All articles by Geoffrey Macnab – Page 200
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Elstree studios lease goes up for auction
The turbulent history of the UK's Elstree studios, wherefilms from Star Wars to Indiana Jones have been filmed, is set totake another dramatic turn. Earlier this week, a public meeting was held todiscuss the future of the studio site, currently owned by Hertsmere BoroughCouncil, who bought the freehold studios in ...
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Perry quits The Works for independent career
The Works' chief executive,Aline Perry, is to leave the company to pursue an independent career in theindustry, it was announced yesterday. The surprise move comes only a few daysafter the Cannes world premiere of Olivier Assayas's prize winning Clean, which headed up The Work's Cannes slate."My departure couldn'tbe more amicable ...
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London acts to tackle shooting 'nightmare'
At a swanky reception in the heart of London's financial district, Film London yesterday announced a range of measures designed to turn the new film and media agency into a body with the same scope and power as the New York Film Commission."It has been a nightmare trying to make ...
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Woody Allen's Anything Else finally finds UK home
Woody Allen's Anything Else has at last found a home with a UK theatrical distributor, it was announced yesterday.The comedy is to be released on 40 prints in late July by Optimum Releasing, who acquired the film from Capitol Films in a joint acquisition deal with MGM Home Entertainment. Anything ...
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Rotterdam, IDFA expansion plans quashed by Dutch review
There were mixed fortunes for the Dutch film industry yesterday as the Government's advisory council, the "Raad voor Cultur", announced its spending recommendations for 2005 to 2008.Events such as The Rotterdam Film Festival, the Dutch Film Festival and IDFA received a qualified thumbs up, but while their funding will remain ...
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City Screen looks to expand UK arthouse circuit
Arts Alliance Media (AAM), the venture capital firm which owns a majority stake in City Screen, is looking to expand the art house cinema chain yet further.The company has already earmarked another unnamed London cinema outside the West End to add to the City Screen circuit, which currently stands at ...
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Media Programme, Eurimages merger 'inevitable'
Jacques Toubon,head of the Eurimages production aid scheme, thisweek told Screendaily.com that mergerwith the Media programme may become "inevitable".The former French culture minister said that such a move could be a consequence ofthe imminent enlargement of the European Union (EU)."Soon the MEDIAProgramme and Eurimages' membership will overlap, with the consequence ...
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British Film Institute unveils plans to 'open up'
The British Film Institute (bfi) is to receive one of thebiggest shake-ups in its 70-year-history.Following a nine month internal review, chairman AnthonyMinghella and Director Amanda Nevill have announced a series of initiatives to"open up" a cultural organisation which, though widely respectedworldwide, has developed a reputation for being aloof and too ...
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ContentFilm hits the acquisitions trail
ContentFilm is on theacquisitions trail. The London and New York based company, which formallycompleted its takeover of Winchester Entertainment on Friday (March 26), hasconfirmed it is now looking to buy distribution companies and libraries."It's part of the general strategy of trying tobuild an integrated film company...it's definitely the intention to ...
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Capitol racks up Big sales on high profile slate
Capitol Films is racking up sales on the high profile, threepicture slate - comprising Mark Mylod's The Big White, Robert Towne's Ask The Dust and Robert Altman's Paint - that it is co-financing with German media fund VIP.The Big White, aFargo-style comedy drama starring Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, James Woods ...
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Verve takes UK rights to Winterbottom's Code 46
Fledgling UK distributor Verve Pictures has acquired Michael Winterbottom's Code 46 and is planning a 60 print release for the film in September.Code 46 is the biggest title which Verve has yet handled. The sci-fi drama, starring Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton, received its world premiere at last year's Venice ...
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New UK distributor builds release slate
Enjoy Cinema Ltd., the new UK theatrical distribution outfit set up earlier this year by Simon Gosling (ex-HanWay), has announced details of its first acquisitions.To mark the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid, Enjoy is to release Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land in the early summer. Based on the novel ...
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Lords lash out at tax loophole closure
Thecontroversy over the government's decision to close down film taxloopholes last month erupted in the House of Lords this week.LabourGovernment spokesman Lord Davies came under fire yesterday as the House OfLords debated the film tax crisis. An array of Tory peers queued up to attacklast month's abrupt decision by the ...
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Winchester finally becomes Content
The name Winchester Entertainment PLC is set to disappear, it was confirmed yesterday as further details of the merger between Winchester and Ed Pessman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm inc. were announced.Subject to shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting on 26 March, the new enlarged entity is to be called ...
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New indie collectives preach cost efficiencies
Is small beautiful' Certainly not was the verdict of the panellists on "Collective Power: Buying and Selling Alliances," speaking this month at Screen International's Modernising European Cinema Summit at the Berlin Film Festival - all of whom are involved in the new wave of indie-combos set up across Europe in ...
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Learning to love the critics
Is there a crisis in European film criticism' That was one key question being asked during Friday's European Film Academy event, "How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Critics."Panellist Ken Loach (in Berlin with competition entry Ae Fond Kiss) blamed the decline in critical standards on "market forces ...
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Smith rides Intandem with August
Ex-Winchester boss Gary Smith yesterday announced that he was back in the film business with a new sales and production outfit, Intandem Films.The company is handling international rights on Bille August's thriller Return To Sender, the long-gestating project from writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (The World Is Not Enough) ...
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Delpy lines up dark directorial debuts
In Berlin with competition title Before Sunset, actress Julie Delpy has revealed further details of her two new directorial projects, both of which are slated to feature roles for her Before Sunset co-star, Ethan Hawke.The $4m Tell Me is a modern fairy tale about a woman trapped with a man ...
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Hanway tipped to handle Foresight slate
HanWay (owned by Jeremy Thomas) is emerging as the prime candidate to handle international sales on many of the films made through Foresight Film, the new Section 48 production fund launched by Prescience Film Finance that aims to raise £10m for a £40m film slate in the 2004/2005 tax ...
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British industry rocked by $375m equity cull
The British filmindustry has been left in a state of shock following the surprise announcementthis week that tax authority the Inland Revenue is pulling down the"guillotine" on the UK's tax equity funds.Veteran producerJeremy Thomas warned that the move would have "major implications"for employment in the UK industry.Pointing out thatup to ...