All Screen articles in 17 June 2005
View all stories from this month.
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Reviews
Bewitched
Dir: Nora Ephron. US.2005. 98 mins.Sony's eagerly awaited movie of the beloved 60s TV series Bewitched has to be one of the most featherweight summerblockbuster prospects in recent memory. Although it's stuffed with A-listtalent from stars Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell down, co-writer and directorNora Ephron has delivered a romantic ...
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News
Harvey moves up, Sakurada moves in at Myriad
LosAngeles-based Myriad Pictures has announced two appointments as in its film andtelevision sales department.Jim Harvey(pictured) has been promoted to executive director of sales and distributionand Jennifer Sakurada has been appointed to director of distribution.Moving up fromdirector of sales and distribution, Harvey assumes a leading role within thetheatrical sales department with ...
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Screen conference to examine changing DVD market
The changing dynamics of thehome entertainment sector will be the subject of a major Screen Internationalconference to be held at the Langham Hotel in Central London next Thursday(June 23).Topics to be addressed atthe event include what the current trends in DVD retail and pricing mean forthe film industry, the impact ...
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Echo Bridge acquires worldwide on street basketball title
LA-based sales anddistribution company Echo Bridge Entertainment has acquired worldwidedistribution rights to the street basketball title Black Top Confidential'sStreetball Confidential: Volume 1.Scott Miller's picture starsNBA All-Star Baron Davis, urban streetball legend Headache (Tim Gittens) andhip-hop artist The Game (Jayceon Taylor).Styled as a streetballinstructional, the picture features exclusive moves by Headache, ...
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Kinowelt snares Drum, Prokino gets Hidden
Kinowelt has acquired all rights for German speakingterritories (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) to Zola Maseko's SouthAfrica-set drama Drum which will be theopening film at this year's Munich Film Festival on June 24.The co-production between VIP 2 Medienfonds, ArmadaPictures, Nova Films, and Black Roots Productions is set to open in Germancinemas ...
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Lau revs up debut First Cuts project in Taiwan
Hong Kong star Andy Lau flewinto Taiwan yesterday with three directors to promote the first production inhis Focus: First Cuts project, six features shot on HD in collaborationwith Star Chinese Movies Network.Lau's company Focus Films will oversee the series' production andinternational sales.Announced at Hong Kong'sFilMart in March, the films bring ...
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Bignardi to step down as Locarno artistic director
This year's edition of the Locarno International FilmFestival (August 3-13) will be the last one under the mantle of artisticdirector Irene Bignardi.Bignardi, 62, said that she had made it clear from thebeginning that she hadn't wanted to head the festival for any longer than fiveyears. She described her time at ...
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Batman set to land on 8,000 screens and over 70 territories
Batman Begins takes off through Warner Bros Pictures International thisweekend on a massive day-and-datelaunch that sees the picture open onapproximately 8,000 screens in more than 70 markets.The comic book adaptation opened in France and Mexico on Jun 15and in Australia and Germany a day later. The UK, Spain, Italy, Brazil, ...
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Chinese film-makers eye global distribution at Shanghai
'Be realistic about your film'sinternational potential' and 'don't ignore your home market' were the twostrongest messages delivered at a seminar on the global distribution of Chinesefilms at the Shanghai International Film Festival this week. Speakers includingOcean Films' head of acquisitions Thierry Decourcelle reminded Chinesefilmmakers that the space for foreign-language cinema ...
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Taiwan's CMC unveils big-budget Silk
Taiwan's CMC Entertainment Group has unveiled Silk (Guisi),Taiwan's biggest film since Chen Kuo-fu's Double Vision in 2002. Unlike Vision, whose $7m budget came from Columbia Pictures FilmProduction Asia, Silk is fully financed with local money to the tune of$4.8m. Silk is the second feature of Su Chao-pin, who also scripted ...
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Winding Refn lines up Viking tale Valhalla Rising
Pusher and FearX director Nicolas Winding Refn is lining up a new film about a mute Vikingcalled Valhalla Rising. Mads Mikkelsen will play theViking who escapes from imprisonment in Scotland who accidentally discoversAmerica on his journey home.The film is expected to be shotwith handheld camera and a relatively small film ...
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Recording star Larson joins cast of Walden/New Line's Hoot
Brie Larson hasjoined the cast of Walden Media and New Line Cinema's children's tale Hoot.Based on CarlHiaasen's award-winning book, Hoot centres on a Montana boy who moves to Florida and unearths asinister threat to the local population of endangered owls.Logan Lermanplays Roy Eberhardt, the young boy who uncovers the mystery. ...
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Last Mitterand to open Cambridge Film Festival
The Cambridge Film Festival (July 7-17) is to open withRobert Geudiguian's Berlinale title The Last Mitterand.Tomark its 25th anniversary, the festival has lined up a sting of UK premieresincluding Kim Ki Duk's 3 Iron, Mike Figgis' Coma, HayaoMiyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers,Ingmar Bergman's Saraband and DreamWorks hit ...
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De Laurentiis' call to abandon windows sparks reaction
Italian distributors andexhibitors have reacted strongly against a suggestion by Aurelio De Laurentiisthat Italy should counter the crisis that is currently hitting its box officeby simultaneously releasing films in cinemas, on Pay-TV and on DVD at differentprices. Laura Fumagalli, marketingdirector of Arcadia, an avant-garde digitally equipped multiplex near Milansays that ...
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Roeg to chair Copenhagen festival jury
Director Nicolas Roeg is to preside over the jury atthe third Copenhagen International Film Festival (CIFF). The festival, which will focus on European films thisyear, is scheduled to run from August 18-28.Roeg (Don't Look Now, Performance) is preparing aphilosophical thriller to be shot next year with Neve Campbell in a ...
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UK government calls for film policy review
The UKgovernment has asked the UK Film Council to carry out a review of policytowards British film.CreativeIndustries Minister James Purnell announced the 'stocktake of film policy' in aspeech at an Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) event in London today.Purnell, who was appointed to the post last month, also suggested ...
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Rai to play royalty in Dutta's Indian biopic
Aishwarya Rai is play royalty in a biopic on the lifeof Gayatri Devi, the former Maharani of Jaipur. A film based on her autobiography A PrincessRemembers is being directed by Indian filmmaker J. P. Dutta (Border).Rajmata Gayatri Devi (as she is now known) has given her consent to Dutta tocast ...
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Sumitomo snaps up Japan's AMC Theatres
Japanese film conglomerate SumitomoCorporation has paid a reported $48m for AMC Theatres Japan, which hascurrently five multiplexes nationwide. Sumitomo already owns 11multiplexes across Japan through the United Cinemas exhibitor brand.Sumitomo has numerous filminterests. It owns leading indie distributor and production company Asmik AceEntertainment together with Kadokawa Shoten Publishing and other ...
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British Film Institute to carry out archive access review
The British Film Institute(bfi) has asked CCS, the consultancy service of the Charted Institute ofLibrary and Information Professionals (CILIP), to carry out a review with theaim of increasing access to its archive of film and television materials.The first stage of thereview will identify options for future development including the possibilityof ...
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Huayi Brothers unveils $15m Feng project The Banquet
Beijing-based production anddistribution outfit Huayi Brothers Film Investment has announced the nextproject from hot Chinese director Feng Xiaogang - a US$15m period film with theworking title The Banquet. The film, which is looselybased on William Shakespeare's Hamlet but set in Tang Dynasty China, reteams three crew members who worked togetheron ...