(MENAFN- Arab Times) LOS ANGELES Sept 9 (Agencies): Music Box Films has picked up US rights (minus TV broadcast) to Greg Barker's Arab Spring documentary 'We Are the Giant.' Music Box will release the film theatrically later this year for an Academy qualification run. The deal was announced Monday at the Toronto Film Festival a week and a half after the Aug 30 arrest of one of the film's subjects prominent Bahraini human rights defender Maryam al-Khawaja. She was detained upon her arrival in Bahrain after traveling there to see her ailing father dissident Abdulhadi al-Khawaja. 'We Are the Giant' which portrays activists in Libya Syria and Bahrain premiered in January at Sundance. The film is a Passion Pictures and Motto Pictures Production with Barker ('Manhunt') directing. Producers John Battsek Julie Goldman and Barker. The narrative follows ordinary individuals who are transformed by the critical moral and personal challenges they encounter when standing up for what they believe is right. Films We Like picked up Canadian rights. While President Vladimir Putin has been cracking down on opposition to his rule within Russia and across its borders a small band of Russian arthouse filmmakers have been taking a critical look at his Russia and winning the approval of festival juriesfilm critics and distributors abroad for their work. Among the recent successes are Yury Bykov's 'The Fool' which won lead actor for Artem Bystrov's perf at Locarno and Andrey Zvyagintsev's 'Leviathan' which took the screenplay award at Cannes. Both pics tackle corruption and the lack of justice head-on while being watchable enough to attract international buyers. 'The Fool' is the latest pic from St Petersburg's Rock Films. The company previously produced Bykov's 'The Major' which played in Cannes and Toronto and Alexey Uchitel's 'Break Loose' which premiered in Toronto. Uchitel Rock Films' CEO says those festival successes and the rise of new directors give cause for hope but he strikes a note of caution: Such issues-oriented films often struggle for funding. 'Russian cinema is very dependent on state support' he says. 'The main weakness is the lack of films co-produced with Europe or the States. There's no integration and it concerns me a lot it's one of the reasons our films fail to get onto the big screen.' Next up for Uchitel is a period drama about the ballerina Mathilde Kschessinskaya who was the first love of Czar Nicholas II. The pic is shooting at historic locations in St Petersburg and Moscow. 'It's a tremendous project with fantastic artists; a big challenging work' he says. Most of Kevin Costner's most famous films wouldn't seem to be easy sells. How would it today sound to pitch a studio on a Civil War soldier befriending Sioux Indians on the South Dakota plains Or on an Iowa farmer who hears voices But while Costner's industry clout was once impervious he's had to fight harder for his latest the drama 'Black and White' which premiered over the weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. In the film written and directed by Mike Binder Costner plays a Los Angeles attorney devastated by the deaths of his daughter and wife. A custody battle over his granddaughter ensues between Costner's character and the child's African-American grandmother (Octavia Spencer). 'I was pretty convinced someone would want to make it but that just wasn't the case' Costner said in a recent interview. 'I didn't fight I just kind of surrendered. So I used my own money to make it.' When drumming up interest proved difficult Costner resorted to financing it himself. He says he felt a responsibility to Binder whom he had promised to get it made. 'I had to stick to my word so I had to reach into my bank account' says Costner who also produced the film. Costner and Binder previously teamed up for 2005's well-received 'The Upside of Anger' in which Costner (playing off his 'Bull Durham' fame) played a retired baseball player who becomes romantically involved with a mother of three (Joan Allen) whose husband has gone missing. 'Black and White' is an ambitious portrait of race in America a not especially Hollywood-friendly subject. 'I knew it was small and I knew it was a subject that doesn't immediately spark that. But I've done enough movies that I can tell' says Costner. 'I thought it was really even-handed. It didn't let anyone off the hook. It deals with an issue that's not going away. We're on this planet together. We need to move past the places we've been.' The 59-year-old actor is looking for a distribution deal at Toronto but he's also prepared to again go it alone if necessary. 'I'm entrepreneurial' he says. 'I guess if I have to do this myself too I'll figure out a way.' 'Black and White' caps a recent run of work for Costner who took several years off from acting while having three children with his second wife Christine Baumgartner. He had supporting roles in the Superman film 'Man of Steel' and the Tom Clancy reboot 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit' and starred in the NFL movie 'Draft Day' and the spy thriller '3 Days to Kill.' Now he's beginning to think about his next step. He hopes to direct a Western: 'I feel like as I play out the second half of my career I need to direct more.' 'I was talking to Bill Paxton when I was making (the History channel miniseries) 'Hatfield & McCoys' he said 'Why don't you work more'' says Costner. 'I said 'I don't know. I have other things that I think about.' And he said 'You know work really begets work.' I thought 'Well I'll try a little bit of this.'' He pauses and then chuckles. 'But I didn't know I was going to end up paying for the movie.'
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