All Screen articles in 5 December 2001 – Page 2

  • News

    75th Eurimages supports nine new features

    2001-12-04T00:11:00Z

    At its 75th meeting held on 26-28 November 2001 in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Eurimages fund agreed to support nine feature films for a total amount of Euros 2.7m.The feature films are :Scheme 1 - Assistance awarded mainly on the basis of the project's circulation potentialKedma, Vers l'Orient - ...

  • News

    Kastner, Michael team for MiKast Movies

    2001-12-04T00:06:00Z

    Milica Kastner, formerly at Helkon SK, has teamed with Yvonne Michael, previously at Phantom Pictures, to form London-based production company MiKast Movies.The company has a debut slate including a remake of the 1969 film Royal Hunt Of The Sun and Darkness Visible, a contemporary thriller set in Hawksmoor's London.Additionally, Traffic ...

  • News

    Lanzarote screenings bask in calendar shade

    2001-12-04T00:03:00Z

    The third annual Spanish Film Screenings at Lanzarote (Nov 29-Dec 1) established the event as a valuable showcase for Spanish productions and talent but not a marketplace for closing deals."People see films here; the reaction comes later," said Antonia Nava, head of international sales and co-productions at Filmax.Nevertheless, growing interest ...

  • News

    South African producers team to form D-V-8

    2001-12-03T23:57:00Z

    Independent South African producers Jeremy Nathan of Avatar Digital, Joel Phiri of ICE Media and Kobus Botha of Ballistic Pictures have formed an alliance to make up to eight feature films to be produced on digital over the next two years. The alliance, called D-V-8 Films, announced last week that ...

  • News

    Intercartel increases its co-production activity

    2001-12-03T23:50:00Z

    Spain's Valencia-based Intercartel, co-producer of this year's foreign-language Oscar candidate for Venezuela, is stepping up its co-production plans and shaping up as a key player in the growing Valencia media market. "My objective is to make three or four films per year between national and international co-productions," says Intercartel president ...

  • News

    Local witch-doctor outperforms Potter's wizard

    2001-12-03T23:41:00Z

    Harry Potter has met his match in South Africa. A local film has achieved the seemingly impossible feat of displacing Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone from its pole position immediately upon release - as well as outperforming Potter's opening gross of one week earlier.Mr Bones, (pictured) produced by Videovision ...

  • News

    Japan's Gaga posts $10.8m pre-tax profit

    2001-12-03T23:22:00Z

    Gaga Communications, one of Japan's leading distributors, has recorded a pre-tax operating profit of $10.8m (Y1.34 billion) in the fiscal year 2001, ended Sept 30, up by 209% from the previous year. Gaga attributed this increase largely to the success of The Mexican which grossed $21m (Y2.6 billion), and summer ...

  • News

    Overseas records fall as Harry conjures up $60.9m

    2001-12-03T22:32:00Z

    It was another magical weekend for Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone in the international market, as the Warner Bros film grossed $60.9m in 31 territories on 6,574 prints to bring its total take to $152.75m after just three weekends. Over the weekend, the film opened in 14 more countries ...

  • Reviews

    Mad Love (Juana La Loca)

    2001-12-03T16:09:00Z

    Dir: Vicente Aranda. Sp-It-Port. 117mins. A costume drama driven by lead Pilar Lopez de Ayala's impacting central performance, Mad Love (Juana La Loca) is Spain's official entry for the foreign language Oscar nominations, having beaten out sexier options such as Penelope Cruz film No News From God and Julio ...

  • News

    ContentFilm buys Wendigo, Magnolia to release it

    2001-12-03T03:49:00Z

    ContentFilm, the New York independent recently formed by Edward R Pressman and John Schmidt, has acquired worldwide rights to Wendigo, a supernatural thriller starring Patricia Clarkson, and has enlisted Eamonn Bowles' brand new distribution outfit Magnolia Pictures to distribute it in the US.Written, directed and edited by Larry Fessenden, a ...

  • News

    Benicio Del Toro to receive Sundance Indie tribute

    2001-12-03T03:47:00Z

    Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro will receive the Piper-Heidsieck Tribute to Independent Vision at next year's Sundance Film Festival. The tribute, which will be presented to Del Toro on Jan 13, 2002, during the festival, was created to honour a film artist "who has made a significant and unique ...

  • News

    Harry flies past $200m, still at the top

    2001-12-02T23:28:00Z

    Despite a strong assault by 20th Century Fox of patriotic war actioner Behind Enemy Lines (pictured), Warner Bros held on to the top spot for the third consecutive weekend with its blockbuster Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone which took an estimated $24.1m over the three days.Harry Potter's 17-day total ...

  • News

    World mourns death of Beatle George Harrison

    2001-12-02T23:05:00Z

    Tributes from around the world have been pouring in for former Beatle and film producer, George Harrison who died, aged 58, following a long illness.Buckingham Palace issued a statement saying that the Queen was "very sad" to hear the news, while British Prime Minister Tony Blair said "I think people ...

  • News

    ABC acquires two Potters for reported $130m

    2001-12-02T23:04:00Z

    US TV network ABC has acquired the television rights to Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone (Sorcerer's Stone in the US) and its sequel, Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets for a reported total of $130m, making it one of the most expensive such deals in TV history.The deal ...

  • News

    Germany's Senator issues surprise profit warning

    2001-12-02T23:02:00Z

    German market analysts have been caught unawares by Senator Entertainment's profit warning for the financial year 2001 - reducing its targetted revenues from Euros 197.1m to Euros 125m-130m and its EBIT from Euros 40m to Euros 2m-5m.As Markus Wallner and Marc Roehder of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt observed, "the profit ...

  • News

    Bank files insolvency suit against Kinowelt

    2001-12-02T23:01:00Z

    The embattled German media group Kinowelt Medien reported that the restructuring measures aimed at streamlining operations had an "adverse effect" on its results for the first nine months of 2001.In an official communique, the company reported that the termination of the Warner Bros film package deal this week had ...

  • News

    EM.TV re-enters programme production

    2001-12-02T22:55:00Z

    Following its radical programme of restructuring under the new CEO Werner Klatten, EM.TV & Merchandising is now planning to re-enter the arena of production in the field children's and family programming.In future, the Munich-based company intends to be involved annually in up to six animated or live-action series geared to ...

  • News

    Controversy looms at Italy's state-backed orgs

    2001-12-02T22:49:00Z

    A high ranking member of Silvio Berlusconi's Italian government has openly criticized Cinecitta Holding's decision to appoint Antonio More managing director of state-run distributor Istituto Luce, after president Angelo Guglielmi stepped down last week. Leading Italian daily La Repubblica quoted Culture under-secretary Nicola Bono as saying: "The fairness which the ...

  • News

    Italian film distributors unveil their 2002 slates

    2001-12-02T22:43:00Z

    Italian state distributor Istituto Luce, whose president Angelo Guglielmi recently stepped down, has unveiled its 2002 distribution slate which includes Wong Kar-Wai's widely anticipated new film 2046, Theo Angelopoulos's upcoming film about Greek exiles, The Weeping Field, and French actor-writer-director Michel Blanc's Embrassez Qui Vous Voulez. Other distributors who unveiled ...

  • News

    Festival heads criticise industrialisation, press

    2001-12-02T22:37:00Z

    At an unprecedented meeting of selectors and officials in Berlin, top film festival directors from three continents bemoaned the industrialisation of festivals and the increasing difficulty of getting press coverage they feel their events deserve. Toronto's Piers Handling described how both Europe's major state-founded festivals and North America's private-backed events ...