Film New Roundup: Animated Movie ‘The Queen’s Corgi’ Fetches North American Distribution

In today’s film news roundup, “The Queen’s Corgi” finds a home, the Overlook Film Festival is postponed and the California Film Commission adjusts its tax credit rules due to the coronavirus.

ACQUISITION

Freestyle Digital Media has acquired North American rights to the animated family comedy feature “The Queen’s Corgi,” and plans to make it available on DVD and to rent and own on digital platforms on April 21.

“The Queen’s Corgi” centers on the monarch’s favorite dog, Rex, who lives a life of luxury in Buckingham Palace before he gets lost from the palace and winds up in a London dog’s home surrounded by tough strays.

Directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen, “The Queen’s Corgi” features the voices of Leo Barakat as Rex, Jo Wyatt and Dino Andrade. The script was written by Rob Sprackling and Johnny Smith and produced by Stassen.

Caleb Ward, director of acquisitions for Freestyle Digital Media, negotiated the deal with Alejandro Leda of Ledafilms Entertainment Group.

FILM FESTIVAL 

The Overlook Film Festival has postponed the horror-themed event in New Orleans due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“While we were hoping to celebrate and share our love for all things horror together this May, we all need to do our part of slowing down community spread of the virus,” the festival team said Friday. “We’ve been working nonstop to create a variety of memorable events and screenings, but health has to come first. As a community-driven summer camp for horror fans, the safety and well-being of our guests, filmmakers, artists, industry, fans and team are the most important part of our annual gathering.”

The team made the announcement Friday and it was closely monitoring all developments in order to determine when it will be feasible and responsible to hold the event this calendar year, adding, “During this delay, we are continuing to actively evaluate submissions for all film and live programming so that we can put on the best possible fest as soon as we can.”

CREDITS

The California Film Commission has announced that recipients of tax credit allocations will be able to get an extension of the timeline requirements.

“The impact of Covid-19 on tax credit productions is considered a force majeure situation,” the commission said Friday. “Approved tax credit applicants impacted by the pandemic in a way that affects their ability to satisfy timeline requirements are eligible to submit a force majeure request.”

The program, which covers up to 25% of production costs, generally requires recipients to start production within 180 days of receiving the allocation.

“When authorities declare resumption of non-essential activities, the CFC will issue a notice for tax credit productions to assess their timelines and contact the CFC within four weeks.” the commission said. “If approved productions fail to contact the CFC within that four-week period, the CFC will assume the production is not moving forward and will remove project from the queue.”

Recent feature productions receiving allocations include Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” Warner Bros.’ remake of “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Rescue Rangers” and “Dear Evan Hansen.” TV shows named in December included “The Dropout” (Searchlight TV), “Grease” (Paramount), “Nine Perfect Strangers” (Endeavor Content) starring and executive produced by Nicole Kidman, and an untitled Showtime Lakers project from executive producer Adam McKay.

Popular on Variety

Source: Read Full Article