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Italy’s Lotus Production, producer of 2016 megahit “Perfetti Sconosciuti” (“Perfect Strangers”), has finished its Rome shoot of “Vicini di casa,” the Italian adaptation of Cesc Gay’s Spanish hit comedy “Sentimental” (“The People Upstairs”).

“Vicini di casa” teams Lotus, part of Italy’s Leone Film Group company, with Manuel Tedescos’ Baires Produzioni in association with Mediaset Group’s Medusa Film.

Directed by Paolo Costella, who was also one of the writers behind “Perfect Strangers,” “Vicini di casa” marks the first big remake sale of “The People Upstairs” by Spanish film-tv studio Filmax.

Currently in post-production, the cast of “Vicini di casa” is headed by Claudio Bisio, a well-known comedian and star of some huge Italian blockbusters such as “Benvenuti al Sud” and “Welcome, Mr. President.”

Vittoria Puccini (“18 Presents”), Vinicio Marchioni (“Into the Labyrinth”) and Valentina Lodovini (“Say it Loud!”) finish out the film’s roster of onscreen talent.

Filmax,...

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euforia, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euphoria, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.

After drawing relatively tame box office for nearly two months on the foreign theatrical circuit, Sony's "Eat Pray Love" emerged center stage over the weekend, claiming the No. 1 spot with a $17.4 million gross collected from 4,280 screens in 56 markets.

Director Ryan Murphy's romantic drama has rolled up a box office total of $64.1 million since it opened overseas on Aug. 12, and is rapidly closing the gap between its domestic cume of more than $80 million. The Julia Roberts vehicle was sparked by seven No. 1 market openings on the weekend, the best of which was Australia ($3.57 million at 328 locations).

While overall overseas action is generally anemic this time of year, the six major Hollywood studios are collectively surging to a foreign box office record in 2010.

According to studio figures, the six majors have realized January-September overseas box office of $9.85 billion, an increase of nearly 35% over 2009's nine-month total for the companies. (In calendar...

Rome-based Cattleya, which Universal Pictures owns 20% of, is sifting through the studio’s library looking for titles to remake in Italian. Cattleya’s remake of French comedy Welcome to the Sticks, Benvenuti Al Sud, opens on October 1 in Italy. It’s moved the action to Naples, associated in most Italian minds with the Mafia. The original French film was about a man posted from Paris to the drab Calais region. Welcome to the Sticks generated 500,000 admissions in Italy. Marco Chimenz, executive vice-president of Cattleya, tells me that remaking titles from Universal’s library is easier than trying to remake something from scratch. “Remaking movies becomes difficult and expensive when there are lots of rights holders,” Chimenz says. “That’s less of an issue when it comes to movies Universal wholly owns.” Remaking Uni movies in Italian is part of Cattleya’s push into more international production. It’s developing two news English-language movies into production.

There won't be any big costly parties in Cannes this year for the folks at Pathe – it seems to be a Berlin, skip Cannes and go to Venice type of year. The Illusionist preemed in Berlin and makes an appearance in the Market screenings, and the much anticipated Miral from Julian Schnabel skipped a non-comp, non-confidence vote and is instead poised to double dip in Venice and Tiff. - There won't be any big costly parties in Cannes this year for the folks at Pathe – it seems to be a Berlin, skip Cannes and go to Venice type of year. The Illusionist preemed in Berlin and makes an appearance in the Market screenings, and the much anticipated Miral from Julian Schnabel skipped a non-comp, non-confidence vote and is instead poised to double dip in Venice and Tiff. All That Glitters (Tout Ce Qui Brille) by G&eacute...

There won't be any big costly parties in Cannes this year for the folks at Pathe – it seems to be a Berlin, skip Cannes and go to Venice type of year. The Illusionist preemed in Berlin and makes an appearance in the Market screenings, and the much anticipated Miral from Julian Schnabel skipped a non-comp, non-confidence vote and is instead poised to double dip in Venice and Tiff. All That Glitters (Tout Ce Qui Brille) by Géraldine Nakache - Completed Centurion by Neil Marshall - Completed The Illusionnist (L'illusioniste) by Sylvain Chomet - Completed Benvenuti Al Sud by Luca Miniero - Completed Camping 2 by Fabien Onteniente - Completed L'italien by Olivier Baroux - Completed Oceans by Jacques Perrin - Completed Africa United by Debs Gardner Paterson - Production Farewell by Christian Carion - Completed Loup (Wolf) by Nicolas Vanier - Completed Miral by Julian Schnabel - Post-Production Rien A...