All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1246
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News
Lionsgate cranks up the action with Lakeshore double
Lionsgate has acquired North American rights from Lakeshore Entertainment to the upcoming action thrillers Game, starring Gerard Butler, and Crank 2: High Voltage with Jason Statham (pictured) reprising his original role in the $25m sequel.Lakeshore holds international rights to both titles and is anticipating strong buyer interest at this week's ...
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Iranian films get VOD foothold in North America
Video-on-demand service Eurocinema has signed an exclusive deal with Iranian Film Society representative Nima Entertainment to provide Farsi-language Iranian films for Eurocinema's North American audiences.The initial titles are Tahmineh Milani's 2000 drama Two Women, Hassan Hedayat's 2002 mystery Twilight, Cyrus Alvand's 2004 comedy Corrupted Hands, and Mehdi Fakhim-Zadeh's 2003 romantic ...
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South Of Pico wins big at Annual American Black Film Festival
AFI graduate Ernst Gossner's feature directorial debut South Of Pico has won the 11th Annual American Black Film Festival's (ABFF) grand jury prize for best picture.ABFF sponsor Heineken also presented Gossner with its Red Star Award recognising 'originality, innovation and vision in film', while South Of Pico star Henry Simmons, ...
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News
US talk show host Letterman initiates election documentary
US talk show host David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Inc will commence filming in five US states on its first documentary this weekend with Lawrence Bender serving as producer.Balance Vector Productions will also produce the untitled film about five American teenagers who are running for a variety of elected ...
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News
Santa Barbara singles out Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem will receive the 23rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival's (SBIFF) Montecito Award on Jan 28, 2008.Bardem, who stars in the Coen Brothers' upcoming thriller No Country For Old Men and Mike Newell's upcoming epic romance Love In The Time Of Cholera, is being recognised for 'a series of ...
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News
Netflix hires Nishimura-Seese for new indie buying role
Lisa Nishimura-Seese has joined Netflix in the new role of vice president of independent content acquisition.Nishimura-Seese most recently served as general manager of New York-based Palm Pictures and will be charged with acquiring independent and small studio films for the subscriber base, which according to the company has reached seven ...
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Courtney named EVP, physical production at Film Dept
Kathleen Courtney has been named executive vice president of physical production for Mark Gill and Neil Sacker's The Film Department.Dave Gare has been named vice president of post-production and Ian Watermeier has been named director of production and finance.Courtney will be based in the West Hollywood offices, reporting to production ...
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News
Saw IV enjoys $32.1m domestic carve-up
Lionsgate's Saw IV maintained the horror franchise's grip on the Halloween season as it stormed to the top of the North American charts with a resounding $32.1m estimated launch.It still wasn't enough to stop the overall box office from slipping for the sixth consecutive weekend against the same period last ...
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News
Midnight Clear lands at Cinemavault for AFM
Toronto-based Cinemavault Releasing International has acquired overseas rights to Midnight Clear and Wind Man heading into the AFM.Midnight Clear will be released through Lionsgate in the US in December and stars Stephen Baldwin and Kirk B R Woller in a story about five strangers whose lives are changed by random ...
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News
Mackiewicz to jointly spearhead Arclight sales
Liz Mackiewicz has been appointed executive vice president of worldwide distribution at Arclight Films in Los Angeles and will take charge of sales at AFM alongside company chief Gary Hamilton.Mackiewicz, who until recently served as a consultant to the company, will be responsible for evaluating projects as well as sales, ...
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News
Ratatouille tops again with $21.9m international haul
An estimated $21.9m haul for Ratatouille and a fourth consecutive weekend as the number one overseas film further validated Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International's staggered release strategy at a time when the day-and-date model is becoming increasing fashionable.Several months after the Pixar film made its first foray into international ...
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News
Lightning takes on Vietnamese hit The Rebel
Santa Monica-based Lightning Entertainment has picked up all non-English language rights to the Vietnamese hit The Rebel (Dong Mau Anh Hung). Charlie Nguyen's film is the largest production to come out of Vietnam and follows the exploits of a 1920s spy for the French who tires of betraying his country. ...
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Summit takes North America for Rian Johnson's Brothers Bloom
Summit Entertainment has acquired North American rights to Endgame Entertainment's highly anticipated romantic adventure The Brothers Bloom. Rian Johnson's follow-up to Brick stars Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi and is currently in post-production. Ram Bergman is the producer. Summit plans a 2008 release. The Weinstein Company ...
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News
Saw IV could show international strength in Spain, Latin America
Saw IV is expected to cast a ghoulish shadow over the international box office arena this weekend as it opens day-and-date with North America in Spain and Latin America. The fourth episode in the celebrated horror franchise opens in the key territories of Spain, Mexico and Brazil on Oct 26. ...
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News
Animation Picture Co gives Spyro The Dragon the 3D treatment
The Animation Picture Company has optioned feature film rights from Vivendi Games division Sierra Entertainment to the hit franchise video game Spyro The Dragon.The Animation Picture Company's principals Dan Chuba, John Davis, Mark Dippe, Brian Manis and Ash Shah will produce the 3D CGI feature.Daniel and Steven Altiere will adapt ...
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News
Palm Springs honours Into The Wild duo
Sean Penn will receive the Director of the Year Award for his acclaimed latest film Into The Wild at the 19th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival awards gala on Jan 5.Past director honourees at this Oscar bellweather include Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for Babel, Anthony Minghella for Cold Mountain, Alexander ...
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Buzz Projects - The ABC of the AFM
Lakeshore Entertainment is hoping to entice buyers at this year's AFM with Game, an action thriller from Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Now in production, it stars Gerard Butler as a death-row inmate who becomes the cult hero of an online game. Lakeshore will also introduce United Artists' ...
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AFM- Buyers go global in search of spice
Fuelled by fears of an industry-wide strike and financed by Wall Street's billions, Hollywood's production schedules are in overdrive to get projects in front of the cameras before next April. North American and international distributor schedules are already packed with US projects to see them through 2008. Following a sluggish ...
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Features
United States - Ehud Resurrected
Changes are afoot at Bleiberg Entertainment, where effervescent company founder Ehud Bleiberg is already plotting his next big move as a hugely successful year draws to a close.A familiar face on the foreign sales circuit for many years, Bleiberg knew it was time to make a bold move two years ...
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Features
Start-ups - The Newcomers
Although notoriously one of the most risky sectors of the global film industry, it is easy to see why so many want to be in North American distribution. Choose the right personnel, secure financial backing, build a strong pipeline, commit a sensible amount to p&a, get the marketing right - ...