All Screen articles in 12 December 2003
View all stories from this month.
-
News
Screeners flood out as judge overturns MPAA ban
The screenerfloodgates were flung wide open on Friday (Dec 5) as distributors reacted to aNew York district judge's decision overturning the MPAA screener ban.Judge MichaelMukasey issued a preliminary injunction against the MPAA after he sided withargument by the plaintiffs that the ban constituted a clear restraint of tradeand was anti-competitive.MPAA ...
-
News
JAPAN Production Listings - December 8 2003
Japan - December 8PRE-PRODUCTION BOKUNO CHIKYU WA AOKATTA(Rumble Fish) Int'l sales: Rumble Fish. Human drama. A boy, whose brother mysteriously disappears, goes on a search for his sibling and his own identity. Prod: Takenori Sento. Dir: Hitoshi Yazaki. Shooting in Japan in 2004.Contact: Kumi Sato, Rumble Fish, (81) 3 5718 ...
-
News
Production schedules aim for holidays
For full Japanese production listings click hereJapanese production, particularly at the top end of the market, is geared toward the four peak periods of New Year's, spring break, Golden Week, and summer vacation. Spring break in March is nearly a month-long holiday for most college students, while Golden Week, ...
-
Reviews
When The Right One Comes Along (Wenn Der Richtige Kommt)
Dirs. Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus. Switzerland/Germany, 2003. 78mins.If this largely improvised, shoestring budget production finds its place on the festival and art house circuit, as it rightly should, it will not be because of its glamour or production values, of which it has none, but its immediate spontaneity and ...
-
News
FACT launches UK anti-piracy campaign
The UK's Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) will this week launch a new campaign to raise public awareness of the dangers associated with film and video piracy.The thirty second-long cinema trailer, sponsored by DHL and produced by Hunkydory Productions, highlights recent evidence that organised crime and international terrorist groups have ...
-
News
AUSTRALIA
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World grossed A$3,078,560 from 324 screens on its opening four-day weekend. This result meant the 20th Century Fox drama easily claimed the top spot. Contributing factors included extremely strong reviews, a big print and advertising budget, a wide release, thus ensuring it ...
-
News
Whale Rider makes splash at NZ awards
As expected, Whale Rider won nearly all the relevant categories at the New Zealand Film Awards tonight (Dec 8) in Auckland, including best film for producers Tim Sanders and John Barnett, best director and best writer for Niki Caro, and best actress for Keisha Castle-Hughes.With Caro currently in the US, ...
-
News
Cruise slices his way to the top with The Last Samurai
Riding high on strong reviews TheLast Samurai vanquished the opposition atthe weekend as it opened on a table-topping $24.4m, according to studioestimates.Warner Bros' nineteenth century epic was more than $10m ahead ofUniversal's dance drama Honey, which opened in second place on $14m and marked the only other wideopener.In The Last ...
-
News
DENMARK
Like elsewhere in the region the top three spots at the Danish box-office chart remained unchanged this weekend where Finding Nemo, Master And Commander and Love Actually sat firmly, and the latter only fell back 17%. However, the best screen average by far was achieved by the new release of ...
-
News
FINLAND
Not much changed at the top of the Finnish chart this week, though the two maritime adventures Finding Nemo and Master And Commander dropped 30% and 41% respectively, the new release S.W.A.T. only managed to sneak into the third position. The real winner this week was instead Once Upon A ...
-
News
Movienet takes Russian Return for Germany
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev's debut feature The Return (Vozvraschenie), which won the European Discovery 2003 Fassbinder Award in Berlin at the weekend, has been picked up by German theatrical distributor Movienet for release early next year.The story of two brothers whose lives are turned upside down by the sudden reappearance ...
-
News
Japan swept up by Last Samurai
The Last Samurai took an impressive $8.6m (Y920,354,300) on its opening weekend in Japan, playing on 550 screens for a screen average of $15,639.This compares with its $24.4m take on 2,908 screens for its US opening. In other words, the Japanese gross is more than one-third the US total, on ...
-
News
NEW ZEALAND
Columbia TriStar's Underworld just managed to push UIP's Love Actually off the top spot in the weekend popularity stakes. It sold NZ$331,282 worth of tickets from 40 screens, admittedly a dozen less than the 52 screens from which Love Actually earned it's NZ$310,788. It was Underworld's first weekend, just as ...
-
News
NORWAY
The of the top of the Norwegian chart remained unchanged this weekend, as two of the new releases Looney Tunes Back In Action and Underworld only managed to sneak into fourth and fifth position. By far the strongest screen average was mastered by Russell Crowe in Master And Commander, but ...
-
News
SWEDEN
The star-studded Christmas love stories in Love Actually this weekend sailed past Peter Weir's Master And Commander, but was unable to touch Finding Nemo at the top of the Swedish chart. Released on less prints, but boasting the best screen average this weekend, Quentin Tarantino's first installment of Kill Bill ...
-
News
Dutch FilmWorks acquires diverse dozen
Distributor Dutch FilmWorks has acquired 12 new titles, including David Mamet's Spartan and Kevin Reynolds' Tristan & Isolde, both sold by Franchise Pictures.Also on Dutch FilmWorks slate is Stacey Title's Dolan's Cadillac, a thriller based on a Stephen King short story sold by Film Bridge International, and Heart Of Summer, ...
-
News
Muccino unveils coming of age project
Hot Italian director Gabriele Muccino, whose latest film Remember Me will screen at the upcoming Sundance festival, has announced that his next project will focus on an 18-year-old Italian girl's coming-of-age experience.Named Il Viaggio di Sofia (literally, Sofia's Voyage), Muccino said his new film will be about "an 18-year-old girl's ...
-
News
Diagonale rebels win Euro festival support
The organisers of the "original Diagonale" have been boosted in their resolve to stage an alternative event from March 3-7 by a wave of messages of solidarity from leading European film festivals, including Oberhausen, Karlovy Vary, and Leipzig. Lars Henrik Gass, director of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen wrote ...
-
News
S.W.A.T. opens in 17 territories, takes weekend total of $13.5m
The police action thriller S.W.A.T. opened in 17 territories on 3,575 screensat the weekend and grossed $13.5m to raise its international running total to$53.4m.It ranked number two in most markets behind Finding Nemo and Columbia TriStar Film DistributorsInternational (CTFDI) executives say it is well placed to consolidate itsposition during the ...
-
News
Universal scores $13.8m weekend with Love Actually
Universal's Love Actually added an estimated $13.8m from 2,725 venues in 26 countriesat the weekend, raising its international cumulative score to $69.5m with 14markets still to open.The romantic comedy stayed on top in the UK for the third week ina row, adding $5.6m and dropping 29% for a superb $35.6m ...