All Screen articles in 28 November 2003 – Page 2

  • News

    HanWay's Wase-Bailey exits as Haslam takes over

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Thierry Wase-Bailey is standing down as managing director of UK-based sales operation HanWay.Wase-Bailey is being replaced by Tim Haslam, who was president of international distribution at Intermedia before Jere Hausfater took over.Wase-Bailey, who has headed HanWay for four years, is to focus on developing his own sales and consultancy business, ...

  • News

    Discovery Docs seeks new talent to mentor

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Discovery Docs, the theatrical documentary initiative set up in May this year, is looking for up-and-coming directors which its 'dream team' of heavyweight directors that includes Barbara Kopple, Michael Apted, Peter Gilbert and Nanette Burnstein can mentor. Andrea Meditch, Discovery Docs head of development, who is visiting IDFA for the ...

  • News

    Czech doc makers hype their hypermarket hoax

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Earlier this year, the Czech public fell foul to an elaborate hoax cooked up by two enterprising students of Prague's Famu film academy. One of the hoaxers, Filip Remunda, is now at IDFA to talk to commissioning editors about the documentary he and his colleague are making about this controversial ...

  • News

    WDF comes to IDFA on hunt for third film

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    The World Documentary Fund (WDF), the $2.5m (Eu2.1m) international initiative set up to promote theatrical documentaries, has made its first visit to IDFA where it is understood to be keen to cherry-pick its third big-budget documentary project. The fund already has one completed film - Vikram Jayanti's Game Over: Kasparov ...

  • News

    US TV cold-shoulders docs

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Documentaries critical of US government policy and big business interests will find it increasingly hard to get US network broadcast slots, despite a growing demand from the public, says leading author and professor of law, Joel Bakan. Bakan, who wrote the book on which Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott's Joris ...

  • News

    Jan Vrijman Fund brings light to Darkness

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Jan Vrijman Fund co-ordinator Isabel Arrante Fernandez has unveiled a raft of new projects including In The Darkness, the latest project by Sergei Devortsevoi (Highway, IDFA 1999), co-produced by Jane Balfour. Aiming for completion in spring 2004, the film has also received script development funding from the Hubert Bals Fund ...

  • News

    Be bold with ideas, HBO tells documentary makers

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    HBO documentary chief Sheila Nevins has called on film-makers to come forward with challenging ideas on international subjects and not to assume that the US network is only interested in US-focused films. Traditionally, HBO has a reputation for screening more domestically-oriented films - particularly in its America Undercover series. But ...

  • News

    Leth parks bike doc in favour of opera opus

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Acclaimed Danish documentary maker and poet Joergen Leth, whose The Five Obstructions, his collaboration with Lars von Trier, is being shown as part of IDFA's special programme and which has been nominated for a European Film Award, has confirmed that he has put his Tour de France project on hold ...

  • News

    BELGIUM

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    Local hit The Alzheimer Case (De Zaak Alzheimer) reclaimed the lead in Belgium from two-week usurper The Matrix Revolutions last weekend after a paltry 4% week-on-week slip in its sixth weekend.Erik Van Looy's film has grossed $3m (Euro 2.5m) and provided a considerable boost to local film success with more ...

  • News

    NORTH AMERICA

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    The biggest specialised opener in North America last weekend was Focus Features' 21 Grams taking $274,454 from just eight screens in New York and Los Angeles, marking a site average of $34,307.The film, which played in the Venice, Montreal, Toronto and New York film festivals, is a heavyweight Oscar contender ...

  • News

    Speers wraps Adam & Paul Dublin shoot

    2003-11-27T00:00:00Z

    After a snappy four-week shoot on location around Dublin, local commercials production house Speers Films will today (Nov 28) wrap Adam & Paul, the company's first foray into feature production.Produced by Jonny Speers under the company sobriquet Porridge Pictures, Adam & Paul is a low budget (Euros 841,000 including deferrals) ...

  • News

    UK industry partners with Orange for cinema day

    2003-11-26T12:00:00Z

    The UK has launched a so-called cinema day offering users of mobile phone network Orange two tickets for the price of one on Wednesdays.The three-year initiative, developed with pan-industry promotional body All Industry Marketing (AIM), has secured exclusive promotion in at least 90% of UK cinemas. As part of the ...

  • News

    Teze returns to TFI as film sponsorship chief

    2003-11-26T04:00:00Z

    Former TF1 International executive Perrine Teze is to head up a new film sponsorship division at TF1 Publicite.Teze, who has been on maternity leave for the past six months after helping to oversee the birth of TFM - the film division's joint distribution venture with Miramax - will work in ...

  • News

    Full Monty writer sparks off British Muslims drama

    2003-11-26T04:00:00Z

    Simon Beaufoy, the writer of This Is Not A Love Song and The Full Monty, has tackled the experience of British Muslims post-September 11 in Spark, a drama which started shooting this week for Channel 4.The production is UK director Kenny Glenaan's follow-up to Gas Attack, a controversial asylum-seeker ...

  • News

    New Line plunges back into German funds

    2003-11-26T04:00:00Z

    New Line Cinema has again joined forces with German private fund specialist Hannover Leasing (HL) to raise up to Euros 100m for a raft of international English-language features.The latest fund, MERADIN Produktions GmbH & Co. KG, which is being co-initiated by HL with the Stuttgart-based financial investment company DaimlerChrysler Services ...

  • News

    BFI launches online film archive service

    2003-11-26T04:00:00Z

    As part of a move to make its vast film and television collection more accessible to the public, the British Film Institute (bfi) has launched a new website featuring footage from its archives.Clips of films dating back to the late 19th Century can be viewed on the site, which is ...

  • Reviews

    The Missing

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Ron Howard. US. 2003. 135mins.The versatile Ron Howard stirs up a melange of story elements in The Missing and the result, perhaps surprisingly, is a consistently engaging tale that is part stoic western, part spooky thriller and part dysfunctional family drama. Selling such a hard-to-categorise item to mainstream audiences ...

  • News

    McKenzie promoted to vice president at WBITD

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    AlastairMcKenzie has been promoted to vice president, legal & business affairs,Europe, for Warner Bros International Television Distribution (WBITD).McKenzie waspreviously director, legal & business affairs, Europe, and in his new rolewill have an expanded role in all aspects of legal and business affairs for thedivision. He will continue to focus on ...

  • News

    Mushroom, Rialto tie up production joint venture

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Australian production outfit Mushroom Pictures (Chopper, Gettin' Square) and Auckland based distributor Rialto Entertainment have formed a joint venture to produce thrillers and contemporary horror movies along the lines of 28 Days Later.The aim for the initial 18-month period of the deal is to develop, finance, produce and distribute a ...

  • Reviews

    The Haunted Mansion

    2003-11-26T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Rob Minkoff. US. 2003. 98 mins.Disney's latest attempt to turn a theme park attraction into a movie relies on impressive design and effects work and a warmly funny performance from Eddie Murphy to pep up an otherwise rather anaemic ghosts'n'ghouls family comedy adventure. The selling points may well prove ...