All Screen articles in 21 April 2004 – Page 4
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News
NEW ZEALAND 19 April
After Columbia TriStar warmed up audiences on previews starting a week ago, 50 First Dates confidently claimed the top spot in the box office charts with a gross of NZ$505,506 from 56 screens. It also had the highest screen average of the weekend at NZ$9,027.It replaced UIP's Along Came Polly, ...
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North by Northwest script scheme unveils international line-up
In its eighth year of business, the international scriptdevelopment programme, North by Northwest, has announced it most extensiveline-up yet.Participants come from all over Europe from the UK,Scandinavia and Germany to Spain and France for their three training courses,Classics, Kids Stories and Seven Samurai.Thanks to strong word-of-mouth from the more than ...
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Massis picks up Spook for The Film Source
Alex Massis' NewYork-based marketing and licensing company The Film Source has picked up rightsfor worldwide representation in all media to Barry Levy's supernatural thiller Spook.Based on the memoirs of an unidentified former CIAoperative, the film follows a Vietnam veteran's bid to expose Canada's covertrole in the South-East Asian war.Levy, who ...
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Festival faces up to showbiz strike threat
France's striking showbiz workers have threatened to disrupt next month's Cannes Film Festival to draw attention to their cause.A group representing the workers, the 'intermittants du spectacle', released a statement on Thursday saying they intended to create an occupation committee for the Cannes Film Festival. They are protesting against government ...
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River King feels heat as UK gets tough on co-productions
Myriad Pictures' The River King has been thrown into uncertainty mid-shoot after the UK government challenged its application for British status.Set up as a UK-Canadian co-production, the supernatural murder mystery needs to qualify as British in order to access tax relief under Section 48. Movision, the tax-based fund co-financing the ...
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Venice reverts to single Golden Lion competition
Venice is reverting back to its single Golden Lioncompetition, cutting back by half the number of films that have screened on theLido in the past three years, newly appointed festival chief Marco Muellerannounced on Thursday.Mueller said the newly streamlined festival will enableindustry professionals and critics to fully focus their attention ...
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Cannes faces up to showbiz strike threat
France's striking showbiz workers have threatened to disrupt next month's Cannes Film Festival to draw attention to their cause.A group representing the workers, the 'intermittants du spectacle', released a statement on Thursday saying they intended to create an occupation committee for the Cannes Film Festival. They are protesting against government ...
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Korea launches real time box office tracking service
South Korea is to launch a new web-based box office tracking system, similar to recently developed industry tools: Nielsen EDI's FLASH and Rentrack's Box Office Essentials data collecting services.The system, due to be launched in May, is being orchestrated by the newly-renamed Korean Film Council (KOFIC), which took over the ...
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Thai boxing drama takes French box office by storm
Luc Besson's Europa Corp scored a notable box office coup this week when its Thai action film Ong Bak opened in the fifth spot in the French charts.The foreign language feature sold 440,495 tickets on just 281 screens for a powerful $10,000 screen average.In terms of new releases it was ...
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MK2 snares rights to restore, release Keaton collection
Sherlock Jr,The Navigator and GoWest are among a rosterof Buster Keaton pictures to be restored for digital theatrical releasefollowing an agreement between The Douris Corporation and MK2.Under the terms of the deal Douris, whose 700+ Rohauerlibrary includes rights to the silent star's films, has agreed that Paris-basedMK2, the worldwide distributor ...
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Reviews
The Punisher
Dir: Jonathan Hensleigh. US. 2004. 124mins.Hard on the heels of the first movie about Dark Horse Comics' Hellboy comes a new film of Marvel Comics' The Punisher, a startlingly brutal actioner in which the comic book anti-hero is almost as sadistic as the inhuman killers he seeks to punish.Slickly produced, ...
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Reviews
Goddess Of Mercy
Dir: Ann Hui. China. 2004. 109mins.A word of warning for viewers of a nervous disposition: there is precious little mercy in this lifetime for anyone, especially the men, connected with the heroine An Xin. But Goddess Of Mercy is not a man-hating diatribe. Experienced director Ann Hui delivers an understated ...
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Secret Window looks to prise open Euro markets
The thriller Secret Window goes on its first international rampage this weekend with openings inFrance on 400 (Apr 14) and Spain, Italy and Brazil two days later on 254, 250and 61 prints respectively.Executives at Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International(CTFDI) will be hoping for some strong bows to propel the picture ...
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Reviews
Connie And Carla
Dir: Michael Lembeck. US. 2004. 98minsWith My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos, both as scriptwriter and star, demonstrated that she knew exactly how to turn run-of-the-mill TV fodder into theatrical box-office gold. Her second outing in the genre, the funny and often touching Connie And Carla, preserves and perfects ...
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Warner Bros Japan wins distribution prize
Warner Bros Japan is to receive the Minister of Economy,Trade and Industry Award for best foreign film distributor of the year for itsbox office achievements in 2003.William Ireton, managing director for Warner Bros Japan,will accept the award at a ceremony on Apr 16 at the Tokyo Chamber of Commerceand Industry.The ...
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Warner Bros Japan receives distributor award
Warner Bros Japan is to receive the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award for best foreign film distributor of the year for its box office achievements in 2003.William Ireton, managing director for Warner Bros Japan, will accept the award at a ceremony today (Apr 16) at the Tokyo Chamber ...
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Zhu's Clouds scoops Hong Kong festival prizes
Chinese director Zhu Wen's South Of The Clouds scooped two prizes at the awards gala of the Hong Kong International Film Festival (April 6-21) on Thursday night - the Golden Firebird Award and the award of the FIPRESCI jury.The film, about a retired factory worker who takes off for one ...
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Oz film set for radical funding overhaul
In an attempt to drag Australian films out of the doldrums, Film Finance Corporation Australia (FFC) has unveiled a plan to radically overhaul its funding procedures.The proposals would give the government-owned financier much more control over which films get funding.Under the existing model other industry players make the decisions and ...
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Two Brothers earns box office stripes
While The Passion Of The Christ continued to lead the international box office over the Easter weekend (and crossed the $150m mark), it was Pathe's Two Brothers that really impressed.The French film was released in just three territories (France, Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland) but stormed the chart with a $8.2m ...
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Berlinale winners embark on host of projects
Director Fatih Akin and actor Birol Uenel have had a busy March. After winning the Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale for Head-On (Gegen Die Wand) the film's opening dates and the respective promotional tours in Germany and Turkey were brought forward to mid-March. But both of them have still ...