All Screen articles in 18 February 2004

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  • News

    Law is male star of the year at ShoWest

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    Jude Law has been named ShoWest2004 Male Star of the Year and will receive his accolade at the exhibitors'conference, which runs in Las Vegas from Mar 22-25."In this day andage it's quite a compliment to note that there is no such thing as a typicalJude Law character or role, as ...

  • News

    Third Swedish film icon dies this year

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    The legendary Swedish actor/director Hasse Ekman has died at the age of 88. As the director of 41 feature films - from comedies and thrillers to love stories and melodramas - Ekman was one of Sweden's most prolific film makers.After his debut 1940 with comedy Med Dej I Mina Armar, ...

  • News

    Hayek to write, direct and star in Mexican comedy

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    Mexican actress Salma Hayek is poised to return to Mexico where she may direct and play the lead in a comedy she is presently co writing.Guadalajara, Mexico-based Anhelo Films will co produce El Hombre De La Casa Enfrente along with Hayek's Los Angeles-based company Ventanarosa Productions.Initially launched by director Alfonso ...

  • News

    Revamped Rome cinema commission launched

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    With a new private partner, Rome's Film Commission is ready to attract more international productions to the Italian capital by offering new and better financial incentives - just as the weakening dollar and high Euro are potentially putting off runaway productions.Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni has announced that the region's powerful ...

  • News

    Capitol gets A Touch Of Spice

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    UK-based sales agent Capitol Films has acquired worldwide rights to Greek sensation A Touch Of Spice.The story of a Greek boy growing up in Istanbul has already grossed more than $11m in Greece and is still at the top end of the charts after 16 weeks.Produced by Village Roadshow Productions, ...

  • News

    Disney buys the rights to Muppets from Henson Co

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    The Walt DisneyCo said yesterday (Feb 17) it had agreed to buy the characters from The Muppets andBear In The Big Blue House from the Jim Henson Co.Disney isexpected to relaunch the characters, which include Kermit The Frog and MissPiggy, through a new television series and special shows.The media gianthas ...

  • News

    Broadbent, Czernin exit Mission

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    UK-based producers Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin are leaving Mission Pictures, the UK-US production company Broadbent founded with Andrew Hauptman and Damian Jones.Mission has simultaneously beefed up its US office, promoting Tracy Falco from vice president of production to senior vice president. Falco, who previously spent six years at Ted ...

  • News

    New bidders emerge for UCI cinema circuit

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    UK independent investment firm Terra Firma Capital Partners has expressed an interest in bidding for United Cinemas International (UCI) the multinational exhibition company owned by Vivendi Universal and Viacom, according to The Times newspaper.The move on the 120-site estate, which spans Europe, Asia and Latin America and is valued at ...

  • News

    Belgrade film festival becomes theatrical distributor

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    The Belgrade International Film Festival has become a theatrical distributor by acquiring rights for Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia to Berlinale Golden Bear winner Head On.The film's first outing in the region will be at the 32nd Belgrade International Film Festival- FEST, (Feb 27 - Mar 7).For the past ...

  • News

    Major, Bumstead pick up honours from ADG

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    Grant Major wonthe Art Directors' Guild Excellence in Production Design and Art Directionaward for a period or fantasy film for The Lord Of The Rings: The Return OfThe King at the weekend.Henry Bumsteadpicked up the contemporary film trophy for his work on Mystic River.Among otherhonorees at the ceremony at the ...

  • News

    Cheaper makes Fox richer with $3.3m opening in UK

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    FoxInternational's comedy Cheaper By The Dozen opened top in the UK at the weekend on$3.3m (including previews) from 364 screens.The picture alsoopened in Korea on $204,000 from 70. Overall it added $4.5m from 1,137 screensto raise its international running total to $19.2m.The comedy StuckOn You opened top inAustralia on $1.2m ...

  • News

    France, Spain lead the field at CARTOON 2004

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    France and Spain have the largest number of animation projects and finished works being presented at this year's CARTOON MOVIE forum to be held at the Babelsberg Studios from March 11-13.French producers are represented with eleven works including Les Armateurs' Les Triplettes De Belleville, Prima Linea Productions' U and Lardux ...

  • News

    Warner Germany ties up X for a further 20 films

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    Warner Bros Pictures Germanyhas extended its partnership with Germany's X-Filme and its distribution armX-Verleih in a long-term, multi-faceted distribution agreement covering up to20 films.

  • News

    King is king in Japan with $11.1m two-day take

    2004-02-18T04:00:00Z

    The Lord OfThe Rings: The Return Of The King opened top in Japan at the weekend on $11.1m from 729 screens, asthe picture grossed $21.7m from 4,128 screens in 60 markets to boost itsinternational running total to $618.4m.Including lastweekend's previews New Line International's fantasy finale grossed $14.7m inJapan through Nippon ...

  • News

    UK/IRELAND

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    The February half-term school holiday is a key date in the UK calendar and last weekend saw four children's titles launch in time for the lucrative session.Four of the past six years have seen February admissions exceed any other month in the year, including the last leap year, 2000, thanks ...

  • News

    SWEDEN

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    While Brother Bear sat solidly on the top of the Swedish chart, Scary Movie 3 maneuvered into second in front of Kjell Sundvall's action outing The Threat with a strong $5,514 screen average on its 60 prints.Meanwhile the veteran romance between Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give ...

  • News

    POLAND

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Following last week's new entry Symmetry, which brought Polish films back into the box office chart after a two month hiatus, last weekend saw another local feature top the chart.Co-distributed by ITI Cinema and Interfilm, Ryszard Zatorski's feature film debut Nigdy W Zyciu! achieved over 230,000 admissions over the weekend ...

  • News

    ITALY

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Three Italian films were released last weekend - although none of them performed outstandingly well.Ciro Ippolito's Italian title Vaniglia E Cioccolato, which stars Il Postino actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta as a wife who leaves her unfaithful husband in a desperate bid to save their marriage, opened at number 8 at ...

  • News

    HUNGARY

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Hungary's new distributor, Intersonic which debuted with the release of Snowboarder and with the help of well established Mokep, failed to pick the right film to make an impact on the audiences, Snowboarder didn't even attract one thousand admissions.Meanwhile SPI's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre achieved a decent opening for a ...

  • News

    Turkish films go Dutch

    2004-02-18T00:00:00Z

    Following a growing trend for Turkish successes in Germany, in the Netherlands Pathé has started programming a slate of Turkish comedies in two of its major cinemas: Amsterdam Arena and Rotterdam De Kuip.Head of programming Danielle Koot already calls the experiment 'a huge success' with 8,500 tickets sold over the ...