All articles by Adam Minns – Page 4
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Fry secures Gold Circle backing for Sprout's Boy
In between voicing The Guidein The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, British actor and directorStephen Fry is kickstarting his UK film and TV production company, SproutProductionsFry and his partner inSprout, Gina Carter, have secured backing from Gold Circle, the US indie behindsupernatural suspense hit White Noise, for Sprout's first featureproduction. ...
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British Film Institute reignites film sales division
Having once championed PeterGreenaway, Derek Jarman and John Maybury, the British Film Institute (BFI) islaunching back into film sales at next month's Berlin market after acquiringall worldwide rights to two films.The institute's salesdivision, which has not represented new films since Maybury's acclaimed 1998debut Love Is The Devil, has picked up ...
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Euro money underpins Oscar hopefuls
With Howard Hughes, ClintEastwood and Ray Charles in the running, this year's Oscarhopefuls read like a list of American icons. But the Oscar nominations unveiled today are as much a testament to European filmfinancing as to the acting and directing skills of Martin Scorsese, LeonardoDiCaprio and Eastwood.More than ever, USfilmmakers ...
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UK production spend plummets in 2004
Spending by US productionsshooting in the UK plunged by more than 30% last year, according to annualfigures from support body the UK Film Council.The news follows this week'sfigures from Screen International showing that the number of local filmsshooting also slipped by around 40%. Counting all productions,the Council calculated that spending ...
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International campaign pays off for Alexander
Alexander is on course to take four times its North Americangross from international markets, according to Moritz Borman, head of thefilm's sales and production house Intermedia.Another strong week in Europe led by Italy's opening tally of $3.7m(Euros 2.8m) saw Oliver Stone's epic retain the international box office lead.Adding 16 new ...
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UK film starts fall 40% in 2004
James Bond, Jude Law perioddrama Tulip Fever, and a big-screen adaptation of BridesheadRevisited all failed to get off the ground last year as UK productionlevels crashed.As the industry was hit bytougher tax laws and a scaling back at traditional sources of funding such asFilmFour, the number of indigenous UK films ...
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Abbey Road film festival set for March
Abbey Road Studios, theLondon recording studios immortalised by The Beatles' Abbey Road album,has launched the Abbey Road Film Festival.The event will run from Mar19 to Apr 3 at the studio, showcasing films scored at Abbey Road such as RaidersOf The Lost Ark, The Last Emperor and Gangs Of New York. ...
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Cinema sale likely for London's West End
Competition is heating up totakeover a flagship UK cinema site in London's Leicester Square after theOffice of Fair Trading cleared investment vehicle Terra Firma's purchase ofexhibitor UCI provided it sold off certain cinemas in its estate.Terra Firma controls boththe Odeon Leicester Square and the Odeon West End, in addition to ...
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UK Treasury embarks on Section 42 talks
The UK Treasury hasscheduled a series of meetings this week with film industry chiefs as part ofan overhaul of the influential Section 42 tax-based financing incentive forlarge-scale productions shooting in the UK.Industry executives fromsupport and trade bodies such as the UK Film Council, PACT and BSAC are joiningfinanciers and producers ...
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HanWay takes on Kidulthood sales
UK-based sales agency HanWayFilms has acquired international distribution rights to Kidulthood, aLondon teenage gang story that marks the debut of a promisingwriter-director-producer trio.The film, which combines alove story, rites of passage and a tale of retribution, wrapped this week underthe direction of Menhaj Huda, a former commercials and TV director.Produced ...
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Popular UK shorts get second outing at London's Curzon Soho
Ashowcase of popular UK shorts will get a second outing next month at Londonspecialist cinema Curzon Soho after a sell-out screening.Theten-title collection of naturalistic dramas, mathematicalpuzzles and a samurai film includes shorts by former WorkingTitle executive Amanda Boyle, British Independent Film Awards nominee SimonHookandBafta-nominated Carol Morley. The filmswill be screened ...
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Development heaven for UK Film Council winners
Capitol Films, EalingStudios, Pathe and Jeremy Thomas' Recorded Picture Company are amongstthe seven winners of the UK Film Council's development franchises, theGovernment-backed support body announced today.The consortia of producers,sales agents, financiers and distributors will pump £15m into the UKdevelopment sector over the next three years, half from the council'slottery coffers ...
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Winslet to star with Jackman in Aardman's Flushed Away
Aardman Animations, the UK animation house behind Chicken Run and DreamWorks SKG's upcoming Wallace & Gromit film, has finally caught its rat. Kate Winslet will play a savvy sewer rat called Rita in Flushed Away, rounding out the main cast on Aardman's next production.Nicole Kidman had been amongst the actresses ...
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UK industry on tenterhooks over tax D-Day
The British productionsector is on tenterhooks ahead of a widely-anticipated clamp down on tax fundsin today's pre-budget report.Producers have been fearingthe worst since a dressing-down from the Inland Revenue last week in whichfilmmakers were attacked for abuses including so-called double dipping undertax support mechanism Section 48.Support body the UK FilmCouncil ...
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Yates in talks to direct fifth Harry Potter
Harry Potter could be in fora surprise. David Yates, an acclaimed UK TV director but largely unproven infeatures, is in talks to direct the franchise's fifth instalment, HarryPotter And The Order Of The Phoenix.Yates' TV creditsinclude political conspiracy thriller State Of Play, which won a Directors Guild of Great Britain ...
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Big Dreams for Intandem
Intandem Films is renewing the relationships with US studioswhich the team behind the UK sales company built on titles such as MGM's Heartbreakerswhen they ran Winchester Entertainment.In what Intandem aims to be first project in an ongoingrelationship, the sales house is set to take on sales duties on Neon Dreams,MGM's ...
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City Of God spawns feature follow-up
Fernando Meirelles' City Of God looks set to spawn not only a record breaking TVseries called City Of Men butanother feature film as well.Recently-launched UK-based sales outfit Lumina Films aims tolaunch sales for the full-length feature at Cannes, with shooting slated for alate 2005 start. No director is as yet ...
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Clooney readies McCarthy era drama
George Clooney will direct and star in McCarthy era drama Goodnight.And Good Luck. for Section Eight and ToddWagner and Mark Cuban's 2929 Entertainment.Clooney's directing follow-up to Confessions Of ADangerous Mind is being set up at WarnerBros Pictures for domestic and sold to overseas buyers through 2929International, 2929's new sales arm ...
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It's all gone UK, US for Pete Tong
Rapidly building areputation for its innovative approach to commercially-oriented low-budget filmmaking,the UK's Vertigo Films has secured suitably unusual UK and US distributiondeals for its Toronto title It's All Gone Pete Tong.Vertigo has partnered withdistributor Redbus in the UK for a hefty 300-screen release next April. The twocompanies will collaborate on ...