All Screen articles in 21 April 2005
View all stories from this month.
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News
Platinum seals deal with France's Hexagon Comics
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's Los Angeles-based PlatinumStudios has acquired a 20% stake in French comic book syndicate Hexagon Comicsand picked up exclusive rights to develop worldwide film and televisionproperties from Hexagon's library.Platinum Studiosis seeking production partners and plans a roster of live-action and animatedprojects, both as bigger budget US features and ...
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Stevens, Kushner launch production, sales venture
Andrew Stevensand Donald Kushner have joined forces to launch the production and distributioncompany Focal Point Releasing and have lined up a debut slate for Cannes.The partnershave wasted little time in getting the operation off the ground, naming BarbaraMudge head of their international sales division, effective immediately.Titles inpre-production include Gray, a ...
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News
IFP launches mentoring programme at Sept market
IFP/New Yorkwill be introducing the mentorship programme IFP Rough Cuts Lab to its IFPmarket and conference, which runs from Sept 18-23.The Lab willfeature a series of structured meetings and seminars designed to helpfilmmakers complete works-in-progress before they enter the marketplace.A team ofmentors comprising producers, directors, editors and the like will ...
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News
Myriad promotes Rappaport, Chiu, Sanchez
Santa Monica-basedfinancing, production and sales house Myriad Pictures has announced three promotionsgoing into Cannes.JC Rappaport is promotedfrom director of acquisitions and development to vice president of productionand acquisitions; he will report to company president and chief executiveofficer Kirk D'Amico.Linda Chiu has been promotedto director of development and production and will ...
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Maxwell Bright wins top prize at Florida Film Festival
David Beaird's TheCivilization Of Maxwell Bright won the grand jury award for best narrative feature and DavidRedmon's Mardi Gras: Made In China won documentary honours at the 2005 Florida Film Festival, whichran from Apr 8-17.Audience awardswent to Tim Kirkman's Loggerheads for best narrative feature, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner's PuckerUp: ...
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News
Universal, Wild Bunch board Southland Tales
Financing anddistribution for Southland Tales, Richard Kelly's sci-fi follow-up to Donnie Darko, is beginning to take shape in advanceof the scheduled start date of Aug 1 in Los Angeles.UniversalPictures International, Inferno Distribution and Wild Bunch will co-finance thefilm, with Universal distributing in most international markets through UIP andWild Bunch taking ...
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Copying Beethoven tunes up in Hungary
Director AgnieszkaHolland's Copying Beethoven is shooting this month in Hungary - thelatest in a string of productions attracted to the country because of its lowcosts and film tax breaks.Copying Beethoven tells the story of the last few months inthe life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven and stars Ed Harris as ...
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Tirard's Story Of My Life wins audience prize at COLCOA
Paris-basedwriter-director Laurent Tirard's The Story Of My Life (Mensonges Et Trahisons Et Plus SiAffinites) won theaudience award at the ninth annual City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival(COLCOA), which ran in Los Angeles from Apr 11-17.The picturestars Edouard Baer, Clovis Cornillac and Alice Taglioni and tells the story ofa ...
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Hong Kong looks to summer after poor first quarter
HongKong's production and distribution companies are looking to the summer seasonto claw back market share after a disappointing first quarter of the year. Thefirst quarter of 2005 saw only 14 local films released grossing $7m (HK$54.69m)between them, around 26% of total box office during this period. In comparison,over the last ...
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Reviews
Empire Of The Wolves (L'Empire Des Loups)
Dir. Chris Nahon, Fr. 2005. 128 min.L'Empire des Loups(The Empire of the Wolves) is another in a growing niche of moody, slickFrench action thrillers trying to compete with similar American and Asian fare.Adapted from a Jean-Christophe Grangenovel, as with the thriller CrimsonRivers and its sequel (all three starring Jean Reno), ...
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Cannes Critics' Week unveils line-up
International Critics' Weekartistic director Jean-Christophe Berjon has announced the selection for theupcoming 44th edition of the sidebar which runs during the CannesFilm Festival next month.Berjon, backed by members ofthe French Film Critics' Union, unveiled sevenfeatures which will vie for the top prize, worth Euros 5,000. The films selected are either ...
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Breaking News: Cannes Critics' Week line-up unveiled
Competition:The Great Ecstasy Of RobertCarmichael, dir Thomas Clay (UK)L'Orrizzonte Degli Eventi, dir Daniele Vicari (Italy)La Petite Jerusalem, dir Karin Albou (Fr)Me And You And Everyone, dir Miranda July (US)A Stranger Of Mine, dir Uchida Kenji (Japan)Grain In Ear, dir Zhang Lu (China/Korea)Orlando Vargas, dir Juan Pittaluga (Uruguay/France)Opening Film: Les Invisibles, ...
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News
New US laws make illegal camcording a felony
Members of theHouse of Representatives passed s.167 of the Family Entertainment and CopyrightAct of 2005, which among other provisions makes camcording a federal offenceand upgrades it from misdemeanour to the more serious criminal grade of felony.Multiple offenders face up to six years and/or a fine.Special immunityclauses mean that theatre owners ...
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News
THINKFilm takes North America on Fateless
THINKFilm has picked up allNorth American rights to Lajos Koltai's Holocaust drama Fateless, which premiered in competition at Berlin and becomeHungary's biggest ever box office hit in its native country earlier this year,drawing more than 400,000 admissions.Based on Nobel Prize winnerImre Kertesz's screenplay from his own novel, Fateless chronicles the ...
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Vin Diesel's Pacifier takes pole position on int'l chart
Continuingto follow in the career footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, action star VinDiesel has made the successful transition to comedy with BVI's The Pacifiertaking the number one spot on the international chart.The film opened top in Germany, Austria, Switzerland,Hong Kong and Malaysia this week, held the lead in Australia in its ...
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World media reaches swift Cannes consensus
Media outlets around theworld were quick to reach a near unanimous view about this year's Cannes FilmFestival line-up.Almost without exception,the press took note of this year's return to big name directors such as Larsvon Trier, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch.Many compared this year'sauteur heavy line-up with last year's more controversial ...
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Crash, Mad Hot Ballroom bookend Newport Beach
The US premiere of PaulHaggis' drama Crash and the WestCoast premiere of Marilyn Agrelo's documentary Mad Hot Ballroom bookend the sixth annual Newport Beach FilmFestival, which runs from Apr 21-30.Other line-up highlights include West Coast premieres for Matthew Vaughn'scrime thriller Layer Cake and Arild Ostin Ommundsen's Norwegian romance MonsterThursday, as ...
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Scott Rudin heads to Disney to feed all three studio labels
New York-basedpower producer Scott Rudin is close to signing a five-year, first look dealwith Walt Disney Studios that would see him make features for the Buena Vista,Touchstone and Miramax labels.Whilecontractual terms and start date remain unclear - Rudin's deal with Paramountexpires in 18 months and he owes that studio two ...
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News
Khoo's Be With Me to open Directors' Fortnight
Be With Me, directed by Singapore's Eric Khoo (12 Storeys),has been selected as the opening film for directors' fortnight at Cannes. The film weaves together threeinter-connected stories and is inspired by the life of Singapore's Theresa Chan- a blind and deaf woman.'It's almost a silent filmwith only five minutes of ...
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Schamus named to board of Nantucket Film Festival
Focus Features co-presidentJames Schamus has joined the Nantucket Film Festival board ahead of thefestival's 10th annual incarnation, which runs from Jun 15-19.Festival organisers alsoannounced they have teamed up with Kevin Spacey's online film-makers'collective TriggerStreet.com for a year-long screenplay competition that willculminate in a reading of the winning screenplay.Schamus earned best ...