NonStop Entertainmment acquired the Palme d'or winning film 4 Months, 3 weeks and 2 Days by the Romanian Cristian Mungiu, the Italian local box office hit My Brother is an Only Child by Daniele Luchetti shown in Un Certain Regard, Barbet Schroeder's documentary Terror's Advocate portraying the controversial French attorney Jacques Verges, Cecilia Miniucchi's Expired starring Samantha Morton which closed the Critic's Week, The Nines, the directorial debut of US scriptwriter John August (Big Fish), UK film Outlaw by Nick Love (Football Factory), Highlander: the Source, the reality show drama Live! by Bill Guttentag, Hong Kong movie Eye in the Sky by Johnnie To, sci-fi movie Dante 01 by French filmmaker Marc Caro, and the animated film Go West: a Lucky Luke Adventure.
All 11 films are bought for Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. My Brother Is an Only Child, Terror's Advocate, Highlander: The Source, Eye in the Sky, and Dante 01 have also been bought for Iceland, and Expired, The Nines and Live! for the three Baltic states as well.
Nordisk Film pre-bought for Scandinavia Wayne Kramer's drama Crossing Over starring Ray Liotta, Sean Penn, and Ashley Judd, a film produced by Harvey Weinstein, White Jazz, the screen adaptation of James Elroy's crime novel with George Clooney in the lead; Roman Polanski's forthcoming epic Pompeii; Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex directed by Uli Edel for German producer Bernd Eichinger, and The Young Victoria, the new film by the director of C.R.A.Z.Y. Jean-Marc Vallée. The film is produced by Graham King and Martin Scorsese.
Sandrew Metronome pre-bought for Scandinavia Fernando Meirelles' thriller Blindness, UK comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Kirsten Dunst and Jeff Bridges, the family film Nim's Island starring Jodie Foster, and US comedy Mama's Boy starring Diane Keaton and Jeff Daniels. According to Eivor Zimmermann, SM's EVP of Acquisitions, the company has another four titles in negotiations.
Scanbox Entertainment acquired five films for Scandinavia: Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for which the US painter/filmmaker won the Best Director Award in Cannes, the two US mainstream films in pre-production Defiance starring Daniel Craig, and Black Water Transit starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, the political thriller Incendiary by the director of Bridget Jones' Diary Sharon Maguire, currently in production, and for DVD release the horror film Timber Falls.
Jim Frazee who heads Scanbox' operations in Norway, said his company will release The Diving Bell and the Butterfly early 2008 to take advantage of the ‘gigantic' Academy Awards campaign that Miramax plans to put together for the film.
Timo T. Lahtinen who buys "story driven films with a long shelf life" for Smile Entertainment said he put his hand on two upcoming quality European films for Scandinavia. Opium: Diary of a Madwoman by the Hungarian János S?asz. The film produced by Andras Hamori (Faithless) has two Scandinavian stars in the lead roles: Ulrich Thomsen and Kirsti Stubø. Lahtinen also acquired And When Did You last See Your Father by the UK director of Hilary and Jackie Anand Tucker starring Colin Firth and Jim Broadbent.
Robert Enmark, SVP head of Acquisitions for Svensk Filmindustri said his company pre-bought six films for Scandinavia: The Australia/South African drama Disgrace starring John Malkovich and Jessica Haines, the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, Wong Kar Wai's Ashes of Time Redux, the UK WW2 film Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day starring Frances McDormand and Ciarán Hinds, The Cottage, a comedy horror film by UK filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton), and the horror film Waz starring Stellan Skarsgård and Melissa George.
Smaller arthouse distributors Atlantic Film based in Stockholm bought three popular Cannes titles: Anton Corbijn's Control, Caramel by Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, and the Russian competition entry The Banishment. As for Copenhagen-based Camera Film, the company also acquired Control for Denmark, Italian film My Brother is an Only Child by Daniele Luchetti, and the Spanish horror film The Orphanage executive-produced by Guillermo Del Toro.