All Screen articles in 4 May 2002
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News
Angelina doesn't come close to The Scorpion King
The Scorpion King held its sting and top place in the domestic charts with weekend takings of $17.6m, according to studio estimates released today. Universal's spin-off from The Mummy stars The Rock in his first action lead and has taken $60.8m in its first ten days.Total weekend grosses rose for ...
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Directors' Fortnight line-up complete
The Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine Des Realisateurs) wrapped up its 2002 line-up today (Monday Apr 29) when it announced the inclusion of Werner Schroeter's Franco-German production Deux and Romain Goupil's Une Pure Coincidence.In Deux, last year's Palme-winning actress Isabelle Huppert plays twin sisters deprived of love by a tyrannical mother. Sex ...
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Fox departs online distribution joint venture with Disney
Fox Entertainment Group is exiting Movies.com, its joint venture with The Walt Disney Company intended to provide movies and other entertainment content on demand to US consumers through digital cable systems or broadband internet. The partners have now chosen to pursue other strategies to distribute their films to the broadband ...
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Reviews
Hollywood Ending
Dir: Woody Allen. US.2002. 112 mins.Woody Allen's HollywoodEnding follows more in thevein of his recent run of pleasurable but throwaway comedies than it does thefar more emotionally affecting Purple Rose Of Cairo, his other film to deal specifically with cinema itself. With an emphasis on visual humour, both literal and ...
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Reviews
Spider-Man (Spider-Man)
Dir: Sam Raimi. US. 2002. 121mins.Even in the face of new Star Wars, Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings movies, no film this year can have the want-to-see already generated by Columbia Pictures' Spider-Man, a lavish $150m live-action movie of the beloved comic strip, which has been in gestation ...
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News
UK to get Film Council's $20m arthouse 'virtual circuit'
UK support body the Film Council is pressing ahead with plans to create a so-called virtual circuit of art house cinemas and will spend $20m (£14m) over the next four years on up to 150 screens around the country. Most screens are expected to leased from existing exhibitors, but new ...
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FilmFour posts deeper losses as UK's C4 reveals first deficit in decade
The red ink deepened at the UK's FilmFour last year, with the film arm of broadcaster Channel 4 posting an operating loss nearly double that of 2000, while its parent company revealed its first loss for 10 years.FilmFour recorded an operating loss of $7.9m (£5.4m) for 2001, close to ...
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Reviews
Jason X
Dir: Jim Isaac. US. 2002. 93mins.Putting hockey-masked slasher icon Jason into space sounds a desperate idea for reviving the Friday The 13th horror franchise. But while this 10th instalment in the 22-year-old series relies on the same crude, high-body-count schlock appeal as its predecessors, it still manages to have some ...
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'The lights are on green' for EM.TV after Euros 240m write-offs
Germany's EM.TV & Merchandising has reacted to 'the weak advertising market and current changes in the media landscape' by undertaking Euros 240m of extraordinary write-offs.As a result of these write-offs, the consolidated earnings before tax amounted to minus Euros 331m (compared to minus Euros 1.34bn the previous year) and the ...
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News
About A Boy a smash in the UK with $5.4m opening
Universal's comedy-drama About A Boy went straight to the top of the UK charts with a muscular $5.4m opening this weekend, the third biggest of the year in the UK after Monsters Inc and Ocean's Eleven. The Nick Hornby adaptation, which was co-produced by StudioCanal, Working Title and Robert De ...
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News
American World gets foreign to Night At The Golden Eagle
Mark L Lester's American World Pictures has acquired international distribution rights to Night At The Golden Eagle, a US independent feature which opened on a limited release in New York and Los Angeles last weekend.Produced by Steve Bing and Adam Rifkin through Shangri-La Entertainment, the film was written and directed ...
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News
Signpost appoints Bloye as vice president, sales
Signpost Films has appointed Charlie Bloye as vice president, sales, the company announced on Monday.Bloye, previously at Renaissance Films, will reporting to president of sales Nicole Mackey and be based in London. He takes up the position with immediate effect, having been providing a consultancy service to the company."I am ...
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Naomi Watts joins Ned Kelly's Australian cast
Naomi Watts will be returning to Australia in June to star alongside Geoffrey Rush, Rachel Griffith and Heath Ledger in director Gregor Jordan's Ned Kelly, which went into production today (April 29).The news highlights the benefits now flowing to Australian films as a result of the recent international attention focussed ...
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News
Troy Lum resigns as head of Australia's Dendy Films
Troy Lum has resigned as head of Australia's Dendy Films, a move that may give Richard Payten and Andrew Mackie ultimate responsibility for acquiring films for all three of the distribution entities within the Becker Group. A final decision, however, is unlikely until after Cannes.Manager director Richard Becker said he ...
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News
Winning films narrowly avoid ban at Istanbul Film Festival
Most talked about at the Istanbul Film Festival (April 13-28) was the one film that didn't show up - at least not in its official format, having been banned by the Ministry of Culture. Two other films, which both came away with awards, narrowly escaped similar bans.Hejar a melodrama about ...
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Vivendi Universal calls extraordinary general meeting for June
Troubled media giant, Vivendi Universal has set a slot in June as the date for an extraordinary shareholder meeting after the results of last week's annual general meeting were thrown into doubt by suspicious electronic voting. The company has not hesitated to allege interference and to describe it as fraudulent. ...
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Canada rules on reception of US satellite TV signals
The reception of US satellite TV signals in Canada has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Canada, reversing previous lower court decisions and heralding a victory for the two licensed Canadian operators, Bell Expressvu and Star Choice Communications.The two local operators had complained that grey and black market ...
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Sundance Film Festival changes HQ to Prospector Square
The Sundance Film Festival has moved its official Park City headquarters for next year from the Shadow Ridge Hotel to the Park City Marriott in the Prospector Square area of the town.The recently renovated Marriott, formerly the Olympia Park Hotel, housed a screening room for the 2002 festival and is ...
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Industry vets start new US indie distributor MAC
A new independent US distributor has been founded by industry veterans Mike Marcus, Andy Gruenberg and Craig Baumgarten. Named MAC Releasing, the company intends to capitalize on untapped commercial opportunities in the distribution of independent films and kicks off with the release of A Shot At Glory starring and produced ...
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Lightning gets international rights to Motown documentary
Richard Guardian's new international sales outfit Lightning Entertainment has acquired international distribution rights in all media for the new music documentary Standing In The Shadows Of Motown to which Artisan Entertainment recently bought domestic distribution rights.Based upon the 1989 book of the same title by Allan Slutsky, the film chronicles ...