All Screen articles in 29 February 2008 – Page 2

  • Features

    United Kingdom - Shot In The Dark

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Mark Tonderai says the biggest thing he learned when shooting his directorial feature debut Hush was to "never, ever shoot at night unless you absolutely have to".The psychological thriller, written and directed by the former BBC Radio 1 DJ, was shot entirely at night along the M1 motorway in northern ...

  • News

    The critical view - Riding microtrends

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Mark J Penn is the polling analyst famous for helping Bill Clinton to re-election in 1996 by identifying 'soccer moms' - busy, smart suburban women - as a crucial, overlooked sector of the electorate.Dubbed 'the guru of small things' by The New York Times, Penn has built a career on ...

  • Features

    Distribution - Japan - Content on the move

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    In Japan, cable TV and satellite are still small markets. Japanese audiences watch the big five networks en masse, rented more than 25 million DVDs last year (the preferred way to watch US TV shows such as 24) and go to the cinema - in that order. The VoD market, ...

  • News

    Chinese distribution- Unplugging the Pirates

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Five years ago, Guo Yuezhou, the CEO of Zoke Culture, China's leading video/DVD distributor, was inundated with requests from his friends for free DVDs of new films.But in the past few years, the requests have dried up. These days his friends are using the internet to watch movies, both illegally ...

  • Features

    Distribution - Mobile distribution - Opening the cell door

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    While ringtones, text, picture messages and music are the most widely used entertainment services among China's 500 million mobile-telephone users, visual and filmed content is catching up fast. By the end of 2007, 50.4 million mobile-phone owners had access to the internet via their mobile phones.China's two telecoms carriers, China ...

  • News

    Burn, hollywood, burn: Health campaigners and film

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Tobacco and obesity have raced towards the top of the global political agenda in recent years, but they may soon have an impact on the bottom line for the film industry. Wherever one stands on the social impact of cinema on children in particular, there is no doubt health campaigners ...

  • Features

    Feeling Bullish

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    Nigel Thomas has a disarmingly straightforward explanation of Matador Pictures' guiding philosophy. "The core of the business is making quality feature films that we want to see ourselves," he claims. "If we wouldn't go see that film, we won't make it."It is a philosophy that has proved highly effective so ...

  • Features

    Editorial - Screen says - Rising from the ashes

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    It's the small ironies that often give away the big picture. And this week we have the perfect example in the northern English town of Huddersfield.The ban on smoking in public spaces, which has been spreading across much of the world, has forced local players of the game of bingo ...

  • Features

    Exhibition - Cinema advertising in the digital age - Point of sale

    2008-02-29T00:00:00Z

    The cinema advertising business is getting ready for prime time. A television term in reference to cinema' It may not seem apt but the market is heading in that direction. The roll-out of digital projection worldwide could create a single global living room, and with it opportunities for brands to ...

  • News

    Shaye & Lynne quit as New Line is folded into Warner Bros

    2008-02-28T22:29:00Z

    New Line's run as an autonomous production, marketing and distribution entity came to an end today as Time Warner announced that going forward the studio would operate as a slimmed down unit of Warner Bros and that New Line's co-chairmen and co-CEOs Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne were leaving the ...

  • News

    Noeltner's CMG picks up Mexican drug cartel doc Drug Wars

    2008-02-28T21:28:00Z

    Edward Noeltner's Cinema Management Group (CMG) has acquired worldwide sales rights to Renavatio Productions' Drug Wars.Gary A Fleming Jr's documentary explores the world of Mexican drug cartels and features first-hand accounts from victims, law enforcement officers, border patrol guards and former FBI agents.Noeltner brokered the deal with producer's rep Page ...

  • News

    Romania's Gopo Awards set for Monday night

    2008-02-28T21:24:00Z

    The second annual Gopo Awards, celebrating the best of Romanian cinema, will take place in Bucharest on Monday night.The gala, presented with the support of the National Film Centre, is organized by Romanian Film Promotion, the organization behind the Transylvania International Film Festival. Cristian Mungiu's Cannes Palme d'Or winner 4 ...

  • News

    Highmore signs to voice Astro Boy for Imagi Studios

    2008-02-28T20:12:00Z

    Freddie Highmore has signed to voice the title character in Hong Kong and Los Angeles-based Imagi Studios' CGI animated feature Astro Boy.Based on Osamu Tezuka's manga creation, which was serialised on television in the 1960s, 1980s and again in 2003, Astro Boy centres on a young robot's odyssey to gain ...

  • Reviews

    Semi-Pro

    2008-02-28T19:38:00Z

    Dir: Kent Alterman. US. 2008. 91 mins.Characteristically anarchic, loosely structured and unabashedly blue, Will Ferrell's new comedy Semi-Pro ably skewers both second-tier professional basketball and the regrettable fashion of the early 1970s, ranking in the top half of the comedian's roster of sports parodies (a list which includes Kicking and ...

  • News

    Bac picks up four for France including Wackness, Wave

    2008-02-28T19:37:00Z

    French distributor Bac Films has announced the acquisition of four titles scheduled for release in 2008 and 2009. The company has bought Ma Mec A Moi by director Jean-Jacques Zilbermann starring Antoine de Caunes and produced by Agat Films et Cie. The film is the sequel to 1998's romantic comedy ...

  • News

    London Australian Film Festival to open with Unfinished Sky

    2008-02-28T15:53:00Z

    This year's London Australian Film Festival will run March 6-16, opening with Peter Duncan's Unfinished Sky, about a reclusive farmer in rural Queensland who befriends an Afghan refugee. The festival will close with Richard Roxburgh's Romulus, My Father starring Eric Bana and Franka Potente.The festival, hosted at the Barbican, is ...

  • News

    Advance Party trilogy continues with McKinnon's Donkeys shoot

    2008-02-28T14:23:00Z

    Sigma Films and Zentropa have begun principal photography on Rounding Up Donkeys.After Andrea Arnold's Red Road, this film is the second project in the Advance Party trilogy. Originally entitled Old Dogs, Rounding Up Donkeys marks the feature debut of television and short film director Morag McKinnon and is written by ...

  • News

    Arsenal takes on German rights to CSNY Deja Vu

    2008-02-28T14:20:00Z

    Stefan Paul and Egon Nieser of German distributor Arsenal Film has picked up the music documentary CSNY Deja Vu by Bernard Shakey a.k.a. Neil Young from Fortissimo Films.The documentary, which showed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their Freedom of Speech Tour in 2006, was presented at the Berlinale in ...

  • News

    Trust picks up Hungarian prize-winner The Investigator

    2008-02-28T14:15:00Z

    Trust Film Sales of Denmark has confirmed it is handling international sales for Hungarian film The Investigator.Trust CEO Rikke Ennis told ScreenDaily.com that the company is aiming for a major festival release later this year.Attila Gigor's film won five awards at Hungarian Film Week in February, including Best Actor for ...

  • News

    Greek feature Pink takes top prize in new !f Istanbul competition

    2008-02-28T11:46:00Z

    Alexander Voulgaris' Pink (Roz) won the top prize at the!f Istanbul International Independent Film Festival.The festival's new!f Inspired Film Competition comes with a cash prize of $15,000 and showcases new directions in cinema and innovative story-telling.The Greek feature is about a twentysomething Greek man who is afraid of growing up, ...