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LONDON -- There is no such thing as a free lunch these days, but during last month's London Film Festival, industry delegates attending a new-look "meet the buyers" event came as close as you can to securing just that.

A speed-dating initiative was a first for the organizers -- who beaver away annually during the London Film Festival's 15 days -- to facilitate meet and greets for movie executives traveling to the British capital during the historic festival shindig.

This year's daylong event, held Oct. 24, formed the centerpiece for the newly embedded four-day industry screenings, which are held for buyers during the first working week of the festival.

London Film Festival industry development manager Nigel Cross said the event was set up to build on previous success "for movies seeking distribution deals" and "to further enhance the relationship between the festival and industryites alike."

After last year's quartet of days allocated to industry screeners, several titles were snapped up for U.K. distribution, including Man Push Cart, Quo Vadis Baby? and Heading South.

The event was backed by the London Development Agency and the mayor of London through Film London with, Cross says, "an emphasis on creating an environment conducive for buyers and sellers to do business."

Away from popping flashbulbs and the glitz and glamour of the festival's red carpet premieres and events, buyers were armed with a comprehensive guide to the movies available at the industry screenings.

Hawkhurst in Kent in the southeast of Britain is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of cinema pioneers. An unprepossessing crossroads of a village, it now hosts one of the few wholly digital cinemas in Britain. The Kino -- a 90-seat theater developed with the assistance of the U.K. Film Council -- was launched this month with a screening of Quo Vadis, Baby? attended by the movie's producer, director, writer and star. The conversion of the former village hall into a state-of-the-art cinema is the work of partners Paul Corcoran and Helen Jones, who came to the U.K. six years ago from Melbourne, Australia, and were astonished about how difficult it was to find a cinema in the southeast. "A lot of people have relocated down here from London," Jones says. "It's not a university town, where a cinema like this would traditionally go, but I think there are a lot of people maybe 10 or 15 years out of uni that miss some of their urban lifestyle, and down here there was nothing to replace that."...

Hawkhurst in Kent in the southeast of Britain is not the first place that comes to mind when you think of cinema pioneers. An unprepossessing crossroads of a village, it now hosts one of the few wholly digital cinemas in Britain. The Kino -- a 90-seat theater developed with the assistance of the U.K. Film Council -- was launched this month with a screening of Quo Vadis, Baby? attended by the movie's producer, director, writer and star. The conversion of the former village hall into a state-of-the-art cinema is the work of partners Paul Corcoran and Helen Jones, who came to the U.K. six years ago from Melbourne, Australia, and were astonished about how difficult it was to find a cinema in the southeast. "A lot of people have relocated down here from London," Jones says. "It's not a university town, where a cinema like this would traditionally go, but I think there are a lot of people maybe 10 or 15 years out of uni that miss some of their urban lifestyle, and down here there was nothing to replace that."...

ROME -- Italian director Gabriele Salvatores has optioned rights to the novel La Scala di Dionisio (Dionysus' Staircase) by Italian author Luca di Fulvio for his next project. Described by Salvatores (Mediterraneo, Nirvana) and producing partner Maurizio Totti of Colorado Films as a period sci-fi thriller in the vein of Blade Runner, the story is set in London on New Year's Eve 1899. Investigator Germinal Milton, while battling his own chemical dependencies, is called into action on the eve of the millennium after a serial killer unleashes his instincts on the wives of a number of rich businessmen. The novel was published by Mondadori and Colorado Noir, the publishing arm of Colorado films, and will be adapted by Salvatores and Carla Vangelista. Salvatores' most recent project, Quo Vadis Baby?, has earned €1.7 million ($2 million) and has been in the top 10 at the Italian boxoffice since its release six weeks ago. No casting has been set for the film, which will be shot in English. Totti said he is eyeing a budget of €30 million ($36 million).

ROME -- A protracted boxoffice slump is threatening Italian distributors' plans to finally turn around their fortunes during the summer movie-going months. For many distributors eyeing this past weekend as the first benchmark in an elongated Italian summer boxoffice season, there was some good news and some bad news. The good news was that a marquee Italian film -- Quo Vadis Baby? from Gabriele Salvatores -- defied naysayers by finishing second for the weekend behind Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. The bad news was that Quo Vadis earned a modest $415,000, failing to reverse an ongoing boxoffice slump. In May, total Italian boxoffice receipts slipped 35% from the same period last year, while boxoffice for the first five months of 2005 are down 14% from the same period last year, according to boxoffice tracking agency Cinetel.