ABC-TV Wants More ‘Moody’

Australia’s ABC-TV has ordered a follow-up to comedy series A Moody Christmas. The first season focused on the dysfunctional Moody family over several different Christmas holidays. According to IF.com, the new series will be based around significant moments in the family’s year. Producer Jungleboys, which recently signed with Mosaic, has already fielded offers from the U.S. for a remake. Exec producer Jason Burrows told Deadline late last year that the company was waiting until a second season went into production so as to be in a better bargaining position. The follow-up series shoots later this year.

Germany Doles Out Funding To International Pics

Germany’s subsidies continue to make it an attractive co-production partner and shooting destination. George Clooney’s The Monuments Men is one of a handful of international films that’s secured state subsidies from Germany this week. The film started shooting in Berlin in March and has scored 800,000 euros from the Berlin-Brandenburg Filmboard and the German Media Promotion org, the bodies said. Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin and Bill Murray star. The Rupert Everett-directed The Happy Prince was also just granted a bourse by both bodies. That film shoots this summer with Colin Firth, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson.

France Laments Disappearance Of Spain’s Alta

French film exporters expressed their concern today over the impending shuttering of Spanish distributor Alta. The company’s Enrique Gonzalez Macho told El Pais the distrib had tried to resist closure, “but people have stopped going to the movies, the DVD is ruined and television, especially public, does not support the Spanish film” business. The French exporters union, ADEF, said “This situation is the direct consequence of a lack of political support for national and European cinema, the decisions of public and private television to no longer buy auteur films, the absence of a fight against piracy and the increase in value added tax on cultural products… The rise in ticket prices drastically caused moviegoing to drop at a time when movie theaters were already in great difficulty.” Alta has released films by such international directors as Woody Allen, Michael Haneke, Atom Egoyan, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Nanni Moretti, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Manoel de Oliveira, Danny Boyle and Steven Soderbergh. “There are other Spanish independent film distributors, but I think they will end up with the same fate as us,” Macho said.