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Netflix’s “The Leopard” is gaining global traction with viewers just as the streaming giant is taking the sumptuous Sicilian series on a tour involving gala presentations in Italian embassies and other institutions in Washington D.C., London, Berlin, Brussels and other world capitals.

The high-end show, based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, dropped on Netflix March 5. In its first five days, “The Leopard” scored more than 3 million views worldwide and landed in the streamer’s Top 10 in over 30 countries including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, Mexico and Spain — in addition to Italy, where “The Leopard” rapidly shot to No. 1, Netflix said on Wednesday.

Following a glitzy March 3 Rome launch with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre, the lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” – has been unveiled, in part, at a slew of hosted events...

Netflix pulled out all the stops as it unveiled its hotly anticipated limited series “The Leopard,” based on the classic Sicily-set novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which marks the streamer’s biggest splash in Italy thus far.

On Tuesday, Netflix held a packed press conference in the frescoed ballroom of Rome’s central Hotel Plaza, which was also used to film one of the show’s key scenes. “The Leopard” will formally premiere in Rome on March 3 with a black-tie gala held in the Eternal City’s Opera Theatre before dropping globally on March 5.

The lavish historical tapestry — with elements comparable to “Downton Abbey” or “The Crown” and potential to make a global mark — is a modern take on the sensual Sicilian saga famously adapted into a film by Luchino Visconti starring Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. The film, now an Italian cinema classic, won the 1963 Palme...

The classic Gaston Leroux novel The Phantom of the Opera has been adapted countless times over the years – even Robert Englund played the Phantom back in the 1980s! – and it seems yet another adaptation is on the way. This one hails out of France, Deadline reports.

Alexandre Castagnetti is directing the French-language version of The Phantom of the Opera, which is said to be “aimed at a young adult audience and taking its cue from the Twilight franchise.”

Deva Cassel (The Leopard), Julien De Saint Jean (The Count Of Monte Cristo) and Romain Duris (Heartbreaker) are attached to star in the $20 million French production.

Deadline notes in today’s report, “Filming will begin this summer at the world famous Palais Garnier opera house, or Opéra Garnier, in Paris, against the backdrop of its theatre, backstage areas, domed roof and subterranean vaulted cistern, sometimes referred to as its lake.”

Here’s...

Exclusive: Deva Cassel (Netflix’s The Leopard), Julien De Saint Jean (The Count Of Monte Cristo) and Romain Duris (Heartbreaker) are set to co-star in a contemporary, French-language version of Gaston Leroux’s classic Paris-set novel The Phantom of the Opera, aimed at a young adult audience and taking its cue from the Twilight franchise.

Snd, the film production, distribution and sales arm of French commercial free-to-air broadcaster M6, is co-producing and selling the ambitious project and will launch pre-sales at the EFM with a sizzle.

Alexandre Castagnetti is set to direct from a screenplay co-written with Camille Fontaine ( Coco Before Chanel).

Opéra Garnier

Filming will begin this summer at the world famous Palais Garnier opera house, or Opéra Garnier, in Paris, against the backdrop of its theatre, backstage areas, domed roof and subterranean vaulted cistern, sometimes referred to as its lake.

Her | The Lego Movie | Bastards | The Monuments Men | Cuban Fury | 8 Minutes Idle | Love Is In The Air | Endless Love | Bette Bourne: It Goes With The Shoes

Her (15)

(Spike Jonze, 2013, Us) Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara. 126 mins

Technophilia will only get you so far, Jonze's near-future parable suggests, as it engineers a blind date between a lonely man and a sentient operating system with no concept of privacy settings – and finds both partners wanting. More successful is the marriage of sci-fi and romantic drama: the focus is more on the heart than the hardware in this soulful, often sorrowful movie.

The Lego Movie (U)

(Phil Lord, 2014, Us) Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett. 100 mins

Using pop-culture humour and star voices to overcome blatant product placement, this canny, rapid-fire comedy adventure is like a Matrix parody rendered in CGI plastic bricks.

Bastards (18)

(Claire Denis, 2013, Fra/Ger) Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni.

Title: Love Is In the Air Director: Alexandre Castagnetti Starring: Ludivine Sagnier, Nicolas Bedos, Jonathan Cohen, Arnaud Ducret, Brigitte Catillon From the opening jazzy riffs of musical accompaniment to “Love Is In the Air,” about bluebirds and the spring, it’s clear that director Alexandre Castagnetti’s French import is going to be a cinematic approximation of lives less ordinary. And so it is. Its story treads well-worn ground, certainly, but this robust exercise in romantic comedy formula has such pleasing, engaging performances and such a breezy, deft touch with push-and-pull gender dynamics that it escapes the over-determined nature of its final reel and by and large trumps most like-minded American product. The film centers around lothario [ Read More ]

The post Love Is In the Air Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Putting things into categories has become part of a category in itself but, for lack of a better introduction to this review, humour us for a second. There's two kinds of romantic comedies in this world. There are those that consciously avoid the trappings of rom-com conventions in order to say something different, and the second consciously uses those traps in order to concentrate more on entertaining. While they both have the thematic common denominator of love, and the means of romance and comedy are similar, the ends are completely different. The former's primary concern is a genuine approach to the complexities of relationships without the crutch of sentimentality. The latter's primary concern is to simply have a good time; sit back, relax, turn off the world around you for an hour and a half and just get lost in a fairytale. Alexandre Castagnetti's “Love Is In The Air” takes off,...

Pressurized: Sagnier and Co. in a Charming Rom-Com Straitjacket

For his first solo film as director, Alexandre Castagnetti nabbed the talented Ludivine Sagnier to headline his romantic comedy, Love is in the Air (or Amour & Turbulences as it’s known in its native tongue), and it’s an entertaining enough showcase for the star who we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in darker roles where she’s terrorized at the hands of Ozon, or singing poppy confections in Christophe Honore’s films. Here she’s the protagonist in what feels like a very Americanized, situation dictated farce about love, thankfully less strained than many Western counterparts (though the six credits in the screenplay seem unnecessary considering the little lolly this ends up being).

A moderately successful sculptor, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) is about to leave New York and return to Paris after a demure exhibit. A stroke of good luck has...

Awash in cliches, flashbacks, and montages, Love Is In The Air (Amour et Turbulences) subscribes to the exhausted yet still popular notion that for everyone there is but one true love. It must be fate, therefore, that seats Antoine (Nicolas Bedos) next to Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) on a trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. Once upon a time, they loved each other, and then they broke up. Now, with the clock ticking, Antoine and Julie have six hours to relive their great romance, rekindle the sparks, and work through all the thorny issues that divided them, to the amusement of fellow passengers and one disapproving flight attendant. Six people, including director Alexandre Castagnetti and leading man Bedos, are credited with adaptation and dialogue, with...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Since cameras were first able to capture sound and images, Paris has provided the backdrop for countless tales of love, with the eternally romantic city always managing to find another couple falling hopelessly for each other. And that's just what happens to Ludivine Sagnier and Nicolas Bedos in "Love Is In The Air." The pair of actors play the soon-to-be-married Julie and playboy Antoine, who broke up three years earlier, but find themselves seated next to each other on a first class flight to Paris. Director Alexandre Castagnetti's film then jumps back in time, recounting their love affair in this romantic comedy tinged with a Gallic flavor. And in this exclusive scene, we see circumstances and charm bring the pair together, as they dash off spontaneously to the Eiffel Tower. "Love Is In The Air" opens in limited release January 31st, and hits VOD on February 11th, just in time for Valentine's Day.

Love Is in the Air was made in France, but even the most isolated American moviegoer would likely find it familiar.

If this rom-com's setting and structure superficially recall Almodóvar's I'm So Excited!, director Alexandre Castagnetti's eyes are obviously set toward Hollywood inspirations.

The film all but begs for a remake starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. On a six-hour flight from New York to Paris, estranged lovers Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) and Antoine (Nicolas Bedos) meet for the first time in three years. Assigned seats next to each other, they can't help but rehash the ups and downs of their turbulent relationship, even though Julie is pregnant and about to m...

European Film Promotion has special programs highlighting talent in Berlin (Shooting Stars), a Producer Lab in Toronto, 10 Directors to Watch at Karlovy Vary, European Directors at Busan and a great networking party at Afm. For 14 years Efp has hosted Producers on the Move in Cannes. This year 29 producers from 29 different European countries will take part in the event from 18 to 21 May, 2013. The Republic of Kosovo* and Montenegro will both be represented for the first time this year with a producer. These are the producers who set the ball rolling on projects, forge coalitions and conjure up a film out of an idea. Film producers are increasingly looking past their national borders. In order to facilitate an exchange with similarly ambitious colleagues from other European countries and showcase their range of achievements, European Film Promotion (Efp) offers a platform for networking to carefully selected producers. 12 of the 29 producers are women ♀.

Looking back at the 2012 edition of Producers on the Move, almost all of the producers are still in contact with one another to follow up on ideas. 17 from last year's 25 participants (68%) are already working on 15 co-productions.

The group of former participants includes such internationally known and award-winning producers as Ada Solomon from Romania (Child's Pose), Bettina Brokemper from Germany (Bal), Louise Vesth from Denmark (Melancholia) and Siniša Juričić from Croatia (Sofia’s Last Ambulance).

Scheduled during the Cannes International Film Festival, the program provides its participants with an additional visibility they get at this melting pot for filmmakers, sales agents, financiers and the international media. Producers On The Move's schedule with pitching sessions, one-on-one speed-dating meetings and various opportunities to build up business relationships and to exchange knowledge enables the selected filmmakers to return home with advanced film projects and, sometimes, with a co-production deal. At the Producers' Lunch, they can, moreover, get in contact with participants from previous years.

The participants have already realized joint European film projects which were noticed on the international radar, but they still are on their way to becoming international players. Many of them produced feature films as well as documentaries, and some are additionally active in the field of animation films.

For the fourth time, Efp will be cooperating for Producers On The Move with the pan-European co-production fund Eurimages.

The following producers were selected by Efp member organizations from their respective countries:

Belgium

Anton Iffland Stettner, Need Productions

i.e. Home by Ursula Meier ♀

selected by Wallonie Bruxelles Image

Bulgaria

Konstantin Bojanov, Argentum Lux Films

i.e. Avé by Konstantin Bojanov

selected by the Bulgarian National Film Centre

Croatia

Zdenka Gold, ♀ Spiritus Movens Production

i.e. A Stranger by Bobo Jelčić

selected by the Croatian Audiovisual Centre

Czech Republic

Viktor Tauš, Fog’n’Desire Films

i.e. House by Zuzana Liová

selected by the Czech Film Center

Denmark

Mikael Chr. Rieks, Nordisk Film Production

i.e. A Funny Man by Martin Zandvliet

selected by The Danish Film Institute

Estonia

Kiur Aarma, Traumfabrik

i.e. Disco & Atomic War by Jaak Kilmi & Kiur Aarma

selected by Baltic Films

Finland

Jussi Rantamäki, Aamu Filmcompany

i.e. The Painting Sellers by Juho Kuosmanen

selected by the Finnish Film Foundation

France

Mathieu Robinet, Révérence

i.e. Love is in the Air by Alexandre Castagnetti

selected by Unifrance films

Georgia

Zaza Rusadze, Zazarfilm

i.e. A Fold in my Blanket by Zaza Rusadze

selected by the Georgian National Film Center

Germany

Jochen Laube, teamWorx Ludwigsburg

i.e. Five Years by Stefan Schaller

selected by German Films

Greece

Giorgos Karnavas, Heretic

i.e. Boy Eating The Bird’s Food by Ektoras Lygizos

selected by the Greek Film Centre

Hungary

Andrea Taschler, ♀ Mirage Film Studio

i.e. Bibliothèque Pascal by Szabolcs Hajdu

selected by Magyar Filmunió / Hungarian National Film Fund

Iceland

Thorkell Hardarson, Markell Productions

i.e. Feathered Cocaine by Thorkell Hardarson & Örn Marinó Arnarson

selected by the Icelandic Fim Centre

Ireland

Conor Barry, Sp Films

i.e. Love Eternal by Brendan Muldowney

selected by the Irish Film Board

Italy

Viola Prestieri, Buena Onda

i.e. The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino ♀

selected by Istituto Luce Cinecittà

Republic of Kosovo*

Valon Jakupaj, Gegnia Film

i.e. Adventures of Santa Clause by Valon Jakupaj

selected by the Kosova Cinematography Center

Luxembourg

Gilles Chanial, Red Lion

i.e. Le goût des myrtilles by Thomas de Thier

selected by Film Fund Luxembourg

Fyr of Macedonia

Labina Mitevska, ♀ Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production

i.e. The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears by Teona Mitevska ♀

selected by Macedonian Film Fund

Montenegro

Sehad Čekić, Cut-Up Production

i.e. The Ascent by Neminja Becanovic

selected by the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro

The Netherlands

Marleen Slot, ♀ Viking Film

i.e. Zurich by Sacha Polak ♀

selected by Eye International / Netherlands

Norway

Hans-Jørgen Osnes, Motlys

i.e. Oslo, August 31st by Joachim Trier

selected by the Norwegian Film Institute

Poland

Agnieszka Kurzydło, ♀ MD 4

i.e. In The Name Of by Małgośka Szumowska ♀

selected by the Polish Film Institute

Portugal

João Matos, Terratreme filmes

i.e. Lacrau by João Vladimiro

selected by Ica I.P. / Portugal

Romania

Anca Puiu, ♀ Mandragora

i.e. Rocker by Marian Crisan ♀

selected by the Romanian Film Promotion

Slovak Republic

Mira Fornay, ♀ Mirafox

i.e. My Dog Killer by Mira Fornay ♀

selected by Slovak Film Institute

Spain

María Zamora, ♀ Avalon P.C.

i.e. Todos están muertos by Beatriz Sanchis ♀

selected by Icaa / Spain

Sweden

Erika Wasserman, ♀ Idyll

i.e. Avalon by Axel Petersén

selected by the Swedish Film Institute

Switzerland

Joëlle Bertossa, ♀ Close Up Film

i.e. Body by Halima Ouardiri ♀

selected by Swiss Films

United Kingdom

Andrea Cornwell, ♀ Lobo Films Ltd

i.e. The Last Days On Mars by Ruairi Robinson ♀

selected by the British Council...