All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 172
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News
Carnaby crawls into the Doghouse with Jake West
London-based Carnaby International has picked up worldwide rights to Jake West's comedy horror picture Doghouse, it was announced in Cannes.The company will introduce the project, due to shoot in the autumn, to buyers during the Cannes market.Also making its market debut is Welsh comedy, Bridge Of Lies, from Bafta-winning director ...
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News
Black Book producer Maltha plans new WWII project with Isabella
Following his success with Black Book, producer San Fu Maltha is tackling another World War II-themed project. Maltha's company Fu Works is to partner with Els Vandevorst's Isabella Films on a film adaptation of bestseller, Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter), by former Dutch politician Jan Terlouw.The film tells the story of ...
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News
Bridges steps up to join cast of $25m Weide film
In a move which is already whetting buyers' appetites, Jeff Bridges has joined the cast of Bob Weide's How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, the $25 million adaptation of Toby Young's bestselling satirical memoir about his time as a British journalist abroad, working in Manhattan. Bridges will be playing ...
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Features
India - Mother figure
Fresh from The Namesake, prolific Indian director Mira Nair is working on two very different projects. She is set to direct the epic $100m Shantaram on four continents for Warner Bros. An adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' autobiographical novel, it is being produced by Initial Entertainment Group's Graham King and ...
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News
More cast lines up for Wrathall's Good shooting in Budapest
Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker and Mark Strong have joined Viggo Mortensen in the cast of Good, John Wrathall's screen adaptation of the CP Taylor stage play, directed by Vicente Amorim.Principal photography has begun in Budapest on the film, in which Viggo Mortensen plays the lead role of John Halder, a ...
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News
Mira Nair to executive produce Taraprevala's Little Zizou
Sooni Taraprevala, the award-winning screenwriter of The Namesake, Salaam Bombay and Such A Long Journey, is at work in Mumbai on her directorial debut, Little Zizou.The film, which started shooting late last month, stars Boman Irani and Mahabanoo Kotwal. It is being executive produced by Taraprevala's long-term collaborator, Mira Nair.The ...
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News
Flanders Audiovisual Fund gets new injection of cash
In a move that will provide a major boost to Flemish film production, the Flanders Cultural Affairs Minister Bert Anciaux has announced plans to increase Government support for State film body, the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). Details of the funding emerged here in Cannes.Anciaux anticipates that the new injection of ...
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News
Dreamachine picks up Link's Aftermath.
In one of its first major pick-ups since its launch earlier this spring, Dreamachine has announced start of production on Oscar winner Caroline Link's Aftermath. The film is co-produced by Constantin Film and Bavaria Film and will be shot on location in Germany. Dreamachine will handle worldwide sales. Writer-director Link ...
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News
Moodysson to make first English-language film
Swedish director Lukas Moodysson is to begin work later this year on Mammoth, his first English-language feature. The film (which is being pre-sold in Cannes by Trust Film Sales) marks Moodysson's return to 'a more narrative style' in the vein of Together and Lilya 4-Ever after his recent experimental movies ...
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News
Nordisk to handle Sandrew Metronome's Swedish features
Nordisk International Film Sales has signed an eye-catching deal to handle all Sandrew Metronome's upcoming Swedish feature films. Lena Rehnberg, head of production at Sandrew Metronome, signed the deal with Tine Klint, head of international sales at Nordisk. Through the new alliance, Nordisk will be handling sales on Sunstorm, a ...
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News
Future Films and Celsius come on board for Vivaldi biopic
Boris Damast's Vivaldi biopic is picking up momentum. Producer and financier Future Films has now boarded the project, being made by Hand Picked Films and Mechaniks'. In Cannes today, it was confirmed that Celsius Entertainment will be handling sales. Joseph Fiennes stars as the legendary composer. Also in the cast ...
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News
Portobello moves into sales through Fandango alliance
Eric Abraham's Portobello Pictures (the company behind Kolya and Dark Blue World) is taking the plunge into sales. Here on the Croisette, the British-based outfit has combined forces with Italian outfit Fandango to set up sales banner Portobello-Fandango. Each company has two films in the market. Portobello is introducing buyers ...
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News
Diving Bell makes waves for Pathe
Before the market has even begun, Pathe Pictures International is reporting a roaring trade on Julian Schnabel's competition entry, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly. In advance of its world premiere next week, the adaptation of author Jean-Domninique Bauby's memoir about his life after he was incapacitated by a stroke, ...
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News
Miami makeover for London gangster classic
Classic UK gangster film The Long Good Friday is to be re-made, it was confirmed in Cannes, with the action shifting to Miami. Handmade Films and Impact Pictures are partnering on the $50m project, written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Co-producers will be Patrick Meehan for HandMade ...
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News
Rotterdam's Bals Fund invests $590,000 in 33 projects
The Hubert Bals Fund - the International Film Festival Rotterdam's fund for supporting filmmakers from developing countries - has announced details of its latest investments. The Fund will invest $589,369 (Euros 435,500) in 33 film projects and initiatives from 23 developing countries. The Spring 2007 selections of the fund includes ...
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News
Becker takes on sales for new Bobby Sands feature
Twenty-six years after he died on hunger strike, IRA martyr Bobby Sands is to be the subject of a new feature film, Hunger. Becker International has picked up worldwide rights to the project, which is being directed by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen.Backed by Film4, Hunger comes billed as 'a ...
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News
Seeing the light
The UK film finance sector gets a hopeful boost from a new $80m investment fund with producers David Parfitt and Christopher Figg on board. Geoffrey Macnab reports. The UK film finance sector has not been in the strongest health lately.With the closure of the Gaap schemes, the end of Section ...
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Reviews
28 Weeks Later
Dir: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. UK-US-Sp. 2007. 100mins. 28 Weeks Later is superior genre fare, directed and performed with such gusto that you scarcely notice its creaks. Atmospheric and creepy production design, excellent use of London locations and a succession of bloodcurdling chase sequences keep the tempo high, even as the ...
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News
Intandem takes on sales to Julie Delpy's thriller The Countess
London-based Intandem Films has taken worldwide sales rights to Julie Delpy's Gothic thriller The Countess. The film is inspired by the life of the 17th-century Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory, whose reckless pursuit of eternal beauty transformed her into a murderous heretic. Delpy, Oscar-nominated for her screenplay for Before Sunset, not ...
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Features
Kosovo/Macedonia - Dogme learns new tricks
In late April, Aneta Lesnikovska screened her debut feature Does It Hurt' - The First Balkan Dogma in Skopje, Macedonia. The screening in her homeland followed various festival outings, starting with the world premiere in the Tiger Competition in Rotterdam and also including the Bermuda International Film Festival where the ...