All Screen articles in 11 February 2001

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  • News

    Villalonga joins Univision board

    2001-02-11T22:59:00Z

    Juan Villalonga, the former chairman and CEO of Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, has been appointed to the board of directors of US-based broadcaster Univision Communications Inc.Villalonga was forced to resign his post at Telefonica last July amid accusations that he benefited from insider information when he bought and sold stock ...

  • News

    Pinewood, Shepperton complete merger

    2001-02-11T22:58:00Z

    Pinewood Studios and Shepperton Studios, the UK's two leading film production facilities, have finalised a merger that will create a European super studio.Pinewood will take control of Shepperton, which is co-owned by directors Ridley and Tony Scott. Pinewood chief Michael Grade will become executive chairman of the new group, while ...

  • News

    Miramax snaps up Italian For Beginners

    2001-02-11T22:56:00Z

    Miramax has acquired Lone Scherfig's dogme title Italian For Beginners, one of the hottest titles in the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival since its screening on Friday, for release in the US, Mexico and English-speaking Canada. Miramax is understood to have paid $600,000 for the romantic comedy, beating ...

  • News

    Liv Ullmann to replace Jodie Foster at Cannes

    2001-02-11T22:51:00Z

    Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann will head the jury of the 2001 Cannes film festival, replacing Jodie Foster who pulled out to take the lead role in David Fincher's The Panic Room."I am both honoured and deeply appreciative that I am now given the pleasure of being the president ...

  • News

    Lions Gate buys US theatrical rights to Liam

    2001-02-11T20:41:00Z

    Lions Gate Releasing has acquired US theatrical distribution rights to Stephen Frears' drama Liam, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. Starring Ian Hart, Claire Hackett, Anne Reid and introducing Anthony Burrows, the film is set in the Irish Catholic quarter of Liverpool in the 1930s and examines ...

  • News

    Manager John Carrabino joins Catch 23

    2001-02-11T20:39:00Z

    Catch 23 Entertainment, the newly formed LA production outfit formed by financier and philanthropist Robert B Sturm, has hired talent manager John Carrabino as executive vice president of Catch 23's as yet unnamed talent management division.In his new position, he will help build and oversee the division which plans to ...

  • News

    Showtime, Zone Vision launch Showtime Turkey

    2001-02-11T20:37:00Z

    US cable giant Showtime Networks has entered into a joint venture with Zone Vision, a UK-based broadcaster and distributor of thematic channels throughout Europe, to launch Showtime Turkey. Launched on Jan 15, 2001, the channel is available on the new direct-to-home platform DigiTurk, which is currently available in Turkey.The announcement ...

  • News

    Hannibal cannibalises US box office with $58m

    2001-02-11T20:33:00Z

    It was a sensational weekend for Hannibal Lecter at the North American box office. The long-awaited sequel to 1991 classic The Silence Of The Lambs mesmerised the country with an estimated $58m opening weekend gross, giving director Ridley Scott another megahit after last year's Gladiator and MGM, which has domestic ...

  • News

    Leading German producers form lobby group

    2001-02-09T18:03:00Z

    Constantin Film's Bernd Eichinger, Kinowelt's Rainer Koelmel and Road Movies' Uli Felsberg are among 16 leading German film and TV producers banding together to form a producers lobby group.Dubbed FILM 20, the group will focus on representing the film and TV production sector when dealing with broadcasters, public funding bodies, ...

  • News

    Murath, Brunckhorst share German Script Prize

    2001-02-09T17:59:00Z

    Two scripts - Clemens Murath's Schatten Des Jaguar and Natja Brunckhorst's Wie Feuer Und Flamme - were awarded this year's German Script Prize, worth a total $47,000 (DM100,000), by Germany's state minister for culture Julian Nida-Ruemelin.Murath's thriller is to be made as a European co-production, with Filmline's Arno Ortmair ...

  • News

    UK's Hit Entertainment acquires Lyrick

    2001-02-09T17:57:00Z

    UK licensing and merchandising company Hit Entertainment has acquired US rival Lyrick in a $275m reverse takeover that unites the companies behind popular children's characters Bob The Builder and Barney The Dinosaur.Hit is to help fund the deal by placing new shares to raise $106m, most of the cash payment ...

  • Reviews

    Mortal Transfer

    2001-02-09T17:35:00Z

    Screened at Berlin (Panorama). Dir: Jean-Jacques Beineix. France-Germany. 2000. 122mins.Marking Jean-Jacques Beineix's return to theatrical features after an eight-year absence, Mortal Transfer is a disappointingly minor excursion into black comedy-cum-psycho-thriller territory. Taken at its most undemanding level of entertainment, the film's macabre farce and its cast of eccentrics are mildly ...

  • Reviews

    Battle Royale

    2001-02-09T17:01:00Z

    Screened at Rotterdam (main programme). Dir: Kinji Fukasaku. Japan. 2000. 113mins.With its story of teenagers killing each other in a government-sponsored murder game, Battle Royale generated an unprecedented brouhaha following its December release in Japan, with members of parliament and even the minister of education decrying its ultra-violence as a ...

  • Reviews

    My First Mister

    2001-02-09T16:48:00Z

    Screened at Sundance (Opening night premiere). Dir: Christine Lahti. US. 2001. 109mins.My First Mister, actress Christine Lahti's feature directorial debut, is a decent, mildly-engaging melodrama about the unlikely bond that develops between a rebellious high-school graduate and a sensitive, dying older man. Strong acting by both the up-and-coming Leelee Sobieski ...

  • News

    Film Council's Premiere Fund to park with Altman

    2001-02-09T05:40:00Z

    UK film superbody the Film Council is close to investing in iconic US indie film-maker Robert Altman's UK-set satire Gosford Park which will be distributed domestically by USA Films and internationally by Capitol Films.The body is negotiating to board the 1930s-set satire, for which Altman aims to secure an ensemble ...

  • News

    GMI to sell Ed Burns' next film Ash Wednesday

    2001-02-09T05:32:00Z

    Good Machine International (GMI) has acquired international rights to Ash Wednesday, the fifth film to be directed by Edward Burns. Burns has written, will direct and star in and co-produce the film with Margot Bridger, producer on his last film Sidewalks Of New York.Set in 1983 New York, Ash Wednesday ...

  • News

    US strike rules pave way for international bonanza

    2001-02-09T05:28:00Z

    International acting talent and non-US movie companies are set for a boom time later this year as The Screen Actors Guild guidelines to shooting outside the US should an actors strike take place in June became clear yesterday.The Screen Actors Guild Board of Directors issued the following position on work ...

  • News

    Verite opening is second biggest in French history

    2001-02-08T23:31:00Z

    Warner Bros' French outpost has scored its best opening day ever with a local film, La Verite Si Je Mens 2: La Grande Distribution, which has also become the second biggest opener in French box office history, with 503,582 tickets sold on February 7.The sequel to the 1997 hit comedy, ...

  • News

    Italy's Buskin Film acquires Mother Viper

    2001-02-08T19:31:00Z

    Rome-based sales outfit Buskin Film has picked up worldwide rights to Mother Viper, an English-language World War II drama which is written and composed by the award-winning Life Is Beautiful team.Directed by Italy's Sergio Citti, Mother Viper is about a woman's betrayal of her young daughter and her husband, played ...

  • News

    Bavaria, Moviefan swoop on Angel projects

    2001-02-08T19:29:00Z

    Two projects from Danish producer-distributor Angel Films have been picked up for worldwide sales in the market at Berlin - Laila The Pure, directed by Gabriel Axel (Babette's Feast), which has been bought by Moviefan, and Hella Joof's Shake It All About, which has gone to Bavaria Media. Laila, a ...