Queen nabs high profile films

CANNES -- Queen Film, the Indonesian distribution company that is affiliated with new exhibition group Blitz Megaplex, has pre-emptively bought rights to a slew of U.S. and international pictures with broad marketing elements, among them the Bruce Willis starrer "Grimm." Other deals include:

* Hyde Park Intl.'s "Streetfighter," and James Ivory's "City of Your Final Destination, starring Anthony Hopkins;
* Odd Lot's upcoming Frank Miller pic "The Spirit";
* Focus Features' upcoming Fernando Meirelles-helmed thriller "Blindness" with Daniel Craig and Julianne Moore;
* Summit Entertainment's Mike Newell-helmed "Love in the Time of Cholera," with Javier Bardem, and "The Fall";
* Omega Entertainment's illusionist pic "Mandrake" and Deepa Mehta film "Luna";
* EuropaCorp's English language thriller "Taken";
* Mandarin Films' Tsui Hark romantic actioner "Missing";
* Pathe Pictures Intl.’s horror-comedy "The Cottage," and French-language Cannes competition film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Easternlight scores well with "Three Kingdoms"

CANNES -- The combination of Andy Lau and “Mission: Impossible 3” starlet Maggie Q is a hot ticket for sales agent Arclight.

Company’s Asian label Easternlight closed deals on the $20 million historic actioner “Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon” with Imagem for Brazil, Spentzos for Greece, PT Amero for Indonesia, Grand Brilliance for Indonesia and Vietnam, Castello Lopes for Portugal, Aqua Pinema for Turkey and Sundream Motion Pictures for Hong Kong.
Pic, lensed by Daniel Lee, and co-starring Sammo Hung, Charlie Yeung and Yu Rongguang and Andy Oh, will also get outings in China through PolyBona and in Korea through producers Taewon Entertainment.

Indonesian filmmakers rebel against festival, censors

JAKARTA -- More than 100 movie bizzers, including top helmers, thesps, producers, writers and technicians, Wednesday handed back awards as part of a protest aimed at several of the country's movie institutions.

They called for the government to abolish the Indonesian Film Festival (FFI), the Film Censorship Institute, the Consultative Board for National Film Development and Film Law No. 8/1992, which they say no longer conform to the spirit of modern film-making.

They also seek the annulment of the best film award and other 'Citra' prizes given to "Ekskul," a campy comedy drama, at last month's FFI. "Ekskul" was panned by critics, slumped at the box office and, the group allege, infringed other composers' music rights.

Multi-hyphenates Nia Dinata and Mira Lesmana, actor Nicolas Saputra, actress Dian Sastro, helmers Rudi Soerdjarwo and Riri Riza were among members of the Indonesian Film Society, (Masyarakat Film Indonesia), who handed back to the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Jero Wacik 22 Citra awards won at previous IFFs. Next week they plan to return another 13 Citras, bringing the total to 35.

"Ekskul, which won the Citra trophy for best film, (illegally) used the score of a certain film and this constitutes a copyright infringement ... and indicates the poor management of FFI and lack of competence on the part of the festival organizers," Upi Avianto, the director of "Realitas, Cinta dan Rock 'N Roll" (Reality, Love and Rock 'N Roll) said, in a statement from the group.

Although it is country's foreign-language Oscar hopeful, Dinata's "Love for Share" ("Berbagi Suami") was not even nominated for best film Citra at the recently concluded 2006 IFF. Apparently one of the FFI judges took the movie's anti-polygamy message as a personal insult.

Indonesia's other well-known fest, the Jakarta Film Fest (Jiffest), also felt the impact of censorship in December. A Dutch documentary "Promised Paradise," was banned by the censor as it showed images of one of the Bali bombers. Three films that Jiffest tried to present in 2005 were also disqualified.

Jiffest programming chief Orlow Seunke has since resigned, blaming a lack of government support.