The Irish also were out in force on Sunday for the Cannes reception hosted by the Film Institute of Ireland, the Irish Film Board and MEDIADesk Ireland at the Jameson Club in the Festival Palais. None of the guests could have been happier than the Treasure Films team of producer Rob Walpole and director Paddy Breathnach who, an hour earlier, had signed a first-look deal with the high-profile US company, Fine Line Features. Just as pleased was Justin Moore-Lewy, the Dublin-based ICM agent who brokered the deal.
"It gives Fine Line the first crack at anything we develop over the next two years," Breathnach explained. "We had been talking to some other companies about a similar deal, but Fine Line came on very strong to do it and suddenly, it just happened."
Treasure's first project under the deal is likely to be The Chosen Few, Joe O'Connor's adaptation of his own novel, Cowboys And Indians. The story has "changed hugely" from the book, said Rob Walpole, who hopes the film will be shot in Dublin and London from October.
Meanwhile, Treasure's I Went Down, a hit at the Irish box-office last year, is set to open at 120 American cinemas on June 19th.
Film Institute of Ireland director Sheila Pratschke was deep in conversation with Mary Lee Brady from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which is planning a major month-long retrospective of Irish cinema in the autumn of 1999. MEDIA Desk chief executive Siobhan O'Donoghue was busy planning a Cannes meeting of 40 producers from Ireland and Spain as part of a joint effort to cement co-productions. Film Board chief executive Rod Stoneman was discussing the significant Irish presence at Cannes this year, in and out of competition. And Little Bird Films supremo James Mitchell was beaming now that Kevin Spacey has signed to star in the Dublin crime drama, Ordinary Decent Criminal, written by Gerry Stembridge and to be directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan.
Also beaming were producers Marina Hughes and Anna Devlin who have another Stembridge project set to roll this year - All About Adam, written and to be directed by the prolific Stembridge. And producer Nicholas O'Neill was feeling gratified by the Cannes response to his Dublin-set feature, Hooligans, unveiled in the festival market earlier that day.
The American Pavilion at Cannes held an "unhappy hour" to mark death of Frank Sinatra, featuring the singer's favourite tipple, martinis, at 25 francs each while Sinatra classics played.