Picture Tree acquires box-office hit “Welcome to Germany”February 2, 2017 - 17:52 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Picture Tree Intl. has picked up world sales rights to German box-office hit “Welcome to Germany” (“Willkommen bei den Hartmanns”), which it will present to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market next week, Variety reports. The comedy, which was Germany’s most successful local movie last year, deals with the issue of immigration. It was directed by Simon Verhoeven, whose credits include the popular German franchise “Men in the City” (“Männerherzen”), and the English-language stalker thriller “Friend Request,” which reached the top five in the U.K. box office last year, distributed by Warner Bros. The cast of “Welcome to Germany” includes several well-known German-language actors, such as Elyas M’Barek, star of 2013’s top box-office hit in Germany “Fack Ju Goehte,” Florian David Fitz (“The Most Beautiful Day,” “Vincent Wants to Sea”), and Austrian actress Senta Berger, who played alongside Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas and John Wayne in the 1960s. The film is produced by Wiedemann & Berg, one of Germany’s most successful production companies, whose credits include Oscar-winning “The Lives of Others” (2005), and box-office hits such as “Men in the City” (2009), “Who Am I” (2014), “Friend Request” (2015) and “Joy of Fatherhood” (2013), which was released in Germany as “Vaterfreuden.” In Berlin, PTI will also present “Tiger Girl” by Jacob Lass (“Love Steaks”) as a world premiere and co-opening film in the Panorama Special section, as well as launch sales for the Euro 12 million ($13 million) budgeted action comedy “Hot Dog,” which is in production and stars Til Schweiger and Matthias Schweighöfer, two of Germany’s hottest stars. Upcoming international titles include “The Confession” by Academy Award nominee Zaza Urushadze (“Tangerines”) and French-English road movie “Links of Life” by Marie-Helen Roux. Top stories 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”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Turkey extends military presence in Azerbaijan The Turkish parliament has adopted a bill submitted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan to extend the mandate of Turkish troops. Russia to begin assessing migrant workers' speaking skills Rosobrnadzor is planning to change the Russian language exam for migrant workers and include an assessment of speaking skills Armenian, Saudi Foreign Minister meet in Riyadh The two commended the positive dynamics of the development of political dialogue between Armenia and Saudi Arabia Pashinyan: Azerbaijan’s proximity shouldn’t worry border residents At the same time, he said that he “does not guarantee [the security of villagers] one hundred percent”. |