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Last Update - June 21th 2003

Spain's Filmax closes Cannes deals
Jennifer Green in Madrid, June 5, 2003

Spain's Filmax has announced a series of deals closed at the recent Cannes market including two promising European sales on Laura Mana�s new psychological thriller Word Chain (Palabras Encadenadas) to Kinowelt for Germany and Instituto Luce for Italy.

Under senior vice president of international sales and co-productions Antonia Nava, the company also closed the final three remaining territories on Brian Yuzna�s Beyond Reanimator to the UK (Home Entertainment), Australia (Magna Pacific Entertaining) and Scandinavia (Scanbox).

Beyond Reanimator looks set to become the first of Filmax�s Fantastic Factory titles to premiere theatrically in the US this summer on an anticipated eight-screen platform release through Lion�s Gate.

If successful, it could bode well for titles on the label�s second-year slate, which Lion�s Gate also pre-bought at Cannes this year, including Yuzna�s Rottweiler, Paco Plaza�s Romasanta and ghost tales Beneath Still Waters and The Nun.

Finally, Filmax revealed the first pre-sales on Brad Anderson�s The Machinist, a roughly $12m psychological thriller starring Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon and currently shooting in Barcelona.

Between the AFM and Cannes, The Machinist pre-sold to: Japan (Amuse Pictures), Benelux (Paradiso), the former USSR and Baltic countries (Pyramid), Thailand (Mongkol), Greece (Spentzos), Indonesia (Menara Media), Turkey (Aqua/Pynema), the former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Israel (Noah Communications) and the Middle East (Gulf Films).

These deals follow on previously announced sales at Cannes on Jaume Balaguero�s Darkness and his forthcoming, as-yet unscripted Fragile.

Source - www.screendaily.com