Jean-Pierre Jeunet

[MacGuffin]

SPC gets Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 'Micmacs'
Distrib inks deal for U.S., Latin American rights
Source: Variety

Sony Pictures Classics has picked up U.S. and Latin American rights to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest fantasy epic, "Micmacs," for just north of $1 million.

The comedic ensembler stars French phenom Dany Boon, whose "Welcome to the Sticks" rocked the Gallic box office last year. Longtime Jeunet collaborators Dominique Pinon, Andre Dussollier and Yolande Moreau also star.

Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant co-wrote the script, about a videostore clerk with a bullet lodged in his brain who, with a group of outsiders, plans to take down a weapons manufacturer.

Pic was produced by Jeunet's Tapioca Films and Frederic Brillion and Gilles Legrand of Epithete Films.

The Warner Bros. France co-production had at one point been presumed to go to Warners in the U.S., where Jeunet released his previous film ("A Very Long Engagement") via Warner Independent Pictures. With that label's shuttering, the film remained up for grabs.

A "Micmacs" promo was unveiled at the Cannes Market in May, but buyers have not seen the completed film, which is repped by Paris-based TF1 Intl.

The deal reps a reunion for Jeunet and SPC. The Sony specialty division distributed Jeunet's 1995 surreal adventure "The City of Lost Children."

Jeunet's "Amelie," released by Miramax in 2001, was nominated for five Oscars, including a writing nod for Jeunet and Laurant.

"Micmacs" premieres in Toronto on Sept. 15.

[MacGuffin]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Next Film To Be 3D, English Language Adaptation Of 'The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet'
Source: Playlist

It has been a couple of years now since "Micmacs," the last film from "Amelie" director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and as he generally takes a few years between pictures, now is about the time for the helmer to start gearing up make another. Over the summer it was revealed that the helmer had acquired the rights to two books for possible future projects: Reif Larsen's 2009 novel "The Selected Works Of T.S. Spivet" and Thomas H. Cook's crime tome "Red Leaves." It was assumed the former would go in front of cameras first, and indeed that is the case and few more details have arrived today about the project.

French film site Allocine (via HeyUGuys) reports that next summer, Jeunet will get to work on "The Selected Works Of T.S. Spivet" and it will find the director bringing his distinct visual eye to the 3D format for the first time, and making his first English language movie since "Alien: Resurrection" in 1997. Pretty exciting stuff indeed.

Co-written with his "Amelie" co-writer Guillaume Laurant, 'Spivet' revolves around a 12-year-old cartography enthusiast in an eccentric family, who travels across country hidden on board a freight train after being invited to the Smithsonian Institute. So yes, it's right in Jeunet's typically fantastical wheelhouse. But as he reveals, Larsen only had a select and high profile few directors in mind to make a movie out of his book, and luckily for Jeunet, he was the first one to give him a ring.

"When I contacted the author, he said that there were five directors with whom he wanted to make the film: David Fincher, Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Michel Gondry and myself. I was the first to contact him. Since then, we haven't stopped working," Jeunet said. And we presume those names are a good indicator of the kind of tone the illustration rich material has. We're definitely always excited to see what Jeunet conjures up next, and this certainly has all the usual whimsical ingredients the director works with.

Lensing will take place in Canada next summer with Gaumont slated to distribute the movie in France. More details to come as the production gears up.

[Reel]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Next Film To Be English Language Adaptation Of 'The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet'

Finally a break from reading.

[Mel]

The Young and Prodigious Spivet is in post right now, you can find some photos from shooting here: http://www.jpjeunet.com/GB/news-about-ts/

I won't copy every image over here, just one with Dominique Pinon to prove it isn't fake.