All Screen articles in 11 February 2008 – Page 9
-
Features
United States - Star man
For Rigel Entertainment, getting into the feature film business was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition, says founder, president and CEO John Laing.After 15 years as a backer, producer and worldwide distributor of TV programming, including the Robocop and Pacific Blue series, Laing felt Rigel could ...
-
Features
Ireland - The Irish Revival
Irish producers have their work cut out right now. With an 18% budget increase to $34.3m (EUR23.2m) for the Irish Film Board (IFB) there is more money available for low-budget, locally developed projects than ever before. Yet there are also fewer international film projects shooting in Ireland. Previously, projects such ...
-
News
United Kingdom - Scaling new heights
If gamblers are ready to start handicapping next year's Bafta race, Julian Jarrold's Brideshead Revisited would be a safe bet.The producers at Ecosse Films, of course, would cringe at such early awards talk - Ecosse is one of those production companies that likes to let its work speak for itself. ...
-
Features
Local exposure
Czech cinemas enjoyed their highest-grossing year ever in 2007, with box office receipts reaching a total of $66.9m (ckr1.2bn). This represents a 20% increase on 2006, although ticket prices also increased 3% in 2007. Admissions were 12.8 million, up 11% from 2006.Much of the success has been down to strong ...
-
Features
New Talent - European Stars of Tomorrow
Ambra Angiolini, ItalyAngiolini had already made her name in the 1990s as a TV starlet and presenter before returning to performing in theatre some years later, reinventing herself as a serious actress. She made her film debut last year in Ferzan Ozpetek's Saturno Contro, gaining overnight credibility and winning a ...
-
News
Cutting edge
Director John Maybury is on a high having just locked The Edge Of Love, his Wales-shot drama about Dylan Thomas and the women who loved him. 'It's the best thing I've done,' the director says. The BBC Films project, sold and financed by Capitol with backing from the Wales Creative ...
-
News
Foreign language Oscar contenders
BEAUFORT (Israel)(Metro Communications, Movie Plus)A last-minute replacement for the popular The Band's Visit, which had too much English dialogue for Academy regulations, Beaufort has proved as worthy a contender and is the first Israeli film since 1984's Beyond The Walls to score a best foreign-language Oscar nod.Based on the novel ...
-
News
United States - Building an icon
Diversity and synergy are two themes that get a lot of airplay in Hollywood - and more often than not the words are bandied about in an off-hand way that robs them of their currency. Yet they are at the core of what Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon group ...
-
FeaturesAwards Countdown - Johnny Depp
Nominated for his third best actor Oscar in five years, Johnny Depp tells Mike Goodridge why he worried he wouldn’t be up to playing Sweeney Todd
-
Features
Australia-UK - See-saw on the rise
When London-based acquisitions executive Iain Canning and Sydney producer Emile Sherman vie for the best projects under their new See-Saw production banner, the ace up their sleeve will be a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures International (PPI) to invest equity.They also hope their pooled skills and experience will be a ...
-
Features
International - Asterix the champion
France's Asterix At The Olympic Games won first place in the international arena by a long run this weekend as the family film enjoyed a mammoth $38.3m take and accounted for 20.8% of the top 40 revenue.The latest instalment of the comic book adaptation played across 3,002 screens in 19 ...
-
Features
Argentina - Out of the past
"I am 100% French...and I am 100% Argentinian," says the Buenos Aires-born writer-director Lucia Cedron. Her family story played an important part in her debut feature Lamb Of God, the opening film at this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival. Cedron is the daughter of film-maker and political activist Jorge 'The ...
-
News
European dreams: review of Rotterdam 2008
The International Film Festival Rotterdam ended last weekend on a more upbeat note than many would have predicted when the festival began a fortnight ago. There had been mutterings among staff about cutbacks to its budget. Some outsiders had questioned the coherence of the programming and what appeared to be ...
-
Reviews
Shine A Light
Dir: Martin Scorsese. US. 2008. 123 mins.Raunchy and affectionate, Scorsese's Rolling Stones film, which opened this year's Berlinale, is as much homage as concert film. In bringing the miracle of the Stones' survival to a wider audience, it's the cinematic equivalent of an all-singing, all-dancing Tutankhamun exhibition. And for all ...
-
News
Burt Reynolds starts shoot for A Bunch Of Amateurs
Shooting started February 2 on A Bunch Of Amateurs, starring Burt Reynolds, Imelda Staunton and Derek Jacobi.The UK comedy is being sold by Odyssey internationally, with Cinetic handling US rights.Director Andy Cadiff is shooting for six weeks in London and on The Isle Of Man. David Parfitt (Shakespeare In Love) ...
-
News
Dark Sky moves into West's House Of The Devil
Dark Sky Films is working with Roger Kass of Studio Bang and Josh Braun and Larry Fessenden's Glass Eye Pix to produce new horror/thriller The House Of The Devil.Ti West wrote and will direct, with the shoot set to start in mid-March in Connecticut. It is casting now.Braun, Kass, Fessenden ...
-
Reviews
The Last Word
Dir: Geoffrey Haley. US. 2008. 94 mins.Geoffrey Haley, a DP and editor perhaps best known for shooting the floating plastic bag sequence in American Beauty, makes his feature debut with The Last Word, a dark comedy about a man who makes a living writing other people's suicide notes. In ...
-
News
Content closes Daisy Chain with sales to France, Greece and beyond
ContentFilm has announced a number of sales on supernatural thriller The Daisy Chain, which stars Samantha Morton and Steven Mackintosh.The Daisy Chain has gone to France (Wildside), Greece (Spentzos), Poland (Monolith), Portugal (Lusomundo), Brazil (Playarte), The West Indies (Caribbean Film Services), and Romania (Media Pro).Aisling Walsh directs, and the film ...
-
Reviews
Downloading Nancy
Dir: Johan Renck. 2008. US. 96 mins.A woman’s journey of self-hatred, self-degradation, self-mutilation and ultimately self-destruction courtesy of a murderous kindred spirit makes for grim viewing in Downloading Nancy, the feature debut of Swedish commercials and music video director Johan Renck. Although acted with conviction and directed with not a ...
-
News
Films Distribution expands lineup with four genre movies
France's Films Distribution has unveiled a new slate of four genre movies heading into the EFM.In what the company calls a diversification of its line up, the new films are: Ruiflec: The Village Of Shadows directed by Fouad Benhammou and starring Sara Forestier about a group of young people trapped ...