All articles by Adam Minns – Page 11
-
News
American Pie star blasts off with Space Chimps
Seann William Scott is tovoice the lead in Space Chimps, the next animation title from Shrekproducer John Williams' Vanguard Animation.The American Pie star will voice the part of Ham, the great grandsonof the first chimpanzee to go into space. Happy in his luxury NASA cage, thehapless Ham has to learn ...
-
News
Intandem recruits Hurman as director
Intandem, the production,sales and distribution company set up former Winchester entertainment chiefGary Smith, has appointed Billy Hurman as a director.Hurman joins other formerWinchester colleagues at the company, where Andrew Brown is director and DeniseBridgeman acquisitions and marketing executive. Hurman is joined by Sasha Dein, who will take on corporate andproject ...
-
News
Icon appoints international distribution chief
IconEntertainment International has appointed Peter Naish as head of internationaldistribution.Naishjoined the company this week and will be involved in all aspects of Icon'sinternational business under chief executive Nick Hill and chief operating officerAndy Mayson.Naish's film industry careerbegan at erstwhile UK distributor First Independent Films, where he wasmanaging director. More recently, ...
-
News
Warner Bros UK chief quits to head up Aegis Media.
Nigel Sharrocks, the head ofWarner Bros' UK distribution arm, is leaving the film business to head up media buying groupAegis Media.Sharrocks, whose pre-Warnerbackground is in advertising, will be the new chief executive of the company inthe UK and Ireland, replacing Mark Craze, who left this month.Meanwhile Josh Berger, executive vice ...
-
News
Pact appoints new director of film
Tim Willis, a formerdirector at UK media concern Civilian Content, has been appointed director offilm at producers body Pact, chief executive John McVay announced on Thursday.Willis replaces RonniePlanalp, who is moving back to New York with her family. He will have overallresponsibility for Pact's film strategy and will work closely ...
-
News
Prescience Film Finance appoints head of business affairs
Start-up tax financingscheme Prescience Film Finance has poached Sharon Menzies as head of businessaffairs from rival financier Baker Street Media.Menzies, who takes up thepost next month, was head of business affairs at Baker Street, one of the mostestablished medium-sized players in UK tax financing circles. Before BakerStreet, she worked at ...
-
News
Knightley to star in Working Title's Pride And Prejudice
Keira Knightley is in advanced negotiations to star in Working Title Films' Jane Austen adaptation Pride And Prejudice.The UK star is to start shooting mid-August, according to UK press reports, although Working Title is still to cast the role of Darcy.The production means Knightley will be moving from a book ...
-
News
Myriad to close London sales office
Myriad Pictures is closing down sales operations in London following its turbulent production of UK-Canadian title The River King.The US sales company will continue to maintain a UK production presence under Marion Pilowsky, head of international production, but Samantha Horley, senior vice president of international distribution, and sales executive Alice ...
-
News
UK government moves to close down co-production abuse
In a crackdown on co-production abuse that is expected to hit films across Europe, the UK is to announce today that it is raising minimum spend to 40% for co-productions with France, Italy, Denmark and Iceland.The hike, predicted last week in Screen International, means co-productions with the four European countries ...
-
News
Moviehouse takes on Nina's Tragedies, Overnight sales
London-basedsales company Moviehouse Entertainment has picked up international rights forSundance title Overnight and Israeli hit Nina's Tragedies. Both titles will receive market premiere screenings at theupcoming Cannes market.Overnightis documentaryfollowing the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of filmmaker Troy Duffy who,approached by Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein, is offered the once in alifetime opportunity to ...
-
News
Moviehouse takes on Nina's Tragedies, Overnight
London-basedsales company Moviehouse Entertainment has picked up international rights forSundance title Overnight and Israeli hit Nina's Tragedies. Both titles will receive market premiere screenings at theupcoming Cannes market.Overnightis documentaryfollowing the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of filmmaker Troy Duffy who,approached by Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein, is offered the once in alifetime opportunity to ...
-
News
Wild Bunch Man plugs financing hole
Man ToMan, WildBunch's period piece starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas,has patched together its financing after tax fund First Choice fell thoughfollowing the government's Feb 10 clamp down.The UK-Frenchco-production is plugging the hole left in the budget - about a third ofits total - with a standard sale and ...
-
News
Metzstein begins Guy X shoot in Iceland
Jason Biggs, NataschaMcElhone and Jeremy Northam are to star in Guy X for young Britishdirector Saul Metzstein, who made his mark with 2001's well-received LateNight Shopping.The black comedy is beingproduced by Film and Music Entertainment with Spice Factory, tax-basedfinancier Movision, National Lottery franchise The Film Consortium and itssister sales company ...
-
News
Weinstein to be awarded honorary CBE by Queen
Harvey Weinstein has been awarded an honorary CBE for outstanding contribution to the British film industry.The award is conferred by the Queen to those who have made an important contribution to British interests. Miramax Films, the company Weinstein founded with his brother Bob, said it has invested more than £600 ...
-
News
River King feels heat as UK gets tough on co-productions
Myriad Pictures' The River King has been thrown into uncertainty mid-shoot after the UK government challenged its application for British status.Set up as a UK-Canadian co-production, the supernatural murder mystery needs to qualify as British in order to access tax relief under Section 48. Movision, the tax-based fund co-financing the ...
-
News
Arthouse titles win UK distribution backing
Oscar winner Capturing The Friedmans, Michael Winterbottom's Code 46 and Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi are amongst the films receiving National Lottery cash to boost their UK releases.The films are amongst the latest batch of titles to secure p&a investment from support body the UK Film Council, which aims for the lottery ...
-
News
Grosvenor Park's Taylor to spearhead TriMedia feature push
DanielTaylor, managing director of UK tax financier Grosvenor Park, is joiningTriMedia Entertainment, the entertainment company of 90s rap mogul ChrisSchwartz, to spearhead a push into producing youth-oriented, music-drivenfeatures with European music stars.Taylortakes up the post of president at TriMedia in addition to his Grosvenor Parkduties. The two companies are hatching ...
-
News
International executives lead New Zealand film school
Fortissimo Film Sales' Wouter Barendrecht, German-based producer-distributor Karl Baumgartner, UK-based producers Judy Counihan and Rosa Bosch and The Warrior producer Bertrand Faivre are amongst the tutors at this month's Film Business School In New Zealand.Twenty-one New Zealand producers have been selected to attend the five-day course, the first time that ...
-
News
Michael Grade appointed chairman of the BBC
Michael Grade, the former chief executive of Channel 4, has been appointed chairman of the BBC.Grade heads UK studio group Pinewood Shepperton, which he announced only this week would float this year on the London stock exchange.Grade is a former controller of BBC1 and director of BBC television programmes and ...
-
News
UK Film Council creates new 'development franchises'
Creating what have been immediately dubbed "development franchises" after the National Lottery super entities formed in the 1990s, the UK Film Council is to underwrite a handful of film operations allying producers with distributors and financiers from the UK and overseas.The initiative, which has had producers and executives scrambling to ...