Magnolia and Madman Pre-Buy THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS and A ROYAL AFFAIR

Magnolia Pictures and Madman Pre-Buy 
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER and  
A ROYAL AFFAIR in North America and Australia/New Zealand

The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures and Madman announced today they have respectively pre-bought North American and Australia/New Zealand rights to two high profile films from TrustNordisk and Zentropa Entertainment: the just announced and hugely anticipated Lars von Trier and Martin Scorsese collaboration, THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER, and the sweeping historical drama, A ROYAL AFFAIR.

Martin Scorsese subjecting himself to Lars Von Trier’s challenge was one of the biggest announcements out of Cannes this year. THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER follows in the footsteps of The Five Obstructions, Trier’s landmark 2003 documentary collaboration with Jørgen Leth, wherein von Trier challenged Leth to remake his 1967 short film The Perfect Human five times, with an increasingly difficult set of strict rules, or obstructions, that he had to follow. Slated to be finished in 2013, THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS: SCORSESE VS TRIER is a co-production between Scorsese’s Sikelia Productions and Trier and Peter Aalbaek Jensen’s Zentropa Real.

Magnolia and Madman are distributers of Trier’s gorgeous Melancholia, which debuted with much fanfare today at Cannes, and will be released later this year.

Currently in production, A ROYAL AFFAIR is an 18th century historical drama four years in the making, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Alicia Vikander. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, screenwriter of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the film is an epic romance about the love triangle between a German doctor, the queen of Denmark, and her deranged king. The film was produced by Meta Louise Foldager (Melancholia) and Sisse Graum Jørgensen (In a Better World) for Zentropa Entertainments.

“The Five Obstructions is one of my all time favorite films, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what these two masters concoct together for this next installment,” said Magnolia SVP Tom Quinn. “After being blown away by Melancholia here in Cannes, the opportunity to work with Lars Von Trier again is a dream come true. Together with A ROYAL AFFAIR, we are so happy to continue our wonderful relationship with TrustNordisk and Zentropa.”

“Strengthening long standing bonds over a legendary dinner. Madman looks to the future and sees no obstructions boarding Lars Vs Martin. There is a lot of mutual love to champion maverick film makers,” said Paul Wiegard, MD Madman Entertainment
CEO of TrustNordisk Rikke Ennis about the deals: “We did it again. We are so proud of working on these amazing films with our good friends from Magnolia and Madman. After a long and inspiring night with brainstorming on ideas for releases, we are confident that the films will be handled like little babies.”

The deals were done by Magnolia’s Tom Quinn and Eamonn Bowles, Madman’s Paul Wiegard and Nick Batzias, with Susan Wendt and Rikke Ennis for TrustNordisk.

The Five Obstructions Scorsese Vs. Trier Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Five-Obstructions-Scorsese-Vs-Trier/131697130238750

A Royal Affair Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Royal-Affair/103331793089486

About Magnolia Pictures

Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com ) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the Landmark Theatres chain, and the high definition cable network HDNet. Magnolia’s upcoming releases include Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia, Andrew Rossi’s New York Times Documentary Page One, Mark Pellington’s I Melt With You, Alex Gibney’s Ken Kesey documentary Magic Trip, gospel documentary Rejoice and Shout, Blackthorn starring Sam Shepard, French thriller Point Blank, rakontur’s Limelight, David Gelb’s Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Anne Sewitsky’s Happy, Happy, Jo Nesbo’s Headhunters, and many more.

About Madman

Madman Entertainment (www.madman.com.au ) is a leading ‘all rights’ management company operating throughout Australia and New Zealand territory. Founded by Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard, Madman is wholly owned by Funtastic LTD, an Australian stock exchange (ASX) listed company and one of Australia’s largest children’s product distributors. Current successes in release include Animal Kingdom, Sarah’s Key, Exit Through The Gift Shop and Brighton Rock.Upcoming releases include Critics Week entry ‘Snowtown’, The Hunter starring Willem Dafoe, Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip, Richard Ayote’s Submarine, ‘The Forgiveness of Blood’ and documentary ‘Buck’.

About TrustNordisk

With over 35 years of expertise and know-how in international film sale, TrustNordisk market and sell feature films and TV-series worldwide. Representing one of the largest film catalogues in Europe – a feature film catalogue of more than 600 films from highly acclaimed directors such as Lars von Trier, Susanne Bier, Thomas Vinterberg, Lone Scherfig, Lukas Moodysson, Daniél Espinosa, Jan Troell and David Mackenzie – their genres range from animation to crime, from drama to family and they collaborate with both large production companies as well as independent producers within all of Europe on both niche-specialized auteur-titles, which travel as prizewinning festival darlings and big-budgeted crime-blockbusters based on bestsellers from authors such as Jo Nesbø, Camilla Läckberg and Jussi Adler-Olsen amongst others. TrustNordisk is represented at all major film festivals and markets world-wide and are represented globally on several online platforms including iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, indieMoviesOnline.com, Mubi.com as well as on the newly launched VOD channel zentropaondemand.com.