'Wave' creates splash at market

Constantin Film's production topper Martin Moszkowicz said Berlin was "becoming more and more of an important market to sell our films."

Dennis Gansel's Sundance screener "The Wave," repped internationally by Celluloid Dreams, has sold to Bac in France, Atlantic for Scandinavia, Paradiso for the Benelux, Greece's 7 Group and Japan's Serious. Previous deals for the title, an adaptation of Todd Strasser's novel that was adapted as an ABC afterschool special movie in 1981, had already sold to Momentum for the U.K., Spain's Aurum and Alliance in Canada.

Pic, about a high school history class experiment that goes awry, unspools in Germany on March 13 via Constantin.

The producer-distrib's upcoming CGI-animated "Impy's Wonderland," which is being sold internationally by U.K. sales group Odyssey Entertainment, went to Ocean for France, Italy's MediaFilm, Scanbox in Scandinavia, Portugal's Lussomundo, Revolutionary Releasing in Russia and Tiglon for Turkey.

Pic, a follow-up to 2006's "Impy's Island," follows the adventures of a young dragon; like its predecessor, pic was directed and produced by Reinhard Klooss and Holger Tappe.

Another hot animated German title, Telepool's 3-D animated holiday pic "Niko & the Way to the Stars," sold to Dubai-based Shooting Stars, which is planning to release the film wide throughout the Middle East following the Ramadan holiday.

The Weinstein Co. recently acquired Michael Hegner and Kari Juuson's pic, about the adventures of a little reindeer, for all English-language and Latin American territories.

American queer cinema, meanwhile, got a boost from Virginia-based Water Bearer Films, which picked up all North American rights to Paul Bright's "Theft."

Set in Texas, pic tells the story of a conservative preacher trying to shut down the local gay bar -- and the boys fight back.

The Austin-based Bright ("Angora Ranch") is working on his next project, "Aaron the Sex Hero," an Austin-set actioner about a kick-ass gay do-gooder.