All articles by John Hazelton – Page 11
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Reviews
Poseidon
Dir: Wolfgang Petersen. US. 2006. 100mins. Wolfgang Petersen's new version of ocean liner disaster yarn The Poseidon Adventure - first adapted, of course, as a 1972 blockbuster with Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters starring - works well enough as a full-speed-ahead thrill ride, even if it sometimes drifts off into ...
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News
Ghost Rider leaves rival releases in its dust at US box office
Sony's Ghost Rider has powered its way tothe top of the North American box office chart with an estimated gross of$44.5m for the first three days of the four-day Presidents Day holiday weekend.The Marvel comic book adaptation left four otherwide releases in its dust, though Buena Vista's Bridge to Terabithiamade ...
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News
Ghost Rider, Fuzz lead the pack at international weekend
Sony's comic book adaptation Ghost Rider rode straight to the head of the international pack this weekend with an estimated gross of $15.5m from 24 territories. But Universal's British comedy Hot Fuzz made the biggest single-territory mark, opening with an impressive $11.6m in the UK. Ghost Rider, produced by Columbia ...
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Reviews
Ghost Rider
Dir/scr: Mark Steven Johnson. US. 2007. 108mins. Another lesser-known Marvel superhero gets his big-screen break in Ghost Rider, a silly but serviceable comic book adaptation with Nicolas Cage starring for Daredevil writer-director Mark Steven Johnson. The Columbia/Crystal Sky project could work well as a stopgap for those hardcore comic fans ...
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Reviews
Bridge To Terabithia
Dir: Gabor Csupo. US. 2007. 95mins. Walden Media's latest take on a children's literature classic, Bridge To Terabithia is an understated, touching and largely faithful version of Katherine Paterson's pre-teen novel. With animation artist Gabor Csupo making his live-action directing debut, the fantasy-adventure nicely captures the spirit of Paterson's boy-girl ...
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News
Studios offer triple punch of Ghost Rider, Good Shepherd and Hot Fuzz
A diverse trio of studio-distributed films make their international debuts this weekend, with Sony launching comic book-based action outing Ghost Rider and Universal opening spy drama The Good Shepherd and British comedy Hot Fuzz. Ghost Rider, with Nicolas Cage as the Marvel Comics title character, opens through Sony Pictures Releasing ...
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Features
Just draw it
Dale Wahl is used to Laika Entertainment, the fledgling feature animation operation owned by Nike chairman and co-founder Phil Knight, being viewed sceptically by the Hollywood establishment."It's kind of expected," says Wahl, who 18 months ago became president and CEO of Laika Inc after a 16-year stint with Knight's giant ...
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News
Night At The Museum returns to top of international charts
Night At The Museum returned to the top of the international box office ranking this weekend. The sturdy Ben Stiller comedy grossed an estimated $13.7m from 4,800 screens in 43 markets, bringing its running international total to an impressive $230.8m. It opened at number one in ...
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News
Norbit rules at US box office
The resurgent star power of Oscar-nominee Eddie Murphy droveParamount's Norbit straight to the top of the North American box officechart this weekend with a plus-size estimated gross of $33.7m. TheDreamWorks-produced comedy more than doubled the take of the weekend'sother new wide release, MGM/Weinstein prequel Hannibal Rising. Norbit - in which ...
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Features
Shorts and documentaries - Awards countdown - Hard-hitting docs take centre stage
My Country, My CountryNew York-based director-producer Laura Poitras (Flag Wars) spent eight months working alone in Iraq on her film, produced with Jocelyn Glatzer, about the months leading up to Iraq's first post-Saddam election in 2005. Poitras focuses on a Sunni doctor running for office as difficulties mount in an ...
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Reviews
Because I Said So
Dir: Michael Lehmann US. 2007. 100mins. Diane Keaton leads a multi-generational female ensemble in Because I Said So, a mostly frothy and predictable romantic comedy that occasionally gets serious on subjects including mother-daughter relationships and even female sexuality. The cast and viewpoint could be enough to pull in a fairly ...
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Features
United states/Europe - Water works
For Mark Horowitz and Andras Hamori, the recently launched international sales and co-production arm of H2O Motion Pictures is part new venture, part professional reunion.The two executives previously worked together in the late 1990s, when Hamori was president of the Alliance Pictures production operation and Horowitz served as president of ...
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Features
United States/Denmark - Lit Fuse
In the 10 years since he moved from his native Denmark to Los Angeles, Mikkel Bondesen has established himself in the competitive world of management and expanded into film and TV production.Fuse Entertainment, the literary management company he launched in 2004, has a list of writer clients including Josh Schwartz ...
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Reviews
Blood And Chocolate
Dir: Katja Von Garnier. UK-Ger-Rom-US. 2007. 98mins. Blood And Chocolate is a werewolf love story with no bite and not much romance. Based on the popular American teen novel by British-born author Annette Curtis Klause, the Lakeshore Entertainment production may find an initial audience in the younger female demographic that ...
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News
In Focus - Quote, unquote: oscar REACTIONs
'For the box office, the timing is just perfect. Paramount in the States is going to give the movie a second life, the movie has now jumped up from 100 to 800 or more theatres. Around the world the timing is great...'Jon Kilik, producer of best picture nominee Babel'When the ...
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Features
Intrepid explorers
Intrepid Pictures makes "the kind of movies we grew up on and that we still go see," says co-founder Marc Evans. Examples include the company's thriller remake The Hitcher, which opened wide in the US last weekend, and Neil Marshall's sci-fi thriller Doomsday, currently shooting in the UK and South ...
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Features
Free agent
US president George W Bush may not seem to be furthering the cause of independent political cinema, but according to Philippe Diaz, the French producer and director who heads US production, post-production, distribution and international sales operation Cinema Libre Studio, his election in 2000 gave political film-making a shot in ...
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News
Reactions in full to Oscar nominations
Al Gore, star of documentary feature nominee An Inconvenient Truth'I am thrilled for our director Davis Guggenheim and producers Laurie David, Lawrence Bender, Scott Burns and co-producer Lesley Chilcott. The film they created has brought awareness of the climate crisis to people in the United States and all over the ...
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News
International rollouts slow for Xmas weekend
With much of the world busy preparing for Christmasfestivities there are only scattered international openings for US studio filmsthis weekend. South Korea, Italy and Germany get most of the action. Fox International's Night At The Museum is the solestudio film getting its first major-territory launch. A day before its releasein ...
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News
Eragon takes off with $30.3m international haul
Eragon has ended CasinoRoyale's reign at the top of the international box office chart. The FoxInternational fantasy adventure grossed an estimated $30.3m over the weekend inits 76-territory day-and-date launch, while Sony's James Bond outing --international leader for the past four weeks -- took an estimated $21m from 64markets. Fox International ...