Posted: Fri., Feb. 10, 2006, 11:37am PT

'Snow' deal plowed under

Berlin Brief

By NICK VIVARELLI


BERLIN -- Roberto Benigni's "The Tiger and the Snow" will not be getting a U.S. release via Bauer Martinez Studios -- despite a deal announced with much fanfare at AFM last year.
Elda Ferri and Benigni's wife Nicoletta Braschi, producers of the tragicomedy about a poet in war-torn Iraq, have pulled out of the $1 million deal.

"Tiger" performed below-par at Italy's box office, grossing $18 million last year. Pic, which unspools as a Berlinale Special, is being sold at EFM by Focus Features, which has all international rights outside the U.S.