All articles by John Hazelton – Page 10
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Reviews
Next
Dir: Lee Tamahori. US. 2007. 96mins.A promising Philip K Dick premise gets spun out to middling effect in Next, a sort-of-sci-fi thriller with Nicolas Cage playing the reluctant hero and Lee Tamahori directing. The Initial Entertainment/Revolution Studios production may get lost in the summer crowd theatrically, but Cage's star power ...
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Reviews
Fracture
Dir: Gregory Hoblit. US. 2007. 113mins. Dramatic thriller Fracture has a taut script and an attractive look, but what really elevates it above the genre norm are tasty performances from Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling as, respectively, a clever murderer and the cocky young attorney assigned to put him behind ...
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News
US tax breaks: the laws of attraction
As competition for production increases, more and more US states are launching incentive programmes and, in some cases, designing them in innovative ways.Introducing an incentive in the north-eastern border state of Michigan 'became imperative', says Janet Lockwood, director of the Michigan Film Office. 'We were losing business right and left, ...
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Reviews
Meet The Robinsons
Dir: Stephen Anderson. US. 2007. 94mins. Walt Disney Feature Animation's second computer-animated outing is a hyperactive mix of retro sci-fi, physical comedy and family drama. As zippy and colourful as it is, though, Meet The Robinsons is not as entertaining or endearing as the division's CG feature debut Chicken Little. ...
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Reviews
Shooter
Dir: Antoine Fuqua. US. 2007. 126 mins.Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg appears to be going more for box office gold than critical honours with Shooter, a handsome but seriously overblown action thriller from Training Day and King Arthur director Antoine Fuqua. Mashing up elements from the Rambo movies, TV action series ...
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News
American Future - Simon Horsman sets up shop in LA
Qualified in the UK and California, British media lawyer Simon Horsman has practised his profession on both sides of the Atlantic. And right now, suggests the head of the new Los Angeles office of London-based production and financing company Future Films, the US is the place to be.Though Future will ...
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Features
United States - Feeding the distribution machine
In the third-party acquisition business, Sony has long been one of the most active and innovative of the Hollywood studios. Its commitment goes back to the 1980s, when, among other projects, it co-financed Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking indie film sex, lies and videotape.Now the studio has revamped its acquisition team with ...
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Features
United States - Outside in
International film-makers are optimistic about the prospects for foreign-language films in the US - but they see pitfalls in working in Hollywood themselves. Those were two of the messages coming from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' symposium (February 24) with directors of the nominees for the foreign-language ...
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News
The US: the new hot location'
In recent years, Europe, Canada and New Zealand have been the hot locations for international film production. Now, though, those regions are seeing competition from the US - and the competitive inducements are not just keeping US producers at home but also beginning to lure non-US producers across the Atlantic.With ...
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News
Blockbuster season: the long hit summer'
The stars on screen will probably do their bit as well, but it is the stars in the sky that seem to be aligned this year for a huge box-office summer in the US and around the globe.For one thing, summer 2007 offers new instalments of four of the most ...
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News
Blockbuster season: The Franchise Four
Summer 2007 has a dream line-up of franchise properties, with an average per-film domestic gross across the four biggest series of almost $350m.Director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are back for Sony's Spider-Man 3. The film's May 4 domestic opening marks a return to the early ...
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News
Blockbuster season: the original spin-offs
Two of this summer season's tentpoles are not sequels but based on successful pre-existing properties.Paramount's Transformers is a live-action film from director Michael Bay, based on the robot action toys first introduced in the 1980s but relaunched several times since and brought to both the small screen and big screen ...
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News
Blockbuster season: the long-delayed sequels
Three sequels are attempting to re-ignite audience enthusiasm this summer after long lay-offs or major cast changes.Universal's comedy Evan Almighty arrives in the US on June 22 with Tom Shadyac back as director but Steve Carell starring in place of Bruce Almighty lead Jim Carrey.Carell had a hit in summer ...
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News
Blockbuster season: comedy contenders
Raunchy or physical comedies often produce good summer results and this year's crop is a healthy one. Judd Apatow, writer-director of summer 2005 hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin, is behind the camera again for Universal's Knocked Up (June 1), about a man who finds out he has impregnated his one-night stand.Apatow, ...
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News
Blockbuster season: counter culture
The counter-programming success of last year's The Devil Wears Prada - which opened on the same weekend as Superman Returns and went on to gross $122m domestically - will not be easy to replicate.Several distributors, though, will try their hands with female-oriented offerings that might find a niche between the ...
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News
Blockbuster season: dark horses
Every summer schedule has a few unknown quantities and among this year's is a handful of films that look intriguing on paper and may perform in the marketplace.Dark horses with mainstream label studio distribution include Disturbia, which Paramount/DreamWorks will open in the US on April 13 but which Paramount Pictures ...
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News
Blockbuster season: animated animals
After last year's glut, there are only two non-sequel animated films this summer.Sony's Surf's Up comes from Toy Story 2 co-director Ash Brannon and Tarzan director Chris Buck, with voices by Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel and others.Like Warner's Happy Feet, Surf's Up (opening June 8 in the US and aiming ...
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News
Blockbuster season: scary alternatives
Recent summers have produced a handful of lower budget horror and sci-fi hits and this year there are a number of potentially scary movies, several of them from international directors.The Screen Gems label of horror expert Sony opens Vacancy, with Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale as a couple staying at ...
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Features
United States - New road for Mandalay
This time last year, Cathy Schulman was basking in glory as one of the two Oscar-winning producers of surprise best picture choice Crash. Currently, her time is taken up with something perhaps less glamorous but still, she says, exciting: the "entrepreneurial re-building" of Mandalay Pictures.After more than a decade working ...
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Features
Think's big picture
ThinkFilm went on a bit of a shopping spree at last month's Sundance Film Festival. The five-year-old independent US and Canadian distributor, not known for high-profile purchases, paid a reported $2m for North American rights to space-programme documentary M, wrote another big cheque for North American theatrical rights to spoof ...