| Sandwiched between Raindance and the London Film Festival, the UK's only serious film market starts on the 23rd October, ahead of the MIFED screenings the following week. With hundreds of films making their market debut in London ahead of the Milan event, and the independent resurgence meaning more high budget and profile pictures, London Screenings has one of its hotest, and most expensive, line-ups to date. The London Screenings began in the late 1980s when a group of leading sellers became increasingly frustrated with the complacency of MIFED's parent body, Fiera Milano. While screening facilities in Milan fell into decline, London's West End boasted some of the most up-to-date in Europe. Furthermore, most US executives had to stop in London's Heathrow Airport on the way to Milan, so the opportunity to show their pictures in a plush, well equipped screening room en route made fitting logic. Since then, the pre-MIFED screenings, have developed into London Screenings and London Premiere Screenings, occupying the week of October 23rd-27th. Despite competition from the American Film Marketing Association, who staged a rival market in 1992, London has stolen ground from both the US and Milan, given that most major titles are premiered and often sold ahead of MIFED. The considerable increase in cash available to indie producers, sales agents and distributors over recent years means that there are no shortages of profile pictures on sale during the Autumn Market season. Harrison Ford is available to independent buyers for the first time with Intermedia's submarine thriller K-19: The Widowmaker. Also on offer from Intermedia is Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich follow-up, Adaptation, a US$25m project with Meryl Streep and Nic Cage attached. Tony Scott's CIA thriller The Spy Game, staring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, is available for pre-sales, having already sold to the UK's Entertainment, Germany's Kinowelt and Japan's Toho Towa - ahead of shooting at the UK's Shepperton Studios later this year. Beacon Communications and Universal Pictures International are hoping to complete international pre-sales over the next fortnight. Major sales player Initial Entertainment Group (IEG), following up a record sales deal of US$16m to Japan for Scorsese/DiCaprios' Gangs of New York, are currently selling Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, with almost-weds Cathering Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas alongside Robert Altman's Dr T and The Women. IEG are also reportedly close to picking up international rights to Michael Mann's problematic Mohamed Ali biopic, staring Will Smith. Other in-demand films include Elizabeth director Shekar Kapur's The Four Feathers; Lasse Halstrom's Chocolat with Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp - both handled by Miramax; Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote; and Jerry Zucker's Rat Race starring John Clease, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, and Cuba Gooding Jnr. While Bob and Harvey Weinstein's attendance is yet to be confirmed (they both visited last year), Andrew Stengal and Elizabeth Dryer are expected from the Miramax camp. Also in attendance is Tony Safford, senior VP Acquisitions and Production for 20th Century Fox; Christopher Montague, President and CEO of Advance Medien; Peter Heinzemann, managing director of Kinowelt; and MGM's International finance and marketing managers Paul Hudson and Gina Stroud. Other faces to look out for over bubbly and canapés at the VIP lounge are Working Title's Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner; DNA's Duncan Kenworthy and Andrew Macdonald; Renaisance Films' Stephen Evans and Angus Finney; and John Woodward, former Polygram head Stuart Till and director Alan Parker from the Film Council. |
