In a strategic move to secure new cash to allow its company to continue to grow internationally, CIBY 2000's President and CEO Jean-François Fonlupt said he is negotiating an alliance with a US partner.
Fonlupt's announcement follows French construction group Bouygues' - currently sole owner of the company - decision to reallocate investments to telecommunications. He has been spending the past few months bringing in minority shareholders.
CIBY is now in talks with a company described as a 'representative of the Mecca of cinema' because of their 'complementarity in terms of products and geographical situation'.
Although he did not wish to give the name before the official announcement just prior to Cannes, Fonlupt stated: 'I do not see how we can continue our development without an alliance with a US partner.'
An alliance with a US partner involved both in production and distribution could also ease the pressure on sister company Ciby Sales to find most of the financing of their films through pre-sales.
Ciby 2000 continues to ride on the wave of success of Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, which has been nominated for five Oscars including best film and has made close to US$40 million worldwide to date. For Fonlupt, Secrets and Lies is 'a new example of Ciby's ability to make quality projects that can, at the same time, be profitable. This is also the case with David Lynch's Lost Highway, and should be the same with Wim Wenders' The End Of Violence, Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh and Emir Kusturica's Black Cat, White Cat.'
Ciby 2000's projects in development include Speedy Boy from the talented new director Jan Kounen (Dobermann), Claude Miller's Nana, Jocelyn Moorhouse's Snake In The Grass, Mike Leigh's Untitled '98 and a new film from PJ Hogan. Annika Pham
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