Eiffel Tower - New Years Eve 2001

EXCLUSIVE: Paris-based Backup Media has teamed up with Memento Films International to finance Cold In July, an adaptation of the Joe Lansdale cult novel that will be director Jim Mickle‘s next film. Mickle’s We Are What We Are is playing in Directors’ Fortnight section here at Cannes. Shooting on Cold In July begins in late July with an early 2014 delivery. Adapted by Nick Damici and Mickle, the film is being produced by Belladonna Productions’ Rene Bastian, Adam Folk, and Linda Moran — frequent Mickle collaborators. The plot: Richard Dane shoots and kills an armed burglar in his living room. It’s a clear-cut case of self defense to everyone but the burglar’s father, who vows Old Testament-style eye-for-an-eye justice. Here, that means son for son. The cops, the feds, and the Dixie mafia all play a part in the ensuing mayhem. “It was important to us to find partners on the movie who would help us create an environment for Jim, where he would be protected and be able to excel as a filmmaker,” Linda Moran and Rene Bastian from Belladonna said. “We are very happy to have found the full support of the Backup/MFI team.”For Backup Media, this marks a growing determination to put equity into English-language films; ... Read More »

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Three weeks after being rushed to hospital in Paris, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has disappeared from sight, leaving behind a country preparing for a successor who for the first time will come from a generation too young to have fought in Algeria's war of independence against France.