All Screen articles in 9 March 2008
View all stories from this month.
-
News
US box office down with lacklustre Semi Pro opening for New Line
Box office fell for the third consecutive week as the Will Ferrell comedy Semi Pro, New Line's final release before it merges with Warner Bros, launched at number one on a lacklustre $15.3m.This wasn't as good as openings for Ferrell's previous sporting spoofs- Blades Of Glory last year ($33m) and ...
-
News
Ellen Page drops out of Raimi's Drag Me To Hell
Ellen Page has exited Ghost House Pictures and Mandate Pictures' upcoming horror film Drag Me To Hell due to scheduling conflicts caused by a change in the production start date.Sam Raimi is preparing to direct the tale he co-wrote with his brother Ivan about an ambitious career woman who gets ...
-
News
Vantage Point takes $11.5m for SPRI, but Fox's Jumper is still top
Fox International's sci-fi adventure Jumper triumphed over a strong challenge from Sony's assassination thriller Vantage Point to stay atop the overseas charts for the third consecutive weekend as a $12.8m estimated haul saw the tally vault to $81.9m.Jumper remains active on 4,067 screens in 44 markets and the weekend highlight ...
-
News
LA distributors rep Orange launches film finance division
Mirjam Wertheim's LA-based distributors' rep Orange Entertainment is branching out into film financing through a new division called Orange Film Finance and a first-look deal with Goldcrest Independent.In addition to its existing business, Orange will also serve as a consultant to independent producers helping them secure finance for films by ...
-
News
Richard Napper takes MD post at UK's Curzon Cinemas
Richard Napper, the former managing director, UK, of Sony Pictures International, has been appointed as the new managing director of Curzon Cinemas.He will oversee all the business operations of exhibition outfit Curzon, part of UK distributor-exhibitor Curzon Artificial Eye Group. Louisa Dent continues as managing director on the distribution side.Philip ...
-
News
Screen opinion: Cinema's public advantage
It's the small ironies that often give away the big picture.And this week we have the perfect example in the Northern English town of Huddersfield.The ban on smoking in public spaces, which has been spreading across much of the world, has forced players of the game of bingo out of ...
-
News
Singapore's Scorpio East buys six-pack from EMP
Singapore's Scorpio East Pictures has inked a six-movie package deal with Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures (EMP), including Derek Yee's Japan-set Shinjuku Incident starring Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu and Naoto Takenaka. The deal also includes Chen Kaige's Mei Lanfang, a biopic of the legendary Peking opera singer with Leon Lai ...
-
News
Revolver Germany on board for Czech co-production Normal
Revolver Film Germany, the German outpost of Raymond van der Kaaij's Dutch production outfit Revolver Film, has boarded its first co-production Normal by Julius Sevcik with Czech producer Karla Stojakova's Axman Production.Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com, Marta Lamperova, van der Kaaij's partner in Revolver Film Germany, described the filmmaker as 'young ...
-
News
NZ Film Commission boards Second Hand Wedding
The New Zealand Film Commission has taken international sales rights and invested in the post-production of the feel-good drama Second Hand Wedding. The film was directed by Paul Murphy from a script by Nick Ward (Stickmen, The Ferryman). It is about Jill (Geraldine Brophy), a school teacher who is so ...
-
News
Valchanov's Which Way Today to open Sofia festival
The 12th Sofia International Film Festival (March 6-16) will present 100 feature films, 20 documentaries and 60 shorts in 11 programmes. Bulgarian Rangel Valchanov's Which Way Today, the legendary director's first film in 14 years will open the festival, and Fatih Akin's The Edge Of Heaven will close it.The international ...
-
News
Belgrade Meetings boost projects from Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Serbia
The third Belgrade Industry Meetings, also known as B2B (Business to Belgrade) took place this weekend as a part of the 36th Belgrade International Film Festival FEST(Feb 22- Mar 2).B2B focuses on 'Europe out of Europe'- a concept including countries which are geographically in Europe but not yet fully included ...
-
News
UK's John Akomfrah at work on Fela Kuti documentary
UK film-maker John Akomfrah, who recently collected an Order Of The British Empire (OBE) for his services to film, has several new projects in the works.His Smoking Dogs Films production outfit, with Lina Gopaul and David Lawson, is currently working on a feature-length documentary about Afro Beat legend Fela Kuti. ...
-
News
Ingenious acquires Human Capital, launches consulting arm
UK-based finance powerhouse Ingenious Media has moved into consulting with the launch of Ingenious Consulting Network (ICN). Ingenious has acquired Human Capital, a strategy, research and development consultancy that concentrates on media, entertainment and telecoms.ICN said it planned to acquire other businesses offering consulting to media and entertainment businesses.Kip Meek, ...
-
Reviews
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
Dir. Bharat Nalluri, UK, 2008, 92 minutes.Set in lavishly-decadent pre-war London, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a grown-up Cinderella story about a middle-aged jobless governess who schemes to be social secretary to an American Lolita, who, in turn, schemes to be a singer. Bharat Nalluri's unimaginative, awkwardly-scripted farcereminds ...
-
News
Zentropa starts new fund to back challenging Danish films
Lars von Trier's Danish production outfit Zentropa has started a new fund to give up to $1.2m (Euros 800,000) to challenging local film projects.Lars von Trier will judge the proposed projects himself and the production funds will go to films where the director is working outside the usual language of ...
-
News
Chinese scriptwriters call on SARFT for rights protection
More than 80 Chinese film and TV scriptwriters have collectively filed a petition to the State Administration of Film, Radio and Television (SARFT) demanding greater recognition and rights protection. The scriptwriters' three major demands are: to ensure their names are credited in the proper places in films and TV programmes; ...
-
News
Man leaves Singapore's MDA for Mark Burnett
Man Shu Sum has resigned as director of the Singapore Film Commission (SFC) and director of strategic relations for the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA). He will join Mark Burnett Productions Asia (MBPA) as CEO to produce Asian television content for the international market. The company is a new ...
-
News
Comedy Bienvenue sets record for opening weekend in France
The Dany Boon-directed comedy Bienvenue Chez Les Ch'Tis has overtaken Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith with the all-time best opening weekend in Paris and its environs.The film, which is set in the north of France and whose title refers to the local denizens, has sold 604,126 ...
-
News
Canadian filmmakers denounce proposed law as censorship
Canada's film and television community is up in arms amidst the revelation of proposed federal legislation that could potentially retract a production's tax-credit eligibility after the fact. Under changes to Bill C-10 introduced by the minority Conservative government, the Income Tax Act would deny a production company its tax credit ...
-
News
Little Girl Blue named Best Film at Czech Lion Awards
Alice Nellis' Little Girl Blue has been named Best Film at the annual Czech Lion awards, the Czech equivalent of the Oscars. The film's producer, Jan Sverak, received the award at a gala ceremony Saturday at Prague's Lucerna Palace and immediately shared it with the film's director, Alice Nellis. Sverak ...