05-07-2011

FNE at KVIFF: IN Film Praha Preps Six Films

By Cathy Meils

    KARLOVY VARY: Slovak producer Rudolf Biermann told FNE that his Czech company IN Film Praha (www.infilm.cz) has a slate of six films in various stages of development and production, including a new feature from Martin Sulik, whose film Gypsy (Cigan), coproduced by Biermann and Sulik, premiered in competition at the Karlovy Vary IFF (www.kviff.com) on 5 July 2011.

    Biermann and Sulik are in development with Parom: The Story of a Horse, a 6-8 million euro film about a horse who survives World War II while the humans around him are killed off.

    "It's a very expensive project, so I don't know how we will finance it. We will probably have to do a coproduction with Czech, Slovakia, Germany and Austria," Biermann said. "It's very visual. We don't want to make a movie where we don't have enough money to make it happen."

    Coming up sooner for IN Film is Perfect Days directed by Alice Nellis, now in postproduction. The one million euro comedy, financed by the Czech film fund (20%), Czech film tax incentives (20%), and presales and film minimum guarantees, will be released 3 November 2011 in Slovakia. The story involves a successful woman unable to find the perfect mate, so asks her gay best friend to be a sperm donor. Then the fun begins...

    Biermann follows that with Holy Quarternity, an original script from leading Czech author Michal Viewegh with Jan Hrebejk directing. Now in preproduction, the film shoots in south Bohemia and in the Caribbean in October to December 2011, with a planned September 2012 release. The one million euro film is financed by sponsor RWE (a German-based energy company), film tax incentives (20%) and the remainder through TV presales and minimum guarantees in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Regarding the story, Biermann says, "We don't want to disclose it. It's so surprising and funny and spicy."

    IN Film has three more films in development. Glass Room which should have a script ready in August, is intended as the English language premiere of Czech director Jan Hrebejk. He is currently co-writing the script in Czech with his long-time collaborator Petr Jarchovsky. The story is based on the Booker Prize nominated novel by Simon Mawer. Biermann says they're planning a film in the style of The English Patient with an international cast for the story that goes from 1921 to the present. The project is attracting interest worldwide. Budget and financing still have to be determined, but a budget in the range of 10 million euros is anticipated.

    In the works for 2011-2012 shoots and release in 2013 are an adaptation of a Michal Viewegh book, Short Fairy Tales for tired Parents, a film debut for theatre director Dodo Gombar; and Revival, based on an original idea by Biermann which he describes as "a Full Monty about old musicians who reunite after 20 years." Alice Nellis is writing a script for the comedy.

    Biermann, who made his name in Slovakia as a producer and the founder of one of the first miniplexes in Central Europe, no longer has a Slovak production company, and works exclusively out of his Prague-based company.