All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1356
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Cast firms up for Ira & Abby: A Divorce Comedy
Jason Alexander and Judith Light have joined the cast of RobertCary's comedy Ira & Abby: A Divorce Comedy, which began principal photography inNew York last month.Based on a screenplay by Kissing Jessica Stein writer and star Jennifer Westfeldt, Ira& Abby charts thefall-out of an impulsive marriage between a neurotic loner ...
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Phoenix production outfit teams with Indian animation house
Phoenix-based production outfit Fortitude Entertainment Group(FEG) has teamed up with Indian animation house Maya Entertainment to formFortitude Maya.The partners anticipate their first release sometime in 2006.'This partnership with Maya Entertainment is reflective of a furtherrefinement of our long term international business objectives,' FEG'sco-founder Lisa Marie Butkiewicz said.'Maya Entertainment brings to ...
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Gruenberg joins First Look to run theatrical distribution
Former Miramax distribution president executive Andy Gruenberg hasjoined First Look Studios as executive vice president of theatricaldistribution.Reporting to chief executive officer Henry Winterstern, Gruenbergwill be tasked with building up the independent studio's domestic distributionoperation.Titles awaiting release include John Hillcoat's Australia-set epicThe Proposition thatwill play in the Spectrum strand at Sundance ...
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MacLaine, Theron, Newman join honour roll at Palm Springs
Shirley MacLaine will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award,Charlize Theron will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress, andThomas Newman will collect the Frederick Loewe Award for Film Composing at the17th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) in January."We are thrilled to add Shirley MacLaine, Charlize Theron andThomas Newman to ...
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Warner Bros taps Virtual Studios to co-finance six titles
Warner Bros Pictures willco-finance six upcoming projects with Los Angeles-based Virtual Studiosincluding Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, Wolfgang Petersen's Poseidon and Ed Zwick's Blood Diamond.The deal was originally announced back in October. Relativity Media's chief executive officer Ryan Kavanaugh and his partner Lynwood Spinks were instrumental in facilitating the unique ...
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International revenues to overtake domestic this year, says report
Combined international motion picture revenue streams will overtake their domestic equivalent this year and are forecast to boom over the next eight years with a notable surge in the home entertainment sector, a new report is predicting.The report by California-based Kagan Research predictsinternational motion picture sales through all media will ...
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National Board Of Review delays naming winners
The National Board of Review (NBR) has postponed announcing itswinners until next Monday [Dec 12] after it emerged last night [Dec 6] thatincomplete reminder lists had been mailed out to voters.The group was due to name its winners today [Dec 7] but moved todelay the announcement after a number of ...
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IDT closes $125m credit line for animated features
IDT Entertainment has closeda credit agreement with a bank group led by JP Morgan Chase Bank for a $125mfive-and-a-half year secured revolving credit facility to partially fundproduction and marketing costs of its first six CG animated features.Proceeds from the facilitywill go towards financing projects already in feature production as well ...
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Sundance 2006 unveils 73-title shorts lineup
Gwyneth Paltrow'sdirectorial debut and new shorts from Bob Odenkirk, Tamra Davis, Jennie Livingstonand Isaac Julien take their place among 73 short films set to screen at theSundance Film Festival in Utah next month.Organisers received 4,327submissions overall, and of the 73 selected, 42 are American and 31 titles hailfrom a further ...
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Saw producer Hoffman dies in LA aged 42
Gregg Hoffman, the Twisted Pictures partner and producer and a keycreative force behind the Saw horror franchise, died from natural causes in Los Angeles onSunday. He was 42.Hoffman served as president of production at Twisted, where heproduced Saw, Saw 2, Catacombs and Silence. Most recently he was working on Crawlspace ...
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AFI FEST close to FIAPF accreditation
LA's AFI FEST is bidding to join the world's elite festivals andbecome the first in the US to carry International Federation of Film ProducersAssociations (FIAPF) accreditation.AFI FEST has applied for accreditation and a ruling is expected toemerge before the end of the year. FIAPF's gold standard internationalfestivals include Cannes, Toronto, ...
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Global Film Initiative gives grants to films from Romania, Argentina, Chile
The Global Film Initiativehas unveiled its autumn 2005 grant recipients, which include Tudor Giurgiu'sRomanian romance Love Sick, andYesim Ustaoglu's childhood drama Pandora's Box.Also on the list are PaulaHernandez' Argentinian project Rain,Daniel Benavides Pinto's Chilean picture The Murderer Among Us, and Iranian filmmaker Chapour Haghighat's project ThreeLittle Dreams.The Global Film Initiativeis ...
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Echo Bridge picks up domestic rights to Beer League
Echo Bridge Entertainment has acquired all North American rightsfrom Ckrush Entertainment to Frank Sebastiano's comedy Beer League.The company plans a spring 2006 release for the story of adown-and-out softball team that rallies to avoid permanent expulsion from thelocal league.Artie Lange stars in the Identity Films project, which he co-wrotewith Sebastiano. ...
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Fonda, Shore get special honours from National Board Of Review
Jane Fonda will receive theNational Board of Review (NBR) of Motion Pictures' 2005 Career AchievementAward and Howard Shore will collect the 2005 Career Achievement For Film MusicComposition.Both awards will bepresented at the annual awards gala in New York on Jan 10, 2006.Fonda won two best actressOscars for Klute in 1972 ...
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Weinstein Co forms US DVD venture with Genius
The Weinstein Company (TWC)has formed a new US DVD releasing venture with home entertainment productionand distribution outfit Genius Products.Under the terms of the dealGenius will raise $32m in equity funding to finance the new entity, which willrelease on DVD all feature and direct-to-video titles controlled by thebrothers, as well as ...
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Harry has stunning third weekend in international with $92.6m
In a stunning third weekenddisplay that underlines the might of the international arena, Harry PotterAnd The Goblet Of Fire added anestimated $92.6m from more than 11,600 prints in 57 markets for a $330.6mrunning total.Combined with the estimated$229m domestic tally the family picture's worldwide gross now stands at morethan $560m.Goblet Of ...
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Italian composer Francesco De Masi dies aged 75
Francesco De Masi, the Italian composer whose credits include LoneWolf McQuade, documentaries and numerous spaghetti Westerns, has died. He was75.De Masi was born in Rome on Jan11, 1930, and studied composition at the Neapolitan Conservatory under thedirection of Achille Longo. He moved on to study orchestra direction at theChigiana Academy ...
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...and beats Aeon Flux at US box office
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire stayed on top of the domestic box officefor a third weekend, with an estimated $20.5m haul that raised the runningtotal to $229.8m.The family film is slowing down but still had much for thecompetition, including the only new title to break into the top ...
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DuBow named executive vp of worldwide sales at First Look
Kenneth DuBow has joined First Look Studios as executivevice president of worldwide sales.Reportingdirectly to First Look Studios chief executive officer Henry Winterstern andchief operating officer Bill Lischak, DuBow will manage US sales, includingexpansion into syndication, as well as expanding and managing internationalsales.DuBow mostrecently served as president and chief executive officer ...
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Weinsteins acquires film rights to 80s TV series Equalizer
The Weinstein Company has acquired feature rights to the hit 1980stelevision series The Equalizer, about a veteran spy who quits his agency and offers his servicesfor hire to the general public.The company picked up the rights from the series' original creatorsMichael Sloan and Richard Lindheim.Mace Neufeld, TonyEldridge and Sloan will ...