All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1461
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Gibson's Passion play opens top on $117.5m five-day weekend
Newmarket's number oneopener The Passion Of The Christ intervened divinely in the course ofthe US box office this week, scoring a sensational five-day $117.5m estimatedgross by the close of Sunday.Mel Gibson's gritty accountof the final 12 hours of Christ's life scored the second biggest five-day (andtherefore Wednesday) opening of all ...
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AFM: Sales veterans bash US filmmaking costs
Echoing many of the samegrievances that emerged from last year's AFMA financing conferences, apanel of sales veterans at this year's AFM bemoaned the high-risk natureof film funding and warned that production costs in the US need to drop sharplyif the industry is to thrive on diversity.Nu Image/Millennium Filmsco-chairman Avi Lerner ...
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AFM: RS takes US theatrical rights to Hopper-starrer Unspeakable
RS Entertainment, RandySlaughter's Los Angeles-based distributor that released Luther in the US, has taken domestic theatrical rights toPav Films' debut feature Unspeakable, a psycho-thriller starring Dennis Hopper.MGM has domestic televisionand DVD/home video rights while 20th Century Fox International Television willhandle foreign/worldwide pay TV rights and Artist View Entertainment ishandling all ...
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AFM: TLA buys Bear Cub for North America from Media Luna
TLA Releasing has acquiredUS and Canadian theatrical and home entertainment rights to Miguel Albaladejo'sSpanish gay parenting comedy-drama Bear Cub (Cachorro).TLA picked up the picturefrom Media Luna Entertainment on behalf of Star Line Productions and willrelease the film theatrically in late 2004.Bear Cub centres on a gay man who forms a ...
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AFM: Monster Man sold to Tartan in UK, Sharada in Italy for Dream
Dream Entertainment has soldall rights on the tongue-in-cheek horror picture Monster Man to Tartan Films in the UK and Sharada in Italy.Both companies plan a summertheatrical release for Michael Davis' picture, which centres on a road tripthat goes horribly awry when two friends are pursued by a gigantic truck. EricJungmann, ...
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Stonelock secures credit line, retains AFMA chairman Ryan
Beni Atoori's LosAngeles-based Stonelock Pictures has secured a $200m credit line through Dutchbank ABN AMRO to produce films and set up international sales companyStonelock Pictures International.AFMA chairman and IACpartner Michael Ryan will handle sales on the company's first two pictures: thebiopic Mata Hari and the epic Gilgamesh, which stars Omar ...
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Showtime greenlights Catholic Church scandal drama Our Fathers
Showtime has greenlit the highly topical drama Our Fathers, based on Newsweek editor David France'sinvestigation into the paedophilia scandal that gripped the Roman Catholicchurch.Casting is underway on the project, which is due to begin shootingin April and will be directed by Dan Curtis (The Winds Of War) based on a ...
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Master looks to command Japanese market
Buena Vista International (BVI) has two major openings thisweekend, with the adventure picture Master And Commander: The Far Side OfThe World going out wide in Japan on Feb 28and Scary Movie 3 opening wide aday earlier in Germany.Japan is a notoriously difficult market to predict. However,a strong bow seems assured ...
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Diane Lane signs on as one of Lions Gate's Fierce People
Lions Gate has greenlit thedrama Fierce People, which starsDiane Lane and is set to begin principal photography in March.Based on a screenplay byDirk Wittenborn and directed by Griffin Dunne (Practical Magic, Addicted ToLove), the story centres on aManhattan-based massage therapist who becomes entangled in the murky life of awealthy client.Lions ...
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Tai Seng sets Red Trousers as first US theatrical release
Video giant Tai SengEntertainment, one of the leading US distributors of Hong Kong film andtelevision, is to theatrically distribute its first production in the US, theaction documentary Red Trousers - The Life Of The Hong Kong Stuntmen.Tai Seng will partner withLandmark Theaters and Regal Entertainment and will release the picture ...
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Hopper to serve as chairman of advisory board for CineVegas
Dennis Hopper will serve as chairman of the creative advisoryboard for the 2004 CineVegas Film Festival."We are so pleased to have Dennis serve as chairman for ournewly formed creative advisory board," CineVegas president Robin Greenspunsaid in a statement."He is passionately committed to independent cinema andcontinues to leverage his position in ...
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AFM: Back Alley & Buffalo Gal team on erotic thriller Arousal
Arousal,a new project from wward-winning producers Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchellof Montreal/Toronto-based Back Alley Films, and Phyllis Laing of Winnipeg-basedBuffalo Gal Pictures, offers an eye-opening twist on the erotic thriller.To be directed by Mitchell, the film centres on a female eyesurgeon and closet exhibitionist who develops a relationship with an ...
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AFM: Echo Bridge, Showtime sign reciprocal pact
Fledgling worldwide salesand distribution outfit Echo Bridge Entertainment has signed a reciprocal film dealwith US pay-network Showtime Networks.The agreement sees EchoBridge distributing select Showtime Independent Films titles internationallyand Showtime licensing titles from Echo Bridge's library.EchoBridge will acquire seven films for worldwide distribution, excluding NorthAmerica, all of which were produced under ...
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AFM: Bullock, Streep primed for comedic pairing
Universal Pictures and its specialist arm Focus Features areteaming up to distribute Stratus Films' romantic comedy Prime, which is set to go into production inthe autumn and stars Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep.Universal will release Prime in the US, Focus is handling international sales, anarrangement mirroring that for the Weitz ...
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Fox makes Passion play
20th Century Fox, which has a first-look production deal with Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Productions, has quietly become far more involved in The Passion Of The Christ than originally thought.Fox is understood to have sealed the lucrative domestic home entertainment rights tithe film as well as theatrical rights ...
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Ripley returns with Lions Gate Int'l
Lions Gate International will handle foreign rights on Cinerenta'sthriller Mr Ripley's Return, the latest addition to the Ripley canon that features anall-star cast including Barry Pepper, Alan Cumming, Claire Forlani, WillemDafoe and Tom Wilkinson.Based on Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley Underground, Roger Spottiswoode's picture is inpost-production and will be available for ...
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AFM: First Look gets new overseas look
FirstLook Media, one of the founding AFMA members, has changed the name of itsinternational sales division Overseas Filmgroup to First Look International toreflect a greater confluence of company operations.Atthe same time, First Look Pictures revealed that it is releasing three of its domestictitles through IDP, the US distribution partnership through ...
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AFM: Rubin launches US independent distribution outfit First Independent
Former Artisan Televisionexecutive vice president Gary Rubin has launched the domestic distributionoutfit First Independent Pictures and expects to announce an initial slateshortly.The Santa Monica-basedcompany is backed by private investors and Rubin is in discussions with DavidHutkin of The Lewis Horwitz Organization and Mercantile National Bank's ArtStribley for production financing and ...
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AFM: Lightning strikes twice
Los Angeles-based production and distribution outfit Lightning Entertainment has picked up international sales to the drama This Girl's Life starring James Woods and the romantic comedy Perfect Opposites with Piper Perabo and Martin Henderson.In This Girl's Life a porn star hides her profession from the man she loves and her ...
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AFM: RS Entertainment takes US for Unspeakable
Pav Films has named Randy Slaughter's LA-based RS Entertainment as US theatrical distributor for its debut feature, the psycho-thriller Unspeakable starring Dennis Hopper as an unbalanced prison warden opposite Dina Meyer, Lance Henriksen, Jeff Fahey and newcomer Pavan Grover.MGM has domestic television and DVD/home video rights while 20th Century Fox ...