All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 160
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News
Co-productions - Wish you were here'
The need to make international co-productions work is more compelling now than ever. Film-makers looking to work on a certain scale - and not just to make low-budget movies for local consumption - are rarely able to raise their budgets in their own countries.'As an independent producer without a billionaire ...
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Ben Stassen announces further sales on 3D title Fly Me To The Moon
Early in the market, it is clear that buyers' appetite for 3D fare shows no sign of waning. Ben Stassen, director/producer of Fly Me To The Moon, has announced further sales on the animated 3D adventure, which is being released in the US later this year by Summit.Stassen has confirmed ...
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TrustNordisk acquires $10m Norwegian war drama
Scandinavian powerhouse TrustNordisk has picked up $10m Norwegian war drama Max Manus directed by Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.The duo was also behind Bandidas, starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek and produced by Luc Besson.National release is December 19th. Nordisk Film will handle distribution in the Nordic Countries.Max Manus was ...
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NonStop takes biteNonStop takes bite of Swedish vampire film
Underlining its continuing appetite for genre fare.NonStop Sales hastaken on world sales for Swedish vampire movie Not Like Others.The film, billed as a 'sensitive relationship drama with vampireelements,' marks the feature debut of director Peter Pontikis.It is the story of two vampire sisters in contemporary Stockholm. The cast is headlined ...
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Davaa's Two Horses Of Dschingis Khan race to market
The Two Horses of Dschingis Khan, the latest project from Oscar nominee Byambasuren Davaa (The Story Of The Weeping Camel, The Cage Of The Yellow Dog), is stirring up interest in the market. Splendid's documentary division Polyband has taken German and Austrian rights to the film, which is on Atrix's ...
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Hunger to open Cannes Un Certain Regard
Steve McQueen's Hunger about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands is to open the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. The film was a surprise ommission when the festival line-up was announced last week but its presence was confirmed today.British artist McQueen co-wrote the screenplay with award-winning playwright Enda Walsh (Disco ...
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Carlos Acosta to star in $3m feature for Rosa Bosch
Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta is set to star in a dramatic feature inspired by his own life story. The film, based on the Acosta biography No Way Home, will shoot in Cuba and the UK. Acosta's nephews will play him as a younger man.The $3m project is being produced ...
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Antonia's Line team back with My Father's Notebook
Marleen Gorris and Hans de Weers, the director/producer team behind Oscar winner Antonia's Line, are reuniting on a new feature, My Father's Notebook. The film, based on the bestseller by Kader Abdolah, is set at the time of the revolution in Iran and then in Holland a generation later. It ...
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Revamped Baker Street partners with Darkside on Kitchen Games
UK producer and film financier Baker Street Entertainment is partnering with London based animation studio Darkside Entertainment on ambitious new $8m (£4m)CGI animated feature, The Kitchen Games. The film comes billed as 'a tale of cutlery from opposite sides of the table, which compete once a year to decide who ...
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Profile: Zentropa co-founder Peter Aalbaek Jensen
Last month, Scandinavian major Nordisk Film acquired 50% of the shares in Denmark's Zentropa - backing that will enable the company founded by Lars von Trier and Peter Aalbaek Jensen to expand internationally.After years of Dogme manifestos, irreverence and a rebellious nature, has age finally caught up with the maverick ...
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UK landscape shifts as Warner moves to same-day VOD/DVD
Amid signs that the UK distribution market is in an increasing state of flux, British distributors are testing out more and more new ways of getting their movies in front of spectators.'Companies are beginning to look at imaginative release plans for films that 10 years ago simply wouldn't have been ...
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Space man: Duncan Jones talks about his feature debut
It is an early March morning at Shepperton Studios and Sam Rockwell is in a spaceship, shaving. He stars in Moon, an unusual and ambitious film which is being made in the spirit of classic 1970s sci-fi such as Ridley Scott's Alien and Douglas Trumbull's Silent Running.The film marks the ...
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Producer Iain Smith tapped to chair UK's new Industry Training Board
Famed UK producer Iain Smith (Children Of Men, Cold Mountain) has been appointed to chair the Film Industry Training Board (FITB).The appointment was confirmed today by The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). Under Smith, the FITB will have statutory levy powers. Its role is to ensure that the ...
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News
UK financiers don't see disaster with closed tax loophole
UK film financiers have been striking a philosophical note about yesterday's Budget 2008 government announcement that 'sole traders' who spend fewer than 10 hours a week on film-related activities will no longer be able to offset predicted losses on film investment.Previous UKGovernment clampdowns, whether last year's sudden closure of so-called ...
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MK2 blasts off with nWave's 3D Fly Me To The Moon
Ben Stassen of nWave Pictures has sold another major territory on animated feature Fly Me To The Moon, which made history in Berlin last month as the first 3D film to screen as part of the European Film Market.The latest deal Stassen has concluded on the film post-Berlin is with ...
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Duncan Jones wraps shoot on Moon starring Sam Rockwell
Sci-fi feature Moon has just wrapped principal photography at the UK's Shepperton Studios.The film, which marks the feature directorial debut of Duncan Jones (formerly known as Zowie Bowie), stars Sam Rockwell. Moon is being made through London-based production outfit Liberty Films. The producers are Stuart Fenegan, Nicky Moss and Trudie ...
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Features
France - Critical faculties
"He would never talk about his problems but it was impossible not to feel his anxiety," says young French director Mia Hansen-Love of producer Humbert Balsan, who she worked with on her debut feature, Tout Est Pardonne, winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc in France last year.Later this year, ...
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As Hermeling departs A-Film, Wolfers said to be tipped as MD
Following Pim Hermeling's departure from Dutch distributor A-Film (announced yesterday), Wilco Wolfers of Warner Bros Netherlands is being strongly tipped to be appointed managing director in his stead.Speaking to ScreenDaily.com, Philipp Wolff of W2Media BV, the investment company which already owned the majority of the shares in A-Film and has ...
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FilmIndustry Training Board: the next steps
Thefilm Industry Training Boardwill administer the mandatory levy on behalf of the film industry.An Order to establish a board was submitted to Parliament in November 2007, and in line with parliamentary procedures a debate was not called for.This was required to 'sit' in Parliament for 40 days, and upon completion ...
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UK mandatory training levy wins support despite concerns
Senior UK industry figures are strongly supporting a new mandatory training levy on producers proposed by Skillset and government, despite criticism from some producers.The Government is in the process of creating an industry training board (ITB), which will be able to impose a compulsory training levy on film-making.UK plans for ...