All articles by Francoise Meaux Saint Marc – Page 7
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Deauville announces additional titles
Joel Coen's The Man Who Wasn't There, toplining Billy Bob Thornton and Frances McDormand and Woody Allen's The Curse Of The Jade Scorpion, featuring Dan Aykroyd, Helen Hunt and Charlize Theron are among a raft of titles which have been added to Deauville's 2001 line-up.Both the Coen brothers (whose debut ...
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France favours Evolution over Kids
French cinema-goers have once again demonstrated their cultural distance from their American counterparts by embracing Columbia TriStar's Evolution, according it a certain 'je ne sais quoi' that its domestic audience failed to appreciate In its first week on release Ivan Reitman's alien/romantic comedy attracted a substantial 400,000 admissions, placing it ...
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France re-instates 18 certificate
A year after the furore about censorship and freedom of expression provoked by Baise-Moi, French culture minister Catherine Tasca has reinstated the 18 certificate in France. The controversial rape film is now also looking set for a UK release.According to the new French regulations a film will obtain the new ...
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Warner grabs French comedy from Gaumont
Warner Bros' French division is to produce Ma Femme S'appelle Maurice, the next film by French comedy specialist Jean-Marie Poire (The Visitors). The $13m (Ffr100m) title, which is also to be backed by Germany's Babelsberg Studios, Canal Plus and French public broadcaster France Television, starts shooting on July 23 in ...
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France's TF1 sees revenues rise
Leading French terrestrial broadcaster TF1 has announced a nine per-cent increase in its revenues for the first half of 2001, largely due to the consolidation of cable and satellite channels Eurosport International, TV Sport and Series Club and production company Telema.TF1 revenues rose to Euros 1.3bn (against Euros 1.2bn for ...
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Deauville's Avant-Premieres have French flavour
In a departure from its usual cluster of major US studio films, a record half of the titles in Deauville's prestigious 'Avant-Premieres' selection are handled by French independent distributors, giving the American film festival a more auteurish twist.Along with Steven Spielberg's AI and another Warner Bros movie, Swordfish, the titles ...
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French cinema festival has little to celebrate
Lara Croft was the main beneficiary of the annual French promotional event La Fete du Cinema, which suffered this year from a combination of hot weather, a lack of strong titles and a strike by Gaumont cinemas' staff.Although admissions tripled during the three-day long promotion, compared to the previous week, ...
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StudioCanal is subsumed within Universal Pictures
Europe's StudioCanal is set to lose its independence by being delisted from the Paris stock exchange and then folded into Universal Pictures, its stable-mate within the VivendiUniversal empire. The integration comes less than 15 months after StudioCanal was first floated on the bourse as a standalone force in international production ...
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Tomb Raider set for top spot at French box office
With over 221,000 tickets sold on its first day on release (June 27) in France, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider looks set to kick Pearl Harbor off the top slot at the French box office in its first week. Tomb Raider is the fourth biggest opener in France since the beginning ...
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French theatrical subsidies law extended
The French government has amended the law which limits financial support to smaller theatres in order to allow larger exhibitors to benefit from the same subsidies.Current legislation limits local subsidies to theatres which sell less than 2,200 tickets on average per week. The new regulation now puts the cap at ...
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Buyers emerge for French studios group SFP
Two potential buyers - Daniel Lebard Management Development and facilities house Euromedia Television with Bollore Investissement - have emerged for ailing French state-owned studios and facilities group Societe Francaise de Production (SFP). Unless one takes over the massive organisation, the only other alternative appears to be a management buyout led ...
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French TV cuts back on number of films aired
French terrestrial TV channels have cut back the number of feature films broadcast per year, airing 49 fewer titles last year than in 1999. This includes 31 fewer films broadcast in primetime, for a total of less than 800 films.According to the latest survey by French audiovisual industry watchdog CSA ...
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Gershon, Nielsen, Sevigny to star in Demonlover
Gladiator's Connie Nielsen, American indie muse Chloe Sevigny and Showgirls star Gina Gershon are to join the cast of Demonlover, a French-produced thriller to be directed by festival favourite Olivier Assayas.Producer Edouard Weil, co-founder of up-and-coming production company Elisabeth Films, confirmed that the trio of US actresses will begin shooting ...
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France's Le Sabre readies English-language slate
French high-end TV production outfit Le Sabre is preparing four English-language film projects, including Cheri, to star Jessica Lange, and a $16m ice age epic The Mammoth Hunters. The company is part of the Expand group, which has just been taken over by StudioCanal (see Screendaily, June 18).Lange herself initiated ...
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StudioCanal to take over TV powerhouse Expand
As expected, Vivendi Universal's StudioCanal is to take over Expand, the television production powerhouse born in February 2000 of the merger Canal Plus' television production and distribution affiliate Ellipse Programmes and French television production group Expand.After exercising an option on the 20.4% owned by the FinExpand financial holding in Expand, ...
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RTL sells distributor SND to France's M6
Pan-European media giant RTL Group has sold its French distribution offshoot SND to French broadcaster M6, in which the Luxembourg-based group already holds a major stake.Eric Marti, who founded SND in 1997, is to be replaced by Thierry Desmichelles. Marti sold the company to RTL Group in 1998, keeping a ...
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Canal Plus confirms 200-plus jobs to go in France
Canal Plus has confirmed that it is to cut 217 jobs in France. The pay-TV operator, which is 49% owned by Vivendi Universal, said that it is restructuring its programming output in order to compensate for rising costs in its film and sports divisions.The French channel said yesterday that it ...
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French films smash records with 54% market share
French films have carved out a massive 54% local market share in the first five months of 2001, according to new data released by the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC).The tally roundly beats the 34% recorded during the same period last year, itself well above the annual average market ...
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FTD takes all French rights to 29 Palms
FTD Entreprises, a division of France Television Distribution (FTD), the film and television rights trading arm of French public broadcaster France Television, has acquired all French rights (theatrical, television and home video) to Alliance Atlantis' 29 Palms. This underscores FTD's commitment to aggressively strengthening its international film sales and French ...
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TF1 picks up Pearl, signs deal with local producer
TF1 has acquired free-TV rights to Disney's Pearl Harbor, which the French broadcaster will show from autumn 2004.The latest Michael Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer title, released in France on June 6 by Gaumont Buena Vista International, attracted a strong 141,268 admissions on its first day. Although this does not come ...