Paris-based film sales company Charades, which helped bring Jeremy Clapin’s Oscar-nominated I Lost My Body and Mamoru Hosoda’s acclaimed Mirai to audiences around the world, has announced a raft of deals for its new high-profile animated offerings at the European Film Market.
Romanian director Anca Damian’s colorful, emotional exploration of the human-dog bond Marona’s Fantastic Tale has been picked up by Challan (South Korea), Legend Film (China), New Horizons (Poland), Pack Magic (Spain), Riskit (Japan), Scanorama (Baltics), Sky Digi (Taiwan), Triart (Sweden) and Windmill (Netherlands). The European Film Award-nominated feature premiered at Annecy 2019 and will receive a North American release through GKIDS later this year. Damian’s follow up to award-winning animated biography Crulic – The Path to Beyond, Marona is produced by Aparte Films, Sacrebleu Productions and Minds Meet.
Expected to debut this spring, children’s book series adaptation Little Nicholas, directed by Gilles de Maistre (Mia and the White Lion) and Amandine Fredon, has sold to A-One (South Korea), Aero & Mozinet (Czech Rep. & Slovakia), Empire (Middle East), Feelgood (Greece), Impuls (Switzerland), Lusomundo (Portugal), Monolith (Poland), Proview (Taiwan), Volga (Russia), Yeni Films (Turkey) and 2i (former Yugoslavia). The hand-drawn feature is produced by ON Entertainment (The Little Prince) in co-production with Foliascope (The Tower), Bibidul (A Cat in Paris) and Kaibou.
Charades has also found many ports of call for 3D CG family feature Bigfoot Superstar, the forthcoming sequel to Son of Bigfoot, directed by Ben Stassen (The Queen’s Corgi, A Turtle’s Tale, Fly Me to the Moon) and Jérémie Degruson (Thunder and the House of Magic). Pre-sales include Avjet (Taiwan), CDC (Latin America), Films 26 (Francophone Africa), Koch Media (Italy), Metropolis (Malaysia), Ozen (Turkey), Scanbox (Scandinavia) and Wing Sight (China). The pic is written by Bob Barlen & Cal Brunker (Escape from Planet Earth, The Nut Job 2) based on Stassen’s original concept. Son of Bigfoot (2017), produced by nWave Pictures, StudioCanal, Belga Prod., Illuminata Pictures and Waterman Ent., grossed over $50M in worldwide box office.
[Source: ;Variety]
