All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1268
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Anywhere Road takes US rights to Brad Gann's Black Irish
Anywhere Road has picked up all US rights to writer-director BradGann's family drama Black Irish starring Michael Angarano and BrendanGleeson.The fledgling San Francisco-based distributor plans an autumn releasefor the story of a Boston youngster who tries to win the affection ofhis emotionally remote father and maintian intimacy with other membersof ...
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Rose Kuo named as AFI Fest's artistic director
Rose Kuo has been hired as AFI FEST's artistic director and ShazBennett has been promoted to associate director of programming.Kuo has been a fixture at Telluride for many years as well as the SanFrancisco, Santa Barbara and Mill Valley Festivals, and is also wellknown on the circuit as an Asian ...
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Loyola Marymount to host second summer workshop
Loyola Marymount University School Of Film And Television Dean Teri Schwartz has announced the second annual Summer Creative Filmmaking Workshop. The event will take place the LMU campus from Jul 9-20 and offers 12 promising high school students from Crenshaw High School's Media Academy the chance to taste the film-making ...
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Spider-Man 3 drives Sony to cross overseas $1bn in record time
The apocalyptic robots of Transformers just about did enough to keep Bruce Willis at bay as Paramount/DreamWorks' Transformers ruled the overseas market at the weekend. The action epic grossed an estimated $43.6m from 3,503 venues in 29 territories following last weekend's robust take-off and now stands at $93.6m. ...
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Transformers set to deliver best US first week for non-sequel
Paramount/DreamWorks' sci-fi action blockbuster Transformersobliterated the competition over the weekend, opening on an estimated$67.6m over three days that rose to $152.5m including previews overthe six-day July 4 holiday week.If estimates hold up this will be the biggest first week result for anon-sequel, overtaking Spider-Man's $151.6m mark set in May 2002.Michael ...
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Transformers expands to 18 new territories; set to cross $100m
Paramount/PPI's Transformers has already amassed $53.5m since opening last weekend and stands a good chance of crossing $100m over the next several days in international markets. The effects-heavy tale of warring robots touches down in 18 new territories this weekend including Russia, Spain and Sweden on July 4. PPI stablemate ...
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Alexander McCall Smith adaptation marks Botswana first
The Weinstein Company (TWC) and Mirage Productions will begin filming on July 9 in Botswana on The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency based on Alexander McCall Smith's bestseller. This marks the first time a major film will be shot entirely in Botswana. The project, which is being made for television ...
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Participant doc to capture Live Earth spirit
Participant Productions will present a feature documentary directed by Brian Hill to be inspired by the Live Earth concerts. The film will aim to capture the spirit of the concerts, a series of eight events set to take place around the world on July 8 put together by Live ...
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LAFF honours for Gauger and Whiteley
Stephane Gauger's Owl And The Sparrow won the Los Angeles Film Festival's Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and Greg Whiteley's Resolved took corresponding documentary honours at the weekend. Stephen Walker's Young @ Heart won the Audience Award for Best International Feature, and The Audience Award for Best Short ...
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Disney cooks up number one domestic opening for Ratatouille
Disney's Ratatouille bit a hefty chunk out of the domestic box office pie at the weekend and beat off the five-day debut of Live Free Or Die Hard thanks to a three-day $47.2m estimated launch.This was actually a subdued performance by Pixar's lofty standards that many attributed to the conceptually ...
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Shrek, Transformers, Die Hard deliver gigantic international numbers
Shrek The Third stayed atop the overseas charts following its biggest weekend so far and combined with the international launch of Transformers to generate a $100m-plus weekend for Paramount/PPI.The green ogre hoisted his international running total to $259m on the back of an estimated $69.6m haul from 6,489 sites in ...
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Chapa to play Latin spy in thriller Fuego
Amadeus Pictures is set to start production this month in Europe on Fuego, an international spy thriller starring Amadeus founder/president Damian Chapa together with David Carradine (Kill Bill Vol 2) and Nickolai Stoilov (Lara's Rain).Chapa, who started his career as an actor in films including Blood In, Blood Out and ...
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95 countries receive entry forms for 2007 foreign language film Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has posted foreign language film award entry forms to 95 countries in advance of next February's 80th Academy Awards.Academy rules stipulate that to qualify, a film must be released in the submitting country between Oct 1, 2006 and Sept 30, 2007, and ...
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Alvarado-Brown joins Overture as svp, business and legal affairs
Justin Alvarado-Brown has joined Overture Films as senior vice president of business and legal affairs.Alvarado-Brown will oversee deal-making for Overture's productions and acquisitions and run day-to-day business affairs. He will report directly to Overture chief operating officer Danny Rosett.Alvarado-Brown most recently served as senior counsel for HBO, and began his ...
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Munich's Collina to make dramatic remake of The Champagne Spy
Munich-based Collina Films has hired Israeli writer-director Nadav Schirman to make an English-language adaptation of his documentary The Champagne Spy.The real-life story centres on Jewish Mossad agent Wolfgang Lotz who became addicted to his covert identity as an ex-Nazi playboy and millionaire horse breeder in Cairo in the 1960s.Collina's general ...
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PPI's Shrek The Third hits Germany, Spain
Paramount/PPI's Shrek The Third is riding a wave and should stay on top of the international arena this weekend.The animated feature has grossed $123.1m to date and will add considerably to its haul through expected strong holds and launches in Germany on Jun 21 and Spain on Jun 22.The distributor ...
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Byrne named to head GE/NBC Universal equity fund
Thomas M Byrne has been hired as managing director to lead GE Commercial Finance - Media, Communications & Entertainment business and NBC Universal's $250m joint venture Peacock Equity Fund.Megumi Ikeda has also been named executive director, will be based in London and reports to Byrne.Byrne will lead an international team ...
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IFC First Take to release Last Winter in North America
IFC Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to Larry Fessenden's supernatural thriller The Last Winter and will release through its multi-platform IFC First Take label.The film premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival and screens this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival.Larry Fessenden wrote and directed the ...
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Parvez Sharma: love & faith
Parvez Sharma'sIslam, My Love could be the most controversial documentary of the year. Jeremy Kay finds out why.A film arrives this autumn with the potential to blow through institutionalised thinking in a manner that will make Michael Moore's polemics seem breezy by comparison.Responses will inevitably be polarised, but 33-year-old film-maker ...
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Jim Broadbent joins cast of Indiana Jones 4
Jim Broadbent has joined the cast of Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones 4, which has begun principal photography and will be released by Paramount on May 22, 2008.It is understood Broadbent will play a mentor figure to Harrison Ford's titular character, along the lines of Dr Marcus Brody played by the ...