All articles by Colin Brown – Page 10
-
News
Good Machine plays hard to get
Good Machine is once again being courted by several corporate suitors interested in marrying up with the decade-old New York production and sales operation that is currently enjoying its most successful year yet. So far, however, Good Machine's three partners are resisting that final walk down the wedding aisle. "There ...
-
News
GMI's \'Uncensored\' Cuaron picture arouses Fox
On the eve of what promises to be a hectic two weeks of deal-making for Good Machine International (GMI) in both London and Milan, the New York sales operation, has sold the French, German, Swiss and Italian distribution rights to Alfonso Cuaron's sexually-unbridled Y Tu Mama Tambien to 20th Century ...
-
News
Middle Eastern crisis intrudes on Hamptons Fest
This year's Hamptons International Film Festival found itself thrust into the cauldron of Middle Eastern politics after a jury led by actor William Hurt found itself having to adjudicate between a selection of Palestinian and Israeli features and shorts programmed as part of an inaugural sidebar devoted to 'films of ...
-
News
Parents, Titans continue to rule US box office
There were a clutch of new releases this week but none managed to dislodge last week's top two films, Meet The Parents and Remember The Titans, both of which occupied their same slots en route to expected blockbuster grosses.With a combined $75.7m, the top 12 films actually outgrossed the corresponding ...
-
News
Dutton's Corner, Winfrey's Morrie surprise Emmys
A change in the voting procedures in the major categories for the Emmy Awards resulted in several surprise winners over the weekend, among them multiple trophies for Charles Dutton's explicit mini-series The Corner and for the Oprah Winfrey-produced TV movie Tuesdays With Morrie. British stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard also won ...
-
News
Disney clamps down on R-rated marketing tactics
Responding to a growing political storm in the US surrounding screen sex and violence, Walt Disney has decided to enforce stricter rules for the way that R-rated films released under its Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films labels are marketed, particularly towards children.Print advertising, trailers and web sites will now ...
-
News
Offline acquires US rights to Jang Sun Woo's Lies
New York-based Offline Releasing has acquired US distribution rights to Korean director Jang Sun Woo's controversial film Lies and will work with boutique distributor Cowboy Booking International to release the film at arthouse venues nationwide, starting with a New York play-date on Nov 17.Featured in both the 1999 Venice Film ...
-
News
Hawke, Linklater & Co go Dogme-style for InDigEnt
Independent Digital Entertainment (InDigEnt), New York's answer to Denmark's Dogme95 movement, has completed its first four star-laden digital video features, comprised of Campbell Scott's Final, Ethan Hawke's Last Word on Paradise, Bruce Wagner's Women in Film and Richard Linklater's Tape, and has now started on its fifth, Rodrigo Garcia's Women ...
-
News
Ex-Helkon chief Martin takes helm of 2K Media
Patrick Martin, the former managing director and partner of Helkon Media, is to spearhead the ambitions of yet another aggressive German-based international film production and distribution hydra, 2K Media.Martin will become a joint partner and share the chief executive officer title with 2K Media's founder Hans Peter Kaufmann, the former ...
-
News
Phil Jackson named int'l video chief for Paramount
Phil Jackson has been named the new London-based president of Paramount Home Entertainment International, where he will replace longstanding international video veteran Paul Miller at the end of July.Jackson joins Paramount from Walt Disney where he held the position of senior vice president/managing director, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Europe, Middle ...
-
News
X-Men X-plodes with $57.5m domestic opening gross
X-Men, Bryan Singer's $75m version of the Marvel Comics' phenomenon, raked in more money at the weekend box office than any other non-sequel in film history, more or less ensuring that distributor 20th Century Fox will finish the summer with a cost-efficient blockbuster capable of spawning an entire franchise of ...
-
News
United Artists shuts down London sales operation
London-based United Artists Films, spearheaded by Wendy Palmer and Fiona Mitchell, is being shut down over the next few months as a foreign sales division by its parent studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its place will come a new UK-based production operation that may revolve around some of the existing UAF staff.From ...
-
News
Diller re-grouping anticipates dealmaking binge
Barry Diller's USA Networks has streamlined itself into three distinct yet interrelated business units as a prelude to what many believe will another aggressive round of deal-making on both sides of the Atlantic especially now that this sprawling electronic empire is about to become affiliated with Vivendi Universal.The three divisions ...
-
News
United, Malone carve out broadband powerhouse
UnitedGlobalCom, the holding company that already controls one of the fastest growing broadband networks in Europe, will become the most important high-speed internet player in Latin America after reportedly acquiring most of the international distribution and programming assets belonging to John Malone's Liberty Media.According to the Wall Street Journal, United ...
-
News
Vivendi, Canal Plus confirm Seagram talks
Universal Studios is set to change hands once again, passing from Canadian to French ownership within the next few weeks, now that Seagram is back at the negotiating table jointly with utilities and media combine Vivendi and its pay-TV subsidiary Canal Plus.Despite all previous denials, Seagram's boss Edgar Bronfman Jr ...
-
News
Cannes-archy on the Croisette
Cannes regulars are calling on festival organisers and city administrators to enforce far tighter security measures along the Croisette after an unprecendented wave of violence and gang-related petty crime have left many here injured, mugged or fearful of their own safety."I swear it has got out of hand this year," ...
-
News
Cowboy lassos Antidote for arthouse releases
Cowboy Booking International, the New York releasing boutique, has created a new specialised distribution operation that will draw on an initial $1m private equity fund raised by Antidote Films to acquire and put out ten films a year.The new co-venture between Cowboy and Antidote will go by the name Code ...
-
News
CanWest's Aaronson acquires Simon Magus
Bob Aaaronson, the new acquisition chief for CanWest Films, has made his first purchase for the fledgling US distribution company, picking up North American rights to Ben Hopkins' debut feature Simon Magus.Aaronson, who was previously an acquisitions executive for both New Line/Fine Line and 20th Century Fox before becoming an ...
-
News
Mutual's foreign partners strike $200m credit line
The three leading foreign distributors involved in Mutual Film Company have jointly secured a $200m revolving credit line allowing the production company to develop and finance projects without having to necessarily wait for a greenlight from a Hollywood studio partner.The flexible financing arrangement is the result of a three-year credit ...
-
News
Scott's Gladiator slays US box office
The annual bloodbath known as the US summer box office has begun in earnest and already one film has emerged victorious: Ridley Scott's $103m Roman spectacle Gladiator which debuted with $32.7m and utterly slayed all its weekend competition.Starring Australian actor Russell Crowe as the hero who fights back in the ...