TF1 takes Spike Lee's 'St. Anna'

War drama starts to shoot Monday

Besson's EuropaCorp buys Roissy

Spaniards flock to 'Orphanage'

Spotboy adds three pics to slate

Filmax falls for 'Nymphomaniac'

Spanish talent surfaces at Sitges

Hollywood Post Alliance nominees

ROME � France's TF1 Intl. has taken international rights outside the U.S. and Italy to Spike Lee's WWII drama "Miracle at St. Anna," about black American soldiers and Italian partisans fighting German troops in Tuscany.

Touchstone recently took U.S. rights to the $45 million independently financed ensemble pic, which RAI Cinema will distribute in Italy.

Co-produced by Roberto Cicutto and Luigi Musini's new On My Own shingle with Spike Lee's 40 Acres & a Mule Filmworks, "Miracle at St. Anna" is centered around four members of the U.S. army's all-black 92nd division � played by Derek Luke, Omar Benson Miller, Michael Ealy and Laz Alonso. They became trapped behind enemy lines in a Tuscan village where they contend with their racist and incompetent white commanders as they battle the Nazis with help from the locals.

Ensemble cast also includes James Gandolfini, John Leguizamo, and Italian thesps Pierfrancesco Favino ("Night at the Museum") and Valentina Cervi.

Fact-based pic based on the eponymous novel by James McBride, who also penned the script, started shooting Monday at Cinecitta from where it will soon move to the village of St. Anna di Stazzema and other real Tuscan war locations.