REMAKE OF CORNEAU'S CRIME D'AMOUR WILL BE SET IN THE U.K., START SHOOT IN AUGUST
Variety's John Hopewell, writing from Madrid, reports that Brian De Palma will direct Passion, a remake of Alain Corneau's French psychodrama Crime d'amour, which starred Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier "as two feuding corporate execs, one of whom is driven to murder the other." The film played at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. De Palma told Variety, "Not since Dressed to Kill have I had a chance to combine eroticism, suspense, mystery and murder into one spell-binding cinematic experience." The remake will be set in the U.K., and is set up at SBS Productions in Paris, which is headed by Saïd Ben Saïd, who also produced the original film. The budget for the France-Germany-U.K.-Spain co-production will be around $30 million, and will be part-financed, according to Hopewell, "by a combination of co-production coin from European partners, subsidies, tax coin and French TV money." SBS used a similar structure for its current production of Roman Polanski's God Of Carnage, according to Hopewell. Passion is set to start shooting this August "at a studio in Cologne or Berlin," according to Hopewell, "tapping into Germany's liberal tax rebates." Hopewell adds that exteriors will be filmed in London, and that the film's key cast will be announced by the time of the Cannes Film Festival in May.
"MOVIES OF THIS KIND ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO MAKE TODAY IN THE U.S."
Hopewell's article continues:
"Passion" adds to the U.S. talent that is currently signing on to film or TV projects financed and often produced out of Europe.
Ben Said said he was willing to discuss financing with a Hollywood studio, but thought it more likely he would produce English-language European movies with top-notch American directors without recourse to U.S. finance.
"As with Roman Polanski's 'God of Carnage,' we can use a European film model and all its support systems, set up co-productions and find the money to make it," said Ben Said. "Movies of this kind are very difficult to make today in the U.S. because the U.S. doesn't have co-productions and the studios are not interested in making them."
"Carnage" has sold worldwide except for the U.S. and Japan.
Crime d'amour has been described by some American critics as Dangerous Liaisons meets Working Girl.
Updated: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 3:34 PM CST
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