Global Showbiz Briefs: Eureka Acquires 'Magnificent Eleven', 'Downton Abbey' UK Ratings Down, French Directors Visit US, '7 Boxes' Honored, Status Quo Docu

Eureka Finds 'The Magnificent Eleven'
Eureka Distribution has acquired UK theatrical rights to The Magnificent Eleven, a modernization of classic The Magnificent Seven by co-writers Pete and John Adams in collaboration with Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh. Directed by Jeremy Wooding, the new story follows a band of Brits and one American (played by the original film's Robert Vaughn) in London's East End where the heroes are an amateur soccer team that reluctantly comes together to save a Tandoori restaurant from local thugs. Keith Allen and Philip Rhys also star. Plumcourt Production produced for the Adams' Angry Badger Pictures in co-production with Filmgate Films and the Swedish regional film board and in association with Skyline Entertainment, Premiere Picture and Pure Film Productions. International sales are handled by Stealth Media Group. Eureka is looking at a March release.

'Downton Abbey' UK Ratings Down From Last Week
Season 3 of Downton Abbey is drawing to a close on the UK's ITV with Sunday's penultimate episode pulling in softer numbers than last week's ratings-buster. The show drew 9.24M for a 35.7% share in the overnights on ITV1. An additional 277,000 watched on ITV+1 an hour later. Last week, the sixth episode of the season hit an overnight ratings high of 9.69M during the 9 PM hour to beat the season's previous top performer which drew 9.66M viewers in the overnights on October 1. Simon Cowell's X Factor lead-in averaged 8.88M, lower than last week's 9.33M. Still, ITV1 won the night with 26.2% of the audience ahead of BBC One's 21%.

French Directors To Visit U.S. Universities
French film export body Unifrance is notoriously one of the world's most effective at promoting the home industry. Next month, as part of its On Set With French Cinema program, directors Benoît Jacquot, Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas and Leos Carax are heading to several U.S. film schools and universities to meet with students. Farewell My Queen helmer Jacquot will have to reschedule his first visit to the School of Visual Arts in NY which was planned for today and cancelled in light of Hurricane Sandy. But he's set to show the film at Wellesley on November 6 and will bring his 2004 A Tout De Suite to a Rhode Island School of Design class on November 5 and his 1995 Virginie Ledoyen-starrer La Fille Seule to Boston University on November 8. White Material director Denis will also visit Indiana University, Emory and Notre Dame in November ahead of a retrospective of her works at the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis and a conversation with Kent Jones at the Film Society Of New York. Assayas will bring his most recent film, Après Mai, to USC on November 1 and Carax will present his I to AFI students on November 5.

Inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival Honors Paraguay's '7 Boxes'
Paraguayan drama 7 Boxes was named best dramatic feature film and German documentary This Ain't California took the docu prize at the inaugural Cockatoo Island Film Festival, which ran October 24-28 on an island in Sydney Harbour and drew 34,000 people. Staged by filmmakers Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis, the fest kicked off with the Australian premiere of The Master, attended by director Paul Thomas Anderson, and closed with the world premiere of Benjamin Epps' Family Weekend aka Queen Freak, which stars Kristin Chenoweth and Matthew Modine. More than 200 features, short films and documentaries were screened in four purpose built cinemas. The drama competition jury included cinematographer Don McAlpine, director Peter Andikidis, Matchbox Pictures' Helen Bowden and actor Alex Dimitriades. The fest, which also included live music, master-classes by directors Peter Weir, Gillian Armstrong and Jane Campion, script readings and a classic yacht race, cost $A2Mn ($2.07M). Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori's 7 Boxes is the saga of a Paraguayan wheelbarrow porter who dreams of becoming a star. Marten Persiel's This Ain't California deals with the cult of skateboarding in the former East Germany. Special jury prize for artistic vision went to Breathing, Austrian director Karl Markovics' study of a boy who searches for the mother who abandoned him.- Don Groves

Status Quo Doc Finds Buyers In Europe
Hello Quo, the rockumentary about English boogie rock band Status Quo, has been picked up by Anchor Bay in the UK and Studiocanal in Germany. K5 International is handling worldwide rights. Directed by Alan G. Parker, the film looks at the 50-year long career of the band from its origins in 1962 to its current status as one of the UK's most successful bands with worldwide album sales topping 120M. Brian May, Thin Lizzy, The Buzzcocks, Slade and Paul Weller all appear in the film that includes never-before-seen footage.