All articles by Adam Minns – Page 33
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Tesseract starts shooting with Pang in Bangkok
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Saskia Reeves have started shooting in Bangkok on The Tesseract, the film adaptation of The Beach writer Alex Garland's second novel.Previously developed at BBC Films, the project is now set up as a Japanese-Thai production directed by Oxide Pang, the Hong Kong-Thai director who won the FIPRESCI ...
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Beckham to shoot first in UK, then score in US
UK sales company The Works is holding back on a US sale on Bend It Like Beckham until after its UK theatrical debut, following a rapturously-received advance screening in London.UK distributor Helkon SK is now looking at releasing Gurinder Chadha's low-budget drama comedy on a hefty 430 prints in April. ...
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Miramax teams with FilmFour, Wolves on Actors
The UK's FilmFour and Stephen Woolley and Neil Jordan's production outfit Company Of Wolves have teamed with Miramax Films on Conor McPherson's The Actors, a comedy starring Michael Caine, Dylan Moran, Michael Gambon, Lena Headey, Miranda Richardson and Ricky Gervais.FilmFour International will handle international sales, while Miramax has taken North ...
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Gruber Films gathers Momentum, Film Council deals
Gruber Films, the UK production outfit of Shooting Fish and Waking Ned producer Richard Holmes, has struck development deals with support body the Film Council and UK distribution-production operation Momentum Pictures.Holmes, who stepped down as managing director of media concern Civilian Content at the end of last year, has also ...
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Gilliam to revive The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
'If I play it right,' says Terry Gilliam, 'I can continue making this film for the rest of my life.' In Berlin to support Lost In La Mancha, the so-called 'un-making of' documentary about his aborted Don Quixote production, Gilliam still aims to make the film in question. Titled The ...
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Ex-London film fest chief launches Metropolis Film
Former London Film Festival head Sheila Whitaker is launching UK distributor Metropolis Films.The venture is to handle world cinema, releasing most titles on video but with some theatrical outings. Whitaker is attending Berlin with her partner in the company, Andy Ordonez, formerly of Japanese financing house NDF.Ordonez said the company ...
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Bidding wars begin over rights to Eight Women
Bidding wars in Germany and the UK on glitzy French ensemble piece Eight Women (Huit Femmes) lit up an otherwise sluggish market as the Berlinale moved into its second week.Prices for the German rights were said to have risen to as much as $1m on Eight Women, which was ...
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Intermedia restructure scales back UK base
Intermedia, the biggest film concern listed on Germany's Neuer Markt, is scaling back the UK base from which it first launched as a small independent sales outfit.As the indie film giant becomes more of a Hollywood player, it is understood to be leaving only the international marketing department under Paul ...
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$25m Rhythm Section to shoot in Berlin this year
The German-UK partners behind zombie video game adaptation Resident Evil are planning to return to Berlin this year to shoot The Rhythm Section, a large-scale thriller that sets a Nikita-style story in the German capital.The $25m-$30m production is being developed through the long-term production partnership between leading German producer Bernd ...
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Winchester boss faces share-selling investigation
Winchester Entertainment chief executive Gary Smith could reportedly face an investigation after selling shares in the UK media concern less than two weeks before it issued a profit warning on revenues.Smith sold 400,000 shares for $837,400 thirteen days before the company warned full-year results would be below those of the ...
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Spinks heads Signpost's world business affairs
Stewart Till's Signpost Films has appointed Lynwood Spinks, formerly chief operating officer of the US' Industry Entertainment, as head of worldwide business affairs.Spinks will be based in Los Angeles and takes up the position with immediate effect. He spent ten years at Carolco Pictures, where he ended his stint as ...
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UK agents pitch for bigger slice of the action
The turbulent UK agency scene, where three leading players have changed ownership in as many months, is increasingly looking for a slice of the producing action - to the point of taking producer credits and fees instead of the usual commissions.Among the ventures now producing or seriously looking at raising ...
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UK Film Council's balance sheet deemed 'healthy'
Robert Jones, head of the Film Council's premier fund for commercial films, tops the UK film support body's salary list, according to its annual report.Jones was on $127,000-$134,000 (£90,000-95,000) including benefits, for a period of just over six months from when he took up the post in August 2000. The ...
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UK's Optimum picks up clutch of titles
Optimum Releasing, the UK indie distributor which last year made a mark with Mexican hit Amores Perros, has picked up a clutch of titles including two MGM comedies - What's The Worst That Could Happen' and Tortilla Soup.Optimum has also acquired Argentinian hit Nine Queens from Lions Gate Films ...
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Miramax acquires stake in Till's Signpost Films
Miramax Films has taken a minority share in Stewart Till's Signpost Films as part of a deal to handle US distribution for the would-be studio.Miramax will have the first option on US rights to Signpost titles and has agreed to release a minimum number of films. The Weinsteins' powerhouse is ...
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Wootton upped at BFI, Hebron upped at LFF
Adrian Wootton is stepping down as director of the London Film Festival to take up the post of deputy director of the event's parent body, the British Film Institute (BFI). His deputy, Sandra Hebron will take up the newly-created post of acting artistic director of the LFF, and is ...
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UK actors, not films, shine in BAFTA nominations
The UK failed to secure any nominations for best film or best director at the UK's most prestigious film awards, the British Academy Film Awards, but UK actors saved face by dominating their sections.As well as underlining a disappointing year for local films, the best film nominations for A Beautiful ...
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UK arthouse scheme branded
One of the UK's state-supported regional cinemas has slammed proposals from the Government-backed film body the Film Council to create a centrally run art-house circuit as an "insult".The Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, part of the UK's regional film theatre circuit, this week issued a statement saying the proposal would drive ...
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Bruce Willis boards Intermedia, Hartswood, BBC pic
In an unlikely pairing of resources, independent giant Intermedia and Bruce Willis and Arnold Rifkin’s Cheyenne Enterprises are teaming up with Beryl Vertue’s UK company Hartswood Films and BBC Films to produce a US-set thriller Me Againwhich will star Willis and is set to go into production this year.To be ...
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Arthouse cinema 'virtual circuit' mooted for UK
UK support body the Film Council is proposing to unite the county's art-house cinemas in a so-called virtual circuit, as well as underwrite distributors' p&a costs, under proposals worth $24.3m (£17m) in support for the specialist sector.The council, which is now consulting the film sector before launching its initiatives in ...