All Screen articles in 11 February 2008 – Page 7
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Reviews
Mermaid
Dir: Anna Melikyan. Russia, 2007. 118 mins.Azerbaijani director Anna Melkian's second feature opens Berlin' Panorama section with a World Cinema Director's award from Sundance and solid box office at home in Russia under its belt (her first, Mars, was also shown in Panorama at Berlin).A coming-of-age fairytale with dark undertones, ...
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News
Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata sold to Japan, France
Japan's Entertainment Farm - Fortissimo Films' producing partner on Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata - has secured Japanese distribution for the film via PiX Inc, a subsidiary of Avex Entertainment founded in December last year. In addition, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners has come on board as a Japanese partner and Fortissimo ...
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News
Soros acquires 3% stake in India's Reliance Entertainment
Billionaire venture capitalist George Soros has bought a 3% stake in India's Reliance Entertainment for $100m. The move values the company, owned by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, at $3bn and highlights increasing investor interest in Indian entertainment firms. In 2006, Walt Disney took a minority stake in Mumbai-based UTV ...
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Fortissimo makes donation to Scorsese's WCF
Fortissimo Films will be presenting Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation (WCF) with a $50,000 cheque at a special reception at the Berlin International Film Festival tonight (Feb 8). Both Scorsese and executive director of the WCF, Alberto Luna, will be in attendance, along with other distinguished guests.Scorsese's WCF is a ...
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News
Jaime Rosales' Solitary Fragments to get Spanish re-release
Spanish director Jaime Rosales' powerful family drama Solitary Fragments will be re-released in cinemas across Spain today following its best picture and best director awards at last week's Goyas. The film's first theatrical release was in June 2007 when it achieved only 41,000 admissions, but Wanda Films is confident the ...
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Reviews
The Hottie And The Nottie
Dir: Tom Putnam. US. 2008. 98 mins.A crude twist on the old maxim about inner beauty trumping outward appearance, The Hottie And The Nottie sluggishly tries to copy the Farrelly brothers' winning mixture of sweetness and occasionally revolting humour, but the results couldn't be more unsightly. Socialite and tabloid ...
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News
UGC International loads up with Lucky Luke, Schroeder
Along with competition feature Il y a Longtemps Que Je T'Aime directed by Philippe Claudel, UGC International is hitting Berlin with a strong line up including the latest from Andre Techine, Barbet Schroeder and James Huth.Huth, whose recent hits include Hell Phone and Brice De Nice, will re-team with his ...
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News
Napola's Schilling plays young Hitler in Mein Kampf
Young German actor Tom Schilling, who appeared opposite Max Riemelt in Dennis Gansel's Napola and turns 26 on Sunday (Feb 10), has been cast as the young Hitler in Urs Odermatt's Mein Kampf, based on the 1987 stage play farce of the same name by the late George Tabori.The story ...
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Valhalla finally rises for Nicolas Winding Refn
Valhalla is finally rising. Nicolas Winding Refn's long-in-the-works Viking yarn Valhalla Rising, starring Mads Mikkelsen as One-Eye, is now fully financed and will begin shooting in Glasgow and on the Isle Of Skye in the summer.'We closed the gap this week and we're headed to start shooting in June,'producer Johnny ...
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KOFIC launches fund to support Korean films overseas
The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) is launching a $420,000 fund to support the overseas theatrical release of Korean films. Distributors in select foreign countries who have acquired the theatrical rights to a Korean film can apply to the fund to cover up to 50% of release expenses, in accordance with ...
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News
German production outfit SKF lays out English-language slate
German production outfit Schmidtz Katze Filmkollektiv (SKF), which co-produced Berlin competition title Black Ice, has unveiled a new slate of English language projects budgeted between Euros 5m-10m, including a historical drama based on the life of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of printing.'We are wanting to have more in-house development of ...
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David Slade signs to direct political thriller Unthinkable
Kimmel International has boarded David Slade's political thriller Unthinkable, which is set to go before cameras this summer.Michael Mendelsohn and Caldecot Chubb are producing through their Patriot Pictures and ChubbCo Film Co ventures.The story centres on a race by interrogators to force a man to reveal the location of three ...
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Elephant cooks up Turkey with Rudd, Sedaris, Theroux
Paul Rudd, John Goodman, Amy Sedaris, Justin Theroux and Danny McBride have come on board to star in Turkey In The Straw, Craig Zobel's follow-up to his 2007 Sundance hit Great World Of Sound. The project, with a budget under $5m, will start shooting in April in South Carolina, about ...
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News
Chesuto! to have world premiere at Hong Kong Filmart
The Tokyo International Film Festival and TIFFCOM market will hold the world premiere of Toshiro Saiga's Chesuto! at this year's Hong Kong Filmart on March 18. Set in the south-western prefecture of Kagoshima, Chesuto! is a coming-of-age story about a female swimming instructor coaching a team of elementary school children ...
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News
SPWAG buys multiple territories on Tortured
Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisition Group (SPWAG) has picked up North American and multiple territory rights to the upcoming thriller Tortured starring Laurence Fishburne and Cole Hauser.The deal encompasses the UK, Benelux, French-speaking Europe, Portugal, Spain, Scandinavia, Russia, Hungary and Bulgaria.Nolan Lebovitz directs from his screenplay about an undercover FBI agent ...
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UK's Delanic ramps up with four buys including Hachiko, Swing Vote
UK and Irish independent distributor Delanic Films has acquired four new films for 2008 release: Peter Howitt's Dangerous Parking, Rodrigo Garcia's Passengers, Lasse Hallstrom's Hachiko: A Dog's Story; and Joshua Michael Stern's Swing Vote. Dangerous Parking, sold by Velvet Octopus, is Howitt's adaptation of the eponymous novel about a self-destructive ...
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Odd Lot International sets out on Road with Bridges, Timberlake
Odd Lot International has boarded Michael Meredith's drama The Open Road starring Jeff Bridges, Justin Timberlake, Kate Mara and Mary Steenburgen.Odd Lot Entertainment is producing the story of a young man must reconnect with his estranged father and get him home to his ailing mother's bedside. Production is set to ...
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Wide Management picks up Victoire Terminus, Summer Book
Loic Magneron's Paris-based Wide Management has picked up world sales rights on Berlinale Forum title, Victoire Terminus, directed by Renaud Barrett and Florent De La Tullaye. All territories are available on the African boxing drama.Also new on Wide's EFM slate is another Forum title, Summer Book from Turkish director Seyfi ...
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Independent sings with Bernard Rose's The Kreutzer Sonata
London-based sales and production company Independent has taken on international rights to Bernard Rose's The Kreutzer Sonata. Jeff Berg at ICM is handling the US rights.Danny Huston, Elisabeth Rohm, Matthew Yang King and Anjelica Huston star. Producers are Naomi Despres and Lisa Enos.The Kreutzer Sonata is about a husband who ...
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News
Japan's Toei lands in Berlin with Orochi: Blood
Japanese studio Toei has made a last-minute decision to attend the European Film Market, and will be selling the new horror title from Norio Tsuruta, who previously directed the J-Horror Theatre title Premonition. Tsuruta's new film, Orochi: Blood, stars Yoshino Kimura (Sukiyaki Western Django) in a story about two sisters, ...