MAGNOLIA PICTURES AND MADMAN PRE-BUY THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER AND A ROYAL AFFAIR IN NORTH AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND

19-05-2011

 

The

Wagner/Cuban Company's Magnolia Pictures and Madman announced today

they have respectively pre-bought North American and Australia/New

Zealand rights to two high profile films from TrustNordisk and Zentropa

Entertainment: the just announced and hugely anticipated Lars von Trier

and Martin Scorsese collaboration, THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS

TRIER, and the sweeping historical drama.

 

Martin Scorsese subjecting himself to Lars Von Trier´s challenge was one of the biggest announcements out of Cannes this year. THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER follows in the footsteps of The Five Obstructions, Trier´s landmark 2003 documentary collaboration with Jørgen Leth, wherein von Trier challenged Leth to remake his 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, with an increasingly difficult set of strict rules, or obstructions, that he had to follow. Slated to be finished in 2013, THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER is a co-production between Scorsese's Sikelia Productions and Trier and Peter Aalbaek Jensen´s Zentropa Real.

 

Magnolia and Madman are distributers of Trier´s gorgeous Melancholia, which debuted with much fanfare today at Cannes, and will be released later this year.

 

Currently in production, A ROYAL AFFAIR is an 18th century

historical drama four years in the making, starring Mads Mikkelsen and

Alicia Vikander.  Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, screenwriter of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the

film is an epic romance about the love triangle between a German

doctor, the queen of Denmark, and her deranged king. The film was produced by Meta Louise Foldager (Melancholia) and Sisse Graum Jørgensen (In a Better World) for Zentropa Entertainments.

 

The Five Obstructions is

one of my all time favorite films, and I couldn´t be more excited to

see what these two masters concoct together for this next installment,”

said Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn. “After being blown away by Melancholia here

in Cannes, the opportunity to work with Lars Von Trier again is a dream

come true. Together with A ROYAL AFFAIR, we are so happy to continue

our wonderful relationship with TrustNordisk and Zentropa.”


"Strengthening

long standing bonds over a legendary dinner. Madman looks to the future

and sees no obstructions boarding Lars Vs Martin. There is a lot of

mutual love to champion maverick film makers," said Paul Wiegard, MD

Madman Entertainment

CEO

of TrustNordisk Rikke Ennis about the deals: “We did it again. We are

so proud of working on these amazing films with our good friends from

Magnolia and Madman. After a long and inspiring night with brainstorming

on ideas for releases, we are confident that the films will be handled

like little babies.”

 

The

deals were done by Magnolia´s Tom Quinn and Eamonn Bowles, Madman´s

Paul Wiegard and Nick Batzias, with Susan Wendt and Rikke Ennis for

TrustNordisk. 

 

About Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com)

is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the

Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically-integrated group of media

properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the

Landmark Theatres chain, and the high definition cable network HDNet.

Magnolia's upcoming releases include Lars Von Trier´s Melancholia, Andrew Rossi´s New York Times Documentary Page One, Mark Pellington´s I Melt With You, Alex Gibney´s Ken Kesey documentary Magic Trip, gospel documentary Rejoice and ShoutBlackthorn starring Sam Shepard, French thriller Point Blank, rakontur´s Limelight, David Gelb´s Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Anne Sewitsky´s Happy, Happy, Jo Nesbo´s Headhunters, and many more. 


About Madman

Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au)

is a leading 'all rights' management company operating throughout

Australia and New Zealand territory. Founded by Tim Anderson and Paul

Wiegard, Madman is wholly owned by Funtastic LTD, an Australian stock

exchange (ASX) listed company and one of Australia's largest children's

product distributors. Current successes in release include Animal

Kingdom, Sarah's Key, Exit Through The Gift Shop and Brighton

Rock.Upcoming releases include Critics Week entry 'Snowtown', The Hunter

starring Willem Dafoe, Michael Winterbottom's The Trip, Richard Ayote's

Submarine, 'The Forgiveness of Blood' and documentary 'Buck'.

 

About TrustNordisk

With

over 35 years of expertise and know-how in international film sale,

TrustNordisk market and sell feature films and TV-series worldwide.  Representing

one of the largest film catalogues in Europe - a feature film catalogue

of more than 600 films from highly acclaimed directors such as Lars von

Trier, Susanne Bier, Thomas Vinterberg, Lone Scherfig, Lukas Moodysson,

Daniél Espinosa, Jan Troell and David Mackenzie - their genres range

from animation to crime, from drama to family and they collaborate with

both large production companies as well as independent producers within

all of Europe on both

niche-specialized auteur-titles, which travel as prizewinning festival

darlings and big-budgeted crime-blockbusters based on bestsellers from

authors such as Jo Nesbø, Camilla Läckberg and Jussi Adler-Olsen amongst

others. TrustNordisk is

represented at all major film festivals and markets world-wide and are

represented globally on several online platforms including iTunes,

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, indieMoviesOnline.com, Mubi.com as well as on the

newly launched VOD channel zentropaondemand.com.