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Richard E. Grant bags guest role in ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ retelling

Withnail & I star Richard E. Grant has joined Disney+’s live-action drama Nautilus, with Muki Zubis (This is Going to Hurt) Benedict Hardie (The Luminaries), Jacob Collins Levy (Young Wallander) and Luke Arnold (Black Sails) also signing up to the cast. The show, from Moonriver TV and Seven Stories, is currently shooting at Village Roadshow Studios in Queensland, Australia. The show tells Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from the point of view of Indian prince Captain Nemo (Shazad Latif) for the first time. Grant will guest star as the leader of Karajaan, a port town Nemo and his crew encounter on their adventures.

Vue International appoints Chief Operating Officer

Privately-held European cinema operator Vue International has hired Claire Arksey as Chief Operating Officer. She joins from clothing store Urban Outfitters, where she was responsible for 269 standalone stores across 14 countries.

The film is based on the writer-director’s own novel.

Michael Cowan’s UK-based sales company Phoenix Worldwide Entertainment has acquired international rights, excluding Poland and Italy, to Lech Majewski’s Brigitte Bardot Forever.

Phoenix will introduce the Polish title to international buyers in Cannes as well as festival programmers.

Majewski, whose credits include The Garden of Earthly Delights andThe Mill and the Cross, based the film on his own novel Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Brigitte Bardot the Wonderful, in which he settles accounts with his youth, childhood, and all that Poland meant to him.

Set in mid-century communist Poland,...

Private market screening at the Tiff Bell Lightbox on Monday.

Paris-based Wide Management has picked up sales rights to Polish auteur Lech Majewski’s fantasy drama Valley Of The Gods starring Josh Hartnett and John Malkovich, and kicks off talks with buyers in Toronto this week.

Loïc Magneron’s sales company will host a private market screening at the Tiff Bell Lightbox on Monday (September 9). Wide holds worldwide rights excluding Middle East, Scandinavia, and former Yugoslavia, and represents North America with producers Angelus Silesius and Royal Road Entertainment.

Wide previously handled sales on Majewski’s The Mill And The Cross starring the late Rutger Hauer,...

Lech Majewski’s sci-fi epic also adds John Rhys-Davies to cast.

Charlotte Rampling and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring) have been cast alongside Josh Hartnett in Lech Majewski’s Valley Of The Gods, which Fortissimo Films is pre-selling at the Efm.

The sci-fi epic intertwines the story of the richest man on earth, an ancient Najavo legend and a writer, John Ecas (Hartnett), who has the ability to alter reality and launches the narrative into the realms of fantasy. Additional casting is expected to be announced in the lead up to principal photography.

The film is produced by Royal Road Entertainment’s Filip Jan Rymsza and Carla Rosen-Vacher and The Safran Company’s Peter Safran and Angelus Silesius. Los Angeles and Luxembourg-based Royal Road also produced Karim Aïnouz’s The Beauty Of Sharks and is currently completing Orson Welles’ last film, The Other Side Of The Wind.

Rampling, who has...

Principal photography is set to commence this summer on the fantasy sci-fi.

Lech Majewski is to direct Valley of the Gods for Angelus Silesius, Royal Road Entertainment and The Safran Company.

Principal photography on the fantasy sci-fi is set to commence this summer in Poland, Italy and Utah.

Produced by Filip Jan Rymsza for Royal Road Entertainment and Majewski for Angelus Silesius, the film entwines Navajo lore with a reclusive trillionaire and his would-be biographer.

Royal Road’s Carla Rosen-Vacher is co-producing, with financing being provided by the Polish Film Institute.

Majewski’s The Mill and the Cross, starring Rutger Hauer, premiered at Sundance in 2011.