All Screen articles in 17 June 2001
View all stories from this month.
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News
Tomb Raider's a smash: $48m opening for Paramount
Paramount Pictures' movie-of-the-video-game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider made a big impression at the North American box office at the weekend, taking a massive $48.2m despite across-the-board bad reviews. The movie is the third consecutive hit for director Simon West after Con Air and The General's Daughter and confirms its Oscar-winning ...
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News
Shanghai rewards Antitrust with Golden Urn
Antitrust, an alarm-bell ringing picture about monopolies and the abuse of the power of technology, was the big winner at last night's closing ceremony of the Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF). The MGM-distributed picture scooped one Jin Jue (Golden Urn) for best film and another, best director, for the UK's ...
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News
Telefilm head LaPierre departs for Canadian Senate
The chairman of Telefilm Canada, Laurier LaPierre, is leaving his post, marking the third departure of senior management from the federal film and television agency. LaPierre, a respected journalist who has served since 1998, has resigned to accept an appointment to the nation's senate. His departure leaves something of a ...
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News
Netherlands proposes overhaul for tax incentives
After months of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Dutch tax incentive scheme, policy-makers from the three government ministries involved have sent a proposal to parliament recommending the current film-friendly climate be preserved with the establishment of a new scheme offering even more generous incentives, but tempered by much tighter ...
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News
RTL sells distributor SND to France's M6
Pan-European media giant RTL Group has sold its French distribution offshoot SND to French broadcaster M6, in which the Luxembourg-based group already holds a major stake.Eric Marti, who founded SND in 1997, is to be replaced by Thierry Desmichelles. Marti sold the company to RTL Group in 1998, keeping a ...
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News
Local boy Jensen picks up Norway's Aamot honours
Norwegian director Knut Erik Jensen has received the Norwegian Aamot Award in Oslo, Norway. The annual award given by Norway's theatre managers and distributors was bestowed on Jensen for "his ability to capture the life and history of Norway's northernmost regions in a poetical way".Jensen is the director of the ...
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News
Zhang Yimou to direct Chinese Olympic bid promos
Controversial Chinese director Zhang Yimou has begun work directing a series of short films for China as part of its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2008.The decision to commission Zhang is surprising, given his previous run-ins with the Chinese government. Zhang, who recently directed The Road Home and ...
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News
Former All Saint Shaznay Lewis makes feature debut
Former All Saints member Shaznay Lewis is turning to feature films after the highly-publicised break-up of the all-girl pop act.The only All Saint not to appear in Dave Stewart's critically-panned Honest is making her feature debut in soccer comedy Bend It Like Beckham.Lewis will play the captain of a soccer ...
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News
Y Tu Mama Tambien breaks Mexican box office record
Alfonso Cuaron's steamy drama Y Tu Mama Tambien has smashed Mexican box-office records for local films, ending its first week on release in Mexico with $2.19m from just 230 prints. This is the highest opening week figure ever earned by a Mexican film. The Mummy Returns, by contrast, made $1.86m ...
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UK's May box office take hits 26-year high
The mammoth release of The Mummy Returns and the ongoing success of Bridget Jones's Diary helped make May's admissions in the UK the highest for the month in 26 years, according to figures released by the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA).In its fourth week on release, The Mummy Returns has grossed ...
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News
Fox Searchlight boards Boyle's 28 Days Later
Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to 28 Days Later, the next film from director Danny Boyle and producer Andrew Macdonald, continuing 20th Century Fox's relationship with the British film-making duo after A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and The Beach (2000).The $15m film is to be co-financed by Searchlight ...
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News
Amelie opens 55th Edinburgh Film Festival
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie is to open this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival, which runs August 12-26.Amelie, released as Amelie From Montmartre in France, is set for UK release on October 5 through Momentum, which picked up the film earlier this year. The story of a naive waitress who eventually finds ...
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News
Japan's SKY Perfect loses chairman, president
SKY Perfect Communications, which runs dominant but loss-making Japanese satellite broadcaster SKY PerfecTV, has confirmed that its chairman Koya Mita and president Hajime Unoki will resign.Though the company has not officially decided on successors, press reports have named Yasushi Hosoda, president of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, as Unoki's replacement. According ...
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News
Sweden renews company funding policy
The Swedish Film Institute has announced that it is to continue its policy of backing independent producers and production companies rather than individual productions.The scheme was established last year in order to help production companies cover overhead costs while developing new projects. Unlike traditional state backing, where funds are allotted ...
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Shochiku veteran unveils 13-title indie slate
Former Shochiku production head Kazuyoshi Okuyama is preparing a slate of 13 films, including several financed by foreign partners.In addition to his Team Okuyama production company, the veteran producer is developing the slate with QFront Movie, a new film company he has launched with the backing of the Tokyu Group, ...
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News
EM.TV shares slide as Kirch investment in doubt
Shares in ailing German media concern EM.TV & Merchandising hit a 2001 low on Thursday amidst speculation that the Germany cartel office could block the KirchGroup's plans to invest in the company.Speaking to Financial Times Deutschland, an official at the cartel authority was quoted as saying that the office "will ...
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News
Romance ruling hints at Cypriot censor relaxation
After a seven-month trial, Cypriot exhibitor Michael Papas has been cleared of charges of exhibiting a film banned by the Cyprus Censorship Committee, Catherine Breillat's controversial Romance. The court's decision has also opened up the possibility of a challenge to Cyprus's film censorship system, which is based on British Colonial ...
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Shanghai fest's AFMA pact boosts market plans
The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF) yesterday struck a pact with the American Film Marketing Association (AFMA).The deal is just one of several initiatives intended to boost Shanghai's weight as a market for films.The SIFF-AFMA memorandum of friendship sets out a five-point plan that starts with exchanges of information and ...
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News
UK's Ealing Studios set for $100m revamp
Historic UK film facility Ealing Studios is to get a $100m (£70m) overhaul after its new owners secured planning permission on Wednesday night to revamp the site.Ealing's owners aim to build production offices, refurbish the studios and the historic White House, and transform the site into a state-of-the art media ...
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Reviews
Storytelling
Dir: Todd Solondz. US. 2001. 87 mins.The same darkly humorous sensibility that defined Todd Solondz's earlier pictures is at work in his new satire, Storytelling, except that the novelty has worn out and the notoriously acerbic vision is now contained in a deliberately fractured narrative that leaves a lot to ...