All articles by Adam Minns – Page 34
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News
Foreign production spend in UK down 57%
Inward investment from overseas productions shooting in the UK collapsed last year by 57%, according to figures released by the British Film Commission.The commission, responsible for attracting US productions to the UK, said that inward investment plummeted from£539.44m ($771.6m) in 2000 to£230.46m ($329.6m) in 2001."The key factor for this downturn ...
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TRP teams with IAC for The Mammoth Hunters
TRP Prodcutions, the production venture set up last year by former CLT/Ufa sales chief Heinz Thym and writer-director Stewart Raffill, has partnered with UK-based sales agency IAC Film on its debut picture, the tentatively titled $17 million prehistoric adventure The Mammoth Hunters.The effects-laden family film, which is to recreate the ...
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TRP teams with IAC for The Mammoth Hunters
TRP Prodcutions, the production venture set up last year by former CLT/Ufa sales chief Heinz Thym and writer-director Stewart Raffill, has partnered with UK-based sales agency IAC Film on its debut picture, the tentatively titled $17 million prehistoric adventure The Mammoth Hunters.The effects-laden family film, which is to recreate the ...
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Fintage House announces management buyout
Financial services and royalties collection outfit Fintage House has completed a management buyout as well as appointing entertainment lawyer Maarten P Melchior to head the company's film and television collection account management division.Fintage's management is buying the company, which has offices spanning Europe, Australia, Japan and the US, from the ...
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Elstein takes over as lottery franchise struggles
Former Channel 5 chief David Elstein is replacing Richard Thompson as chairman of Civilian Content, the publicly listed company that owns UK lottery franchise the Film Consortium.Thompson is exiting the company after it issued a profit warning and signalled plans to cut overheads, citing a delay in receiving payments from ...
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Guy East & Nigel Sinclair set to depart Intermedia
Intermedia co-chiefs Guy East and Nigel Sinclair are understood be leaving the indie powerhouse they co-founded, taking the first opportunity to cash in their shares following the company’s flotation.The two executives, who are currently negotiating their exits, could earn up to $60 million each before any deductions by selling their ...
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Momentum for Britney Spears' Crossroads
Momentum Pictures has acquired the UK rights to Britney Spears vehicle Crossroads, the company confirmed this week.Momentum, which has slated the film to open March 29, joined other international buyers such as Sogepag in Spain, Constantin Film in Germany and Egmont in Scandinavia in an unusual auction. Distributors were invited ...
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UK's Working Title options boo.com story
Working Title Films is to make a film about the spectacular boom and bust story of on-line fashion store boo.com.Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner's UK production company has optioned the rights to the book boo hoo: a dot.com story from concept to catastrophe. The story offers an eyewitness account of ...
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BSkyB accused of pay-TV market abuse
BSkyB's stranglehold on pay-TV film rights in the UK has come under threat after competition watchdog the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said on Monday (Dec 17) it is to rule that the satellite broadcaster has breached competition laws.The investigation said that the difference between the prices BSkyB charges its ...
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Vivendi builds war chest with BSkyB stake sale
Vivendi Universal yesterday raised $1.5bn from the sale of a third of its stake in UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. It appears to be amassing a warchest with which to build a TV production and distribution powerhouse. Last week it raised $1.07bn from the sale of some of its non-media ...
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Helkon SK ventures into production
Children's fantasy comedy Tooth and comedy thriller Max Dark are among the first projects at the newly-launched production operation of UK distributor Helkon SK. Emma Berkosfky, former head of development at BSkyB film arm Sky Pictures, will head up development at the outfit.Berkosfky, who was also previously at British Screen ...
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Thompson confirmed as Channel Four chief
Channel 4 yesterday confirmed the appointment of Mark Thompson, currently BBC director of television, as its chief executive.Thompson replaces Michael Jackson, who left to become president and chief executive of USA Entertainment in October. He will leave the BBC after Christmas, but not take up his new job until March ...
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Asif Kapadia considering gunslinger project
Having transplanted the spaghetti Western to India with Miramax Films pick-up The Warrior, UK director Asif Kapadia is considering swapping the deserts of Rajasthan for the real Wild West on St Agnes' Stand.Kapadia is being wooed to direct the story of an injured gunslinger on the run for Nik Powell's ...
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Ralph Kamp embarks on sales Odyssey
Ralph Kamp, the former chief executive of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's London-based sales operation Icon Entertainment International, is understood to be setting up a new independent sales operation under the banner Odyssey.Amongst the first titles Kamp is expected to represent is the tentatively titled Great War project, starring Billy ...
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Grosvenor settles with Thomas out of court
Jeremy Thomas, head of Recorded Picture Co, is expected to receive a multi-million payout after settling a two-year legal dispute with Canadian-UK tax financier Grosvenor Park out of court.The bitter dispute, which was due to go to court this week (Screendaily Sep 6, 2001), saw Thomas and Chris Auty, formerly ...
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UK's Equity/PACT strike talks break down
UK producers body PACT on Wednesday called for its members to stick to its own terms for secondary payments for actors after performers union Equity this week went ahead with its strike threat.PACT said talks with Equity over the introduction of secondary payments had broken down and called for independent ...
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Pathe, FilmFour take on Resident Evil
Pathe and FilmFour have acquired UK rights to Resident Evil from Germany's Constantin Film and Intermedia as the second title in their joint buying partnership after K-PAX.Pathe will handle the UK release as the two companies take turns to physically distribute films in the agreement. The two partners will share ...
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Everett set to be crowned king in Cromwell biopic
Rupert Everett is in final talks to play King Charles I, the despotic British monarch who ill-fatedly believed in the "divine right of kings", in Mike Barker's English Civil War story Cromwell And Fairfax.Everett joins Tim Roth and Dougray Scott in the $23m IAC Films project that is thought ...
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Kastner, Michael team for MiKast Movies
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 ...
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UK production trend develops into horror
Don't look now, something spooky is occurring in the UK's development vaults. Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Entertainment this month unveiled a slate of low-budget horror suspense titles with The Hole director Nick Hamm, while rising new directors such as Ratcatcher's Lynne Ramsay and Sexy Beast's Jonathan Glazer are bringing their own ...