We can reveal exclusively that Uncork’d Entertainment has taken North American rights to horror feature Demigod for North America. Writer-director Miles Doleac (The Dinner Party) is behind the film, which reunites much of the team behind horror The Dinner Party and is aiming to shoot in late 2020 in Mississippi for Doleac’s Historia Films and Artist Vodka Films. The film will trace the journey of a young woman who travels with her husband to Germany’s Black Forest upon the death of her huntsman grandfather. Soon after arriving at his secluded cabin, she realizes that the inheritance left her is far more macabre than she had bargained for. James V. Bulian, Lindsay Anne Williams and Wesley O’Mary produce with Doleac, who co-wrote the script with Michael Donovan Horn. Uncork’d President Keith Leopard struck the deal with Doleac. Cast will include Doleac and Lindsay Anne Williams. Meanwhile, Doleac teased about a Dinner Party sequel: “There’s a script. Let’s just say it has Haley and Sadie taking things to another level.”
Gully Boy producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar of Mumbai-based Excel Entertainment have set cast for their upcoming horror comedy Phone Bhoot. Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter will front the pic, which is set to shoot later this year at multiplex locations in India. Directed by Gurmmeet Singh, and written by Ravi Shankaran and Jasvinder Singh Bath, the film is set to be a dive into the horror-comedy genre for a family audience.
The Sarajevo Film Festival has finalized its jury for 2020, with the Berlinale’s artistic director Carlo Chatrian, Croatian actress Jadranka Dokic, Serbian director Srdan Golubovic, and Morelia Film Festival’s industry head Andrea Stavenhagen joining president Michel Hazanavicius on the jury. The Bosnian festival is set to take place August 14-21 as one of the first significant European fests to hold a physical edition in the pandemic era.
French distribution company The Jokers, which handled the hugely successful release of Parasite in the territory ($15M box office), has officially launched its own website, featuring a range of exclusives related to its library of recent and cult titles. On offer is an exclusive collector’s release of Park Chan-wook’s JSA, a limited edition Parasite box set, and a series of new design posters for the Oscar-winning movie.
Rotterdam Film Festival, Realness, EAVE and the Sundance Institute have teamed for the inaugural edition of Creative Producer Indaba, a program to support producers from Africa. Through plenary sessions, masterclasses, case studies and one-on-one meetings with assigned mentors, the selected participants will address topics such as project development and planning, project financing, PR and marketing, company strategic planning, leadership and advocacy.
MUBI is teaming with the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image to curate a year-round program of exclusive previews of new Indian titles, commencing with Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga on July 23. They will select one film a month to screen for free on MUBI India for one day, before it officially starts showing on the service. The two companies have collaborated in the past with numerous titles from the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival ending up on the platform.