All Screen articles in 23 June 2000
View all stories from this month.
-
News
Shareholders back AOL, Time Warner merger
America Online's merger with Time Warner took a step towards completion this autumn after shareholders at both companies voted on Friday in favour of the mega-deal.AOL shareholders voted 97% in favour of the $123 billion merger, according to a preliminary count. Earlier in the day, Time Warner's shareholders approved the ...
-
News
Sony, Fuji end stakeholding talks
Electronics giant Sony Corporation is no longer considering taking a significant equity stake in leading Japanese commercial network Fuji Television Network, the companies announced on Friday.Hisashi Hieda, the president of Fuji Television Network, added that Sony is not the only investment partner Fuji is considering, but declined to name names. ...
-
News
Checkpoint, Cinemedia, Senator team for B-movies
German production and financing outfits Checkpoint Berlin Filmproductions and Cinemedia Film have teamed with local distributor Senator Films to produce a slate of unashamed B-movies under the label Planet B.Checkpoint and Cinemedia aim to produce four low-budget films under the strand, with Senator taking German rights. All will four be ...
-
News
Jonescompany pacts with FilmFour
UK producer Robert Jones, whose credits include The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain and The Usual Suspects, is striking a first-look deal with FilmFour, the company announced on Friday.The first three projects under the deal with Jones' London-based production outfit Jonescompany Productions include The ...
-
News
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon opens Jerusalem
Next month's Jerusalem Film Festival has finally opted for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the opening night film after long deliberations.Lee is to attend the festival's 17th edition, which runs July 13-23, for the film's first screening after Cannes. The guest list also includes Kirk Douglas, German ...
-
News
Mechanic quits Fox
Bill Mechanic, the veteran chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment who backed Titanic, has quit.Mechanic resigned late on Thursday to form his own movie production company."The studio is in excellent shape with a strong summer line-up and terrific product into next summer, and so I feel now is the time to ...
-
News
Canadian province strikes $60m production jackpot
Manitoba-based start-up production company Blye Brothers Entertainment has unveiled a $60m feature film slate that will see three to four features shot per year over the next three to four years. A minimum of 12 films, all of them targeted for theatrical release, will be produced with an average production ...
-
News
Multichoice, Telefonica team for African launch
African broadcaster Multichoice Africa, satellite operator Eutelsat and Telefonica de Espana have penned an agreement to launch a new digital satellite television platform to serve Sub-Saharan Africa.Called the first of its kind for the region, the new platform will have capacity for some 40 channels which can be received on ...
-
News
UK distributors rally round Bafta pre-Oscars move
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) appears to be winning the all-important support of UK distributors for its plan to move its film awards to a profile-raising pre-Academy Awards slot.While there are still concerns amongst some key distributors, those contacted by Screendaily which backed a move from ...
-
News
BT on the look-out for content companies
UK telco British Telecommunications (BT) is mulling the possibility of acquiring media companies to supply its proposed broadband services, according to a report on Reuters.According to Marc Deschamps, COO for BT's broadband internet outfit Openworld, the company is open to deals on the same scale as this year's high-profile content-carrier ...
-
News
ONrequest signs supply deal with Universal
UK pay-per-view service ONrequest has signed a film supply deal with Universal Studios International. The non-exclusive deal allows ONrequest to screen Universal feature titles some six months ahead of premium pay-TV channels and at the same time as other pay-per-view channels such as Front Row or Sky Box Office. Titles ...
-
News
Factor 8 secures $167m through tax vehicle
UK financing outfit Factor 8 Films raised $167m (£111m) for investing in features through its tax vehicle, the Voyager Film Partners, over the 12 months to April 5.The funding, raised through a combination of equity (22%) and debt (78%), returned $19.5m (£13m) in net cash benefit to producers. Factor 8 ...
-
News
CSA to probe Vivendi Seagram merger
French broadcast regulator, the Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA), announced today that it plans to investigate the proposed merger of Vivendi, Canal Plus and Seagram.The CSA said it "plans to examine all the consequences of this operation on the audiovisual and programme-making industries." It will take into account shareholding structures ...
-
Reviews
Summer, or 27 Missing Kisses
Dir: Nana Djordjadze. Germany-Georgia, 2000. 96 mins.Prod co: Egoli Films. Int'l sales: Wild Bunch (+33 1 4443 4384). Prods: Jens Meurier, Oliver Damian. Scr: Irakli Kvirikadze. DoP: Phedon Papamichael. Prod des: Vasha Dialagania. Editor: Vessela Martschewski. Music: Goran Bregovic. Main cast: Nuza Kuchianidze, Shaco Iashvilli, Evgeni Sidichin, Amalia Mordvinova, Pierre ...
-
News
CASE STUDY - Bread And Tulips
Italian comedy Bread And Tulips marks a change in direction for co-writer and director Silvio Soldini, known for his weighty dramas, yet the project quickly secured Swiss and Italian backing. It went on to be a local box office hit, sweep the board at local film awards the Davide di ...
-
News
Wood moves from Redbus to Films2
UK internet operation Films2, a division of video-on-demand company Filmgroup, has appointed Jason Wood as films specialist.Wood will be replaced as head of sales at filmgroup's distribution arm Redbus Film Distribution by Mervyn Andrews, previously sales manager at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in the UK. Wood will be responsible for liasing ...
-
News
Production report: Greek comedy wins local hearts
Greek films have been performing strongly at the local box office this year, pulling in more than 2.5 million admissions - a five-fold increase over last year - and are poised to reach three million during the summer season, when open-air cinemas rerun recent films plus a few new releases. ...
-
Reviews
Good Housekeeping
Dir: Frank Novak. US. 2000. 90 mins.Prod co: Modernica Pictures. Domestic dist (US): Shooting Gallery. Prod: Mark Mathis. Scr: Frank Novak. DoP: Alex Vendler. Prod des: Elizabeth Burhop. Editor: Fritz Feick. Main cast: Bob Mills (Don), Petra Westen (Donatella), Tacey Adams (Marion), Zia (Chuck), Al Schuermann (Joe), Andrew Eichner (Don ...
-
News
Baker quits COO post at USA Networks
Barry Baker has resigned from his post as president and COO of USA Networks. Baker joined the company in January 1999 to pull together its diverse assets, but said the time had come for him to run a company of his own.USA chairman and CEO Barry Diller stressed that ...
-
News
Telefonica's Villalonga under investigation
Telefonica president Juan Villalonga has found himself at the centre of yet another media storm after a report in Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo that he benefited from insider information in the purchase of Telefonica stock options in 1998.According to El Mundo, Villalonga bought 264,224 stock options in the company ...