Latest

Goodfellas and Utopia have announced a slew of sales for Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl following its launch at the Cannes market.

The movie, starring Pamela Anderson as a veteran Las Vegas showgirl forced to reinvent her life, was a hot title in the lead up to the market this year.

In first deals, it has sold to MENA (Front Row Filmed Entertainment / Teleview International), Benelux (September Film Distribution), Switzerland (Filmcoopi Zurich), Germany (Constantin Film), Spain (Vertigo Films), UK (Picturehouse), Italy (Be Water Film), Poland (Gutek Film), CIS (Capella Film), Australia (Madman Entertainment) and airlines (Skeye Inflight Entertainment).

Further major deals are currently under negotiation, with the expectation that all territories will be sold by the end of the market.

Anderson plays a seasoned showgirl who is left high and dry when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run. As a dancer in her fifties, she struggles with what to do next. As a mother, she strives to repair a strained relationship with her daughter, who often took a backseat to her showgirl family.

Currently in post-production, the Las Vegas-set film also features Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd and Jason Schwartzman in the cast.

Kate Gersten (The Good Place) wrote the original story and screenplay. Robert Schwartzman (The Good Half) and Natalie Farrey (Her) produced. Cinematography is by Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and Andrew Wyatt (Barbie) wrote the original music.

The movie’s Cannes Market roll-out marked the first joint sales operation between Paris-based sales and production company Goodfellas and New York and L.A.-based distributor and sales company Utopia, building on a relationship formed over the latter’s acquisition and distribution of Goodfellas titles such as Holy Spider and Vortex.

“This has far exceeded our projections, we’re extremely proud of how well buyers responded to the script and promo reel, and very happy with this first co-selling experience,” commented Goodfellas Head of Sales Eva Diederix and Utopia VP of Sales Marie Zeniter.

Vin Diesel is set to enter production on Riddick: Furya, the anticipated fourth installment of the Riddick franchise, on August 26.

Shooting in Germany, Spain and the U.K., this follow-up to the sci-fi films Pitch Black (2000), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) and Riddick (2013) reunites Diesel with writer-director David Twohy. Diesel reprises his role as the anti-hero Richard B. Riddick, a dangerous escaped convict wanted by every bounty hunter in the galaxy.

In Riddick: Furya, Riddick finally returns to his home world, a place he barely remembers and one he fears might be left in ruins. But there he finds other Furyans fighting for their existence against a new monster. And some of these Furyans are more like Riddick than he could have ever imagined.

Diesel will produce for One Race Films, alongside Samantha Vincent. Thorsten Schumacher for Rocket Science and Lars Sylvest for Thank You Studios will also produce alongside Joe Neurauter. Rocket Science repped international rights and has completed worldwide cornerstone pre-sales to the UK (yet to be announced), France (Metropolitan), Germany (Leonine), Spain and Latin America (Sun), Benelux (The Searchers), Poland (Kinoswiat), Canada (Elevation), Scandinavia (Scanbox), Portugal (Lusomundo), Switzerland (Ascot Elite), South Africa (Empire), Greece (Femeway), the Middle East (Front Row), CIS and Baltic States, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech/Slovak, Republic Former Yugoslavia (ProRom), and Thailand (Sahamongkhol). CAA Media Finance is representing the film’s North American rights.

Most recently producing and starring in Fast X, which grossed over $704M worldwide, Diesel has also in recent years been heard voicing Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and other Marvel projects.

Previously writing and directing all three Riddick films, Twohy is also known for his writing of the Harrison Ford starrer The Fugitive. Also the writer-director of the alien horror pic The Arrival and supernatural thriller Below, he most recently penned the financial thriller Big Dogs, to be directed by Ridley Scott.

At Cannes, Rocket Science’s slate also includes Ali Abbasi’s Competition entry The Apprentice starring Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova; Michael Gracey’s Better Man; Alex Winter’s Adulthood starring Josh Gad, Kaya Scodelario and Anthony Carrigan; Peter Cataneo’s The Penguin Lessons starring Steve Coogan; and Louis Leterrier’s 11817.

Diesel is represented by CAA and Linden Entertainment; Twohy by Atlas Artists.