All articles by Adam Minns – Page 38
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Farrell to return to Ireland for Intermission
Having exploded onto the Hollywood scene with upcoming US titles such as Steven Spielberg's Minority Report and Bruce Willis WW2 drama Hart's War, red-hot Irish actor Colin Farrell is likely to return to home-grown features on Dublin-set ensemble piece Intermission.The 25 year-old actor, who this week purportedly landed $5m to ...
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UK's Optimum acquires two titles
UK independent distributor, Optimum Releasing has acquired Guillermo del Toro's The Devil's Backbone and Julien Temple's Pandaemonium.The distributor, headed by Will Clarke, is taking over Pandaemonium from the ailing Downtown Pictures, which was to release the picture in May but was forced to secure a Creditors Voluntary Agreement to pay ...
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UK Film Council unveils training initiatives
UK support body The Film Council has unveiled training initiatives targeted at script writing, script reading and development.Roughly half the total investment of $783,000 (£549,000) goes to project development workshops to provide training for writers with active projects. The National Lottery-supported schemes also include short courses for script readers and ...
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UK studios suffer decline in Hollywood production
The investment by Hollywood productions shooting in the UK has plummeted by more than 65%, according to figures from the British Film Commission. The total value of overseas productions to start shooting in the UK in the first six months of 2001 crashed to $109m as UK studio facilities were ...
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FilmFour signs first-look deal with Pipedream
FilmFour has signed a first-look deal with Pipedream Pictures, the production company of Lee Thomas and John McKay, the hot film-making team behind its sell-out Cannes title, Crush.The duo, seen as two of the strongest, commercially-oriented new film-makers in the UK, are also moving forward on the £10-£15m comedy Knickers. ...
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Film Council and FilmFour's UK shorts schemes
The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund for low-budget films has partnered with FilmFour's FilmFour Lab to launch four short film schemes.The two operations are each investing £250,000 a year into the schemes - Cinema Extreme, Comedy Shorts, Internet/Viral Shorts and the Completion Fund. The schemes, which may change in ...
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Cronenberg's Spider starts to roll
After financing through the UK's Cobalt Media Group fell apart at the last-minute, David Cronenberg's Spider finally started shooting last week with Capitol Films on board as sales agent and key pre-sells to buyers including Helkon SK for the UK.The psychological thriller is also being backed by Metropolitan Films in ...
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Icon boards Assumption Of The Virgin for UK
Icon Film Distribution has boarded Intermedia and BBC Films' highly-anticipated period drama Assumption Of The Virgin for the UK.The UK distribution arm of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Entertainment beat two rivals to the tentatively-titled adaptation of Katie Campbell's novel, which is expected to shoot in Italy in the ...
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New UK film studio in development
The UK's The Full Picture Company has announced plans for a £66m film studio in the southwest of England, although the venture is yet to secure planning approval or reveal any backers.The company, chaired by Academy Award-winning Bond and Titanic production designer Peter Lamont, proposes a range of ambitious facilites ...
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UK's FilmFour appoints McAleese
FilmFour has appointed Peter McAleese as head of physical production.The producer of Twin Town and co-producer of Spice World replaces Caroline Hewitt, who returns to operate as an independent producer. McAleese's credits also include line producer on Bridget Jones's Diary and co-producer on Gillies MacKinnon's The Escapist. He worked as ...
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Momentum takes four titles from Intermedia
In their first deal together, Momentum Pictures has bought four titles from Intermedia, headlined by the tentatively-titled Plague Season, Ron Shelton's story of LA police in the run up to the Rodney King riots.The acquisitive Momentum also bought all UK rights to Wisegirls, starring Mariah Carey and Mira Sorvino, dark ...
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Shaolin Soccer opens Sydney Asian festival
Shaolin Soccer opens this month's Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival, kicking off a week of Asian fare.Stephen Chow and Lik-Chi Lee's Hong Kong title follows a down-at-heel soccer star who tries to get a Shaolin monk apprentice with a gift for soccer to play in the national football finals.The festival, ...
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Miramax picks up Carolina for the US
Miramax Films has finalised a deal for US rights on Marleen Gorris' Carolina, which started shooting last week after being postponed from the spring.The story of a Southern girl trying to make it in Hollywood is the first feature from the alliance between US producer Martin Bregman and UK sales ...
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BSkyB reports losses but predicts profits
UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB recorded spiralling losses on July 25, but indicated that it had now born the brunt of costs of moving to digital.Pre-tax losses before were nearly double those of the previous year at $733.6m (£514m) after goodwill, interest, share of joint ventures' losses and exceptional items. But ...
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Capitol takes over Cobalt's Spider
Capitol Films has taken over the financing of David Cronenberg's Spider after Cobalt Media Group dropped out on the eve of the shoot.A spokesperson confirmed Cobalt was "no longer involved" in the psychological thriller, which is expected to start shooting within two weeks, a delay of a few weeks.While the ...
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UK's Pathe goes for Dinner Rush
The UK's Pathe Distribution has acquired Dinner Rush from Entertainment Capital Group (ECG).The story about the dramas of New York's hippest Italian eatery has a cast including Danny Aiello, Vivian Wu, Sandra Bernhard and Summer Phoenix. Access Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of ECG, will release the film in the ...
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C4 chief Jackson joins Diller after long courtship
Barry Diller spent a whole year trying to persuade Michael Jackson to quit Channel 4 before finally succeeding yesterday in luring the British TV boss across the Atlantic to run his cable channels, TV production arm and USA Films from both New York and Los Angeles. After entering serious talks ...
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3i buys into Civilian Content
3i, the British venture capitalist group which recently helped underwrite the merger of Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, has taken a 4.45% stake in Civilian Content, parent of National Lottery franchise the Film Consortium.The company bought 1.8 million shares from a private shareholder, meaning financial institutions hold more than 30% of ...
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Universal Pictures picks up Women
Universal Pictures has picked up all UK rights to Women Talking Dirty, the first picture from Elton John and David Furnish's Rocket Pictures.The co-production with Jean Doumanian Productions is expected to get a platform release though UIP, Universal's international theatrical distribution outlet. Helena Bonham Carter and Gina McKee star in ...
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UK Film Council reveals first single-project slate
Erick Zonca, the French writer-director of The Dreamlife Of Angels, is to make his English-language debut with National Lottery backing from UK film support body the Film Council's first round of single-project development funding.Zonca secured $106,244 (£75,000), the largest single award the council has made from its development fund, for ...