All articles by Adam Minns – Page 52
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Video Networks raises $150m for expansion
UK video-on-demand company Video Networks has raised equity financing worth more than $154m (£102m) from investment partnership Digital Explosion, the company announced today (June 29).Video Networks chief executive and founder Simon Hochhauser said the new funds would be used to expand the company's Homechoice broadband video-on-demand, interactive TV and fast ...
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Edinburgh lines up Dancer as opening night film
The Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 13-27) is lining up Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark as opening film and Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love to close the event.While neither title is finalised, festival chief Lizzie Francke is currently putting the final touches to a programme that ...
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Internationalmedia strikes deal with Johnson
Internationalmedia, the company formed from the merger between Intermedia and Pacifica, has finalised a first-look deal with US producer Mark Johnson.The move, which was expected, comes after Intermedia, Johnson and USA Films reportedly boarded The Code, a WW2 story currently in development. Johnson, who may set up Brad Silberling's Baby's ...
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Winchester hooks Midler's All Girl, Merv Griffin
The UK's Winchester Entertainment, which unveiled pre-tax profits up a record 205% yesterday (June 27), has struck first-look deals with entertainment impresario Merv Griffin and Bette Midler and Bonnie Bruckheimer's All Girl Productions.The UK film and TV concern will act as overseas sales agents on films from the two production ...
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Granada float aims for $2.25 billion
Granada Media, the media arm of the UK's Granada Group, plans to raise up to $2.25 billion through its upcoming floatation, the company revealed on Monday.Granada Media, which is demerging from its media and hospitality parent, said the share issue could value the new company at more than $10 billion.The ...
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Bolstered BBC Films encroaches on FilmFour turf
A bolstered BBC Films could be hived off from its hulking parent company and housed in new digs near London's Charlotte Street, within spitting distance of archrival FilmFour, according to plans currently being drawn up by the UK's public broadcaster. Assuming those plans get rubberstamped, BBC Films will soon re-locate ...
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Jonescompany pacts with FilmFour
UK producer Robert Jones, whose credits include The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain and The Usual Suspects, is striking a first-look deal with FilmFour, the company announced on Friday.The first three projects under the deal with Jones' London-based production outfit Jonescompany Productions include The ...
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UK distributors rally round Bafta pre-Oscars move
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) appears to be winning the all-important support of UK distributors for its plan to move its film awards to a profile-raising pre-Academy Awards slot.While there are still concerns amongst some key distributors, those contacted by Screendaily which backed a move from ...
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Factor 8 secures $167m through tax vehicle
UK financing outfit Factor 8 Films raised $167m (£111m) for investing in features through its tax vehicle, the Voyager Film Partners, over the 12 months to April 5.The funding, raised through a combination of equity (22%) and debt (78%), returned $19.5m (£13m) in net cash benefit to producers. Factor 8 ...
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Wood moves from Redbus to Films2
UK internet operation Films2, a division of video-on-demand company Filmgroup, has appointed Jason Wood as films specialist.Wood will be replaced as head of sales at filmgroup's distribution arm Redbus Film Distribution by Mervyn Andrews, previously sales manager at PolyGram Filmed Entertainment in the UK. Wood will be responsible for liasing ...
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FilmFour bags UK rights to Small Time Crooks
FilmFour has acquired all UK rights to Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks from Sweetland Films, marking the distributor's first theatrical release of an Allen film.The picture opened through DreamWorks in the US last month and has grossed $15m to date. The first weekend gross was the biggest ever for an ...
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BAFTA set for pre-Oscars awards move
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) has confirmed it aims to move its film awards to a pre-Academy Awards slot in a bid to focus worldwide attention on the ceremony as a pointer for the Oscars.Bafta said that a planned move from April 9 to February 25 ...
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J&M secures multiple sales to Japan
UK-based sales and financing operation J&M Entertainment has sold a host of titles to Japanese distributors including Nippon Herald, Marubeni and Only Hearts.Marubeni acquired a package including UK thriller Complicity, starring Jonny Lee Miller; Fever, which marks Alex Winter's directing debut; History Is Made At Night, starring Bill Pullman; and ...
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UK film execs feature high in Queen's Honours list
Stewart Till, deputy chair of UK film superbody the Film Council, Intermedia co-chairman Nigel Sinclair, and film finance specialist Premila Hoon are among the film industry executives to be honoured in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours list.Till, formerly president of Universal Pictures International and president of international for PolyGram Filmed ...
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Chance joins Granada Media board
Former BSkyB deputy managing director David Chance has joined UK media operation Granada Media as a non-executive director.The appointment comes as parent Granada Group is preparing to float its media division by mid-July. Granada is expected to stress Chance's experience in pay-TV and new media in the run-up to the ...
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Harrelson, Huston set to attend Karlovy Vary
Woody Harrelson, Anjelica Huston and, subject to shooting schedules, Johnny Depp are amongst the stars expected to attend next month's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the festival has announced.Harrelson, a guest at the festival last year, is to present the Canadian documentary Grass, which he narrated and co-produced, while Huston ...
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Football set to feature at British Short Film fest
Football, starring Helena Bonham Carter, will be a timely highlight at the upcoming British Short Film Festival.The film is directed by Gaby Dellal, whose credits include a segment of Sky Pictures' Tube Tales and Granada Films' upcoming feature Single Girls Diary. Dellal's short film Toy Boys won the prize for ...
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Allouache secures backing from Hubert Bals Fund
Salut Cousin! director Merzak Allouache is amongst a host of film-makers from developing counties to secure funding from the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund.Allouache was awarded support for L'Autre Monde, which explores the social and political situation in Algeria through a young woman's search for her fiance.Other projects ...
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Edinburgh unveils gala screenings
Franchise Pictures' Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, which boasts a cast including Holly Hunter, Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz and Calista Flockhart, will screen in the gala section of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 13-27). The festival has also confirmed Simon Cellan Jones' Cannes Directors' Fortnight ...
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Balkans documentary scoops BANFF grand prize
The grand prize at Canada's BANFF Television Festival went to documentary A Cry From The Grave, which investigates the massacre of 7,000 Muslim refugees in Srebrenica.The film, produced by the UK's Antelope and BBC, the US' Thirteen-WNET and the Netherlands' Ryninks Films, also picked up the top prize in its ...