All Screen articles in 4 February 2008 – Page 3
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News
MercuryMedia on board for How Ohio Pulled It Off
UK-based MercuryMedia has added documentary How Ohio Pulled It Off to its sales slate.Ohio Filmmakers LLC produced the 57-minute documentary about election fraud in the US in 2004.Mercury's head of acquisitions Jason McGeown said: 'The relevancy of this film cannot be underestimated.'Mercury's slate also includes 9/11 conspiracy documentaries Loose Change: ...
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News
Icon plans UK re-release of La Vie En Rose
Icon Films is planning an awards season re-release of acclaimed French film La Vie En Rose.The Edith Piaf biopic is nominated for seven BAFTAs and three Oscars. The film also received 11 Cesar nominations.Its UK theatrical re-release in selected cinemas will start Feb 15. The original run of La Vie ...
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News
Warner Bros taps Oz tax break for next Harry Potter
Warner Bros is set to be the first company to trigger the 15% post-production, digital and visual effects (PDV) offset introduced by the Australian government in May last year. The studio has signed with local effects house Rising Sun Pictures for some of the visual effects on Harry Potter And ...
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News
Strand Releasing takes US rights to Lee's Help Me Eros
Fortissimo Films has announced a slew of sales coming out of the Rotterdam Film Festival and in the run up to next week's European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin. The company has sold all US rights to Lee Kang-sheng's Venice competition entry, Help Me Eros, to Strand Releasing. The Culver ...
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Reviews
Untraceable
Dir. Gregory Hoblit, US, 2008, 100 minsNeither terrifying nor inspiring, Untraceable is still a curious portrait of a society that struggles to police itself, under siege from one of its own children. The much-feared 'enemy within' that Cold Warriors railed about is now sitting at his basement computer and playing ...
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News
Imports gain upper hand at flat Japanese box office
According to annual data published today by The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (Eiren), overall box office revenues for 2007 totalled $1.87bn (Y198.44bn), a 2.2% decrease from 2006's $1.91bn (Y202.93bn). The figure represents earnings on 163.19 million admissions, only a 0.8% drop on the previous year's 164.56m cinemagoers. The ...
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News
Persepolis wins young people's jury prize in Rotterdam
The young people's jury at the International Film Festival Rotterdam has given its MovieSquad award to Persepolis.The five jurors, aged 16 to 19, selected Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud's animated project as the best of the 22 festival films they viewed.The prize means that Persepolis will get Dutch distrubtion through ...
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News
Nordisk sets up new Norwegian distribution and sales operation
Danish major, Nordisk Film, has merged its distribution and sales operations into a new company, Nordisk Film Distribusjon Norway, which will become Norway's largest provider of consumer entertainment with an annual turnover of $110.3m (EUR73.3m).The move is part ofthe company's driveto further strengthen its position in the Norwegian market place.As ...
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News
Consultant's report recommends improved Irish tax regime
To coincide with the publication of Ireland's Finance Bill for 2008, the Irish government has today published a consultants' report commissioned last year in advance of the renewal of Ireland's Section 481 tax incentive.The bill took little account of recommendations made by the Irish Film Board and by producers' and ...
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News
THINKFilm Intl boards Blue Valentine with Gosling, Williams
THINKFilm International has come on board to sell international rights to Blue Valentine, which will star Oscar nominees Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.THINKFilm will introduce the film to buyers at Berlin's European Film Market next week. The project is set to shoot in June 2008.US-based sister company THINKFilm will handle ...
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News
John Maybury to direct new Wuthering Heights for Ecosse
John Maybury has signed on to direct a new big-screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights for Ecosse Films.HanWay Films will handle international sales and introduce the project to buyers at the forthcoming EFM in Berlin.The new script is written by Olivia Hetreed, who also adapted The Girl With A Pearl Earring. ...
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Reviews
Over Her Dead Body
Dir: Jeff Lowell. US. 2008. 95 mins.A languid, thinly sketched and habitually unfunny supernatural comedy that never scratches beyond the surface of its conceit, Over Her Dead Body quickly wears out its welcome in both this world and the next. Delving into a love triangle comprised of a pleasant guy, ...
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News
Bersch takes over from Schlessel as president of SPWAG
Steven Bersch has been named president of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG) after the promotion of Peter Schlessel to president of worldwide affairs for SPE.Bersch, who comes to the studio from his position as chief operating officer at Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, will report to Schlessel.He will oversee ...
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News
Barker's Book Of Blood to be filmed by Matador, Midnight Picture Show
Matador Pictures and Midnight Picture Show are giving Clive Barker's horror story Clive Barker's Book Of Blood the big screen treatment.The project is the first in a series of planned collaborations between Midnight Picture Show and Matador Pictures to turn other Book Of Blood stories into features.Los Angeles-based Essential Entertainment ...
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News
Hartnett to take the lead in Snoot's martial arts action pic Bunraku
Snoot Entertainment, the four year-old LA-based production company behind Toronto Film Festival premiere Terra, has cast Josh Hartnett in martial arts action film Bunraku.The live action film is written and will be directed by Guy Moshe (Holly) and is the story of a a young man who has spent his ...
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News
Summit, Walden team on youth music drama Will
Walden Media and Summit Entertainment are continuing their long-standing relationship by agreeing to co-finance the fish-out-of-water story Will starring Liam Aiken, Vanessa Hudgens, Lisa Kudrow, Aly Michalka and Scott Porter. David Bowie is also in talks to join the film's cast.The music-oriented film, to be directed by Todd Graff (Camp) ...
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Features
Smart money
Benjamin Waisbren does not mince words when he weighs up the film business from a financier's point of view (and using financiers' parlance). "Film's a wonderful, iconic art form; it's not a great asset class," says the New York-based president and CEO of new film-finance operation Continental Entertainment Group (CEG). ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Mountain high
It has been an exciting year for Summit Entertainment. The company - with ex-Paramount executive Rob Friedman - tapped into a $1bn financing fund via Merrill Lynch to move into US distribution and in-house producing, making it a fully vertically integrated studio with development, financing, domestic distribution, production, and foreign ...
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Features
United States-Italy - Spike goes to war
Spike Lee's The Miracle At St Anna is alternatively being billed as the director's Second World War project and as his Italian project. Both are true - it is his first war film and the first project he has shot almost entirely outside the US."It's a miracle this film got ...
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News
European Film Market preview
For Berlin world premieres click hereFor this year's buzz titles click hereFor the critic's choice click hereFlash back to last year's European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin, and 2007 was the year the EFM came of age.Significant deals were made as Berlin moved beyond its image as the market for ...