All Finance articles – Page 167

  • News

    Romanian Film Center awards $4.5m for new films

    2008-01-22T11:00:00Z

    The Romanian Film Center (CNC) has approved just over Euros 3.1m($4.5m) in support for 11 new feature films, including projects from Radu Mihaileanu, Titus Munteanu and Razvan Radulescu. The largest sum - $626,000 (Euros 432,000) - went to Mihaileanu's film The Concert, about a Bolshoi Theater manager who loses his ...

  • News

    Shochiku adds Sakamoto, Oikawa titles to EFM line-up

    2008-01-21T17:07:00Z

    Japanese major Shochiku has unveiled its line-up for the upcoming European Film Market (EFM) which includes new titles from Ataru Oikawa and Junji Sakamoto. Oikawa's recently completed rural horror film Shrill Cries Of Summer is based on a successful franchise extending from video games to manga and TV animation. Oikawa ...

  • News

    Control Room director Noujaim heads Pangea Day film project

    2008-01-21T11:32:00Z

    Jehane Noujaim, director of acclaimed 2004 documentary Control Room, is heading a unique project offering a global day of film.Pangea Day, which is scheduled for May 10, 2008, will be held in eight different cities: Cairo, Dharamsala, Jerusalem, Kigali, London, New York, Ramallah and Rio de Janeiro. The venues will ...

  • News

    Mulroney, Davis to star in Driving Lessons

    2008-01-21T07:14:00Z

    Dermot Mulroney and Hope Davis have signed on to star in the independent feature Driving Lessons that is scheduled to shoot in Los Angeles in March.Finland's Vivi Friedman will direct from a screenplay by Mark Lisson about an unhappy wife and mother who gets a second chance to save her ...

  • News

    Vertigo to produce Rupert Wyatt's Escapist follow-up The Trail

    2008-01-21T05:00:00Z

    The UK's Vertigo Films has come on board for Rupert Wyatt's next feature The Trail, after already taking the rights to his debut feature The Escapist, which is world premiering in Sundance today.Vertigo will produce and take all UK rights to Wyatt's new project, and Vertigo's new partner sales company ...

  • News

    UK production spend drops 15% whileco-productions crash 43%

    2008-01-19T14:20:00Z

    Feature film production spend dropped 15% in 2007, to $1.4bn (£723m) from 2006's $1.6bn (£855m), according to new research from the UK Film Council.The UKFC tracked 112 features, down from 135 in 2006 (the UKFC only tracks projects with budgets starting at $1m). The UKFC blamed the decline on the ...

  • News

    Intandem, Radical pitch slate including John Woo's Caliber

    2008-01-18T11:59:00Z

    Intandem Films and its graphic novel publishing company partner Radical Publishing will be meeting with investors in the UK starting Jan 21 to present their shared business model and preview future projects. UK-based financing and sales company Intandem took an equity stake in 2007 in Los Angeles-based Radical, which is ...

  • News

    Shochiku picks up Sori martial arts action title Ichi

    2008-01-18T11:36:00Z

    Japanese major Shochiku will handle international sales of martial arts action film Ichi, directed by Fumihiko Sori and starring Haruka Ayase (Hero) as a female incarnation of the legendary blind swordsman Zatoichi. Shochiku will begin sales of the film at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival's European Film Market (EFM) ...

  • News

    Lionsgate UK acquires Conan, Mad Money and Righteous Kill

    2008-01-18T05:01:00Z

    Distributor Lionsgate UK has struck a three-picture acquisition deal with Nu Image/Millennium Films. Lionsgate UK has taken UK and Ireland rights to Jon Avnet's crime thriller Righteous Kill; Callie Khouri's comedy Mad Money; and the Conan The Barbarian revived franchise set for a new film release in 2009.Righteous Kill stars ...

  • News

    Film4 and B3 Media's FeatureLab to nurture minority scripts

    2008-01-18T05:00:00Z

    UK production company B3 Media is launching the B3 FeatureLab with backing from Film4, Binger Film Lab and Skillset.The initiative will nurture four feature film scripts from black and minority film-makers who have a track record in film, TV, radio, visual arts or new media.The programme, which runs throughout 2008, ...

  • News

    Odyssey's slate includes Hornby and Scherfig's An Education

    2008-01-17T15:57:00Z

    Odyssey Entertainment has announced details on a number of high-profile titles on its sales slate ahead of Berlin's European Film Market.The titles are: Lone Scherfig's An Education; John Crowley's Is There Anybody There'; Stephan Elliot's Easy Virtue;and Andy Cadiff's A Bunch of Amateurs.An Education, in pre-production, will star Peter Sarsgaard, ...

  • News

    Ealing takes on sales for Eyre's new drama The Other Man

    2008-01-17T12:45:00Z

    Richard Eyre is set to start principal photography on his new dramaThe Other Man starting Feb 14.Ealing Studios International will handle international sales.The drama will star Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas, Laura Linney and Romola Garai.Eyre will also produce with Tracey Scoffield, Frank Doelger and Michael Dreyer for Rainmark Films. David ...

  • News

    StudioCanal completes acquisition of Germany's Kinowelt

    2008-01-17T12:22:00Z

    StudioCanal has announced the completion of its 100% acquisition of German distributor Kinowelt. Speculation on the move had reached fever pitch last week when a Leipzig-based daily reported that the long-rumoured deal was imminent.StudioCanal signed the acquisition contract on Wednesday with Michael and Rainer Kolmel, owners of Kinowelt. In a ...

  • News

    Supporting cast lined up for Kevin Smith's latest at TWC

    2008-01-15T21:01:00Z

    Craig Robinson, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe, Jeff Anderson and Jason Mewes have joined Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks on The Weinstein Company's (TWC) Zack & Miri Make A Porno, which begins principal production in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Jan 16.Smith wrote and is directing the film, which stars Rogen ...

  • News

    Japan's IMJ, Dub Incset up production label Smoke

    2008-01-15T14:33:00Z

    IMJ Group subsidiary, IMJ Entertainment (IMJE), has established a feature film and visual contents company as a 50:50 joint venture with film and TV producer Dub Inc. The new company, Smoke, will be headed by Dub CEO Yasushi Utagawa, who will serve as producer on feature films developed under the ...

  • Reviews

    Mad Money

    2008-01-15T13:53:00Z

    Dir: Callie Khouri. US. 2007. 104 mins.A relentlessly upbeat all-women heist comedy along the lines of How To Beat The High Cost Of Living and Fun With Dick And Jane, Mad Money is inoffensive star-driven entertainment which might capture the imagination of female audiences in theatres, before heading for a ...

  • Reviews

    Shot In Bombay

    2008-01-15T12:56:00Z

    Dir: Liz Mermin, UK/US 2007. 99mins.Fact proves racier than fiction in Shot In Bombay, Liz Mermin's documentary on the filming of a Bollywood action movie based on true events. The film in question is Shootout At Lokhandwala, director Apoorva Lakhia's 2007 thriller inspired by a real-life Mumbai gun battle between ...

  • News

    Iain Smith plans $20m rugby drama The Originals

    2008-01-15T05:00:00Z

    UK-based producer Iain Smith (Cold Mountain, Children Of Men) is in advanced development on The Originals, a Chariots Of Fire-style drama about the exploits of the famous 1905 New Zealand All Black rugby team during their tour of Great Britain. The team was known as 'The Originals.'Mark Joffe is to ...

  • News

    Maike Haas rejoins Sony in international production unit

    2008-01-14T23:22:00Z

    Maike Haas has returned to Sony following an eight-year stint at Buena Vista International Germany and has been named vice president of international production, Europe, for Sony Pictures Entertainment's International Motion Picture Production division.Haas will oversee European operations from Berlin and identify and develop projects with a focus on German-language ...

  • News

    Luc Besson partners on $17m environmental Boomerang project

    2008-01-14T15:52:00Z

    Luc Besson has partnered with photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and luxury brands group PPR for a $17m (Euros 11.5m) film project provisionally entitled Boomerang. The film is set to be released on June 5, 2009 to coincide with World Environment Day.EuropaCorp will distribute the film on a worldwide day-and-date release and ...