All Screen articles in 23 March 2000
View all stories from this month.
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News
Telecinco doubles profits; unveils Internet launch
Spanish private broadcaster TeleCinco has reported a 51.9% profit increase for the 1999 financial year to euros110.5m (pts18,388m). Revenue rose 24.3% to euros512.7m (pts85,301m) over the same period.The channel, which described itself as "the most profitable [channel] in Europe", attributed the strong results to increased ad revenue, higher audience shares ...
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News
EC probes Microsoft, Telewest deal
The European Commission has today opened a full investigation of the proposed acquisition of a 29.7% stake in UK cable network Telewest by Microsoft.The deal was announced in May last year when AT&T, which owns Liberty Media, took over Media One, which owns the stake. The EC said it expects ...
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News
Sogecable seals PPV deal with DreamWorks
Spanish audiovisual group Sogecable has flexed its acquisition muscle by signing a 16-picture agreement with DreamWorks SKG giving it pay-per-view (PPV) rights for its digital satellite platform Canal Satelite Digital (CSD). Among the titles included in the deal are multiple Academy Award nominee American Beauty, The Prince Of Egypt, The ...
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BFI Production adds Coriat, McQueen to slate
BFI Production - the UK funding operation that supported early work from such film-makers as Ratcatcher's Lynne Ramsay, 24/7's Shane Meadows and The Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy - has unveiled a new feature slate as it moves under the control of newly-created film super body The Film Council.Wonderland writer ...
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News
Metrodome nabs Eye; Pathe buys Memento
In an increasingly aggressive UK distribution sector, Metrodome Distribution has finalised its acquisition of Eye Of The Beholder and Pathe Distribution has picked up Memento, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to the acclaimed Following.Metrodome, which recently secured a $15m acquisition, fund through a joint venture with UK financier Future Film Group, picked ...
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News
Constantin enters international TV production
Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film is expanding into production of international TV event programming with a $20m two-part adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's international sword and sorcery bestseller The Mists Of Avalon.The two-parter is to begin shooting in the Czech Republic, Scotland and Hungary from next month under the direction of ...
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News
Village plans to sell Harvest stake to hotel chain
Australia's Village Roadshow plans to sell its 34.7% stake in Hong Kong movie company Golden Harvest Entertainment to Hong Kong-based Lai Sun Hotels International for $40m (HK$304.3m). The deal is conditional on the consent of Golden Harvest founder and chairman Raymond Chow."Village Roadshow is now totally focused on its core ...
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BVI ups Broberg, Vassallo in Sweden, Spain
Buena Vista International (BVI) has made two key executive promotions in Spain and Sweden. Eric Broberg has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager of BVI Sweden. In this role, Broberg, who has run BVI's Swedish office since 1992, will supervise all of the distributor's activities throughout ...
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Reviews
Mission To Mars
Dir: Brian De Palma. US. 2000. 112 mins.Prod cos: Jacobson Co Production in association with Touchstone Pictures. Co-prods: David Goyer, Justis Greene, Jim Wedda. US dist: Buena Vista . Int'l Sales: Buena Vista Int'l. Exec prod: Sam Mercer. Prod: Tom Jacobson. Scr: Jim Thomas, John Thomas, Graham Yost. DoP: Stephen ...
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Mixed fortunes for Kirch as BSkyB deal approved
It was a mixed day yesterday for German media giant Kirch which saw its pact with BSkyB waved through by Europe's competition authorities, albeit with significant conditions attached. It lost the latest round in its battle with Universal over film channels, but cemented its alliance with Italy's Mediaset by giving ...
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News
Fortissimo picks up Sabu's Monday
Fortissimo Film Sales has picked up world sales rights to Monday, the Japanese film which scooped the FIPRESCI critics award at last month's Berlin festival.The film, directed by Hiroki Tanaka (aka Sabu), is the story told in flashback of a man who wakes up in a luxury hotel without knowing ...
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Mexican film representative quits in protest
Maria Rojo has resigned from her post as chair of the Mexican delegation to the US-Mexico Bilateral Film Commission in protest against the Mexican Supreme Court's decision to overturn a ban on the dubbing of foreign films into Spanish (Screendaily March 20).The veteran Mexican actress has accused the Motion Picture ...
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Shaw Communications takes fibre-optic stake
Canadian cable operator Shaw Communications has signed a $270m (C$400m) deal with 360networks, the high-speed fibre-optic network headed up by former Microsoft CFO Greg Maffei. The agreement, which sees Shaw take an $100m equity stake in 360networks, gives the company a significant boost as a high-speed provider to its 1.8 ...
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News
Lions Gate launches expansion drive under new CEO
Frank Giustra has stepped aside as chief executive officer of Lions Gate Entertainment, the Canadian mini-studio he founded nearly three years ago, and passed on the managerial reins to former Sony Pictures TV chief Jon Feltheimer.The power transfer, which took affect Tuesday night, is intended to kick Lions Gate's already ...
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News
France's AB seeks secondary listing
French television producer-distributor Groupe AB, which also operates cable and satellite channels in France and Germany, has announced plans to seek a secondary listing on the Paris Stock Exchange. The company, which acquired leading French cable and satellite channel RTL9 from CLT-Ufa in May 1998, has been listed on the ...
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News
Kinowelt mulls investment in Kloiber's TM3
Aggressive German media group Kinowelt is considering taking over Rupert Murdoch's 66% stake in Munich-based channel TM3 as a means of gaining access to a broadcast outlet according to German press reports.Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel quoted Kinowelt CFO Eduard Unzeitig as saying that "an entry in TM3 would be ...
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Canal Plus hits back at TF1 in pay-TV war
Canal Plus COO Denis Olivennes has lashed back at TF1 chairman Patrick Le Lay over his accusation that Canal Plus is monopolising pay-TV rights in the French market (Screendaily March 20).Le Lay's concerns were connected to digital platform TPS, which is part-owned by TF1 and currently lobbying for the creation ...
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Cinar sues Bahamas companies for missing funds
Troubled Canadian producer-distributor Cinar Corp has filed lawsuits against several Bahamas-based investment companies in an attempt to recoup $76m in missing funds.Cinar's co-founders, Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg resigned from their roles as co-CEOs earlier this month over an alleged $122m in unauthorised corporate bond purchases made by executive vice-president ...
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Sogecable denies Canal Satelite sale
Spanish audiovisual group Sogecable has vehemently denied speculation that it is nearing a sale to Telefonica of a 92.5% stake in digital satellite platform Canal Satelite Digital (CSD). Such a sale would undoubtedly result in a long-awaited merger between CSD and Telefonica-owned rival platform Via Digital.Sources at Sogecable this morning ...
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News
Prisa to acquire Spanish publisher ahead of float
Spanish multimedia conglomerate Prisa Group is acquiring Santillana de Ediciones, one of the Spanish-speaking world's largest publishing houses, for an undisclosed amount. The move is seen as an effort by Prisa to add muscle to its planned 25% stock flotation in June.The Prisa announcement coincided with media rival Telefonica's much-discussed ...