All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1360
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Narnia rules North America, with smashing $67.1m debut
TheChronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was the runaway winner at the weekend box officefollowing a resounding $67.1m estimated launch on 3,616 screens. Theemphatic debut was matched internationally, where $42m from 13 territoriessuggests the CS Lewis adaptation will enjoy a healthy worldwide run in thecoming weeks. ...
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Paramount gets DreamWorks in $1.6bn deal
Paramount Pictures has signed a contract to acquire DreamWorks SKGfor $1.6bn in cash and assumption of debt in a move that offers a timely boostto Paramount's domestic and international ambitions.The deal includes all of DreamWorks' current projects indevelopment, its live-action library, television division and its properties,and an ongoing production partnership ...
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...and produces spectacular $42m launch in 13 international markets
Harry Potter held off the Pevensie children of Narnia with anestimated $51.9m weekend haul on more than 11,200 prints in 56 markets thatbrings the running total after four weekends to $414m.In the only new opening through Warner Bros Pictures International,Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire grossed $837,000 including previews ...
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AWARDS UPDATE: AFI names ten best films of the year including Brokeback, Munich
Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, GoodNight And Good Luck, A History Of Violence, King Kong, Munich, The Squid AndThe Whale and Syrianahave been named as theAmerican Film Institute's (AFI) ten outstanding films of the year.A number of these features are already figuring prominently in theawards season. Ang Lee's ...
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New York Critics Circle fetes Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain maintained its early awards season momentum by scooping bestfeature and best director honours in the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC)awards announced today [12].Ang Lee's picture followed up on its weekend success in the LosAngeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), which awarded the same two winners,and there was joy ...
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MTV Films picks up movie rights to Getting Up
MTV Films has acquired feature rights from Atari to Marc Ecko'supcoming video game Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, which is scheduled to launch on gamingconsoles in February 2006.Paramount will distribute the picture and Ecko will produce alongwith MTV Films' Gregg Goldin, who brought the project to the company.Golden's colleagues Jason ...
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Narnia is unleashed in 14 territories this weekend
Following a stunning run inits first three weekends Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire faces its first major test this weekend. The Warner Bros release hasamassed more than $330m so far and is expected to build strongly on that with aslew of mighty holdovers. However with no new majordebuts ...
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Slamdance unveils 12th annual festival lineup
The 12th Annual Slamdance Film festival will screen 21 premieresfrom a line-up of 20 narrative and documentary competition features and sixspecial screenings.Organisers culled the selection from more than 3,000 submissions.Fifty-seven shorts will play in competition.Competition entries include Andrew Leman's HP Lovecraft adaptationThe Call of Cthulhu,Todd Rohal's mystery The Guatemalan Handshake, ...
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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 ...