All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1508
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Academy plans modified awards ceremony and coverage
Producers of the 75th Academy Awards said yesterday (Mar 18) they would go ahead with a modified Oscars telecast on Mar 23, but were prepared to defer to breaking news from the Gulf.The announcement was made at a press conference in Hollywood by Gil Cates, the veteran producer of the ...
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Italy pushes 8 Mile towards $100m int'l box office
Universal's 8 Mile continued to swagger toward $100m at the international box office over the weekend, driven chiefly by a record opening in Italy.Opening on Friday (Mar 14), the drama grossed $516,000 at 235 sites for the biggest March opening day of all time in the territory. By the end ...
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Lions Gate takes The Grudge for North America
Lions Gate Entertainment has acquired all North American rights to Takashi Shimizu's Japanese horror hit The Grudge (Ju-On).The announcement was made yesterday (Mar 17) by Peter Block, president of home entertainment, acquisitions and new media. A theatrical release date will be set later.Lions Gate has also picked up Ju-On and ...
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Two Weeks Notice continues int'l roll-out
Warner Bros' romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice grossed $4m in international markets over the weekend for an estimated $87.7m cumulative score including Village Roadshow territories.Opening in Argentina, the picture took $93,200 with more than 93,000 admissions from 35 screens. The performance surpassed openings by About A Boy by 109%, Bridget ...
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Cast lines up for Miramax's Battle Of Shaker Heights
Shia LaBeouf (Holes), Elden Henson (The Butterfly Effect), Amy Smart (Roadtrip), Kathleen Quinlan (Breakdown), William Sadler (Shawshank Redemption), Shiri Appleby (Swimfan), and Anson Mount (City By The Sea) have joined Miramax's second Project Greenlight competition winner, The Battle Of Shaker Heights. Screenwriter Erica Beeney and directors Kyle Rankin and Efram ...
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Agent Cody Banks can't bring down the House
Buena Vista's Bringing Down The House kept audiences chuckling over the weekend as it held on to top spot with an estimated $22.4m for a fine 10-day $61.6m running total. As the nation prepares for war with Iraq, movie-goers were clearly in the mood for some light relief and the ...
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Industry prepares for 2004 pre-Oscar calendar crush
With much of the film industry focused on the Oscars later this month, it's hard to believe that anybody could be thinking about next year's Academy Awards ceremony.Yet that's what many senior figures in charge of film festivals and awards ceremonies worldwide are doing right now - thanks to the ...
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Sir Alan joins board of governors at BAFTA/LA
Sir Alan Parker is to jointhe board of governors of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/LosAngeles (BAFTA/LA), it was announced today (Mar 14) by Gary Dartnall, thechairman of the board of directors of BAFTA/LA. Parker will take his place amonga who's who of film-makers and performers that includes ...
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Internationalmedia posts mixed 2002 results
Internationalmedia, the corporate parent of Los Angeles-basedIntermedia and IEG, today (Mar 14) announced a Euros 29m operating loss for2002 that swelled to Euros 99m including a write-down of goodwill assets,according to preliminary fourth quarter and year end 2002 figures.Coming off the back of a year blighted by "painful" corporaterestructuring, Moritz ...
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Artisan, Miramax complete Dirty Dancing 2 cast
HavanaNights: Dirty Dancing 2co-producers and co-financers Artisan Entertainment and Miramax Films haveannounced final casting on the follow-up to the 1987 original. Set inrevolution-era Cuba in 1958, the story centres on a romance between Katey, a17-year-old American girl whose family has moved to Cuba, and Javier, a Cubanman. Principal photography is ...
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International specialist Heller promoted at Paramount Home Ent
Amy Heller has been promotedto vice president of planning and business development at Paramount HomeEntertainment (PHE), senior vice president of planning JC Galiana announcedtoday (Mar 12). Heller, who has been with PHE since 1998, previously held theposition of executive director of planning and business development and isresponsible for executing the ...
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Fries and Sneller launch US home video distribution arm
Independent film producersJeffrey Sneller (The Adventures of Pinocchio) and Charles Fries have formed home entertainmentdistribution company Santa Barbara Home Video, a distribution subsidiary ofSanta Barbara Filmed-Entertainment that they say will give film-makers greateropportunity to participate in the marketing of their films.Santa Barbara Home Videowill distribute its own productions as well ...
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13 Moons to open Avignon/New York festival on April 5
AlexandreRockwell's comedy 13 Moons will kick off the 9th annual Avignon/New York Film Festival,which features 18 American and French independent pictures and runs from Apr 5to Apr 13 in New York. 13 Moons will be introduced by Rockwell and the picture's lead actorSteve Buscemi.The festival,which each year showcases US and ...
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UK actor Harold Ayer dies in LA aged 86
The screen,stage and television actor Harold Ayer, whose film credits included TheSting, The Third Man andTrip To Bountiful,has died from a stroke at the Motion Picture & Television Fund Hospital inWoodland Hills, California. He was 86.Born on August15, 1916 in London, Ayer was no stranger to the performing arts. His ...
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Guirgis heads acquisitions job at Wellspring after Katsoolis exit
Marie ThereseGuirgis has been named head of acquisitions at US independent distributorWellspring, where she will be responsible for acquiring films and programmingfor US theatrical and home video release and sourcing finished films forWellspring's worldwide sales unit, which will handle co-production projectsseparately.Guirgis willreport directly to Wellspring president and CEO Al Cattabiani, ...
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Warner celebrates fourth weekend atop German box office with Lenin
Local language comedy Good Bye,Lenin! kept up the pace in Germany inits fourth weekend, holding on to top spot with a powerful $3.7m (Euros 3.4m)from 570 prints and dropping a mere 14.5% from last week. It finished ahead ofopener Maid In Manhattan by 44.6%and has an $18.4m (Euros 17.2m) running ...
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Major Russian movie retrospective unveiled for LA
The first majorretrospective of Russian cinema is set to take place in Los Angeles from Apr17-24, featuring 100 years of film-making and more than 30 titles from theRussian archives comprising features, shorts, documentaries and animated films.The event willbe presented by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Culture and is beingcoordinated by ...
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Lilo & Stitch has top 2-D animated opening for US film in Japan
Buena Vista International (BVI)'s Lilo & Stitch grossed an impressive $2.8m on 481 screens in its pre-holiday Japanese opening over the weekend, raising the animated feature's international running total to $103m. The Japanese bow was the biggest ever traditional US-produced animated opening and the fourth biggest ever opening for a ...
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Fox hits all-time bullseye with Bond's 20th film
Fox International's Die Another Day has become the highest international grossing James Bond picture of all time with a $246.9m international cumulative score, overtaking the $242m set by GoldenEye.The 20th Bond title passed the record mark with a mighty opening in Japan over the weekend, taking $3.4m from 325 screens ...
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Cecile de France lands key female role in 80 Days
Cesar award-winner Cecile de France (L'Auberge Espagnole) and Jackass star Johnny Knoxville have joined Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan and Jim Broadbent in Walden Media's Around The World In 80 Days, which is due to begin principal photography in mid-March in Thailand and Berlin.Frank Coraci, whose credits include The Wedding Singer ...