- guardian.co.uk,
- Friday May 23 2008 12:14 BST
Turning his attention from Daniel Craig to Nazis ... Mads Mikkelsen. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty
UK buyers have been among the most aggressive here at the Cannes market and the trend continued last night as Metrodome swooped on rights to the Danish second world war drama Flame & Citron.
Mads Mikkelsen, who famously swung a knotted rope into Daniel Craig's crown jewels as the villainous Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, stars in the true story of the Holger Danske Dutch resistance group.
Mikkelsen and Thure Lindhart play group members who essentially serve as assassins, running around Copenhagen knocking off Nazis left, right and centre. However as the story progresses, our eponymous heroes question their chain of command.
The deal is significant because Flame & Citron is one of Denmark's most expensive productions and is currently the most popular native film at the Danish box office this year, grossing more than $8.7m (£4.4m).
New Wave Films, a newish UK distributor launched by Pam Engel and Robert Beeson, acquired Atom Egoyan's competition entry Adoration, about a boy who gets into trouble with the authorities after he concocts an alternative persona on the internet.
New Wave has been enjoying quite the shopping spree here and previously picked up Jia Zhangke's 24 City. Coming into the festival New Wave had already acquired Nuri Bilge Ceylan's acclaimed Three Monkeys and the Dardenne Brothers' The Silence of Lorna, both strong Palme d'Or contenders.
Network bought UK rights to four films here - Antonio Campos's Un Certain Regard entry Afterschool, Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordan and Bruno Romy's Rumba, Thomas Clay's Soi Cowboy and, in a separate deal, Pablo Larrain's Tony Manero.
Speaking of the Chilean film, Tony Manero also sold to Ripley's Film in Italy, Vendetta in Australia and New Zealand and Imovision in Brazil.
At time of writing Cannes still awaited its first major US deal. The Che screening divided the critics but there was plenty of interest among buyers - many of whom would like to explore the notion of releasing Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara double bill in two parts as the director originally intended.
The two separate films, you will recall, are named Guerrilla and The Argentine, and the situation presents a quandary, much as it did with Grindhouse, the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez exploitation homage that premiered at Cannes last year.
Do you spend more money marketing and cutting prints for two films in the hope of doubling your box office, or do you save costs by putting out a single film and pray they will come? Grindhouse was hardly a model in box office excellence, and to be honest it's unlikely Che will be either, no matter how good it might be.
