All articles by Adam Minns – Page 59
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East Is East wins best film at British Film Awards
FilmFour's hit comedy East Is East won Best Film at the Evening Standard British Film Awards last night. Working Title Films' romantic comedy, Notting Hill, the most successful UK film worldwide, took the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy. Best actor went to Jeremy Northam for An Ideal Husband and The ...
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Sony takes domestic rights to Kitano's Brother
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Takeshi Kitano's gangster picture Brother for distribution in the US and Canada, producer Jeremy Thomas has confirmed.The $10m production is seen as the cult Japanese auteur's potentially most commercial outing to date and marks his first film to be shot in America. The story, which ...
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Sky Box Office, FilmFour move to digital platform
Satellite broadcaster BSkyB's Sky Box Office pay-per-view movie service and UK broadcaster Channel 4's subscription service FilmFour are going digital.Sky Box Office and the FilmFour service will move exclusively to Sky's digital satellite platform in April. In a statement, the companies cited 'the rapid rate of digital take-up by former ...
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Alliance, Canal Plus set for UK distribution pact
Alliance Atlantis and Canal Plus are close to finalising a deal for Alliance to handle UK distribution on a slate of high-profile English-language titles from Canal Plus's production operation, Le Studio Canal Plus.The anticipated deal is understood to cover six pictures, and is likely to include Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight ...
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Redbus, Grosvenor line up multi-territory deal
Aggressively-expanding UK film-to-Internet outfit Redbus Film Group and Canadian-UK financier Grosvenor Park are in advanced talks to strike a long-term, multi-territory pact on a slate of large-scale titles.The expected deal would feed about five projects a year to Redbus' UK distribution arm, which has just appointed a wave of executives ...
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HAL, Miramax confirm split
Miramax Films and HAL Films, the production venture headed by David Aukin, Colin Leventhal and Trea Hoving, have disbanded their London-based partnership, Miramax announced today (Feb 1).Aukin and Leventhal are to pursue interests in the entertainment industry through HAL, the company they founded two years ago with Miramax backing. Hoving ...
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Distant Horizon joins party at Shore's Wedding
South African production, financing and sales operation Distant Horizon is backing Cassandra At The Wedding, UK director Simon Shore's follow-up to his widely-acquired feature debut, Get Real.The $8.9m comedy drama, which has already secured $1.6m in national lottery funding, is the story of a woman looking to scupper her identical ...
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William Morris closes UK theatrical activities
Charles Finch, head of motion pictures Europe, is amongst a string of departures at William Morris Agency (WMA)'s London office as the company closes UK theatrical activities.Finch is expected to set up a London-based production management company with several WMA staff including former producer Luc Roeg. Finch's start-up operation is ...
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FilmFour seals output deal with Senator
UK mini-studio FilmFour and leading German producer-distributor Senator Film have struck a co-production and distribution output deal for at least 14 titles over two years.Senator will take German-language rights in all media to a string of projects from FilmFour's development slate with a total estimated budget of $400m. Senator will ...
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Alchymie cools on BBC's Romantic
Alchymie, the European production and distribution operation for which British financier Flashpoint has pledged $250m, has pulled out of financing what was expected to be its debut project, Born Romantic.But a spokesperson for Flashpoint, which launched Alchymie in October under UK producer Simon Channing-Williams, dismissed rumours that Flashpoint is beset ...
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Universal signs deals with BBC, Canal Plus
Universal Studios Networks UK has acquired extensive packages of movies from the BBC and Canal Plus.Universal declined to comment on speculation that it will launch a second European pay movie channel, based on 13th Street, in the UK other than to point out that "there are other brands". Universal has ...
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Intermedia, Pacifica unveil merger plans
An imminent merger between Guy East and Nigel Sinclair's Intermedia Film and Los Angeles-based Pacifica Entertainment is set to create a division within Intermedia armed with a new $100m production fund.Under the anticipated deal, production, distribution and financing outfit Pacifica will bring a fund backed by German tax money to ...
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Film Consortium's Jimmy Spud gets lottery boost
The Film Consortium (TFC), the UK National Lottery studio franchise which last week agreed in principle to be bought by production umbrella WhiteCliff, has secured lottery cash worth £1.2m ($1.9m) for its feature Jimmy Spud. The £3.7m ($6m) project, adapted by Lee Hall from his radio play I Luv You, ...
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East writer lines up second project for FilmFour
Ayub Khan-Din, the playwright and screenwriter behind current UK box office phenomenon East Is East, is re-teaming with the film's backers FilmFour for a romantic comedy.Khan-Din is writing Belmondo Sahib, which is understood to be his first feature after East Is East. The script is the story of an Indian ...
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Tartan Films, Muse team up for London Fields
An $8-12m adaptation of well-known UK writer Martin Amis' novel London Fields heads the second development slate of Hamish McAlpine's Tartan Films, the Los Angeles-based sister company of UK distributor Metro Tartan Distribution.Tartan has jointly acquired rights to the book with US production outfit Muse Productions, which has credits including ...
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Intermedia appoints Meyer as development executive
Intermedia Films has appointed Sophie Meyer as development executive at its London office, co-chairmen Guy East and Nigel Sinclair have announced.Meyer, who was previously development assistant at UK funding body British Screen, will report to department head Nick Drake. Intermedia's UK production activities include backing Ruth Jackson's West Eleven Films; ...
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FilmFour adds acquisitions chief
FilmFour, one of the most aggressive UK buyers at recent markets and festivals, is bolstering acquisition activities and has appointed Bobby Allen to the newly-created post of head of acquisition.Allen, formerly managing director of Lion's Gate Films UK, is to make his festival debut for FilmFour at Sundance. His appointment ...
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FilmFour racks up quarter of a million subscribers
FilmFour, the pay-TV film channel owned UK broadcaster Channel 4, signed up 250,000 subscribers by the end of December last year, the channel announced this week.FilmFour, which had a projected target of 150,000 subscribers, now aims to secure 400,000 subscribers by the end of this year. The one year-old operation ...
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British Screen to be folded into Film Council
Ending months of speculation, the UK government's film super body The Film Council is set to absorb pivotal funding outfit British Screen Finance.British Screen chief Simon Perry confirmed that the operation's shareholders - United Artists Screen Entertainment, Channel 4 and Granada - have agreed to hand over the operation to ...
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Granada restructures production
The UK's Granada Media, which encompasses feature production arm Granada Film under Granada Media Productions, has restructured its senior production management.Andrea Wonfor, previously joint managing director of Granada Media Productions, becomes executive chair of Granada Media Productions and Granada Media International and Media Products, which will be managed as separate ...