All Screen articles in 26 January 2006 – Page 3

  • News

    New Vancouver producer Irreverent begins first feature Gay Like Me

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Newly-formed Vancouver-based development and production company IrreverentMedia is preparing to begin shooting in spring on its first feature, the suburbanmockumentary Gay Like Me.THINKFilm has acquiredCanadian rights on the $3.4m project, which was developed with the support of BCFilm and Movie Central. The producers expect to close out financing in Berlin.Michael ...

  • News

    Miike's Big Bang Love joins Panorama line-up

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Japan's Shochiku hasannounced that Big Bang Love, Juvenile A,the latest outing by prolific cult filmmaker Takashi Miike, has been selectedto compete in the Panorama section of the upcoming Berlin International FilmFestival. Starring Ryuhei Matsuda (Gohatto) and Masanobu Ando (Battle Royale), the film tells the storyof a young man who, while ...

  • News

    Noyce to be honoured by Australian Screen Directors

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Director Phillip Noyce is toreceive an outstanding achievement award on April 6, the top annual honourbestowed by the Australian Screen Directors Association (ASDA).Noyce was in the first classof students at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School and his first feature was Newsfrontin 1978, which won best film in the ...

  • News

    Jet Li, Statham to star in martial arts thriller for Lionsgate

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Lionsgate has bought Lee Anthony Smith and Gregory J Bradley's screenplayRogue and will beginproduction on the thriller in spring with Jet Li and Jason Statham in theleads.Philip G Atwell is directing and Cory Yuen serves as the martialarts action designer on the tale of an FBI agent played by Statham ...

  • News

    Arrival picks up US rights to La Tragedia De Macario

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Arrival Pictures hasacquired domestic rights to Pablo Veliz' immigration drama La Tragedia De Macario, which premiered in the Spectrum programme atSundance last week.Negotiations between ArrivalPictures president Charles Acosta and Strategic Film Partners principals AlexBarder and Lawrence Silverstein closed early Monday morning.Veliz' directorial debutfollows a Mexican's bid to cross the US ...

  • News

    Peace Arch buys Canadian home entertainment outfit KaBOOM!

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Toronto-based Peace ArchEntertainment Group has acquired Canadian home entertainment outfit kaBOOM!Entertainment.The deal gives Peace Arch a DVDplatform for its burgeoning feature slate, which is being handledinternationally by executive vice president of international sales andmarketing Penny Wolf.Under a long-term employmentagreement, kaBOOM! president Berry Meyerowitz will continue to run the companyon a ...

  • News

    Korean law firm to take action against online piracy

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Korean law firm Ilsong LawOffice and film portal site Cinetizen.com have announced an initiative to tackleillegal internet distribution which is estimated to cost the local film industry$300m a year. Ilsong will carry outcopyright infringement suits on behalf of film importers and producers, actingon information provided by Cinetizen.com, starting February 1. ...

  • News

    Disney buys Pixar in deal worth $7.4bn

    2006-01-25T00:00:00Z

    Following months of speculation The Walt Disney Company hasacquired Pixar in an all-stock transaction that is expected to be finalised by thesummer.Under the terms of the deal 2.3 Disney shares will be issued foreach Pixar share. Based on Pixar's fully diluted shares outstanding, this putsthe transaction value at $7.4bn.Ed Catmull ...

  • News

    FACT battles DVD piracy in Glasgow, London

    2006-01-24T16:16:00Z

    FACT, the UK's Federation Against CopyrightTheft, announced that a police raid on a Glasgow flat has closed the largest illegal DVDdistribution facility discovered in Scotland to date. More than 25,000 DVDs were seized.Strathclyde Police arrested a manfor allegedly selling illegal DVDs on the street, and then discovered thefacility based on ...

  • News

    French Critics' Syndicate selects the best films for 2005

    2006-01-24T13:14:00Z

    The French Critics' Syndicate has named Jacques Audiard's The BeatThat My Heart Skipped as best film of 2005. The lauded film, a remake ofJames Toback's 1978 Fingers, is currently up for a BAFTA award as best foreign film.Created in 1946, the Critics' prize is overseen by the samegroup that organizes ...

  • News

    Luxembourg and Austria sign co-production treaty

    2006-01-24T04:00:00Z

    Collaborationbetween the Austrian and Luxembourg film and televisionindustries has been given amajor boost with the signing of aco-production treaty between the two countries.Theagreement will recognise films made under the auspices of the treaty asnational films and will allow Austrian and Luxembourg co-producers to benefitfrom all of the incentives available to ...

  • News

    Brazil to keep the same screen quota system from 2005

    2006-01-24T04:00:00Z

    The Brazilian National Cinema Agency(Ancine), an organ of the Ministry of Culture, will keep the screen quotasystem in place to protect local production against Hollywood hegemony in 2006.The system will ensure that a local film theatre with one single screen showsBrazilian movies for at least 35 days of the year ...

  • Reviews

    Lucky Number Slevin

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    Dir. Paul McGuigan. US.2006. 104mins.Anuncomfortable mixture of light banter and extreme violence, Lucky Number Slevinfalls somewhere between Guy Ritchie's Revolverand David Burke's still unreleased Edisonin its reliance on shock value over character development and narrativeheft. A likeable performance by Josh Hartnett carries the film for a long way,but a third ...

  • Reviews

    The Night Listener

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Patrick Stettner. US. 2006. 90mins.Robin Williams' great talent for mimicry,improvisation and change of pace has yielded some resourceful and inspired performancesin his comically inflected films. But in recent years his work has turned inward,with results that have been bluntly predictable and mannered: witness hisappearances in Insomnia, One Hour Photo ...

  • News

    Fortissimo picks up international rights to Kirby Dick doc

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Films has pickedup worldwide rights excluding the US to Kirby Dick's film ratings documentary ThisFilm Is Not Yet Rated, whichreceives its world premiere at Sundance this week.The Independent Film Channel(IFC) production explores the MPAA's ratings system and asks whether it favoursaffiliated studios. The ratings system's wildly divergent attitudes over ...

  • News

    Weinstein Co takes English-speaking world on Factory Girl

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    The Weinstein Company hasacquired North American, UK, Australian, New Zealand, and South African rightsfrom L.I.F.T. Productions to George Hickenlooper's Edie Sedgwik biopic FactoryGirl.The picture is currently inproduction in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is being financed by L.I.F.T. andproduced by Holly Wiersma and Aaron Richard Golub.J Malcolm Petal, Kimberly CAnderson and Morris ...

  • News

    Kacandes joins Paramount specialty arm as head of physical production

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    Producer Georgia Kacandeshas joined John Lesher's new-look Paramount specialty division as executivevice president of physical production.Kacandes, who is currentlyserving as executive producer on New Line's Jack Black comedy Tenacious D InThe Pick Of Destiny, will overseeall aspects physical production and report directly to Lesher."I have known Georgiafor many years and ...

  • News

    Picturehouse buys North America on Pan's Labyrinth

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    Picturehouse has picked up allNorth American rights to Guillermo del Toro's dark fairytale Pan's Labyrinth.Set in 1944 rural Spainduring Franco's facist regime, the story centres on the young daughter of anofficer who concocts an imaginary world to deal with the realities of post-warrepression. Mirabel Verdu, Sergi Lopez, Ivana Baquero and ...

  • News

    IFC launches 24 films for simultaneous theatrical/cable release

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    As 2929 Entertainment prepares to launch its experimentalday-and-date release of Steven Soderbergh's hi-def picture Bubble this week, IFC has entered the fray witha similar initiative.This year the New York-based company plans to simultaneouslyrelease in theatres and on cable 24 pictures that would typically struggle inthe cut-throat and overcrowded world of ...

  • News

    Alliance Atlantis sign Weinstein Company films till 2009

    2006-01-24T00:00:00Z

    The Weinstein Company and AllianceAtlantis Motion Picture Distribution (MPD) LP have signed an exclusive 80picture, multi-year distribution agreement anticipated to run through 2009. Under the deal, MPD willdistribute all films released by the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films. Thepact re-establishes the 12-year relationship of Alliance Atlantis and theWeinstein brothers during ...