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 The Hamptons International Film Festival, which
runs October 15-19, has announced it will screen
"Arn - The Knight Templar" in its "spotlight" category. The film is in Swedish,
English and Arabic with English subtitles. This international
version at 130 minutes is a compilation of the previous two feature
films released in the Nordic countries. Vincent
plays Brother Guilbert, a former Knights Templar who is doing
penance as a monk for a past sin and is called upon to train Arn in
archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship. Vincent is not expected to
attend the festival though cast members Joakim Nätterqvist,
Bibi Andersson and Stellan Skarsgĺrd
are expected to attend. The Swedish Film Institute
will also be presenting this knight epic at two
other film festivals. It will be screened this weekend at the Pusan
International Film Festival in South Korea and at the Dubai Film Festival in December.
Be sure to check out the
new film page for more info and photos. 
 The
TV avalanche film, originally titled "Die
Jahrhundertlawine",
is now being called "White Menace - The Avalanche of the Cenutry".
The German-French-Austrian co-production is being presented as a
high-impact blend of human drama and natural catastrophe for
prime-time viewing. The digital avalanche images were created by
renowned German CGI specialist Scanline. Shooting took place in the
Austrian Alps, including scenes shot at 1900 meters altitude and in
temperatures hovering around minus 20 degrees Celsius. It certainly
wasn't an ideal shooting location!
This month Oliver Kreuter, head of Distribution for Germany’s
Bavaria Media, is bringing the film to MIPCOM,
which is held in Cannes from October 13-17. MIPCOM is the global event for
buying, selling and distributing entertainment content across all
platforms. Kreuter says, "Buyers come out of their summer
break ready to make the last acquisitions for the current year.”
Hopefully, the film will soon find a buyer.
The AFM (American Film Market) will be held November 5-12 in Santa
Monica, CA, and two of Vincent's films are in the lineup.
Baltasar Kormákur's thriller, "Run for Her
Life", will make its world premiere. "Arn" will also
receive a market premiere. Like MIPCOM, the AFM is an annual event
which attracts over 8,000 industry attendees. Participants from over
70 countries converge to buy and sell distribution rights for
completed films or to gain financing for projects in various stages
of production.
Here are some recent photos of Vincent, dressed
very traditionally this time. On September 17, he attended the
Jaeger LeCoultre Watches Polo Party at the
Castel Club in Paris.
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On September 5th Vincent
attended the opening of the 34th Deauville Film Festival,
which began with the screening of "Mamma Mia!" (visit my
stellanonline.com web site!) The festival is being held from
September 5-14 on the French northwestern coast. You
can view more photos at this link.
RTL, Germany's most successful
and popular TV broadcaster, has announced that "Die
Jahrhundertlawine" will be shown in its 2008/2009 season.
The 90-minute drama is a German/Austrian/French production and will
also be featured on TF 1 in France, ORF in Austria and TVN in
Poland. Here are more publicity photos as well as the
storyline below:
It is a beautiful day in the Alps.
A young doctor named Marc Pelletier is spending the
day in a log cabin in the Ötztal mountains with his girlfriend Anne.
Marc and Anne are on stand-by for the mountain rescue
service. A snowboarder is in deadly peril - it
turns out to be Michael,
Anne's brother. Marc, Anne and
a helicopter pilot
try to rescue Michael, who is hanging on to a rock ledge
and losing his hold. The rescue attempt fails and Michael falls
to his death. Anne is completely devastated.
Eight years later Marc, who now lives in
Paris, happens to see on a TV news report that
Michael's body has been recovered in
the mountains near the village of Vent, Austria.
He travels to Vent for Michael's
funeral, but Anne wants nothing to do
with him. To this day, she hasn't been able to get over the
death of her brother, or the fact that Marc disappeared without
a word shortly afterwards. This is part of the reason why all
these years she has kept it from Marc that they have a son,
named Nik. Anne doesn't want Nik to know who his father is. She
has told him that his father is dead.
As Marc is driving away from Vent the next morning, a coach full
of ski tourists is hit by an avalanche. All the passengers
manage to escape from the coach with minor injuries, but the
road is now impassable. The weather deteriorates. Just as
Marc and Anne talk for the first time about the failed rescue
attempt eight years before, a rumble echoes through the valley.
A gigantic, seething mass of ice and snow surges at increasing
speed down into the valley and towards the village. It tears
doors and windows from their frames, roofs from houses, and
entire buildings from their foundations. Then a wall of snow
engulfs the village, burying lanes, streets, and the spaces
between houses in its wake. Will Marc and
Anne survive this disaster?\
Vincent was in Sante Fe
this summer filming "Run
for Her Life",
directed by Baltasar Kormákur. This is the second English-language
film for the Icelandic director, whose cast also
includes Diane Kruger, Dermot Mulroney, Rosanna Arquette,
Jordi Molla and Sam Shepard. The shooting
schedule ran from June 15 to July 26. The
$6.8m film is produced by Michelle Chydzik Sowa for 26 Films
in the US, with Kormákur’s own company Blueeyes Productions
acting as co-producer. Post-production will take place in Iceland.
The International sales agent is US-based Echo Bridge
Entertainment, who pre-sold the project to Germany’s Splendid
Films during this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Mulroney takes on the role of LA District Attorney Paul Chaney with
Kruger playing his wife Diane. Perez stars as the mysterious Dr.
Placer with Rosanna Arquette as a consulting pediatrician, Jordi
Molla as a corrupt police officer and Shepard as a district
attorney. The synopsis for the drama thriller, penned by Christian
Escario and John Chaflin, reads as follows:
Every day, rising DA
Paul Chaney and his wife, Diane, wait for word that there's
a donor for their daughter, Chloe. Diagnosed
with a rare degenerative condition, Chloe is on a long
list to receive a double lung transplant. As her health worsens,
Paul becomes desperate to save his
young child, so desperate that he'll
risk everything to organize an operation. When Paul learns of a
Dr. Placer who performs transplants in Tijuana, Mexico, he heads
south in a frantic search for the only man who may be able to
save Chloe. But after arriving, he realizes Dr. Placer's
medical ring runs deep into a criminal underworld where his
patients aren't donors,
they're victims. With his
career, his family, and his life on the line, Paul finds himself
at a critical crossroads: expose a massive, illegal harvesting
operation and save the lives of hundreds of children, or save
the life of his daughter.
 The Secret (Si j'étais toi)
was released on DVD on August 12 by Image Entertainment. I'm still
disappointed with the artwork on this Region 1 DVD, but compared to
Region 2's (horrors!), it's definitely an improvement. Extras
include the theatrical trailer, behind the scenes footage, and
interviews with David Duchovny, Lili Taylor, and Olivia Thirlby. A
Blue-ray release with idential features is also available. When the
award-winning "Juno" exploded into the pop culture, it catapulted
Thirlby's career from the indie world's best kept secret into an
overnight success. Her performance added a warm glow to the film,
and I'm sure we'll see much more of this talented actress in the
future. It's amazing that she's already made ten films since
"Secret", which was shot in 2005 and was Olivia's film debut. When
she was cast, Vincent was thrilled with the choice and described her
as very beautiful and perfect for the role. |
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Vincent made an appearance at
the 61st International Cannes Film Festival by attending AmfAR's
Annual Cinema Against AIDS benefit on May 22nd. The event, held
at Le Moulin de Mougins restaurant, attracted more actors than the
Oscars did this year! Among the guests were Sharon Stone, Elle
Macpherson, Mischa Barton, Gemma Ward, Harvey Weinstein, Dennis
Hopper and Catherine Deneuve.
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