All Screen articles in 25 September 2002 – Page 2

  • News

    CNC calls for urgent reform of production funding

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    Expansion of the SOFICA tax schemes, additional regional funding and a restructuring of contributions from the video-DVD sectors could deliver an additional Euros80m-Euros100m to the French production sector. Those are among the urgent measures in support of the struggling independent production sector recommended by a lengthy study delivered to government ...

  • News

    Hungary's porno-music drama Mix wraps in Budapest

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    "Music, love, porn", is how writer-director-producers Steven and Robert Lovy describe their latest film, Mix, that has just finished shooting in Budapest. The film's main character is a talented, American teenager who, following his father's wish, is preparing to become a pianist while secretly cherishing plans to become a DJ. ...

  • News

    Avrio gives push to Maximum Surge

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    Avrio Filmworks Releasing has acquired the worldwide sales rights to the sci-fi feature Maximum Surge. The film, directed by Jason Bourque is an action feature about a computer designer who must battle an artificial intelligence programme inside a virtual reality game he previously created. Maximum Surge stars Walter Koenig, Yasmine ...

  • News

    Greek Wedding woos UK weekend audiences

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    My Big Fat Greek Wedding, earned $2.3m (£1.5m) in three days, when it opened in the UK, the first major territory outside the US for the indie box office sensation.Playing at 341 sites for a strong average of $6,857 the comedy, which is directed by Joel Zwick and stars Nia ...

  • News

    Szolnok adds Eastern market to festival mix

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    The town of Szolnok in eastern Hungary will next week (Oct 1-6) host its annual International Film Festival of Fine Arts along with an international film market. The festival, founded over thirty years ago, includes 130 films in competition across three categories: documentary, experimental and animation. Thirty features and shorts ...

  • News

    New BSkyB channel to have heavy film accent

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    Films will form an integral part of a new entertainment channel to be launched by UK pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB under the aegis of Dawn Airey, who was appointed managing director of Sky Networks over the weekend.Airey, currently chief executive of Channel 5, will join BSkyB in early 2003 in a ...

  • News

    Four bidders line-up E2bn bids for KirchMedia

    2002-09-24T04:05:00Z

    Four different consortia have tabled bids worth up to Euros2bn for the bulk of KirchMedia's television and film rights.A consortium including Germany's Commerzbank and Sony's Columbia TriStar is reported to have offered Euros 2bn, as has another consortium whose members include German publishers Axel Springer and Bauer Verlag and HVB ...

  • News

    Fox's Perdition enjoys powerful international openings

    2002-09-24T00:00:00Z

    Fox's Road To Perdition took another $5.2m from 2,000 screens over theweekend to raise its cumulative international total to $22m. In a mightyLondon-only debut the Depression era gangster picture grossed $393,000 from 32screens in the UK for a $12,283 average. It expands to 390 screens across thecountry on Friday September ...

  • Reviews

    Common Places (Lugares Communes)

    2002-09-24T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Adolfo Aristarain. Arg-Sp. 2002. 113mins.A graceful, intelligent and humorous portrait of a sixty-something couple forced to rebuild their lives, Common Places (Lugares Communes) confirms the director-actor team of Adolfo Aristarain and Federico Luppi as San Sebastian favourites. Very warmly received at the festival, the film, which opened in Argentina ...

  • News

    Wedding makes big fat impression at UK box office

    2002-09-24T00:00:00Z

    The UK box office continued to be dominated by Buena Vista International's Signs last weekend but saw two high-profile entries vying for audience attention as My Big Fat Greek Wedding launched nationwide and Road To Perdition debuted in London.Signs dropped off just 23% from its opening three-day weekend to take ...

  • Reviews

    Mondays In The Sun (Los Lunes Al Sol)

    2002-09-24T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Fernando Leon de Aranoa. Sp-Fr-It. 2002. 113mins.A bittersweet comedy about men facing unemployment led by a barnstorming central performance from Javier Bardem, Mondays In The Sun (Los Lunes Al Sol) looks like another decisive critical and popular hit for one of Spain's most hotly tipped new young talents. Fernando ...

  • News

    Goldmember dazzles in Australia with $3m gross

    2002-09-24T00:00:00Z

    NewLine International's (NLI) Austin Powers In Goldmember scored the 12th highest opening in Australia overthe weekend as it stormed to number one with a $3.07m gross from 329 screens.Averaging a terrific $9,330, the third instalment in the Austin Powers comedy franchise was also the third highest openingfor distributor Roadshow. Goldmember ...

  • News

    Gibson's biblical Passion story will unscroll in ancient tongues

    2002-09-23T04:05:00Z

    Seven years after winning two Oscars for his epic battle movie Braveheart, Hollywood superstar Mel Gibson is going behind the camera for a highly ambitious picture about the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus Christ.After cartwheeling into a press conference at Rome's Cinecitta Studios with Neapolitan dwarf actor ...

  • News

    Hong Kong heavies to lobby China for better access

    2002-09-23T04:05:00Z

    Golden Harvest chairman Raymond Chow, China Star's Charles Heung and Peter Lam of Media Asia are among the high-level delegates joining a networking mission to Beijing next month to discuss co-operation between Hong Kong film-makers and their counterparts on the mainland.Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (TDC), the ...

  • News

    El Deseo links with MediaPro for production expansion

    2002-09-23T04:00:00Z

    The Almodovar brothers' El Deseo company has signed a wide-ranging co-production pact with Spanish media group MediaPro which will allow both companies to expand their current production activities. The deal was announced this weekend at the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 19-28), which celebrated its 50th anniversary with a ...

  • News

    Altman's ballet Company does trans-Atlantic pas de deux

    2002-09-23T04:00:00Z

    Veteran US director Robert Altman's new feature The Company is to be the first project backed in a new joint venture between German private media fund CP Medien and the Los Angeles/Munich-based production outfit SRO Entertainment.Written by Barbara Turner, The Company charts the ups and downs of life for members ...

  • News

    Go gets Golden Star at Marrakech Int'l film festival

    2002-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Japanese director Isao Yukisada's (pictured) Go has been awarded the top prize, the Golden Star (Etoile d'Or), at the second Marrakech International film festival.The prize was presented by Emmanuelle Beart on Sunday 22 Sept at the closing night ceremony in a spectacular open air cinema specially created within the ruins ...

  • News

    Banger Sisters continues Searchlight run of success

    2002-09-23T00:00:00Z

    MGM's Ice Cube comedy Barbershop remained a cut above the rest in its second week, holding on to top spot with a $13.3m haul according to studio estimates released today. The picture's 36% drop-off, impressive for an urban comedy, and $38.9m cumulative score was more good news for beleaguered studio ...

  • Reviews

    AUTO FOCUS

    2002-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Screened at Toronto (Special Presentation)Dir: Paul Schrader. US. 2002. 104minsDirector Paul Schrader mixes a potentially lethal cocktail of sex, celebrity and scandal in Auto Focus, a solid, absorbing but far from completely compelling biography of troubled 1960s TV star Bob Crane. Greg Kinnear does a fine job of capturing the ...

  • News

    XXX marks the spot in Russia as action thriller takes $1.2m

    2002-09-23T00:00:00Z

    Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) enjoyed a superb number one opening for its action thriller XXX in Russia over the weekend, taking $1.2m from 162 prints. The picture went out on the widest ever release in the territory, which is starting to yield promising returns for distributors. The opening ...