All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 186
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News
Laxton takes over as Life 'n' Lyrics director
Life 'n' Lyrics, the London-set rap drama from new British outfitFiesta Productions, has secured a new director. Richard Laxton, whose recentcredits include TV series Outlawsand Bodies, is to take over thereins following the departure of the original director, Lexi Alexander, daysbefore shooting was due to begin.Backed by the UK FilmCouncil, ...
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News
Barney's Restraint draws buyers for Celluloid
Paris-basedsales outfit Celluloid Dreams is stirring up buyers' interest in artist MatthewBarney's film Drawing Restraint 9, an experimental epic set aboard a Japanese whaling ship. Deals havealready been concluded with Spain (Bistel) and Australia (Accent), andCelluloid Dreams is in negotiations with France, Germany, Greece, Russia, Italyand Japan. Cinetic Media holds ...
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Reviews
Drawing Restraint 9
Dir/scr: Matthew Barney.US-Jap. 2005. 143mins.Matthew Barney is one ofthe superstars of the American art world. He has held exhibitions everywherefrom the Guggenheim to the Venice Biennale, and has won numerous prizes. His CremasterCycle, made between 1994 and 2002, was shown - and rhapsodised over - inboth cinemas and museums. Drawing ...
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News
Vinterberg to return Home to Dogme roots
Dear Wendy directorThomas Vinterberg is set to return to his Dogme roots with A Man Comes Home,a new project due to shoot in Denmark next spring.Vinterbergis billing the film, which will be made through production company Nimbus, as"a tragic love story but in an uplifting party surrounding...it will be inthe ...
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Bauer Martinez to herd Lau's Flock into Louisiana
Andrew Lau's The Flock, which had been due to go intoproduction in New Orleans later this autumn, may still shoot in Louisiana inspite of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Philippe Martinez, CEOof Bauer Martinez Studios (BMS), told ScreenDaily.com that the plan nowis to see if it will be feasible ...
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News
Beauvois' Lieutenant wins Europa Cinemas Label prize
Cult Frenchdirector Xavier Beauvois has won the 'Europa Cinemas Label' for hiscop thriller, Le Petit Lieutenant which screened in the Venice Festival's 'Venice Days'sidebar last week.The award willgive Le Petit Lieutenant a healthy fillip as it hits the internationaldistribution trail. The film is now eligible for extended theatrical exposureand additional ...
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News
Park swaps Vengeance for Cyborg sci-fi
Cult Korean auteur ParkChan-wook is set to take the sci-fi route. The director (whoseSympathy For Lady Vengeance screened in Venice last week) is to make I Am A Cyborg for CJEntertainment. Casting details are yet tobe confirmed on the story of a young woman in a mental asylum who believes ...
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The Sun rises in Japan for The Works
On the eve of thisyear's Toronto Festival, UK sales agent The Works has closed a deal with Japanfor Alexander Sokurov's The Sun, his film about Emperor Hirohito's last days of power beforeJapan's surrender to the US in 1945. Kabocha hastaken Japanese rights to The Sun and will be giving it ...
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Reviews
Goal!
Dir: Danny Cannon. UK.2005 110minsGoal! is the first episode in a planned football trilogyabout a 19-year-old Latino Santiago plucked from LA to play in the EnglishPremiership. The second film - to be shot by House Of Wax director JaumeCollet Serra from next month - will see him play on a ...
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News
Sienna Miller signs for Golconda's Camille
Golconda Films, the London-based production and financing company headed by Gregory Mackenzie and Brett Walsh, has recruited rising British actress Sienna Miller to star in its forthcoming dark comedy, Camille. Harvey Keitel is also attached to the project, to be exec-produced by Charles Finch. The UK-Canadian co-production is in advanced ...
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Reviews
Citizen Dog (Ma Nakorn)
Dir/scr: WisitSarasatieng. Thai-Fr. 2004. 100mins.Co-produced by LucBesson's EuropaCorp, Wisit Sasanatieng's follow-up to Tears Of The BlackTiger is a film of undeniable charm: a romantic fantasy already touted bysome as a Thai equivalent to Amelie. Shot in the same iridescent coloursas Black Tiger, full of surrealistic humour and musical interludes, itis ...
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Reviews
The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes
Dirs: The Brothers Quay.UK-Ger-Fr. 2005. 99mins.A decade after theirdebut feature Institute Benjamenta (1994), Stephen and Timothy Quay havemade their second full-length film. As one might expect from film-makers widelyacknowledged as masters of stop-motion and miniaturisation, this is a richlydetailed affair. It is crammed full of literary, cinematic and fine artreferences. ...
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News
Jeremy Thomas readies Royle's Director's Cut
Britishproducer Jeremy Thomas, who picks up the Locarno Film Festival's prestigiousRaimondo Rezzonico award today, has revealed further details of what looks setto be his second film as a director.The Director's Cut is an adaptation of NicholasRoyle's novel. Royle has already written a draft of the screenplay and Thomashopes to shoot ...
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News
Dellal readies On A Clear Day follow-ups
British filmmaker Gaby Dellal, whose film On A Clear Dayscreened to an enthusiastic response at the Locarno Film Festival at theweekend, is to team up with producers Dorothy Berwin and Sarah Curtis on asecond project. The new film, again to be scripted by Alex Rose, has theworking title Excess Baggage. ...
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Reviews
20 Centimetres (20 Centimentros)
Dir/scr: Ramon Salazar.Sp-Fr. 2005. 113mins.A bawdy, picaresque Spanish yarn about a transvestite whoyearns for a sex change operation (she has 20cm she wishes to dispense with -hence the title), Ramon Salazar's second feature carries obvious echoes of theearly work of Pedro Almodovar. There is the same irreverent humour, a sharedfascination ...
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News
Grosvenor Park weighs in behind Highlander trilogy
The new trilogy of Highlander films being prepared byDavis-Panzer Productions and Sequence Films are to use a "one-stop"financing structure created by Grosvenor Park.Highlander V,budgeted between $12-$14m, is due to start shooting in Lithuania inOctober. Although there will be some Lithuanian backing, Grosvenor Park is effectively fully financing theproject. Bret Leonard ...
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News
Da Vinci Code set to join Maltese influx
The Malta FilmCommission Act, which came into force on July 15, has already attracted a raftof high-profile international films to the island, led by Steven Spielberg's Munichand now a confirmed one-week shoot for The Da Vinci Code thisNovember.Under the terms of theAct, the Malta Film Commission is empowered to grant ...
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News
UK announces new tax proposals: Section 42 to go
The UK Government has signaled its intent to do awaywith Section 42 as well as Section 48 in a set of long-awaited proposals fornew tax incentives for the British film industry. In future, low- andhigh-budget films would be be dealt with under a "single coherent regime".At the same time, the ...
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Reviews
On A Clear Day
Dir: Gaby Dellal. UK2005. 99mins.British cinema has alwaysloved its underdogs. Gaby Dellal's big-hearted debut feature is yet anotheryarn about a small-timer fighting back against a society that marginalises him.In this case, the protagonist is a 55-year-old newly unemployed Glaswegian whostrives to redeem his life by swimming the English Channel.Confidently directed, ...