Following parent company ContentFilm’s decision to shift its focus towards library content with last summer’s acquisition of Fireworks International, ContentFilm International’s managing director Jamie Carmichael said his company aimed to represent ten to 12 titles a year, co-financing approximately two-thirds of that annual slate. “In this new incarnation of ContentFilm International, the library we built is now being handled by Fireworks on the television library side, freeing us up to become involved in more prestigious US and European projects of our choosing,” Carmichael said. To this end ContentFilm International has picked up The Moguls, starring Jeff Bridges, Ted Danson and William Fichtner, which will be released in North America through Bauer Martinez Distribution early next year. The film was originally represented by the now defunct Element X. Michael Traeger wrote and directed the story about a group of small town men who try to change their fortunes by shooting an adult film. Aaron Ryder produced and Kuhn will serve as executive producer along with Malcolm Ritchie and Jill Tandy for N1 European Film Produktions. Also headed for AFM are Greenaway’s period mystery Nightwatching, which explores the real-life circumstances behind Rembrandt’s most celebrated painting, The Nightwatch. The project is due to be completed in time for the 400th anniversary celebration of the Dutch Master’s birth next year and is being produced by Kees Kasander and Christine Haebler, with Carlo Dusi serving as executive producer. The slate includes Gordon’s A Thousand Days, a literary romantic drama set in 1960s Spain and produced by Nigel Thomas, Peter Watson-Wood and Lauri Apelian. The story centres on a New Yorker writer who recalls the painful choice he once made between his wife, a photographer, and a Matador with whom he had become obsessed. ContentFilm International is also representing Verhoeven’s world war two thriller and Dutch/German/UK co-production Black Book, which is currently shooting in Holland starring Carice van Houten, as well as Oscar hopefulTransamerica starring Felicity Huffman, the coming-of-age comedy Driving Lessons starring Julie Walters, Rupert Grint and Laura Linney, and erotic thriller The Book Of Revelation starring Tom Long, Greta Scacchi and Colin Friels.
Carmichael will also screen the completed family adventure MEE-SHEE: The Water Giant, featuring special effects from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
