Berlin: U.K. Banner Altitude to Offer Bolshoi Ballet Doc to Buyers

LONDON – Nick Read‘s Bolshoi Babylon, a behind-the-scenes documentary about Russia’s famous dance institution, will be touted to buyers during this year’s EFM in Berlin.

U.K. banner Altitude Film Sales will represent the project.

Bolshoi was produced by Mark Franchetti with two-time Oscar winner Simon Chinn (Searching for Sugar Man, Man on Wire) serving as executive producer.

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Currently in production, the film pulls back the curtain to reveal the inner workings of the Bolshoi, recently the focus of intrigue, personal attacks and lurid headlines. Giving a voice to artists and company members who are not usually in the spotlight, the film combines intimate portraits with epic themes. Historical dramas will be counterpointed with the untold stories of agony and ecstasy that lie behind every acclaimed performance, according to the producers. 

Altitude Film Sales is also bringing two other fresh market titles to lure dealmakers, including Blood Mountain, with Benedict Cumberbatch attached to star.

Written by Jonathan W. Stokes and John Romano, the movie will be directed by Sergei Bodrov and follows a private military contractor whose Special Forces team is ambushed and killed during a covert raid, forcing him to personally escort one of the world’s most wanted terrorists over hostile terrain in order to bring him to justice.

Altitude will also tout Fishing Without Nets, winner of this year’s Sundance U.S. dramatic directing award, which marks the directorial feature debut of Cutter Hodierne, whose short film of the same name won the Sundance Special Jury Prize in 2012. 

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Fishing Without Nets comes from media powerhouse Vice and Think Media Studios and was shot in East Africa using Somali non-actors.

It tells the story of an oil tanker hijacking from the perspective of impoverished Somalis.

The trio of titles join a hefty slate for the sales arm of Altitude Film Entertainment. The U.K.-based vertically integrated film company was launched in 2012 by Will Clarke, who founded leading U.K. independent producer and distributor Optimum Releasing (now Studio Canal) with Andy Mayson.