For two years running, the director/actor team of helmer Bora Dagtekin and star Elyas M’Barek has topped the German charts with politically incorrect comedies. Their follow up to 2012 hit Turkish for Beginners was the schooldays laffer Fack Ju Gohte that opened in November and was closing in on a $50 million gross just as German school kids take off for the Christmas holidays.
German school days comedy Suck Me Shakespeer — already one of the most commercially successful German films of all time — is racking up international sales as well with world sales outfit Picture Tree International announcing multiple deals.
Picture Tree signed agreements for Suck Me Shakespeer with Ocean Film in France, Sejong in South Korea and Cinemart for the Czech Republic and Slovakia following the screening of the title at Berlin’s European Film Market last month.
The Bora Dagtekin-directed feature, starring Elyas M’Barek and Karoline Herfurth, has sold more than 7 million tickets in Germany since its release late last year. In Germany and Austria, the film has earned upwards of $76 million. It will have its North American premiere this week at the Miami International Film Festival (March 7-16) and will bow in Asia later this month at the Okinawa International Movie Festival in Japan (March 20-24).
Picture Tree also closed a trio of U.S. deals, selling German drama West from director Christian Schwochow to Mainstreet Films for North America, the Icelandic heavy-metal drama Metalhead to PTI for the U.S., and period drama Mary Queen of Scots to Mousetrap/Festival Flix for domestic distribution.
Metrodome picked up Mary Queen of Scots for the U.K., with HBO Central Europe taking regional rights to the drama, directed by Switzerland’s Thomas Imbach, and HBO Niederlande picking up Dutch rights. West also went for the U.K. (New Wave), France (Sophie Dulac), Spain (Savor Ediciones) and South Korea (Mediasoft). Madman picked up Metalhead for Australia/New Zealand.