K5 boards Groundswell’s Very Good Girls starring Dakota Fanning, Elizabeth Olsen

7-Feb-2012 | By Andreas Wiseman

EXCLUSIVE: K5 boards Naomi Foner directorial debut starring Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen [pictured].

Le Pacte to unveil Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone at Berlin

7-Feb-2012 | By Melanie Goodfellow

Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi returns behind the camera for first time in eight years after his award-winning Earth and Ashes.

Philip Seymour Hoffman in final talks for Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man

7-Feb-2012 | By Wendy Mitchell

FilmNation Entertainment handling international sales on the John le Carre adaptation.

• Goodwin joins UK production company Western Edge; busy slate includes golf, Dumas projects

• Chronicle flies into top spot at UK box office

• Soda's New British Cinema Quarterly gets BFI investment, launches 2012 slate

• HanWay takes on sales for Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir

• Kevin named best film at Evening Standard Awards

• French Critics Union honours The Minister

• Lena Headey to play lead in Gary Sinyor thriller The Unseen

• Amy Adams signs on for Object of Beauty

Maja Milos

By Wendy Mitchell

28-year-old Serbian writer-director Maja Milos’ debut feature Clip (Klip) has been the talk of Rotterdam. It was a polarising film drawing some praise and some outrage. “At least nobody is indifferent to the film,” Milos says.

Peter von Bagh

By Wendy Mitchell

The Finnish director talks about his Rotterdam retrospective, the privilege of bringing great directors to the Midnight Sun Film Festival, and how very local films can be universal.

Starry starry night

7-Feb-2012 | By Sarah Cooper

The BAFTAs, whicht takes place on Sunday, looks set to be awash with Hollywood stars.

Silence Is Golden

7-Feb-2012 | By Sarah Cooper

The Hippodrome Festival of Silent Cinema will be making the most of this year’s silent sensation The Artist to attract the crowds.

Target audience

By Wendy Mitchell

The viewing habits of UK film-goers go under the microscope in extensive new research carried out by Film3Sixty - with surprising findings about piracy, social media and theatrical windows.

The stage is set

By Mike Goodridge

EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros Studios Leavesden is set to become both a major production centre and a huge tourist attraction when it opens for business this year. Screen editor Mike Goodridge took an exclusive tour of the site and spoke to studio managing director Dan Dark and Warner Bros UK chief Josh Berger about the transformation of Leavesden into a world-class production facility for hire.

Austenland

By Wendy Mitchell

Twilight author Stephenie Meyer leaves the vampires behind to produce the UK-set Austenland, directed by Jerusha Hess [pictured] and adapted from Shannon Hale’s bestselling novel.

Hot projects on Screenbase

By Maria Sell

Among this week’s new additions are Walter Salles’ new film Terra, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, as well as Richard Ayoade’s follow up to Submarine.

Love Is In The Air

7-Feb-2012 | By Mike Goodridge

Dir: Simon Staho. Denmark. 2011. 84mins

Zarafa

7-Feb-2012 | By Lisa Nesselson

Dirs: Rémi Bezançon & Jean-Christophe Lie. France-Belgium. 2012. 78mins

• Company Orheim

• Deviation

Berlin festival buzz: Competition

By Screen staff

Screen writers profile the world premieres in Berlinale 2012 competition, including Christian Petzold’s Barbara [pictured].

• Berlin festival buzz: Panorama

• Berlin festival buzz: Other sections

Indie Shakedown

By Mike Goodridge

The news – not entirely unexpected – that Lionsgate had bought Summit Entertainment comes as good news in that the two companies will together create an independent powerhouse and as depressing news in that the business loses another buyer of material and movies and a key supplier to the international market.

Chronicle flies into top spot at UK box office

7-Feb-2012 | By Ian Sandwell

Fox’s sci-fi takes the reins from War Horse, which drops to 4th, over a snow-affected weekend in the UK; StudioCanal has DVD hit with Tinker Tailor.

• Ghost Protocol retains top spot over chilly int’l weekend

Rotterdam 2012 slideshow

By Wendy Mitchell

The International Film Festival Rotterdam, which opened Jan 25 and runs through Feb 5, celebrated its 41st anniversary this year with guests including Takashi Miike, Michel Gondry and Steve McQueen.