All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 190
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News
UK exhibitors call for cinema rentals rethink
Thevexed issue of UK cinema rentals - the sums paid to distributors by exhibitors- has come into sharp focus following remarks by John Wilkinson, chiefexecutive of the Cinema Exhibitors' Association.UKrentals are reputed to be among the lowest in Europe, but Wilkinson has told ScreenInternational that in some cases they should ...
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Storitel launches $1m fund to back UK talent
Manchester-based producer Storitel Films, the company set upby software tycoon Paul Sherwood, has established a $1m development fund toback new British talent. "We're looking for exciting projects from people whoare not able to get access to production money through the normal channels.We're looking at talent rather than experience," Sherwood said ...
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News
UK set to lose Paramount's $120m Watchmen
In a move underlining justhow tough it is to keep big budget Hollywood movies in the UK, theproducers of Paramount's superhero thriller Watchmen are on the verge of taking the film away fromPinewood Studios. The $120m sci-fi epic isalready in pre-production at Pinewood, but last week, several crew members -some ...
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Pinewood Shepperton acquires Teddington Studios
The UK's largest studio player, Pinewood SheppertonPLC, has acquired Teddington Studios, it was announced to the London stockmarket today (April 1.) Pinewood Shepperton has bought Teddington Studios Limited,which is currently in administration, and the entire share capital of TheStudio Broadcasting Company Limited (SBC) for £2.7m. Teddington, which is based in ...
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Schrader defiant as Exorcist prequel unveiled
Paul Schrader was indefiant mood as his Exorcist The Prequel was finally unveiled this weekend at the Brussels InternationalFestival of Fantastic Film. Flanked at Friday's pressconference by nine of his cast and crew, who had flown in to Belgium at theirown expense to support him, Schrader expressed his happiness that ...
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Reviews
Exorcist: The Prequel
Dir:Paul Schrader. US. 2005. 111mins.Shroudedin controversy, almost buried at birth by its producers Morgan Creek (whocommissioned an alternative version by Renny Harlin), Paul Schrader's Exorcistprequel is a far richer affair than its troubled production history mightsuggest. A notable improvement on Harlin's rushed job (released to mediocrebusiness and largely damning reviews ...
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News
Sony Pictures Classics swallows Jordan's Breakfast
Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American, LatinAmerican, German and South African rights to Neil Jordan's latest film, BreakfastOn Pluto.Breakfast On Pluto is Jordan's second adaptation ofa novel by Patrick McCabe following on from his award-winning 1997 effort, ButcherBoy. Starring Irish trio Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and BrendanGleeson as well ...
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Sokurov plans 'free fantasy' version of Faust
Having tackled Hitler, Leninand Hirohito, Russian director Alexander Sokurov is to round off his four filmproject on "Men Of Power" with his own version of Faust. The new film, loosely basedon works by Goethe and Thomas Mann, promises to be in a very different registerto its dark and brooding predecessors, ...
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News
Loach sounds off over Iraq, Tsunami relief
Speakingin Berlin last week, Ken Loach (one of the three co-directors of portmanteaupicture Tickets) berated the double standards in western responses todeath and disaster. "Your country and mine have killed over 100,000 peoplein Iraq," Loach told a US journalist. "And we are encouraged to showno sympathy, to collect no money, ...
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News
Market gets animated about Euro-toons
European-madeanimated feature films are at last beginning to crawl out from underHollywood's shadow and establish a foothold in the international market. Thatwas the message in Berlin earlier this week as details of Cartoon Movie 2005,the three-day co-production forum and market, were announced.Theevent will take place in the middle of next ...
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News
Exorcist exhumed: Schrader's prequel gets world premiere
Provingthat in this era of DVDs, re-issues and special festival screenings, no footageis ever safely in the grave, Paul Schrader will bring his version of TheExorcist: The Beginning to the Brussels International Festival of FantasticFilm on March 18 in a precursor to what looks like a limited theatricalrollout.Thiswill be a ...
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News
US pack circles Dog Day doc
Based On A True Story, Walter Stokman's documentary about thereal events and characters behind Sidney Lumet's classic film, Dog DayAfternoon, is being circled by a small pack of US buyers currently inBerlin. Amsterdam-basedsales agent SND Films is weighing up offers from, among others, theatricaldistributors here!, Cinema Guild and Avatarand TV ...
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News
Fox sinks its teeth into Night Watch vampire franchise
20th Century Fox has unveiled its plans to build a global blockbusterfranchise out of Timur Bekmambetov's Night Watch (Nochnoj dozor), theRussian-language smash hit vampire thriller, playing at the Berlinale tomorrownight as a special screening.Last summer the studio bought worldwide rights (excluding Russia and theBaltic States) to the movie, which took ...
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News
Menzel serves up King Of England
Oscar-winning Czech directorJiri Menzel is finally set to direct his long-gestating adaptation of IServed The King Of England, one of the greatest novels by Czech writerBohumil Hrabal. The new project is beingpresented to potential production partners at the EFM by Czech sales anddistribution outfit AQS in advance of its official ...
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News
Trust clinches int'l on Vinterberg's Wendy
ThomasVinterberg's controversial drama, Dear Wendy has been hitting the targetat the European Film Market. Followingpacked screenings in Berlin earlier this week, the film, scripted by Lars VonTrier, has been sold to Germany (Legend), the UK (Metrodome) Canada (TVA)films, Argentina (Distribution Company) and Peru (Gateno Films) Peru.USbuyers are also circling Dear ...
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News
Football fever spreads across int'l film industry
Withthe "Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer in town yesterday and the World Cup tobe held in Germany next year, football fever is breaking out in the filmindustry. From Europe to South America, new football-themed films are beingplanned.InBrazil, Walter Salles (in Germany this week for the Berlinale Talent Campus) isbusy polishing the script ...
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News
Classic film out-takes lost in studio clear-out
Though a restored version ofMichael Cimino's epic Heaven's Gate has been screening in Berlin thisweek, it is now looks as if its out-takes will never be found - thanks to aclear-out at UA which saw discarded footage from this, and several other filmclassics, destroyed.It isn't just Heaven'sGate - out-takes from ...
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News
Massway leads the way for Chinese sales companies
In a move bound to boost the profile of Chinese filmabroad, independent companies from mainland China are now being allowed totravel abroad to represent films at international markets. Beijing-based Massway, one of the new wave ofprivately-financed sales agents, is at this year's European Film Market inBerlin for the very first ...
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News
Missing Tati title makes world bow
Exactly 47 years after itwas made, the English-language version of Jacques Tati's 1958 film, MonOncle, is receiving its world premiere in the Berlinale's retrospectivetoday.This is not a dubbed versionof the French original, but a film that was shot separately in English, withthe same actors. It contains sequences which are not ...
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News
Malta unveils new financial incentives to woo film-makers
The Maltese filmindustry suffered a body blow last year when, three months into pre-production,Steven Spielberg decided to postpone his highly contentious new film about theaftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics and concentrate on The War Of TheWorlds instead.Nonetheless,Malta (where films from Troy to Gladiator have shot in recentyears) is regrouping: ...