Leading Italian sales company True Colors has closed a slew of sales at the Cannes Market and landed North American deals on horror pic “In The Trap” and gay-themed comedy “An Almost Ordinary Summer,” acquired respectively by MPI Media Group and Wolfe Releasing.
The English-language “In The Trap” (pictured) directed by Italy’s Alessio Liguori as his feature-film debut, and produced by Italian shingles Dreamworld Movies and Mad Rocket Entertainment generated a flurry of deals, confirming the growing global appetite for horror titles and the resurgence of Italy’s capability to churn out chillers that can travel.
“In The Trap,” which features an international cast comprising South Africa’s David Bailie (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”), and Sonya Cullingford (“The Mummy”), is about a solitary proof reader trapped by fear in his apartment where he is tortured by an unknown evil force. Besides the U.S. and Canada, “Trap” also went to Russia (Cinema Prestige), South Korea (Aone) and Taiwan (Movie Cloud). Mocking Bird will release the pic in Vietnam, while Suraya Filmes took the rights for Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Brunei.
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“An Almost Ordinary Summer” which Wolfe Releasing will release in the U.S. and Canada, is directed by second-timer Simone Godano and toplines Italian A-listers Alessandro Gassman and Fabrizio Bentivoglio as two middle-aged patriarchs who after having been in heterosexual marriages and fathered children announce their plans to get married, wreaking havoc. Pic was recently released in Italy by Warner Bros.
Another recent Italian release by a young director, Leonardo D’Agostini’s “The Champion,” about a young star football player’s conflicted rapport with his private tutor, has been acquired by Sublime Media for China, AV-JET for Taiwan, Bulgaria Film Vision for Bulgaria and Palace Films for Australia/New Zealand.
Additionally, True Colors in Cannes pre-sold Ferzan Ozpetek’s “The Fortune Goddess,” which is currently shooting, to Taiwan’s Swallow Wings which had also released “Naples in Veils,” the previous title by the Turkish/Italian director.
Several other pre-sales were closed on Mario Martone’s upcoming “The Mayor of Rione Sanità” a contemporary adaptation of the eponymous play by late Neapolitan playwright Eduardo De Filippo which went to Andrews Film for Taiwan and Stars Media for former Yugoslavia territories.
Neapolitan helmer Guido Lombardi’s upcoming new feature “Stolen Days” went to Bulgaria Film Vision for Bulgaria and Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Amazing Leonardo” was pre-sold to Pilotkino (Russia) and to Il Sorpasso (Brazil).
Capping a busy Cannes, True Colors chief Catia Rossi also closed deals on Valeria Golino’s “Euforia,” which screened at the fest last year and went to Missing Films (Germany) and to Il Sorpasso (Brazil), and sold musical “Forever You” to France’s Koba Films and to Hungary’s Cinenuovo, and also action/thriller “Ride” to Picture Works for India.