Exclusive: Longtime Sf Studios executive and Scandinavian producer Fredrik Wikström Nicastro is launching Hope Studios, which will develop, finance, produce and sell international films and TV for the global market with backing from a group of private equity financiers and banks.
Nicastro has spent 18 years at Nordic powerhouse Sf Studios where he produced recent Sony pic A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks, the remake of Swedish Oscar nominee and box office hit A Man Called Ove, on which he was an executive producer.
Hope Studios will develop original content but focus primarily on adaptations of fiction and non-fiction novels and projects inspired by true stories.
The company has offices in Stockholm and London and, according to Nicastro, will be able to fully finance projects up to $50M. It has also secured an overall deal with Black Bear, which will partner with the company on international sales and distribution.
During his tenure at Sf Studios,...
Nicastro has spent 18 years at Nordic powerhouse Sf Studios where he produced recent Sony pic A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks, the remake of Swedish Oscar nominee and box office hit A Man Called Ove, on which he was an executive producer.
Hope Studios will develop original content but focus primarily on adaptations of fiction and non-fiction novels and projects inspired by true stories.
The company has offices in Stockholm and London and, according to Nicastro, will be able to fully finance projects up to $50M. It has also secured an overall deal with Black Bear, which will partner with the company on international sales and distribution.
During his tenure at Sf Studios,...
- 11/15/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Samuel Goldwyn Films and Ambi Group will partner on the Us theatrical release of Simon Aboud’s drama starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson.
The companies have earmarked an early 2017 release on the London-set contemporary fairy tale about the unlikely friendship between a reclusive young aspiring children’s author and a cantankerous widower.
Andrew Scott, Jeremy Irvine and Anna Chancellor round out the key cast.
“It is rare nowadays to find a gem such as Simon Aboud’s This Beautiful Fantastic,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films. “The depth of emotion and heart of this film is something we cannot wait to share with audiences.”
Ambi Group co-founder Andrea Iervolino nagotiated the deal and added, “Simon crafted a heartfelt story that we are excited to release with our partners at Samuel Goldwyn.
“With a fusion of comedy and drama that balances poignant moments with humour and charm, This Beautiful Fantastic has strong commercial appeal and we...
The companies have earmarked an early 2017 release on the London-set contemporary fairy tale about the unlikely friendship between a reclusive young aspiring children’s author and a cantankerous widower.
Andrew Scott, Jeremy Irvine and Anna Chancellor round out the key cast.
“It is rare nowadays to find a gem such as Simon Aboud’s This Beautiful Fantastic,” said Peter Goldwyn of Samuel Goldwyn Films. “The depth of emotion and heart of this film is something we cannot wait to share with audiences.”
Ambi Group co-founder Andrea Iervolino nagotiated the deal and added, “Simon crafted a heartfelt story that we are excited to release with our partners at Samuel Goldwyn.
“With a fusion of comedy and drama that balances poignant moments with humour and charm, This Beautiful Fantastic has strong commercial appeal and we...
- 10/27/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Entertainment lawyer and producer Kami Naghdi has joined London-based boutique law firm Clintons, where he will head the firm’s film and TV practice.
Former lawyer Naghdi took a six-year hiatus from law to produce on a number of features including Bille August’s The Color of Freedom, Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn and Ryuhei Kitamura’s No One Lives.
Prior to producing, Naghdi had provided legal services to films including Woody Allen’s Match Point and John Hillcoat’s The Proposition.
Naghdi said: “Clintons offers my clients an array of top class expertise. I have admired their work in music, theatre, digital media, brand management and advertising for many years. The opportunities for cross over and adaptations between the various media has become a key factor to exploiting intellectual property in this sector.
“Films are made into stage musicals, ballet, concerts and sports events are exhibited live in cinemas and every filmmaker wants to speak to Netflix...
Former lawyer Naghdi took a six-year hiatus from law to produce on a number of features including Bille August’s The Color of Freedom, Werner Herzog’s Rescue Dawn and Ryuhei Kitamura’s No One Lives.
Prior to producing, Naghdi had provided legal services to films including Woody Allen’s Match Point and John Hillcoat’s The Proposition.
Naghdi said: “Clintons offers my clients an array of top class expertise. I have admired their work in music, theatre, digital media, brand management and advertising for many years. The opportunities for cross over and adaptations between the various media has become a key factor to exploiting intellectual property in this sector.
“Films are made into stage musicals, ballet, concerts and sports events are exhibited live in cinemas and every filmmaker wants to speak to Netflix...
- 7/1/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
“No One Lives” is coming to nationwide in select cities May 10, and if you’re in one of the cities listed below and are excited about the film coming to your area, then we’ve got a new clip from the film, “Inside Man,” that will get you even more excited. Check it out below the post! “No One Lives,” distributed by Anchor Bay Films, is directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, written by David Lawrence Cohen. The film is produced by Harry Knapp and Kami Naghdi and executive produced by Cohen and Francois Ivernel, Cameron McCracken, Michael J. Luisi and Elton Brand. The cast includes Luke Evans, Adelaide Clemens, Lee Tergesen, Laura [ Read More ]
The post New Clip From No One Lives Released appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post New Clip From No One Lives Released appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 5/8/2013
- by monique
- ShockYa
Japanese writer-director Ryūhei Kitamura (The Midnight Meat Train) returns with his latest horror-thriller this year, No One Lives, which will be heading to Tiff as part of the Midnight Madness section in just a few weeks’ time.
Luke Evans (Immortals, the upcoming The Hobbit) leads the cast, starring alongside Adelaide Clemens (the upcoming Silent Hill: Revelation 3D), Derek Magyar (Train), Lindsey Shaw (10 Things I Hate About You), Beau Knapp (Super 8), America Olivo (Neighbor), and Lee Tergesen (Monster).
A few images from the film have surfaced online already, and now still photographer Patti Perret has debuted fourteen new images on her website.
“The director of Versus and The Midnight Meat Train returns with this exuberantly gory thriller about a clan of backwoods road bandits whose latest victims are far less helpless than they seem.”
Kitamura is directing from a script by newcomer David Cohen, with Harry Knapp (Rescue Dawn) and Kami Naghdi (Match Point) producing.
Luke Evans (Immortals, the upcoming The Hobbit) leads the cast, starring alongside Adelaide Clemens (the upcoming Silent Hill: Revelation 3D), Derek Magyar (Train), Lindsey Shaw (10 Things I Hate About You), Beau Knapp (Super 8), America Olivo (Neighbor), and Lee Tergesen (Monster).
A few images from the film have surfaced online already, and now still photographer Patti Perret has debuted fourteen new images on her website.
“The director of Versus and The Midnight Meat Train returns with this exuberantly gory thriller about a clan of backwoods road bandits whose latest victims are far less helpless than they seem.”
Kitamura is directing from a script by newcomer David Cohen, with Harry Knapp (Rescue Dawn) and Kami Naghdi (Match Point) producing.
- 8/14/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive: The London-based producer has started talking to Hollywood agents about directors for Exit Point, a Base jumping action thriller written by Tom Williams (Chalet Girl) and award-winning Sunday Times journalist Ed Caesar. Constance Media hopes to shoot summer 2011 in the UK, France, Norway and United Arab Emirates. Naghdi is pitching this heist movie as “Man On Wire meets Point Break.” Base jumping is the extreme sport of jumping off a skyscraper wearing a parachute. Caesar’s original Sunday Times Magazine article told how two men broke into the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and base-jumped 155 floors down. Williams and Caesar are repped by Sean Gascoine at United Agents. Naghdi tells me: “Nobody’s done a Base jumping thriller before. When the Europeans do thrillers properly, we do them really well.” Naghdi used to be an entertainment lawyer at City law firm Bird & Bird, where his clients included Woody Allen.
- 8/6/2010
- by TIM ADLER
- Deadline London
IFC Films has acquired North American rights to Duncan Ward's "Boogie Woogie," a satire of the London art scene, adapted by Danny Moynihan from his novel of the same name.
The film's ensemble cast includes Danny Huston, Stellan Skarsgard, Heather Graham, Alan Cumming, Christopher Lee, Charlotte Rampling, Amanda Seyfried, Jaime Winstone and Jack Huston.
The film is an Autonomous/Colourframe Production with S Films, in association with Constance Media, Firefly Films, Muse Productions, P&C Arcade Films and Magna Films. It was produced by Cat Villiers, Chris Simon, Kami Naghdi and Danny Moynihan.
IFC will release "Boogie" on VOD on April 21 and theatrically on April 23.
IFC acquired the rights from The Works International in a deal negotiated by IFC’s Arianna Bocco.
The film's ensemble cast includes Danny Huston, Stellan Skarsgard, Heather Graham, Alan Cumming, Christopher Lee, Charlotte Rampling, Amanda Seyfried, Jaime Winstone and Jack Huston.
The film is an Autonomous/Colourframe Production with S Films, in association with Constance Media, Firefly Films, Muse Productions, P&C Arcade Films and Magna Films. It was produced by Cat Villiers, Chris Simon, Kami Naghdi and Danny Moynihan.
IFC will release "Boogie" on VOD on April 21 and theatrically on April 23.
IFC acquired the rights from The Works International in a deal negotiated by IFC’s Arianna Bocco.
- 2/17/2010
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ifta nominated Irish director Terry Loane (Mickybo and Me) is readying his latest project 'This Beautiful Fantastic', a film based on Simon Aboud's novel of the same name. Produced by Constance Media's Kami Naghdi (Boogie Woogie) 'This Beautiful Fantastic' tells the tale of an obsessively tidy children's author who falls in love with an erratic inventor – the story will be told like a classic fairytale and will star Tom Wilkinson (Valkyrie, Shakespeare in Love), Christopher Eccleston (Amelia, The Others), MacKenzie Crook (Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End, City of Ember), Joanna Lumley (Corpse Bride, Ella Enchanted) and Carey Mulligan (An Education, Public Enemies).
- 11/17/2009
- IFTN
Bankside Films went shopping. Its list? The 2009 Brit List. Of the 34 scripts selected to make up the UK.s version of the Us Black List, the best in unproduced screenplays, they opted for Simon Aboud.s This Beautiful Fantastic. And the great news for Aboud gets even more beautifully fantastic; according to Screen Daily, the film will star Carey Mulligan, Tom Wilkinson, Christopher Eccleston, Mackenzie Crook and Joanna Lumley. It.s about Bella Brown, an author who.s basically a recluse. She.s got no family or friends and spends the majority of her time hibernating in her compulsively tidy flat. It isn.t until she ventures out to the library that she sees what she.s been missing and meets Billy, a far-from-organized inventor who enjoys chaotically whipping through the library aisles. Directorial duties fall to Terry Loane with Kami Naghdi of Constance Media set to co-produce alongside Matt...
- 10/29/2009
- cinemablend.com
London -- Terry Loane's "This Beautiful Fantastic" has attracted a sparkling cast with Carey Mulligan, Tom Wilkinson, Christopher Eccleston, Mackenzie Crook and Joanna Lumley all in line to shine.
Billed as a modern fairy tale, Simon Aboud's script appears on the annual Brit List, a compilation of the best unproduced screenplays from these shores that circulates here and stateside.
London-based Constance Media's Kami Naghdi will produce with Matt Treadwell as co-producer. Compton Ross and Phil Hunt of sales and finance house Bankside Films take executive producer roles.
The movie is set to shoot in March 2010 shooting on location in Edinburgh, Scotland and in studio facilities in Cologne, Germany, the backers said.
The script details the story of a chronically shy and obsessively tidy children's author whose world is turned upside down when she falls in love with a crazy, shambolic inventor.
Bankside will debut the project to...
Billed as a modern fairy tale, Simon Aboud's script appears on the annual Brit List, a compilation of the best unproduced screenplays from these shores that circulates here and stateside.
London-based Constance Media's Kami Naghdi will produce with Matt Treadwell as co-producer. Compton Ross and Phil Hunt of sales and finance house Bankside Films take executive producer roles.
The movie is set to shoot in March 2010 shooting on location in Edinburgh, Scotland and in studio facilities in Cologne, Germany, the backers said.
The script details the story of a chronically shy and obsessively tidy children's author whose world is turned upside down when she falls in love with a crazy, shambolic inventor.
Bankside will debut the project to...
- 10/28/2009
- by By Stuart Kemp
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- "Goodbye Banfana" is yet another movie about the revolution against South Africa's brutal apartheid regime told from a white man's point of view. This time it is Nelson Mandela's warden, during much of the activist's 27 years in prison, who receives the star treatment in Bille August's film. At the very least, one would expect this white protagonist to bear witness to a change in thinking among many whites about a new South Africa. Even here, though, those key scenes are missing in a script August wrote with Greg Latter.
This French/German/Belgian/Italian/South African co-production will benefit from a continuing worldwide fascination with Mandela's story, even if he is only a supporting player here. Since the sincere but dramatically flaccid story doesn't pack much punch, theatrical engagements will be short.
Dennis Haysbert does manage to capture the dignity and steadfastness Mandela exhibited during his long ordeal. But he can only hint at the charisma and savvy that would change a white man's closed mind. Meanwhile, Joseph Fiennes as warden James Gregory is perhaps too smart for the fairly uneducated man he plays: He seems too sharp to be saying and doing many of the things he does.
Gregory's only ambition is to be an excellent prison warden, move up in the system and support a wife, Gloria (Diane Kruger), whose need for material goods and status knows no bounds.
He arrives with his wife and two children at the notorious Robben Island prison in 1968, where one quirk stands him in good stead. Growing up on a lonely farm where his only playmate was a black boy, Gregory became fluent in the Xhosa language. So a security czar assigns him to guard Mandela and his comrades so Gregory can be "a window into their soul -- if they have a soul."
The movie is pretty heavy-handed in the early going with all the whites spouting racist doggerel. Mrs. Gregory even gets to affirm that the separation of whites from blacks is "God's way."
But in the first half of the movie Mandela himself is little more than a rumor. From Gregory's brief encounters with him, remarkably, he starts to change his mind about apartheid. How does this happen? What does he see, or what Nelson tell him, that he doesn't already know about the racist white regime? That blacks are mistreated everywhere but especially in prison? That the government's labeling of all black activists as "communist" is pure cynical spin?
Mandela does tell him to go read the African National Congress' Freedom Charter, a document few whites have read since it is banned literature. But would that document really be such an eye-opener, especially since the ANC had by then abandoned its non-violent ways?
The film never gets to the heart of what it should be about -- the turning of a man's heart and mind. Instead, much time is taken up with petty jealousies and feuds within the white colony of penal authorities and their wives. And Mrs. Gregory is always good for a harangue to her husband about not jeopardizing the family's security by doing anything "foolish."
When a small kindness toward Mrs. Mandela (Faith Ndukwana) by Gregory gets blown out of proportion and his family's life becomes untenable on the island, he demands a transfer. Soon enough, Mandela also is transferred away from the island for fear he may be assassinated. Gregory is ordered to again act as his warden, a job that increasingly looks like that of a valet.
The second half of the movie brings the two men into more contact, yet nothing significant ever happens between them. Perhaps nothing ever did. Gregory, a man with some compassion after all, simply came to his senses when he saw that Nelson Mandela was no mad terrorist. Whatever the case, there is little here to justify a two-hour movie, even with some forced intrigue about threats to Gregory's children and a family tragedy that mirrors one of Mandela's own.
Production values are sharp as August crew makes good use of Robben Island and other actual locations where the story took place. But sentimentality and even sometimes triviality undermine this bizarre buddy film.
Goodbye Bafana
An X Filme Creative Pool in association with Arsam International/Banana Films with Future Films/Marmont Film Production/Film Afrika
Credits:
Director: Bille August
Writers: Greg Latter, Bille August
Producers: Jean-Luc van Damme, Ilann Girard, Andro Steinborn
Executive producers: Kami Naghdi, Michael Dounaev, Jimmy de Brabant, Kwesi Dickson
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Tom Hannam
Music: Dario Marianelli, Johnny Clegg
Costume designer: Diana Cilliers
Editor: Herve Schneid
Cast:
James Gregory: Joseph Fiennes
Nelson Mandela: Dennis Haysbert
Gloria Gregory: Diane Kruger
Brent: Shiloh Henderson, Tyron Keogh
Natasha: Megan Smith, Jessica Manuel
Winnie Mandela: Faith Ndukwana
Zindzi Mandela: Terry Pheto
No MPAA rating, running time 119 minutes.
This French/German/Belgian/Italian/South African co-production will benefit from a continuing worldwide fascination with Mandela's story, even if he is only a supporting player here. Since the sincere but dramatically flaccid story doesn't pack much punch, theatrical engagements will be short.
Dennis Haysbert does manage to capture the dignity and steadfastness Mandela exhibited during his long ordeal. But he can only hint at the charisma and savvy that would change a white man's closed mind. Meanwhile, Joseph Fiennes as warden James Gregory is perhaps too smart for the fairly uneducated man he plays: He seems too sharp to be saying and doing many of the things he does.
Gregory's only ambition is to be an excellent prison warden, move up in the system and support a wife, Gloria (Diane Kruger), whose need for material goods and status knows no bounds.
He arrives with his wife and two children at the notorious Robben Island prison in 1968, where one quirk stands him in good stead. Growing up on a lonely farm where his only playmate was a black boy, Gregory became fluent in the Xhosa language. So a security czar assigns him to guard Mandela and his comrades so Gregory can be "a window into their soul -- if they have a soul."
The movie is pretty heavy-handed in the early going with all the whites spouting racist doggerel. Mrs. Gregory even gets to affirm that the separation of whites from blacks is "God's way."
But in the first half of the movie Mandela himself is little more than a rumor. From Gregory's brief encounters with him, remarkably, he starts to change his mind about apartheid. How does this happen? What does he see, or what Nelson tell him, that he doesn't already know about the racist white regime? That blacks are mistreated everywhere but especially in prison? That the government's labeling of all black activists as "communist" is pure cynical spin?
Mandela does tell him to go read the African National Congress' Freedom Charter, a document few whites have read since it is banned literature. But would that document really be such an eye-opener, especially since the ANC had by then abandoned its non-violent ways?
The film never gets to the heart of what it should be about -- the turning of a man's heart and mind. Instead, much time is taken up with petty jealousies and feuds within the white colony of penal authorities and their wives. And Mrs. Gregory is always good for a harangue to her husband about not jeopardizing the family's security by doing anything "foolish."
When a small kindness toward Mrs. Mandela (Faith Ndukwana) by Gregory gets blown out of proportion and his family's life becomes untenable on the island, he demands a transfer. Soon enough, Mandela also is transferred away from the island for fear he may be assassinated. Gregory is ordered to again act as his warden, a job that increasingly looks like that of a valet.
The second half of the movie brings the two men into more contact, yet nothing significant ever happens between them. Perhaps nothing ever did. Gregory, a man with some compassion after all, simply came to his senses when he saw that Nelson Mandela was no mad terrorist. Whatever the case, there is little here to justify a two-hour movie, even with some forced intrigue about threats to Gregory's children and a family tragedy that mirrors one of Mandela's own.
Production values are sharp as August crew makes good use of Robben Island and other actual locations where the story took place. But sentimentality and even sometimes triviality undermine this bizarre buddy film.
Goodbye Bafana
An X Filme Creative Pool in association with Arsam International/Banana Films with Future Films/Marmont Film Production/Film Afrika
Credits:
Director: Bille August
Writers: Greg Latter, Bille August
Producers: Jean-Luc van Damme, Ilann Girard, Andro Steinborn
Executive producers: Kami Naghdi, Michael Dounaev, Jimmy de Brabant, Kwesi Dickson
Director of photography: Robert Fraisse
Production designer: Tom Hannam
Music: Dario Marianelli, Johnny Clegg
Costume designer: Diana Cilliers
Editor: Herve Schneid
Cast:
James Gregory: Joseph Fiennes
Nelson Mandela: Dennis Haysbert
Gloria Gregory: Diane Kruger
Brent: Shiloh Henderson, Tyron Keogh
Natasha: Megan Smith, Jessica Manuel
Winnie Mandela: Faith Ndukwana
Zindzi Mandela: Terry Pheto
No MPAA rating, running time 119 minutes.
- 2/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
LONDON -- Luxembourg-based movie production and financing banner Thema Prods. said Wednesday that it has appointed former entertainment lawyer Kami Naghdi as managing director of a new London start-up operation and announced plans to open a studio facility in St. Petersburg, Russia. Naghdi also will be head of worldwide business development for the company, which comprises producers Michael Dounaev and Jimmy de Brabant. Dounaev and de Brabant have executive produced seven features since founding Thema in 2003, including Woody Allen's Match Point and the Helen Hunt starrer A Good Woman.
- 1/11/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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