EURO BEAT: Alan Partridge Movie, Detective with Down Syndrome and More Upcoming Films

After the most recent, scandal-plagued round of Euro Beat, it was a actually a bit of a relief that most of this week's noteworthy news concerned updates on new, potentially exciting films in various stages of production.

Oh wait, what's that? Director Bob Swaim (La Balance) just went on trial in Paris for accusations of sexual assault against a girl to whom he was giving a cinema class five years ago? Oh, and Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp might or might not be splitting up? Ehh... let's go ahead and talk about those movies anyway. Read on and choose your most anticipated project.

The Down Detective
From director Bård Breien (The Art of Negative Thinking) comes a Norwegian hard-boiled detective story... only this time the detective has down syndrome. The title character will be played by Svein Andre Hofsø, a 32-year-old employee at the internal message service of the Sandefjord City Hall who has never acted in a movie before besides his sister's home videos. Most inspired twist on the genre ever or most misguided? Time will tell!

Food For Love
The new film from Peter Greenaway was initially announced as a film inspired by Death in Venice that would be similar in tone to Greenaway's previous grotesque farce, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. Now, Greenaway has stressed that people should "not expect a remake or a rewrite of Thomas Mann's novella."

The film, which was apparently more inspired by a Vivaldi piece, will still shoot in Venice (along with St. Petersburg, potentially), and, in the words of Greenaway, "it has... an outward feeling of jubilation and celebration with a deep sense of melancholy underneath. I hope we can fascinate and excite you." Me too!

The Alan Partridge Movie
It seems like the least compatible format for a new adventure with Steve Coogan's fictional radio and television presenter, but nonetheless, Partridge is coming to the big screen! Apparently, "the movie sees Partridge trying to salvage his career, while negotiating a potentially violent turn of events at North Norfolk Digital Radio."

Big Bad Wolf
Nicolas Charlet and Bruno Lavaine assembled an impressive list of popular French actors for their new film, which will star Benoit Poelvoorde (Le Grande Soir), Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) and Valarie Donzelli (Declaration of War) among others. As for the plot, it's about three content, rich brothers whose lives sudden;y become filled with doubt and anxiety after their mother has an accident. According to the synopsis, this causes them to "suddenly open up the door to what is new and forbidden, to adventure... to the Big Bad Wolf!" Taking bets now on whether there is an actual wolf in this movie.

In box office news,  it's pretty much the same battle of the box-office titans spread out across the European continent. Yes, it's a bit of a yawn-fest, but here we go. Madagascar 3 opened in a few territories and did great, most notably in France where it took in $9 million. It also took the top spot in Belgium and Turkey. In local news, the Cannes favorite Le Grande Soir (The Big Night), a dark comedy about an aging punk and a business man, did quite well, opening with $1.2 million.

Snow White and the Huntsman completely owned Scandinavia, taking the number one spot in Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands and Norway. It also took the top spot in Poland and Spain. Prometheus held onto number one in the UK, Greece and Hungary, while Germany and Italy both went to Men in Black 3. That said, most of these territories are still waiting for Madagascar 3, so watch out.