John Hopewell: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Dance First,” a portrait of Irish writer Samuel Beckett starring Gabriel Byrne and directed by Oscar winner James Marsh, will close this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, playing out of competition. Byrne, a memorable lead in “The Usual Suspects” and “Miller’s Crossing” who also won a Golden Globe for his performance in “In Treatment,” plays Samuel Beckett, driving into his deep contradictions and inner torment of a writer who was a Parisian bon vivant, a WWII Resistance fighter and then Nobel Prize-winning playwright who, however, became a recluse, living the last years of his life in a single room in a nursing home, ashamed of past actions and convinced that for much of his life he had been a failure.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Mexico’s El Relicario, whose “El rostro cubierto de besos” screened at Cannes Critics’ Week in its 2023 Morelia showcase, has boarded Ximena Valdivia’s Malaga Festival winner “4Eber,” a movie melding the modern teen dance scene in Cusco and ancient and contemporary fantasy and mythology. Written by Valdivia and Costa Rica’s Luisa Mora Fernández, a co-scribe on Mexican Kim Torres’ Cannes Festival-selected short “Luz Nocturna,” “4Eber” is now produced by Valdivia’s and El Relicario’s Mariano Rentería and Jorge Diez, in the first international feature co-production outing for the Morelia-based outfit.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Alfredo Castro, an absolute lead or co-star in seven Pablo Larraín films and one of the highest-regarded of actors in Latin America, is set to head the choral cast of “Three Dark Nights” (“Tres noches negras”), the third feature from Spanish-Chilean Theo Court. “Three Dark Nights” follows up Court’s “White on White,” also starring Castro, an actor described by Variety as “reliably superb,” which won a best director and Fipresci Prize at 2019’s Venice Horizons.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Argentina’s Tarea Fina, a producer on Cannes Camera d’Or winner “Las Acacias,” International Oscar entry “The Sleepwalkers” and Ventana Sur hit “Sublime,” has boarded “A Loose End,” the third feature as a director from Uruguay’s Daniel Hendler, a Berlin Silver Bear winner for Best Actor in Daniel Burman’s 2004 international breakout “The Lost Embrace.” Set up at Montevideo’s Cordon Films, founded in 2007 by producer-TV director Micaela Solé and Hendler, “A Loose End” (“Un cabo suelto”) is one of the highest-profile projects announced on Monday by the San Sebastián Festival as part of its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, its industry centerpiece. Written by Hendler, his third directorial outing returns to a central theme in his first two features as a writer-director: Identity.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Brazil’s Pandora Filmes, one of the country’s premier independent distributors, has secured Brazilian distribution rights to “Tomorrow’s Rain”(“Amanhã Já Não Chove”), a Portuguese portrait of bourgeois malaise which was brought onto the market last weekend at the Locarno Festival’s Match Me! Pandora Filmes’ distribution slate takes in “Parasite,” “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” and “R.M.N.” Set up at Lisbon’s Omaja and Brazil’s Capuri, which cut the deal with Pandora, “Tomorrow Rain” marks the fiction feature debut of Portuguese director-producer Bernardo Lopes at Omaja, a 2021 Portuguese Film Academy Sophia Award winner for his short “Moço.” Produced by Lopes and Eduardo Rezende, “Tomorrow’s Rain”will star José Pimentão, who played Ramiro in Netflix’s “1899,” and João Nunes Monteiro, a Portuguese Film Academy Sophia Award winner best actor award winner for “Mosquito” in 2021 and best supporting actor winner last year for “The Tsugua Diaries.” Written by Lopes and Francisco Mira Godinho, who together co-wrote and co-directed TV mini-series “Lugar 54,” an Omaja production for Portuguese public broadcaster RTP, “Tomorrow’s Rain” depicts one summer day in the life of a crumbling family at the peak of the Portuguese financial crisis of 2012. “‘Tomorrow’s Rain’ is a feature fiction family drama that makes an urgent portrayal of a marginalized southern Portuguese region during the 2012 financial crisis, from the POV of a decadent bourgeois family that suffers from a tumor in the form of a secret, consuming them until the day of their inevitable end,” Lopes told Variety.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Two movie projects which capture best the brewing revolution in Latin American filmmaking walked off with the biggest plaudits at this year’s Locarno Open Doors prize ceremony on Tuesday. Both underscore the mindset reset among cineasts – their questioning of received wisdom accompanied by the explosion in invention being brought to low-budget filmmaking in the region.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Spain’s Vertigo Films has boarded “All the World Drops Dead,” committing to co-produce the next scarefest from Austrian Kevin Kopacka, director of 2021’s noteworthy “Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes.” Set up at Germany’s Manderley Films, which oversaw VFX on “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “All the World Drops Dead” has been brought to market at Locarno’s Match Me! Forum by producer and co-writer Lili Villlányi. Also produced by Manderley Films’ founder Rebekka Garrido, “All the World Drops Dead” ranks as one of the biggest genre plays on offer at this year’s Swiss festival – not an idle boast as distributors worldwide turn to genre, as well as family animation, as a reaction to plunging cinema theater audiences for arthouse cinema through and after the pandemic.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Costa Rica’s Juli Films has boarded Nicaraguan Gloria Carrión’s “Pantasma,” building production partner backing for one of the most ambitious titles at a talent packed Locarno’s Open Doors Projects Hub. A stop motion doc-feature, the film will narrate how the Sandinista-Contra War of 1982-1989 in Nicaragua forced Félix, a 17-year-old revolutionary, to become an adult in the battlefield, “Pantasma” is now set up at Costa Rica’s Caja de Luz, Carrión’s label, and Juli Films, whose credits also take in documentaries “Songs from Bosawas” (2014) and “Patrol” (Mountainfilm Festival, 2023).

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Tiempo Libre, the Lima-based production house behind Peruvian Oscar candidate “Videophilia (and Other Viral Syndromes),” has boarded “Valves” (“Valvas”), the second feature film from Andrea Hoyos, whose feature debut “Autoerotic,” established her as one of the forthright rising stars of Peru’s still expanding film industry. Verony Centeno, a Peruvian actress with significant experience in film and dance, is attached as the film’s lead. Hoyos is at Locarno as part of its Directors’ Club at Open Doors, its major Latin American project and talent platform.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent LOCARNO — Marianly Tejada, star of Netflix hit “One of Us Is Lying,” and Jean Jean, multi-prized for “Woodpeckers,” are attached to headline “Predicament” (“Predicamento”), an action-thriller written, produced and to be directed by Dominican Republic’s Ico Abréu. A step up into the mainstream, but maintaining the social issue focus of much of Abréu’s TV and experimental work of the past two decades, “Predicament” is shaping up as one of the major propositions in preparation from the Dominican Republic, thanks to its star cast, government backing, thriller propulsion and growing bevy of production partners.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Following Montreal’s 2023 Frontières Market, New York sales agent Visit Films has scooped world sales rights to “Booger,” headlining “Strawberry Mansion” star Grace Glowicki and produced by Ley Line Ent. and Neon Heart Ent., behind “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Shiva Baby” respectively. A sometimes excruciating genre bending and blending body horror comedy about intense early adult friendship and grief at its loss, “Booger” is wrapped in a tale of supernatural transformation.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Starring “Bones and All’s” Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor and Ellen Burstyn, “Mother, Couch!” the feature debut of Sweden’s Niclas Larsson, features in a currently 11-title lineup of San Sebastian’s 2023 New Directors section, the most important sidebar at the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world. Of just announced titles, also in the mix is “The Other Son,” Juan Sebastian Quebrada’s anticipated coming-of-age drama picked up by Film Factory. “Carefree Days,” the second feature from Chinese actor-director-screenwriter Liang Ming (“Wisdom Tooth”), will open New Directors.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In one of the big deals announced out of Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival, XYZ Films has boarded North American sales rights to “New Life,” John Rosman’s feature directorial debut which is hailed by Fantasia itself as “one of the major discoveries of Fantasia 2023.” “New Life” stars Sonya Walger (“For All Mankind,” “Lost”) and Hayley Erin (“Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” “General Hospital”) and Tony Amendola (“Annabelle,” “Curse of Llorona”). XYZ Films has also dropped the film’s first teaser, shared in exclusivity with Variety, ahead of “New Life’s” world premiere on Aug.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Ron Leshem, creator of the original Israeli “Euphoria” and an exec producer on its U.S. version, has been added to Iberseries & Platino Industria’s conference strand – signalling a larger paradigm pivot at one of the biggest film-TV events in the Spanish-speaking world as it expands to encompass an ever more globalized international TV scene.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Brooklyn-based Roller Coaster Road Productions, best known for its documentaries (“History of Food”), has joined Paris’ Mad Films to develop one of the most singular titles hitting the market at this week’s Frontières Market at Fantasia: “High Pressure,” a literally immersive live action underwater survival thriller with a VR viewership option for key scenes.   The producers have initiated talks for James Marsden (“X-Men”) to star in the film. Paris-based Alba Films (“Daisy Quokka,” “The Wishmas Tree”) will handle the film’s theatrical distribution in France. Two-and-a-half minutes of an animated revisualisation of the movie will be presented at Frontières.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Movistar Plus+, the pay TV/VOD service of Spanish telco giant Telefonica, is relaunching from Aug. 1, bowing a new souped-up version of its basic tier as a streaming service to clients of any telco service in Spain, Movistar announced Friday.  To date, only clients of Telefonica telephony service Movistar could access the Movistar Plus+ TV service. Priced at €11 ($12.21) a month and €14 ($15.54) for non-Movistar clients – compared to Netflix’s basic and standard tiers of €7.99 ($8.87) and €12.99 ($14.42) in Spain – the new-look Movistar Plus+ will offer in exclusivity as star attractions Movistar original series and films, as well as big foreign shows and movies, at the rate of a movie premiere every day, and, crucially, two LaLiga and one Champions League game every round of matches. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent “Decorado,” the awaited next animated feature film from Alberto Vázquez, director of 2015’s “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children” and last year’s “Unicorn Wars,” has been boarded by Le Pacte.     One of France’s most important independent film companies, a distributor in France of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” and Ken Loach’s “I: Daniel Blake” among its biggest foreign hits, Le Pacte, headed by Jean and Alice Labadie, has acquired rights to “Decorado” for distribution in France and international sales. “We picked up ‘Decorado’ because we were in love with ‘Unicorn Wars’ and ‘Decorado is even crazier,” said Jean Labadie. “We love animation and bold projects which are out of boundaries.” 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent In the run-up to Locarno, Paris-based MPM Premium has swooped on world sales rights to “On the Go,” a showcase of the acting talents of “Elite’s” Omar Ayuso, here playing a Grindr addict with vengeance in his heart. Set to world premiere in Locarno’s Cineasti del Presente, “On the Go” also has a first trailer, shared in exclusivity with Variety.  The trailer captures much of the spirit of the freewheeling road movie through an Andalusia of music, dance, sex and sensuality –though none of the film’s nudity – of a feature, written-directed by Maria Gisèle Royo and Julia de Castro, which revisits from a female perspective an extraordinary Andalusian feature, 1982’s “Corridas de Alegría.”  

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Having impressed with Peter Hengl’s “Family Dinner,” a 2022 Tribeca world premiere, Vienna-based Capra Film is developing an ever expanding slate of movies and series which establishes it as a growing genre force to keep track of in Europe.  Founded in 2015 by producer Lola Basara and writer-director Hengl, Capra Film was the only production-house to have two titles at October’s Sitges Fanpitch, where Hengl’s  “Krampusnacht” won a Fantasia-Frontières Award, consisting of an invitation to Frontières, Fantasia’s vibrant industry platform, running July 26-29.  As a potential follow-up, Hengl is developing “Bug Boy,” a teenage body horror creature feature. Also in the Capra hopper are period horror film “Dracu,” from Schlegel, horror film “In the Moorland,” by Michael Winiecki, TV series “Newfall,” from Stefano Nurra, and vampire film “Thirst,” by Paul Ertl.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent São Paulo’s Biônica Filmes, behind Carolina Markowicz’s Toronto hit “Charcoal” and her upcoming “Toll,” is driving into English-language production, backing “The Eyes of Another,” from Maria Arida, as Biônica taps into an exciting new generation of young women filmmakers in Brazil. “Eyes” marks the feature debut from Arida, currently based out of São Paulo, who drew attention with “Instinct,” her AFI thesis film, a 17-minute short which world premiered at London’s BFI Flare, then had its U.S. premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival where it won the award for best Latin American short. It is written by Liz Buda (“Getting Meisnered”). 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Nicolas Cage has cancelled attendance at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival, North America’s biggest genre festival, where he was expected next weekend on July 22 for the world premiere of director Yuval Adler’s “Sympathy for the Devil,” where he was due to pick up Fantasia’s Cheval Noir career achievement award.  “We’re sad to announce that due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Nicolas Cage will no longer be able to attend the festival next weekend,” Fantasia has announced on its website.  “We’ll be updating our website regularly as we receive news from other announced guests while circumstances evolve. Our hearts are with the actors, as well as with the WGA, and we hope to see the unions get a fair deal soon,” the Festival added.