All Screen articles in 11 September 2007 – Page 5

  • News

    Canadian doc makers nervous as Burns exits Documentary Channel

    2007-09-09T09:00:00Z

    Canada's documentary filmmaking community is up in arms as one of the nation's top commissioning editors, The Documentary Channel's programming director Michael Burns, has been let go.Driving the controversy is the role of national broadcaster CBC in the firing. The CBC purchased majority control of The Documentary Channel having given ...

  • News

    Louisiana ex-film comissioner faces bribery charges

    2007-09-09T09:00:00Z

    Louisiana's former film commissioner Mark Smith faces up to 15 years in prison and a $350,000 fine for taking bribes to entice film production into the state.Smith pleaded guilty on Friday to accepting approximately $60,000 in bribes while he led the state's film development efforts, a role he carried out ...

  • News

    Arts Alliance takes North America for Never Forever

    2007-09-09T09:00:00Z

    Arts Alliance America, formerly Hart Sharp Video, has picked up North American rights to the Vera Farmiga drama Never Forever and will co-distribute with South Korea's Prime Entertainment.The company plans a theatrical release in the first quarter of 2008 followed by DVD rollout.Never Forever premiered at Sundance and stars Farmiga ...

  • News

    Myriad takes on rights to Farlinger's All Hat

    2007-09-09T09:00:00Z

    Los Angeles-based financing, production and sales company Myriad Pictures has picked up international rights on Leonard Farlinger's Toronto entry All Hat.Based on the book by Brad Smith, the comedy Western centres on the exploits of an ex-con who struggles to stay on the straight and narrow after he returns to ...

  • News

    After whirlwind Toronto, Nair heads to Mumbai for Shantaram

    2007-09-09T09:00:00Z

    New York-based director Mira Nair left Toronto Saturday night after a short 24-hour visit to the festival - she's now in Mumbai preparing for her largest film yet, Shantaram.The $100m project, for Warner Bros with Graham King's GK Films producing and Plan B on board, starts shooting Jan 19 for ...

  • News

    Miramax takes on US rights to Meirelles' Blindness

    2007-09-09T00:44:00Z

    Miramax announced last night that it had picked up US rights to Fernando Meirelles' thriller Blindness in a deal believed to be in the $4m-5m range.Meirelles is currently shooting his adaptation of Jose Saramago's novel, about a doctor's wife who becomes the only person in a town who can see ...

  • News

    THINKFilm takes on US rights to Hunt's Then She Found Me

    2007-09-08T20:50:00Z

    In the first major deal to be struck at the festival, THINKFilm has paid just under $3m for US rights to Helen Hunt's directorial debut Then She Found Me. The distributor was among a pack of buyers chasing rights after the Killer Films production's world premiere on Friday, finally closing ...

  • News

    Lust, Caution is surprise winner of Venice's Golden Lion

    2007-09-08T20:03:00Z

    Ang Lee won the Golden Lion - again - at the 64th Venice International Film Festival yesterday for Lust, Caution, a surprise win for the Taiwanese auteur over the critical favourite Le Graine Et Le Mulet directed by Abdellatif Kechiche from France.Lee won his first Golden Lion two years ago ...

  • News

    Weinsteins take world rights to John Crowley's Boy A

    2007-09-08T16:25:00Z

    The Weinstein Company (TWC) made the first big play of the festival as it announced on Friday it had swooped on worldwide rights excluding UK TV for Boy A. John Crowley's UK drama centres a young ex-con after he is released from prison for committing a murder as ...

  • News

    Redacted goes worldwide with HDNet

    2007-09-08T16:08:00Z

    HDNet Films sealed most territorial deals on Brian De Palma's Iraq war drama Redacted ahead of its Venice world premiere.The film, which screens here on Monday and goes on to play the New York Film Festival, sold to TFM in France, New Select in Japan, AE/Eagle Pictures in Italy, On ...

  • News

    Revolver strikes DVD deal with Image for new US operation

    2007-09-08T15:34:00Z

    UK distributor Revolver Entertainment has opened a US home-video division, based in Los Angeles, and has signed an exclusive distribution deal with Image Entertainment.Image will have exclusive home video and digital distribution rights to Revolver's North American releases, and expects to distribute about 12-15 titles during the deal's first year.The ...

  • News

    Memento strikes Venice deals for Under The Bombs

    2007-09-08T15:16:00Z

    Since receiving an emotional standing ovation in Venice, Philippe Aractingi's Under The Bombs has sealed two distribution deals just as Toronto gets underway.Memento Films, which is handling world rights to the film, has sold it to the UK's Channel 4 and Italy's Fandango. Memento's Tanja Meissner says she is also ...

  • News

    Toronto's financing forum recruits 36 international producers

    2007-09-08T15:13:00Z

    36 Canadian and international producers have been lined up to take part in the second annual International Financing Forum (IFF) organised by the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC) in partnership with TIFF.The selected producers will have one-one-one brokered meetings and round tables with producers, executives and financiers during the event ...

  • News

    IFC takes North America for Kormakur's Jar City

    2007-09-08T15:10:00Z

    IFC Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Baltasar Kormakur's crime thriller Jar City, which started screening here on Thursday. Vice president of acquisitions and production Arianna Bocco and director of acquisitions and production Lizzie Nastro did the deal with ICM and Trust Films' sales executive Natja Noviani Rosner at ...

  • News

    Fridriksson and Kormakur set up new production company

    2007-09-08T15:06:00Z

    Icelandic director-producers Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and Baltasar Kormakur, who has Jar City in Toronto, have joined forces to set up a new production shingle, Thordarhofdi Film Productions, currently readying two features for its first slate.'Thordarhofdi means 'the mountain between us' - we both have farms in northern Iceland,' explained Fridriksson, ...

  • News

    Broomfield delivers controversial Iraq project Battle For Haditha

    2007-09-08T15:02:00Z

    Nick Broomfield adds his voice to the wave of films on modern warfare and terrorism with Battle For Haditha, which gets its much anticipated world premiere here on Sept 11.The British film-maker employed his trademark unflinching storytelling style in the re-enactment of an alleged retaliatory massacre of 24 Iraqi innocents ...

  • News

    Gavin Hood eyes December shoot for Wolverine

    2007-09-08T15:00:00Z

    Gavin Hood, in town to attend last night's world premiere of Rendition, has lined up a December start in Australia and New Zealand for the X-Men spin-off Wolverine.Hood said he planned to make a profound origins story that would bear the hallmarks of Greek tragedy.'We all mutate after trauma, in ...

  • News

    Voltage electrifies buyers with Diary Of The Dead

    2007-09-08T14:56:00Z

    Zombie film George A Romero's Diary Of The Dead has already proved a major draw to international buyers ahead of its world premiere in Midnight Madness tonight.Voltage Pictures has sold rights to the UK (Optimum), Japan (Presidio), Germany (Legend), France (Bac), Twister (Russia), Italy (Sharada), Brazil (Imagem), and Argentina (Pachamama).Further ...

  • News

    Preity Zinta to star in Deepa Mehta's Heaven On Earth

    2007-09-08T14:52:00Z

    Bollywood starlet Preity Zinta is set to star in Deepa Mehta's new film Heaven On Earth.Written and to be directed by Mehta and produced by long-time producing partner David Hamilton, the $3m feature goes to camera on November 5 in Toronto followed by filming in India. Mongrel Media will be ...

  • News

    Anagram heats up global warming project The Thaw

    2007-09-08T14:49:00Z

    Vancouver-based Anagram Pictures, production company behind zombie comedy Fido, is setting up global warming horror picture The Thaw for production in spring 2008.Mark Lewis (Ill Fated) is attached to direct the screenplay he cowrote with Michael Lewis. Anagram's Mary Anne Waterhouse and Trent Carlson will produce with Rob Neilson. Maple ...