All Screen articles in 11 September 2003
View all stories from this month.
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News
Rappeneau romance gets Oscar nod
Veteran directorJean-Paul Rappeneau's Bon Voyage has been selected as France's contender for the foreign-languageOscar. Thefilm, which stars Isabelle Adjani, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal,Gregori Derangere andGerard Depardieu, is a romantic drama set against the period when France was losing ground in WWII. The director, who previouslydirected foreign-language box office champion Cyrano ...
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News
Spacey's Sea heads up Element X debut slate
Beyond The Sea, Kevin Spacey's story of legendary crooner Bobby Darin, is amongst the titles on the debut slate of Element X, the London-based international sales company set up by former FilmFour executives Janine Gold and Natalie Brenner.Principal photography on the Anglo-German co-production starts in October in Europe. The film ...
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News
Scott prepares to embark on Crusades epic
Gladiator director Sir Ridley Scott has confirmed that his next project will be the historical epic The Crusades.Speaking in London on Sept 9 after a BAFTA screening of his latest film Matchstick Men, Scott said he planned to begin filming early next year in Spain and North Africa.Despite the sensitive ...
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News
Rome plays host to cloistered screening of Gibson's Passion
Special projects require special tactics. And there can be few films requiring such an approach as Mel Gibson's $25m religious tract The Passion.Gibson's company Icon Entertainment and ICM, the Catholic activist superstar's agent, are carefully selecting distributors for what it already knows is inflammatory and difficult material. On the eve ...
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Exorcist prequel books into Cinecitta for major reshoot
The Exorcist: The Beginning has booked in for a five to six week reshoot at Rome's Cinecitta Studios next month, following director Paul Schrader's sudden dismissal from the movie after an alleged conflict with his producers at Morgan Creek. Carol Andre-Smith, director of international marketing at Cinecitta confirmed that re-shoots ...
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News
Piggies hopes to fly with Little Bird
UK production company Little Bird has optioned teen horror novel Piggies as the first title under its recently-launched teen film arm.The book by Nick Gifford follows a youngster who is transported to a parallel world inhabited by vampires. Nahrein Mirza, who heads Little Bird's teen arm, is teaming up on ...
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News
UK's Skills Investment Fund may become obligatory
The Skills Investment Fund, the UK fund for training made up of voluntary contributions from local productions, may become obligatory under plans being discussed with the Government.Stewart Till, who is deputy chairman of support body the UK Film Council and training agency Skillset, which administers the fund, told Screendaily that ...
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French box office buoyed by August figures
France's National Cinema Centre has released figures for August box office which add up to good news for the local industry. Following a rotten year for movie going, numbers were up in August by 5.2% compared with last year.August saw 14.1 million tickets sold making it one of the best ...
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Reviews
Underworld
Dir: Len Wiseman. US-UK-Germany-Hungary. 2003. 121 mins.A laughable exercise in Gothic gloom and pulpy horror movie cliches, Underworld is strictly for genre fans. The potential novelty of an age old blood feud between vampires and werewolves quickly fades in a film that sticks rigidly to the tried and trusted elements ...
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SPAIN
Fox's Sean Connery-starrer The League Of Extraodinary Gentlemen did extraodinarily well in its opening weekend in Spain, its first major European territory. The success could bode well for future openings on the continent, which continue with a 95 print launch in The Netherlands this weekend.Pirates Of The Caribbean held steady ...
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News
SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
Daddy Day Care remained unbeatable in its fourth week at the Serbia and Montenegro box office, having sold another 8,601 admissions to gross a total of $95,000 (SD 5.6m) for distributor Tuck. This week's new competitors, the same distributor's Hollywood Homicide and Pro Vision's Taxi 3 failed to unseat the ...
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News
ICELAND
Despite dropping 40% from its premiere weekend, the third installment of the American Pie-series, American Pie: The Wedding, managed to stay on top of the Icelandic chart in front of new releases The Italian Job and Daddy Day Care. Other than that there was little change at the top, where ...
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FINLAND
The top of the Finnish chart saw little change this weekend with Buena Vista's Pirates Of The Caribbean staying ahead of stablemate Piglet's Big Movie and local comedy Pearls And Pigs (Helmia ja sikoja).While Perttu Leppaa's local film boasts a better screen average of 471 admissions than Piglet, and went ...
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Toronto: Saddest Music, Rosenstrasse find US homes
US distributors picked uptwo more international titles at the Toronto International Film Festival. IFCFilms has picked up all US rights on Canadian Guy Maddin's raucous comedy TheSaddest Music In The World,following the film's North American premiere at the event. Samuel Goldwyn Filmshas taken US rights on Margarethe von Trotta's Rosenstrasse, ...
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Plum teams up with Madstone to find new talent
Plum Pictures, the fledglingproduction company founded by Galt Niederhoffer, Celine Rattray and DanielaSoto-Taplin, has teamed up with New York-based integrated entertainment outfitMadstone to uncover talent and projects for the latter's Directors Programme.Plum will relocate toMadstone's corporate offices in Manhattan as part of the move and will work onthe Directors Programme ...
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News
Saddest Music, Rosenstrasse find US homes
US distributors picked uptwo more international titles at the Toronto International Film Festival. IFCFilms has picked up all US rights on Canadian Guy Maddin's raucous comedy TheSaddest Music In The World,following the film's North American premiere at the event. Samuel Goldwyn Filmshas taken US rights on Margarethe von Trotta's Rosenstrasse, ...
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News
Kosse to depart Momentum for Universal
Momentum Pictures managing director David Kosse is set to join Universal to head up its international marketing and distribution.Based in London, Kosse will help manage Universal's relationship with its international distributor, UIP. It is understood that Kosse will take a seat on the UIP board. Kosse has spent more that ...
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Hebrew Hammer strikes US theatrical, TV deals
New York-based CowboyPictures has acquired Jonathan Kesselman's "Jewxploitation" comedy TheHebrew Hammer for theatrical releasein select cities in mid-December to coincide with the Hannukkah holiday.The acquisition is relatedto a larger deal in which ContentFilm also sold North American broadcast rightsto Comedy Central, which will air The Hebrew Hammer for two weeks ...
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Jon Fitzgerald creates consulting and services operation for indie film-makers
Festival veteran JonFitzgerald has launched Right Angle Studios, an integrated and technologicallysavvy one-stop shop offering consulting, production and distribution servicesfor independent film-makers.The venture will be linkedto a website offering online resources and links with the aim of providing aguide through the choppy and often overcrowded festival circuit waters."In the first ...
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News
Herwitz signs on as consultant to Stern's Endgame
Andrew Herwitz, president ofNew York-based The Film Sales Company, has signed on as independent consultantfor Jim Stern's production and financing outfit Endgame Entertainment.Herwitz will immediatelybegin scouting material for Endgame's development, co-production financing andacquisitions fund, structuring deals and advising on sales strategies."It is refreshing to workwith someone like Jim who has ...