All Screen articles in 16 March 2001
View all stories from this month.
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News
Digital Renaissance to be reborn yet again
An Israeli-UK-US consortium including Capitol Films, Gravity, DLIN and the US' Kushner Locke Group is preparing to sell controversy-ridden German VFX facility Digital Renaissance after acquiring it only two years ago.News of the move revived criticism from North Rhine-Westphalia politicians about the local administration's financial support of the facility, which ...
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News
RAI and Lakeshore to make first Gere
Richard Gere is set to make his directorial debut with a feature film that is being planned as a co-production between Italy's RAI Cinema and Lakeshore. The two companies are currently in talks to reach an agreement on the 52-year-old actor's film, which it is understood could go into production ...
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News
Icon teams with Australia's top management
The production arm of Icon Entertainment's new Australian distribution operation will be a joint venture with Shanahan Management, the highly-regarded actors agency headed by Ann Churchill-Brown. The new company, called Icon Shanahan Productions is to be run by Sally Chesher.Five years ago the Australian industry was bemoaning its lack of ...
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News
Artisan drops IPO plans in favour of sale
Four months after the disappointing performance of its Blair Witch Project sequel, once high-flying US independent Artisan Entertainment has withdrawn plans for its initial public offering (IPO) and brought in investment bankers to explore merger and sale options. In a statement, Artisan CEO Amir Malin said the company has "received ...
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Lions Gate, Arrow target MOXIE
Urban drama Borough of Kings, Jury Prize winner at last month's MOXIE!/Santa Monica International Film Festival, has been acquired in an all-rights deal by Lions Gate Entertainment. Directed by Elyse Lewin, the film stars Philip Bosco, Jim Stanek, Joseph Lyle Taylor and Patrick Newall and features Olympia Dukakis. Another project ...
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Mate boards directorial debut: Private Lives
Spanish producer Mate Productions has boarded Argentinean film Private Lives (Vidas Privadas) from first-time director and popular musician Fito Paez.The film, a co-production with Paez's own Circo Beat, is set to star Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother), Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros) and Hector Alterio (Plata Quemada).Roth plays a ...
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News
Stalled thriller still awaiting Evolution's cash
UK producer Simon Channing-Williams has been forced to postpone shooting on The Game Of Love And Loathing after funding from tax-driven financier Evolution Films failed to materialise.The psychological thriller was expected to be in pre-production at the moment but it is now unclear how it will be financed. Evolution sparked ...
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THE WEEKLY
Screen International weekly edition March 16-22 2001Contents:NewsAnalysis & CommentFocusThe National Film & Television School @ 30Executive SuiteVincent Maraval:The Wild Bunch founder explains why a 'researchdepartment' is one of the world's hottest sellers and producersScreen AdvertisingProducers and distributors alike are complaining that theexhorbitant cost of advertising in the UK compared withthe ...
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News
Danny Boyle calls for digital support
Director Danny Boyle has joined the growing number of mainstream film-makers keen to support the development of digital technology at grassroots level.Speaking to Screen International editor-in-chief Colin Brown during an on-stage Q&A at the Production Show in London on March 14, the director of Trainspotting and The Beach urged the ...
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News
Babelsberg hosts first Cartoon Movie Tributes
The UK's Aardman Animation, Denmark's A.Film and Italian distributor Cecchi Gori are among the winners of the first 'Cartoon Movie Tributes' presented at this year's Cartoon Movie co-production market. While Aardman was honoured for the 'Best International Enterprise Strategy' in the making of Chicken Run, A.Film, producer of Help, I'm ...
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News
No more Victory for EM.TV
German private media fund Victory Media has cancelled its five-year co- production agreement with EM.TV to put up $233m (DM 500m) for the production of 100 animation series for the international market with a total production volume of $700m (DM 1.5bn) over the next five years.Victory had planned to attract ...
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Reviews
Blow Dry
Dir: Paddy Breathnach. US-UK. 2001. 91minsA large ensemble of talented actors, including Alan Rickman, Natasha Richardson and Rachel Griffiths, is totally wasted in the disappointing comedy Blow Dry, written by The Full Monty screenwriter, Simon Beaufoy. Meant to be a funny satire of an annual British hairdressing championship, Blow Dry ...
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LA film festival offers 21 world premieres
Thirty-six films, including 21 world premieres, have been announced for the line-up of this year's Los Angeles Film Festival, run by non-profit indie filmmaker organisation IFP/West. The festival's opening night selection has yet to be revealed, but the West Coast premiere of Allison Anders' Things Behind The Sun has been ...
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News
UK's Tiger Aspect eyes suitors
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's UK production outfit Working Title Films has emerged as a potential candidate to buy leading UK TV company Tiger Aspect Productions.Spokespersons for both companies confirmed UK press reports that a deal was being explored, although both stressed that talks were no more than exploratory at ...
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Danish box office
Following the international success of Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners it is no surprise that even after 14 weeks on release is still hanging on to the number two spot with a total of 740.305 admissions so far. At the top of the chart, Hannibal gave way to the very ...
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UK Film Council backs innovative, commercial slate
A combination of US and leading UK talent defines the debut slate of the UK Film Council's commercially-oriented Premiere Fund, while the support body's New Cinema Fund for low-budget projects aims to mix innovation with established names such as Alex Cox, Christopher Eccleston and Simon BeaufoyRobert Altman's Gosford Park has ...
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Future German co-production funding in doubt
Germany's status as a major source of funding for international co-productions could be a thing of the past thanks to new government legislation which threatens to curtail the country's involvement in such projects.A new Finance Ministry legislation could effectively halt the huge flow of money out of Germany into predominantly ...
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Village Roadshow exhibits downturn in profit
Australia's Village Roadshow suffered a 44% slide in first half net profits as its exhibition business suffered from poor product worldwide.Profits fell to A$22m, with cinema exhibition recording an A$11.8m loss. The cinema, theme park and radio group plans to reduce its operating territories to around nine from 18. The ...
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Eastwood gets Mystic River rights
Warner Bros and Malpaso Productions have bought movie rights to best-selling psychological suspense thriller Mystic River for Clint Eastwood to produce and direct. Eastwood is currently talking to writers about adapting the novel by Dennis Lehane but, according to a statement "has no immediate plans" to put the project into ...
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RCV's Buying Spree at AFM
RCV Entertainment's Dirk de Lille returned from the AFM with a full shopping basket, bolstering his move to buy more mainstream U.S. fare than RCV was previously known for before he came on board last year. Most notably, De Lille is buying into the Crouching Tiger effect - having acquired ...