‘Le Conquest,’ ‘Sex and Zen 3D: Extreme Ecstasy’ & ‘A Bag Of Hammers’ Also Find Distribution With Indie Outlets
Director Olivier Assayas may be riding the biggest peak of his career right now. Coming off two critically acclaimed films — the family drama “Summer Hours” and the epic terrorist thriller “Carlos” — his next effort marks another gear change for the director who refuses to be pinned down to any one genre or style. The social change and political drama “Something In The Air” has been in the works for a while now and IFC — who experienced success with the aforementioned films — picked up the rights to his next effort at Cannes reports Cineurope, and filming is set to begin next month.
Penned by Assayas, “the film is set in the chaos of the early 1970s and centers on a high-school student trying to find his way in life, between the left wing’s drift towards violence, the maze of an unattainable revolution and his doubts about a troubled artistic vocation.” As was reported earlier this year, the film will be mostly French language but also feature English and Italian dialogue. Accordingly, while most of the shoot will take place in France, production will also move to the U.K. and Italy as well. “It’s not a French story,” MK2 head Nathanael Karmitz said earlier this year. “It’s about the world in the ‘70’s.” Either way, we can’t wait and we’d wager this is a strong candidate for Cannes in 2012 where he has long been a staple, not to mention he served on the main competition jury this year.
But that’s not the only film pick up to happen in recent days. Here’s a few in case you missed it: the Nicolas Sarkozy biopic “The Conquest” has found a home with Music Box Films — the film screened out of competition at Cannes to mixed reviews. “Sex and Zen 3D: Extreme Ecstasy” — the world’s first erotic film in 3D (BONER!) notable for beating the opening weekend record set by “Avatar” (boobs will always win over blue skin James Cameron) — has been picked up by China Lion who will bring it to U.S. screens. Finally, the indie flick “A Bag Of Hammers,” starring Rebecca Hall and Jason Ritter has been acquired by MPI, who will release it into theaters in August.
