EFM Roundup: Radiant To Chase 'Run Boy Run' Sales; BackUp's Movie Chainer; International Cast Joins 'Northmen'; K5 & Clive Owen On For 'Blue Angel'

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Radiant Films is now handling world sales, including the U.S., on German-French co-production Run Boy Run. The drama from Pepe Danquart, an Oscar winner for his 1993 short Black Rider, is based on Uri Orlev's novel about a boy who escaped from the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 and survived on his own in the woods until the end of the war. Newcomer Andy Tkacz stars alongside German actors Jeanette Hain and Rainer Bock, both of whom have done crossover work in U.S. films. Lead co-producers are Bittersuess Pictures and Ciné-Sud/Vandertastic. Run Boy Run will debut on the festival circuit later this year. Picture is a nice fit for L.A.-based Radiant's Mimi Steinbauer who's Austrian by birth and says she feels a particular connection to the European material.

The smart guys at Paris-based film finance group BackUp Media think they've come up with something that will help revolutionize rights management for international film biz execs ' and it's free, for now. They've developed Movie Chainer, a cloud-based application designed to improve the tracking of revenue shares throughout the commercial life of a production. I sat down with BackUp partner Jean-Baptiste Babin in Berlin yesterday for a demo of the software that launches April 30, just in time for Cannes and in partnership with the Cannes Market's Cinando film database and networking platform. Basically, once contract details are loaded into the system, a whole series of reports, maps and waterfall charts can be generated and simulated including availability lists, revenue splits, payment schedules and cash flow status. The BackUp team, which has been involved with such films as Amour, On the Road, A Separation and A Single Man, started work on the application to simplify their own lives, but over time, the project took on a life of its own. There's a demo and presentation video over at moviechainer.com.

German actor Tobias Santelmann is heading from the seafaring raft of Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki to leading a band of shipwrecked and marauding Vikings in Northmen ' A Viking Saga. Joining him in the English-language action adventure are fellow German actor Ken Duken (Inglourious Basterds, The Poisoners) and Brit James Norton (Rush, An Education). The film, directed by Claudio Faeh, sees a band of Vikings fighting for their lives after being stranded off the coast of Scotland. Zurich-based Elite Film Produktion is producing and London-based The Salt Company has international sales at the EFM. Shooting starts in September for a 2014 release. EOne already has several territories including the UK, France and Australia. Ascot Elite is releasing in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

K5 International is now handling overseas sales on Blue Angel, Richard Levine's adaptation of Francine Prose's tense novel. Clive Owen stars as a disillusioned college professor brought back to life by gifted young writing student. Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy of Parts & Labor are producing the story that combines sex, seduction and emotional manipulation. Owen, Levine and Prose are represented by CAA which is repping North American rights. Rose is also repped by the Denise Shannon Literary Agency.

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