All articles by Colin Brown – Page 9
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Biopic planned of Joy Division's doomed frontman
The film rights to a book about the life and suicide of Ian Curtis, the singer/songwriter who fronted theManchester pop group Joy Division, has been snapped up the same New York productioncompany that made Michael Almereyda's Hamlet and Jonathan Nossiter's Sundance-winning debut SundayAndrew Fierberg and Amy Hobbyof Double A Films ...
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Anime finds French-speaking home through Pathe
Manga Entertainment, the Japaneseanimation specialist, has signed a home entertainment distribution dealthroughout many of the world's French-speaking territories withPathé Distribution of Paris.Under the deal, Pathéwill dub Manga's anime DVD and VHStitles into French and distribute in France and territories such as Belgium, Luxembourg and French-speaking Africa.Manga, no relation to the ...
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First Run adds Fighter to arsenal of US releases
New York'sFirst Run Features has acquired the US rights to Amir Bar-Lev's Holocaust-themeddocumentary Fighter in a licensing agreement struck with The Independent FilmChannel's Next Wave Films. A theatrical release has been penciled in forthis autumn.Fighter has won awards at the leading festivals around the world, including the Hampton's Film Festival(Audience ...
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Duke Nukem enters a new big screen Dimension
Duke Nukem is coming to a much bigger screen near you now that Dimension Films has acquired the movie rights to the video game phenomenon from Larry Kasanoff and his Threshold Entertainment. In his feature film debut for the Miramax genre label, Duke assumes the role of Earth's best defense ...
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Internet merger provides Giants with new beanstalk
Afterspending a year making a noise at international film markets through blanketadvertising campaigns and huge slate announcements, David Dadon's GiantsEntertainment has been sold to a tiny publicly-quoted Internet company that hasbeen operating until now as a minor-league entertainment-themed portal.The merger with Hollywood Partners.com Inc - no relation to the German ...
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Anders' Sun by-passes US theatres for Showtime
Allison Anders' emotionally-wrenching film about theconsequences of rape, Things Behind The Sun,will receive its first commercial outing later this year as a premiere on theShowtime pay-TV network despite winning widespread critical plaudits at thisyear's Sundance Film Festival.Unable to attract decent enough advances from domestictheatrical distributors, the film's investors appear to ...
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ShoWest: Boeing offers digital transition scheme
Hoping to break the deadlock between exhibitors and studios over who should pay for the transition to digital cinema projection, several companies including the world's largest aircraft-maker are using this week's ShoWest convention in Las Vegas to announce independent financing schemes.The Boeing Company, and a joint venture of Technicolor and ...
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Good Machine strikes first-look deal with Miramax
Good Machine, which previously enjoyed housekeeping arrangements with 20th Century Fox and most recently Universal Pictures, has now has struck an exclusive first-look deal with Miramax Films, the Disney-owned studio that is within walking distance of Good Machine's building in downtown Manhattan.The multi-year deal, which becomes effective this month, means ...
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Picture This! picks up Confusion Of Genders for US
Picture This! Entertainment, Doug Witkins' boutique distribution outfit that specialises in stories presenting non-stereotypical gay, lesbian and bisexual characters, has acquired all US rights to the raunchy French sex comedy The Confusion of Genders (La Confusion Des Genres). Written and directed by Ilan Duran Cohen, a 37-year-old graduate of New ...
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Alliance buys into Canada's indie film network
Less than two months after losing out to Novia Scotia's Salter Street Films in a bid to launch Canada's first English-language movie network dedicated solely to independent filmmaking, Alliance Atlantis has offered some C$80m ($53m) to buy out Salter Street under an agreed takeover. Since Alliance Atlantis already enjoys long-term ...
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Greenberg omitted from Oscar documentary shortlist
The moment that this year's Academy Award nominees are revealed to the entire world at a pre-dawn ceremony broadcast live from Los Angeles tomorrow morning, there will be the usual gasps at some of the omissions and more questions raised about why some of the year's best-known documentary features have ...
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Murdoch 'close' to $70bn merger with DirecTV
Rupert Murdoch could soon emerge as chairman and largest single shareholder of the world's first truly global satellite TV empire under the terms of a tentative $70bn merger that would reportedly knit together his existing necklace of international satellite operations with those of US-based DirecTV.According to reports in both this ...
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Hollywood Partners champions Hill's Undisputed
Hollywood Partners (HP), the Munich-based private film fund, has committed to co-financing and co-producing Walter Hill's Undisputed, starring Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames and Peter Falk, in return for all foreign rights and certain income rights in the US and Canada.The film, which began shooting at a maximum security prison just ...
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Jodie Foster drops out as Cannes jury president
Actress Jodie Foster has been forced to drop out as president of this year's Cannes Film Festival jury after being selected as a last-minute replacement for the injured Nicole Kidman in the lead role of David Fincher's The Panic Room.The impending threat of a summer strike, should either the writers ...
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Fox Searchlight, Key Films dive into Deep End
Fox Seachlight has splashed out $4m for the distributionrights to The Deep End in all available worldwideterritories except Italy, where Key Films looks set to release the film aftertabling a pre-emptive bid during this year's Sundance Film Festival. Cited by this jury for its cinematography, The Deep End stirred up ...
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Bean's The Believer takes top prize at Sundance
Signalling a return to its roots as a committed showcase for edgy, provocative filmmaking, the Sundance Film Festival awarded its top dramatic prize to Henry Bean's incendiary directorial debut The Believer.Starring Ryan Gosling in a career-making role as a tormented Jewish religious student who joins a militant neo-Nazi clan, The ...
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Sundance hots up after initial cold feet
After a decidedly slow start, this year's Sundance Film Festival finally caught fire on Wednesday with Miramax Films grabbing actor Todd Fields' debut feature In The Bedroom and IFC Films snapping up both Jump Tomorrow and the documentary Go Tigers! for US distribution. At the same time Arrow Entertainment was ...
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SearchParty embarks on global film rights hunt
SearchParty Films, the new "distribution services" outfit looking to hoover up films that have been ignored by conventional buyers, has picked up its first eight US-made indie acquisitions and is now training its ambitious sights on international features of all languages.SearchParty, jointly spearheaded by co-chairman Larry Estes and Scott Rosenfelt, ...
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Unapix files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Unapix Entertainment, the New York film and TV production and distribution outfit whose shares stopped trading on the American Stock Exchange last week, has filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.According to a statement issued on Tuesday afternoon, Unapix expects that its primary lender, G.E. Capital Corp, will bail the ...
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Senator grabs Germany's X men
One of Germany's sexiest production outfits, X Filme Creative Pool, has joined the growing list of companies to come under the Senator Entertainment umbrella.Senator announced yesterday it has acquired 51% of X Filme, the Berlin and Cologne-based filmmaking collective that sealed its international reputation as the producer of Tom Tykwer's ...