All articles by Jeremy Kay – Page 1516
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Sandler named ShoWest male star of the year
Adam Sandler has been namedShoWest 2003's Male Star of the Year. The actor-comedian will collect thehonour at the annual Gala Awards Banquet to be held at Bally's and ParisHotel in Las Vegas on Mar 6. Sandler, who recently appeared in Punch-DrunkLove and Adam Sander's 8Crazy Nights, will next be seenopposite ...
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ECG Worldwide brings new thriller The Invitation to AFM
ECG Worldwide has acquired writer-director Pat Bermel's thrillerThe Invitation and will offer it for worldwide licensing at next week's AFM,company president Barbara Mudge announced today (Feb 11). The picture will makeits premiere sales marketing screening at AFM. Lance Henriksen, whose creditsinclude Aliens, The Right Stuff and Dog Day Afternoon, stars ...
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Village Roadshow ups funding capacity in Warner co-financing deal
Bidding to play a part in more "tentpole" pictures and increaseits range of options, Village Roadshow Pictures (VRP), the five-year-oldproduction arm of Australian-based Village Roadshow Limited (VRL), announcedtoday (Feb 11) that it had boosted its co-financing deal with Warner Bros bycommitting a revolving $1bn. The investment applies to the studio's ...
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Promark signs two-picture co-production deal with Sci-Fi Channel
Jonathan Kramer's US and UK-based production and sales companyPromark Entertainment announced today (Feb 11) it has signed a co-productiondeal with US cable network The Sci-Fi Channel to make the action pictures Graveland and Ghost Monkey. Promark will be offering allinternational rights to pre-sale buyers at the AFM next week. Graveland, ...
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Two Weeks Notice takes $5.7m from nine territories
WarnerBros' romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice grossed an estimated $5.7m from 914screens in nine countries over the weekend, generating 837,000 admissions. Inthe highlight performance, the picture opened at number one in the UK on $4.3m(£2.64m) - including previews - from 414 venues. It was female leadSandra Bullock's best ever UK ...
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About Schmidt scores top screen averages in Italy, Australia
New LineInternational's About Schmidt opened in third place in Italy over the weekend, grossing $1.3mfrom 188 screens. Although it finished behind Catch Me If You Can and The Lord Of The Rings: The TwoTowers, the black comedyaveraged $6,860 - the best performance in the top 50. The picture opened seventhin ...
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Modern steps up to take on three new films at AFM
ModernEntertainment announced today (Feb 10) that it is expanding its distribution operationsto include international sales of new feature films, with the first threetitles named as The Pact, Liquid Bridge and Fear Of Speed. The company will be offering all three for worldwidetheatrical and television distribution at AFM next week. Until ...
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Ciment named guest programmer at San Francisco Film Fest
Michel Ciment, the long-running editor of French filmmagazine Positif, has been named as guest programmer at the 46th San FranciscoInternational Film Festival. Making the announcement today (Feb 10), SanFrancisco Film Society executive director Roxanne Messina Captor said Cimentknew the festival well after covering it for many years as a reporter. ...
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Iraq, Rouen go to US through Wellspring
Wellspring Mediahas acquired US rights to two new foreign-language pictures: BahmanGhobadi's award-wining Marooned In Iraq and Ma Vraie Vie A Rouen directed by Olivier Ducastel and JacquesMartineau. The company will release both films theatrically prior to a homevideo roll-out on the Wellspring label, with Marooned In Iraq set for release ...
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UIP's Rougier takes top job at TFM
Jean-PaulRougier has been named managing director of TFM, the stand-alone joint Frenchdistribution outfit launched by TF1 and Miramax Films in May 2002. Miramax COORick Sands and TF1 chairman and CEO Patrick Le Lay made the announcement today(Feb 10). Rougier most recently served as CEO at UIP, where he was also ...
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Just Married gives Fox its sixth biggest opening in Mexico
Fox International's DieAnother Day added another $3m from1,109 screens in 19 markets over the weekend for a $232.1m internationalrunning total. The James Bond picture is scheduled to open in Japan and Italyin March.Following on from itsrecord-breaking opening day in Mexico last week, the number one comedy JustMarried scored a terrific ...
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How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days tops the chart with $24.1m
Paramount's romantic comedy How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days showed how to win the audience's heartsin three with a terrific table-topping $24.1m bow over the weekend, accordingto studio estimates. Matthew McConaughey plays a commitment-phobe who bets hisfriends he can date a woman for 10 days or lose his ...
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TV5 to broadcast Cesars live on US network
TV5, in agreement with CanalPlus, will broadcast the 28th Cesar Awards live on Feb 22 on its US network,TV5 tats-Unis. The annual French film awards will be hosted by GeraldinePailhas, who won the Cesar in 1992 for best newcomer and recently starred inNicole Garcia's L'Adversaire. This year's leadingcontenders are ...
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Fiji opens LA office in advance of location tax breaks
In a drive to boost itsprofile as a location for international productions and promote proposed taxbreaks, the Fijian government has opened the Los Angeles offices of the FijiAudiovisual Commission (FAVC). Headed up by CEO Dan Bolea, the commission willact as a 'one-stop shop' for Los Angeles film industryprofessionals, promoting Fiji's ...
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Susannah Ludwig wins Silverman prize from Sundance
The Sundance Institute andthe Mark Silverman Fellowship for New Producers have announced that SusannahLudwig is to receive the 2003 Mark Silverman Fellowship. Set up in tribute toSilverman, who died in 1989 and worked on titles including Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, the award includes $5,000 for pre-production costs.Sundance will form ...
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TLA Releasing acquires North American rights to The Trip
TLA Releasing has acquired North American distribution rights toMiles Swain's award-winning gay romantic comedy The Trip, it was announced today (Feb 6). Thetwo-year-old distribution label, a division of TLA Entertainment Group, willrelease the film initially in New York on May 2 and then platform the releasenationally.'This was one of the ...
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FULL LINEUP OF AFM SEMINARS
Influential film-makersincluding Michael Apted, Kathryn Bigelow and Neil LaBute are scheduled to speakin a series of eight seminars to run during the 23rd American Film Market(AFM), which takes place from Feb 19-26. The seminars have traditionally been apopular draw among industry professionals and topics this year include actingin the digital ...
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Foley's Confidence opens Santa Barbara Film Festival
James Foley's acclaimed thriller Confidence, starring Dustin Hoffman, Ed Burns andRachel Weisz, will receive its West Coast premiere at the opening night gala ofthe 2003 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) on Feb 28. Foley andBurns will attend the screening. In addition, the festival's new executivedirector Jon Fitzgerald announced today ...
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Idiom Entertainment formed with Bardem, Wright Penn picture
Robert C Hawk, the former CEO of cable operator US WestMultimedia, and Quay Hays, a veteran executive most recently senior consultantat RKO Pictures, have formed Idiom Films, an independent production and financecompany that has two projects in pre-production, The Last Face and Hating Her. The company, which has its own ...
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Just Married opens at number one in Mexico for Fox
Just Married, the Fox comedy that opened number one in January in the US, hasscored the biggest ever opening day for a comedy in Mexico. The picture, whichstars Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher as newlyweds who embark on adisastrous honeymoon, opened on Feb 5 and grossed $465,916 from 250 screens. ...