IFC Films acquires Armando Iannucci’s “The Death Of Stalin”February 13, 2017 - 15:52 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - IFC Films has bought North American rights to “The Death of Stalin” out of the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market, Variety has learned. Closed by Gaumont, the sale was in the seven figure range. A bidding war involved several distributors, including A24 and The Orchard, according to insiders. The film is a comic look at how Joseph Stalin’s stroke in 1953 threw the USSR into chaos and inspired a mad power grab among his top advisers. It reunites IFC with Armando Iannucci. The company released the writer and director’s “In the Loop,” which earned Iannucci an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. He also created the Emmy-winning political satire “Veep” for HBO. Adrian McLoughlin plays Stalin. Iannucci specializes in a kind of four-letter filled lunacy and has long applied his rapier wit to taking down the pettiness of bureaucratic infighting in the likes of “In the Loop,” “Veep,” and “The Thick of It.” His attraction to Soviet Russia makes sense. The all-star cast made this a hot title at Berlin. It includes Steve Buscemi (“Boardwalk Empire”), Simon Russell Beale (“Into the Woods”), Rupert Friend (“Homeland”), Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films), Michael Palin (“A Fish Called Wanda”), and Jeffrey Tambor (“Transparent”). Iannucci wrote the screenplay with David Schneider and Ian Martin with additional material by Peter Fellows. Yann Zenou, Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky, Laurent Zeitoun and Kevin Loader produced the picture. Adapted from the French graphic novel by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, and based on a true story, “The Death of Stalin” chronicles the chaotic days before Stalin’s funeral, marked by fierce infighting for the supreme power. Top stories Paris Center Pompidou Musée National d’Art Moderne will host the screening of Sergei Parajanov’s "Triptych" on December 15. The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. Partner news | Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. |