All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1465
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Duguay signs on to direct The Runelords
Christian Duguay, whosecredits include The Art Of Warand the mini-series Hitler: Rise Of Evil, has been signed to direct the $80m fantasy adventure The Runelords which is being co-produced by Franchise Pictures,Story Island Entertainment, Canyonlight Entertainment and EntertainmentBusiness Group (EBG).The Runelords is the first of three sword and sorcery tales ...
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Treston promoted to director of marketing and distributor sales at York
Arik Ben Treston has been promoted to director of marketing anddistributor sales at Burbank-based production and distribution outfit YorkEntertainment.Treston's duties will include overseeing artwork and ad schedules,handling public relations for trades and consumer press, unit publicity onin-house titles and managing sales to US video distributors.He has worked at York for ...
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Entertainment laps up Lassie project for UK
New York-based Classic Media has sold all UK rights to BAFTA-winning Charles Sturridge's live-action Lassie project to Nigel and Trevor Green's Entertainment Film Distributors.Francesca Barra and Selwyn Roberts, who co-founded Firstsight Films with Sturridge in 2001, will serve as producers while Classic's Schwalbe and chairman and chief executive officer Eric ...
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AFM and AFI Fest lay out the foundations of coordinated events
Aiming to fusethe benefits offered by the AFM and AFI Fest, organisers of both events saidyesterday they hoped the deliberate scheduling match in November would presentfilm-makers with a complete introduction to the global film community.While details stillneed to be firmed up, a picture is emerging of a co-ordinated agenda designedto ...
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See Grace Fly wins Oporto festival audience prize
Pete McCormack'sdrama See Grace Flyhas won the audience award at the Oporto International Film Festival(Fantasporto).The picture tells of a 38-year-old schizophrenic'sincreasingly erratic behaviour following her mother's death and stars GinaChiarelli, Paul McGillion and Benjamin Ratner.This is thethird prize for See Grace Fly following a Women in Film award for Chiarelli ...
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Buyers sink teeth into Open Water
Lions Gate Films Internationalhas sold key territories on Chris Kentis' low-budget shark thriller OpenWater, which it acquired from PlungePictures at Sundance and Lions Gate Releasing plans to release domesticallythis summer.All rights to the picture havegone to Universum Film in Germany, Movie Eye Entertainment and Presidio inJapan, and Gussi in a ...
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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 ...