda on “Faces, Places,” and Melita Toscan du Plantier, director of Marrakech Film Festival.
“Francois Truffaut used to say that in the (French film industry), the boss was Jean Renoir. When it comes to women, the boss is Agnes Varda,” said Fremaux, who started off his speech with a few words on three revered industry figures who have recently died,...
- 12/3/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Boespflug co-founded Pyramide and was managing director of Warner France.
French producer Francis Boespflug, best known as the co-founder of historic Paris-based production and distribution company Pyramide and the former managing director of Warner France, has died aged of 70.
Boespflug first became involved in cinema in his native city of Strasbourg in north-eastern France, working as a student volunteer at a cinema-club aimed at under-privileged, difficult teenagers.
It was through this volunteer work he met his future wife and life-long collaborator, the late producer Fabienne Vonier, who at the time was the manager of Le Club, the arthouse theatre founded...
French producer Francis Boespflug, best known as the co-founder of historic Paris-based production and distribution company Pyramide and the former managing director of Warner France, has died aged of 70.
Boespflug first became involved in cinema in his native city of Strasbourg in north-eastern France, working as a student volunteer at a cinema-club aimed at under-privileged, difficult teenagers.
It was through this volunteer work he met his future wife and life-long collaborator, the late producer Fabienne Vonier, who at the time was the manager of Le Club, the arthouse theatre founded...
- 11/6/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The Paris-based Pyramide co-founder, producer and distributor worked closely with Aki Kaurismaki, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Catherine Corsini, among others.
Veteran distributor and producer Fabienne Vonier, who co-founded Paris-based distribution and production company Pyramide, has died after a long illness. She was 66.
“Fabienne was passionate about film,” said long-term collaborator Eric Lagesse, who took over Pyramide’s distribution and international sales activities in 2008. “She was someone who was constantly on the look-out for interesting productions, directors.”
Lagesse continued: “She had done it all: exhibition, distribution and lastly production. She did everything to the full and was as demanding of herself as she was of everyone else. She was a true professional, working right up until the end.”
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Vonier supported the work of scores of directors from across the world including Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki, Canadian Denys Arcand, Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Palestinian Elia Suleiman, Egyptian [link=nm...
Veteran distributor and producer Fabienne Vonier, who co-founded Paris-based distribution and production company Pyramide, has died after a long illness. She was 66.
“Fabienne was passionate about film,” said long-term collaborator Eric Lagesse, who took over Pyramide’s distribution and international sales activities in 2008. “She was someone who was constantly on the look-out for interesting productions, directors.”
Lagesse continued: “She had done it all: exhibition, distribution and lastly production. She did everything to the full and was as demanding of herself as she was of everyone else. She was a true professional, working right up until the end.”
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Vonier supported the work of scores of directors from across the world including Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki, Canadian Denys Arcand, Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Palestinian Elia Suleiman, Egyptian [link=nm...
- 7/30/2013
- ScreenDaily
The Paris-based Pyramide co-founder, producer and distributor worked closely with AKi Kaurismaki, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Catherine Corsini, among others.
Veteran distributor and producer Fabienne Vonier, who co-founded Paris-based distribution and production company Pyramide, has died after a long illness. She was 66.
“Fabienne was passionate about film,” said long-term collaborator Eric Lagesse, who took over Pyramide’s distribution and international sales activities in 2008. “She was someone who was constantly on the look-out for interesting productions, directors.”
Lagesse continued: “She had done it all: exhibition, distribution and lastly production. She did everything to the full and was as demanding of herself as she was of everyone else. She was a true professional, working right up until the end.”
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Vonier supported the work of scores of directors from across the world including Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki, Canadian Denys Arcand, Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Palestinian Elia Suleiman, Egyptian [link=nm...
Veteran distributor and producer Fabienne Vonier, who co-founded Paris-based distribution and production company Pyramide, has died after a long illness. She was 66.
“Fabienne was passionate about film,” said long-term collaborator Eric Lagesse, who took over Pyramide’s distribution and international sales activities in 2008. “She was someone who was constantly on the look-out for interesting productions, directors.”
Lagesse continued: “She had done it all: exhibition, distribution and lastly production. She did everything to the full and was as demanding of herself as she was of everyone else. She was a true professional, working right up until the end.”
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Vonier supported the work of scores of directors from across the world including Finland’s Aki Kaurismaki, Canadian Denys Arcand, Mexico’s Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Palestinian Elia Suleiman, Egyptian [link=nm...
- 7/30/2013
- ScreenDaily
New Exclusive Media distribution division Exclusive Releasing has jumped into the Sundance fray by picking up U.S. rights to the drama “Two Mothers,” starring Naomi Watts and Robin Wright. The film had its world premiere Friday, Jan. 18, in the Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival. Exclusive plans a day-and-date theatrical/VOD release for the film later this year. Directed by Anne Fontaine and adapted by Christopher Hampton from the Doris Lessing novel, “Two Mothers” tells the story of lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s sons and try to keep the affairs secret for years. Philippe Carcassonne, Francis Boespflug and Andrew Mason produced; Troy Lum is the executive producer. Exclusive Releasing head of acquisitions Matt Brodlie negotiated the deal with CAA and Gaumont International head Cécile Gaget. Exclusive, which plans to theatrically distribute three or four releases per year, will also handle...
- 1/23/2013
- by Jay A. Fernandez and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Jane Campion.s first TV series Top of the Lake and Australian-French co-production Two Mothers have been selected to screen at the Sundance Film Festival.
Both productions will screen as part of the Premieres program, which showcases a range of highly-anticipated dramatic world premieres.
The Top of the Lake series will be screened as a single six-hour film just once during the festival, marking the first time that Sundance has included a scripted long-form series. Top of the Lake follows a detective investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl who is the daughter of a local drug lord and stars Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Holly Hunter (The Piano), Peter Mullan (War Horse) and David Wenham (Public Enemies).
In a Screen Australia statement anouncing the selections, executive producers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning said: .It.s such a thrill to be showing Top of the Lake, See-Saw Films. first foray into television.
Both productions will screen as part of the Premieres program, which showcases a range of highly-anticipated dramatic world premieres.
The Top of the Lake series will be screened as a single six-hour film just once during the festival, marking the first time that Sundance has included a scripted long-form series. Top of the Lake follows a detective investigating the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl who is the daughter of a local drug lord and stars Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Holly Hunter (The Piano), Peter Mullan (War Horse) and David Wenham (Public Enemies).
In a Screen Australia statement anouncing the selections, executive producers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning said: .It.s such a thrill to be showing Top of the Lake, See-Saw Films. first foray into television.
- 12/4/2012
- by Brendan Swift
- IF.com.au
“Tracking Shot” is a monthly featurette here on Ioncinema.com that looks at a dozen or so projects that are moments away from lensing and with June being a major production month we’ve got a slew of projects that we feel are worth signaling out. Music appears to be a common narrative theme surrounding several items – we find it infused in Once‘s John Carney’s U.S. production debut – a 10 million dollar production about a dejected music business executive forms a bond with a young singer-songwriter new to Manhattan. Scarlett Johansson was formerly attached to Can a Song Save Your Life?, now Knightley appears to be on board. Rock documentary filmmaker Stephen Kijak (Stones in Exile) is looking to make his second fictional feature based on the true story of a The Smiths fans who lost his bearings when the group announced its break-up. Shoplifters of the World...
- 6/5/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Australian actors Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe and Gary Sweet.have joined the cast of Australian-French co-production The Grandmothers..
They join the principal cast of Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in a tale about two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other's teenaged sons. Jessica Tovey (Underbelly, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo) will also make her feature debut in the film.
The Grandmothers has been adapted for the screen by Academy Award-winning writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement) from a story written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing.
The eight-week shoot marks the English-language debut for director Anne Fontaine (Coco avant Chanel) and is due to begin on Monday (February 6) in Sydney.
The film is being produced by Hopscotch Productions' Andrew Mason; Fontaine's long-time collaborator Philippe Carcassonne; as well as French producers' Mon Voisin's Michel Feller and Dominique Besnehard. Hopscotch's Troy Lum...
They join the principal cast of Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in a tale about two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other's teenaged sons. Jessica Tovey (Underbelly, Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo) will also make her feature debut in the film.
The Grandmothers has been adapted for the screen by Academy Award-winning writer Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement) from a story written by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing.
The eight-week shoot marks the English-language debut for director Anne Fontaine (Coco avant Chanel) and is due to begin on Monday (February 6) in Sydney.
The film is being produced by Hopscotch Productions' Andrew Mason; Fontaine's long-time collaborator Philippe Carcassonne; as well as French producers' Mon Voisin's Michel Feller and Dominique Besnehard. Hopscotch's Troy Lum...
- 2/1/2012
- by Brendan Swift
- IF.com.au
Don’t worry: You aren’t so old that Jenny from Forrest Gump is now playing a grandmother, nor should you prepare yourself for some bizarre scenario in which Naomi Watts can precede two generations of family. Instead, THR informs us that both Robin Wright and the Australian will lead The Grandmothers, an “erotic tale of misguided love and a celebration of the enduring nature of female friendship” helmed by Anne Fontaine.
A Dangerous Method scribe Christopher Hampton has adapted Doris Lessing‘s original story, which focused on “two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons.” More than a little creepy, yes — but it’d be silly to expect otherwise from “misguided love.” The only other casting development looks to be for those respective sons, as Animal Kingdom‘s James Frecheville and Twilight actor Xavier Samuel are also in the cast. (The latter may be 28 years old,...
A Dangerous Method scribe Christopher Hampton has adapted Doris Lessing‘s original story, which focused on “two lifelong friends who fall in love with each other’s teenage sons.” More than a little creepy, yes — but it’d be silly to expect otherwise from “misguided love.” The only other casting development looks to be for those respective sons, as Animal Kingdom‘s James Frecheville and Twilight actor Xavier Samuel are also in the cast. (The latter may be 28 years old,...
- 12/5/2011
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Screen Australia has announced $17m investment across 14 projects including feature films and both adult and children’s television.
The investment is expected to trigger $97m in production.
The list of productions include: black comedy The Mule by co-writers/co-producers Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson with direction from Tony Mahony about a drug mule caught by authorities and Antony I Ginnane’s remake of Patrick, directed by Not Quite Hollywood’s Mark Hartley.
Also on the list is The Grandmothers, written by Christopher Hampton (A Dangerous Method) and director Anne Fontaine (Coco Avant Chanel) and starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in the adaptation of Doris Lessing’s novel.
For TV, the telemovie Underground by Matchbox Pictures, written and directed by Robert Connolly tells the story of a teenage Julian Assange hacking computer systems; and two TV productions by John Edwards Southern Star, a serialised version of...
The investment is expected to trigger $97m in production.
The list of productions include: black comedy The Mule by co-writers/co-producers Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson with direction from Tony Mahony about a drug mule caught by authorities and Antony I Ginnane’s remake of Patrick, directed by Not Quite Hollywood’s Mark Hartley.
Also on the list is The Grandmothers, written by Christopher Hampton (A Dangerous Method) and director Anne Fontaine (Coco Avant Chanel) and starring Naomi Watts, Robin Wright, Xavier Samuel and James Frecheville in the adaptation of Doris Lessing’s novel.
For TV, the telemovie Underground by Matchbox Pictures, written and directed by Robert Connolly tells the story of a teenage Julian Assange hacking computer systems; and two TV productions by John Edwards Southern Star, a serialised version of...
- 12/5/2011
- by Colin Delaney
- Encore Magazine
Anne Fontaine, a filmmaker who hasn't had many problems exporting her films to the U.S. (Nathalie..., The Girl From Monaco), has began shooting her 12th feature film this week. The unlikely rom com tale about the fusion of two families stars Isabelle Huppert and Benoît Poelvoorde, who was in Fontaine's last film, Coco Before Channel. Co-scripted by Fontaine and Eric Mercier, My Worst Nightmare begins when Agathe (Huppert) takes in Tony, her son Adrien’s best friend, she doesn’t realize it at first, but her life ends up being turned upside down. Behind every child, there are always the parents, in this case a father with no job security, Patrick (Poelvoorde), who is as coarse and brazen as Agathe is cerebral and self-composed. Patrick, who is initially hired to do some work on the house, ends up doing much more: having indirectly caused Adrien’s father to run off with his social worker,...
- 8/26/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Francis Boespflug, who has been with Warner Bros. for 12 years as head of production and distribution for Warner Bros. Pictures France, is leaving the company, citing personal reasons.
Under Boespflug's leadership, Warner Bros. Pictures France has consistently ranked among the top three film distributors in France. Boespflug has been responsible for the release of hundreds of films from the Hollywood studio, including the "Harry Potter," "Ocean's 11" and "Matrix" franchises as well as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Dark Knight."
In addition, Boespflug has been instrumental in positioning Warner Bros. as a partner to the French production community, playing a key role in Warners' worldwide directive overseen by Warner Bros. International executive vp Richard Fox to increase the company's activities in producing, acquiring and distributing local-language films in their country of origin. He was responsible for the company's French acquisition and distribution of the hit "Les Bronzes 3" and...
Under Boespflug's leadership, Warner Bros. Pictures France has consistently ranked among the top three film distributors in France. Boespflug has been responsible for the release of hundreds of films from the Hollywood studio, including the "Harry Potter," "Ocean's 11" and "Matrix" franchises as well as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Dark Knight."
In addition, Boespflug has been instrumental in positioning Warner Bros. as a partner to the French production community, playing a key role in Warners' worldwide directive overseen by Warner Bros. International executive vp Richard Fox to increase the company's activities in producing, acquiring and distributing local-language films in their country of origin. He was responsible for the company's French acquisition and distribution of the hit "Les Bronzes 3" and...
- 2/27/2009
- by By Elizabeth Guider
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Warner Bros. international veteran Iris Knobloch is taking the reins of Warner Bros.' operations in France. She was named Thursday to the newly created post of president-director general, Warner Bros. France S.A., it was announced by Barry Meyer, chairman & CEO; Alan Horn, president & chief operating officer; and Richard Fox, executive vp, international, Warner Bros. Knobloch, a 10-year-plus executive at Warner Bros. and Time Warner, will now have general oversight of all Warner Bros.' businesses in France, including theatrical production and distribution, television distribution, home video, consumer products, online and emerging distribution technologies. She will work closely with Warner Bros. France business units' managers, Francis Boespflug (theatrical), Philippe Bastard de Crisnay (home video), Michel LeCourt (television) and Karen Benattasse (consumer products), to achieve country-specific and companywide goals. She will report through Fox to Meyer and Horn starting July 1st, 2006.
PARIS -- The French film subsidy system is to be opened up to non-European companies, culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres announced Monday. The move comes hot on the heels of a bitter row over Warner Bros.' involvement in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement. The subsidy system came under scrutiny when two French producers' organizations contested the role of 2003 Prods., a company initially set up to produce Jeunet's film which, some claimed, was merely a front for Warner Bros., the main financier of the $55 million Long Engagement. 2003 Prods. is headed by Warner France president Francis Boespflug, and 32% of the company is held by Warner France employees. A French court ruled in November 2004, that the company was "totally dependent" on Warner Bros. France, effectively disqualifying the film from an estimated $4 million in subsidies.
The Paris administrative court has ruled that Jean-Pierre Jeunet's big-budget wartime romance A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles) does not qualify as French, denying the producers access to the Gallic subsidy system. The film's producers, 2003 Productions said in a statement Friday it "deeply regrets" the decision. "We greatly hope that the CNC will appeal this decision and will continue to support a film that has accumulated 99 out of 100 points on the qualifying scale," said Francis Boespflug, 2003 Productions president.
- 11/26/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Warner Bros. France-backed production banner 2003 Prods. will co-produce Josiane Balasko's L'ex femme de ma vie (The Ex-Wife of My Life), Warners France and 2003 Prods. chief Francis Boespflug said. The 8.2 million ($10.5 million) project, announced Friday, will be co-produced by Balasko's Josy Films and French producer Louis Becker's Ice3, which he owns with actor Thierry Lhermitte (Le Divorce). Lhermitte, who starred in the 1989 play directed by Balasko, also will star in the film adaptation. French actress Karin Viard (Delicatessen) will take the role of a woman who steals her way back into her ex-husband's heart six years after they split up. Warner France, which holds a 32% stake in 2003 Prods., also will distribute the film, which begins shooting this month in France.
- 1/11/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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