All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1328
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Schwartz joins IFC Entertainment to develop day-and-date programme
IFC Entertainment has appointed Lisa Schwartz as senior vicepresident of sales and business development and charged her with the task ofdeveloping the company's IFC In Theatres day-and-date releasing model.Reporting to IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring,Schwartz will serve as the senior strategist for distribution platforms andbecomes the point person on IFC ...
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Domestic rights to Snoop's Hood land with Xenon at LAFF
Xenon Pictures has acquiredNorth American rights to Snoop Dogg's Hood Of Horror and has tentatively scheduled an autumn theatricalrelease followed by DVD.The project, which premieredat the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF) on Jun 27, comprises three creepy talesinvolving the residents of an inner city neighborhood whose actions determinetheir fate in ...
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Gretchen, Evil take top prizes at LAFF
Steve Collins' high school comedy Gretchen won Film Independent's Target FilmmakerAward for best feature at the Los Angeles Film Festival's Spirit ofIndependence event tonight.The Target Documentary Award went to Amy Berg for Deliver UsFrom Evil, whichexplores paedophilia in the Catholic Church. Virginia Madsen and Jimmy Smitspresented the awards, which each ...
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New US independent Outsider Pictures launches in Los Angeles
Former studio marketing and distribution executives Paul Hudsonand Peter Peterson have announced the launch of Outsider Pictures, a SantaMonica-based distributor of independent features and documentaries in North andLatin America.The self-financed company plans to release six to eight pictureseach year and will handle theatrical, home video, and television distribution.Peterson said the ...
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New Line sets $150m Compass for Sept 4 UK start
New Line has greenlit production on its ambitious children'sfantasy project The Golden Compass following the casting of British newcomer 12-year-old Dakota BlueRichards in the lead role as Lyra Belacqua.Production on the $150m first instalment of Philip Pullman's HisDark Materials trilogyis scheduled to get underway on Sept 4 in the UK ...
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Blaine Lourd sets up investment consultancy in LA
Investment advisor Blaine Lourd has left AG Edwards to launch hisown investment consultancy Lourd Capital Management (LCM) in Beverly Hills.The company says that it will provide "objective and expert"investment counsel on asset allocation, investment manager selection, andcoordination of client's strategic advisors.Fidelity Investments will act as LCM's primary custodianand will provide ...
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FBI claim to have smashed global camcorder piracy ring
FBI agents claim to have smashed a global piracy ring followingthe arrest of 13 members of an organised network in the New York area.The individuals were part of an international ring allegedlyresponsible for one-half of all camcorded copies of films available on theblack market and on the internet in the ...
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Withoutabox hires three international festival liaisons
Withoutabox, the worldwide online network whose services include afilm festival submission system that connects filmmakers to more than 2,000events including AFI FEST, the Edinburgh International Film Festival and theDubrovnik International Film Festival, is expanding its reach with theappointment of three international festival liaisons.Mary Davies will oversee the UK and Europe ...
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Pressman to bring Robert Maxwell story to the screen
Ed Pressman is preparing to make a film of the London stage play LiesHave Been Told aboutRobert Maxwell, the British media tycoon and pension fund swindler who vanishedin mysterious circumstances 15 years ago.Pressman secured film rights with one of the play's producers DaleDjerassi, who was formerly married to Maxwell's daughter ...
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Allen promoted to evp, creative advertising and new media, at Searchlight
Stephanie Allen has been promoted to executive vice president ofcreative advertising and new media at Fox Searchlight.For the past six years Allen has served as senior vice presidentof creative advertising, where her brief included overseeing online content anddesign for the studio pictures. She reports to chief operating officer NancyUtley.In 2004 ...
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TWC hires new general counsel from BMO Merchant Bank
Attorney Peter Hurwitz has been hired as general counsel at TheWeinstein Company (TWC).Hurwitz will be based in New York and will assume a broad range oflegal affairs including new business acquisitions, joint ventures andintellectual property matters for TWC and Dimension Films.He will report to Charles Layton, executive vice president officeof ...
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Warner Bros opens Death Note at the top in Japan
Warner Bros became the first non-Japanese distributor to launch aJapanese picture number one at the local box office with the release of DeathNote.Shusuke Kaneko's horror tale about a fateful missive that killsits readers opened on Jun 17 and grossed $3.5m over two days, the equivalent of409million Yen.Warner Bros plans to ...
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Quinn joins Streep, Liu in Dark Matter
Aidan Quinn has joined Meryl Streep, Blair Brown and Chinese starLiu Ye on American Sterling Productions (ASP) and Saltmill Productions' drama DarkMatter.Based on a true story about the cultural difficulties experiencedwhen a brilliant Chinese student comes under the tutelage of a US science professor,Dark Matter is beingfinanced by ASP. Myriad ...
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Wurtz moves to Film Movement as vp, business development
US distribution venture Film Movement has bulked up its executivesuite with the appointment of Meghan Wurtz as vice president of businessdevelopment.In the newly created role Wurtz will develop and implementsponsorship programmes, oversee theatrical releases, manage cultural relationsand secure new revenue opportunities for the company's library. She will reportto Film Movement ...
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Zhang's Curse lands at Sony Pictures Classics
SonyPictures Classics has picked up North American and Latin American rights toZhang Yimou's period epic Curse Of The Golden Flower.Currentlyshooting in China, the Beijing New Pictures production stars Chow Yun Fat andGong Li, and marks SPC's ninth collaboration with the director following, mostrecently, this year's Riding Alone For Thousands Of ...
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Los Angeles Film Critics set awards dinner for Jan 14, 2007
TheLos Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) will hold its 32ndannual film achievement awards ceremony the day before the Golden Globes on Jan14 2007 in Los Angeles.Theevent will take place at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City.Thedate of the group's December 2006 voting meeting will be announced this autumn.
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Poseidon, Code lead international box office
The start of the World Cup elimination rounds, hot weather acrossmuch of Europe and a lack of new wide releases contributed to a lacklusterweekend at the international box office.Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI)'s Poseidon led the pack with an estimated $9.9mgross from approximately 4,000 prints in 49 countries, raising the ...
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Offutt promoted to creative executive at Participant
AmberOffutt has been promoted to creative executive at Participant Productions,freeing her up to work on development and production at the Los Angeles-basedcompany.Offuttpreviously served as executive assistant to Participant executivevice-president of creative affairs and production Chris Salvaterra.Priorto joining Participant she worked at production companies LioneyesEntertainment and Ovation Entertainment. Offutt began her ...
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Steckler, Greenfield join Searchlight in production roles
JeremySteckler and Matthew Greenfield have been appointed senior vice presidents ofproduction at Fox Searchlight Pictures. They will report to production chiefClaudia Lewis.Stecklerarrives after three years at di Bonaventura Pictures, while Greenfield is aproducer who previously had two films, The Good Girl and Star Maps,distributed through Searchlight."Matthew'sstellar reputation in the independent ...
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Click tops US box office for Sandler, Sony with $40m
Sony's latest Adam Sandler comedy Click took control of the box office as itdethroned Cars toopen on an impressive $40m estimated three-day haul.Thiswas in the range of previous Sandler releases: The Longest Yard launched on $47.6m in May 2005, 50 First Dates took $39.9m in February 2004, and Anger Managementproduced ...