Mediapro, Gravier pact with Woody
Duo to produce the director's next three films
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While details were scarce in Monday's announcement, the deal appears to be designed to give Allen the freedom, control and lack of interference to which he has grown accustomed in a helming career stretching into its fifth decade.
The three films will shoot over 2009, 2010 and 2011. Budgets are said to be about E15 million ($22 million), approximately what "Barcelona" cost. No settings have been announced for the films. However, in announcing a verbal agreement for two pics with Allen at last September's San Sebastian Film Festival, Mediapro chief exec Jaume Roures said that one film would be made in Europe, outside Spain, and another "a little bit further away."
Euro locales would continue Allen's wanderings away from Gotham that started with a trio of Blighty-set pics, "Match Point," "Scoop" and "Cassandra's Dream." Although a soft performer domestically, "Cassandra" has cleared $10 million at the worldwide wickets.
Allen's production partners are certainly in his comfort zone. Gravier is the production shingle of Allen's sister, Letty Aronson.
A Barcelona-based controlling shareholder in startup Spanish net LaSexta, Mediapro is a devotee of director-driven filmmaking. It has grown incrementally by producing films from Spanish auteurs, mostly notably Isabel Coixet's "The Secret Life of Words," which it co-produced with Pedro and Agustin Almodovar's El Deseo.
Other Mediapro productions include Oliver Stone's "Comandante," Fernando Leon's "Mondays in the Sun" and Jean-Jacques Annaud's "His Majesty Minor."
Deal rolls off the obviously happy collaboration on "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," which stars Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall. Now in post-production, it is skedded for a fall release.
The Weinstein Co. grabbed U.S. rights to the film last month. Warner Bros. will release in Spain.
