All articles by John Hazelton – Page 4
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News
Horton Hears A Who! opens loud and clear in US
Dr Seuss' Horton Hears A Who! made a big noise at the North American box office this weekend, opening with a chart-topping estimated three-day gross of $45.1m. The computer animated comedy from 20th Century Fox and its Blue Sky Studios almost matched the debut of the companies' first hit Ice ...
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Reviews
10,000 BC
Directed by Roland Emmerich. US. 2007. 108 mins. Closer in spirit to the kitschy fantasy of One Million Years BC than the grungy realism of Quest For Fire, Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC is a lumbering and mostly unconvincing prehistoric adventure partially redeemed by some eye-catching effects and cinematography. Interest from ...
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Features
United states - Taste of Freestyle
With deep roots in the not-so-glamorous world of independent theatrical distribution - and headquarters in laid-back Malibu rather than swanky Beverly Hills - Freestyle Releasing has always had a relatively low profile.But over time, says president and co-founder Mark Borde, "we've put together a studio-style distribution company," whose team of ...
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Features
United states - Financial Fusion
The name Cold Fusion Media Group suggests that in the tricky business of film finance the seemingly impossible may sometimes be possible. The company's business plan, meanwhile, focuses on the practicalities of financing and facilitating lower-budget independent production.Launched last autumn by CEO Michael Roban, the two-man Los Angeles-based operation reflects ...
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News
North America - VoD vision becomes real
Telecom giants, games companies and video retailers are re-energising the North American VoD market. John Hazelton reportsVoD programming has been available for close to a decade in the US. Until recently, however, the Hollywood studios, eager to protect the DVD market, have offered relatively few major movies to cable operators' ...
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News
Video-on-demand - Right here, right now
In an increasingly on-demand world, video-on-demand (VoD) represents a growing opportunity for film distributors and producers. But grasping that opportunity will mean forging relationships with a new generation of rights buyers and structuring deals that produce significant new revenue without eroding income from established ancillary outlets, especially the vital DVD ...
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News
Mercuri rising: Profile ofNu Image/Millennium's Christian Mercuri
It took Christian Mercuri a while to find his niche when he joined Nu Image/Millennium Films six years ago.But after working with company co-founder Avi Lerner on the Los Angeles independent's production side, 'I moved over and started doing sales with Danny (Dimbort, partner to Lerner and third company principal ...
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Features
Purple heart
Hadeel Reda got more publicity than she had bargained for during the making of The Hottie And The Nottie, the first project from her Los Angeles-based production company Purple Pictures.With Paris Hilton starring and executive producing, the project - also starring Joel David Moore and Christine Lakin, with Tom Putnam ...
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News
Jetset Studios - Online high flyers
Last month, Russell Scott and Patrick Young were the matchmakers who put male movie-goers together with Carmen Electra, star of 20th Century Fox's genre spoof Meet The Spartans. And last year, they took audience members out for a spin on the ice with Will Ferrell and Jon Heder, stars of ...
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News
Best documentary and shorts
DOCUMENTARIESNO END IN SIGHT In his first film, Charles Ferguson examines the decisions behind the invasion of Iraq. Ferguson, nominated with associate producer Audrey Marrs, describes the Representational Pictures production as 'a comprehensive portrait of occupation policies, their errors, and their consequences'.The film won the special documentary jury prize at ...
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Features
United States - Star man
For Rigel Entertainment, getting into the feature film business was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" proposition, says founder, president and CEO John Laing.After 15 years as a backer, producer and worldwide distributor of TV programming, including the Robocop and Pacific Blue series, Laing felt Rigel could ...
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Reviews
Fool's Gold
Director: Andy Tennant US. 2008. 113 mins.Feeling as if it was lashed together from bits of earlier, more convincing romantic comedies and adventure romps, Fool's Gold is a rickety vessel that just about reaches its destination thanks to the star power of Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson and the helmsmanship ...
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News
Reactions from 2008 Academy Award nominees
Labour unrest may have taken some of the sparkle out of this year's awards season but it did little to dampen the spirits of Oscar nominees around the world as they reacted to the Academy Awards nominations announcement. In Los Angeles, producer JoAnne Sellar said she and her partner (and ...
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Features
United States - Original intent
This week, Original Media, the New York-headquartered independent film and TV production company headed by former internet entrepreneur Charlie Corwin, is attending Sundance with what it hopes will be another buzz-generating festival film.In 2005, the then two-year-old company went to Park City as the primary backer of The Squid And ...
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News
Yair Landau: Sony's digital driver
Yair Landau could not have timed the start of his Hollywood career any better. After a brief stint in investment banking, the Stanford MBA arrived at what was then Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1991, soon after the venerable studio had been acquired by Sony.'I joined as the leading global consumer ...
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Features
Slamdancer
Drea Clark has a new job at the Slamdance Film Festival. But she is hardly a newcomer to the truly low-budget indie film showcase that runs each January in Park City, Utah, while the bigger and better-known Sundance festival roils all around it.Clark started with Slamdance as an intern in ...
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Features
United States - Irishman in LA
After a year as US vice-president of the Irish Film Commission, Jonathan Loughran knows what's on the minds of most Hollywood producers.Tax incentives are what they invariably ask about first, he confirms, "and if that's not the first question, I make it the first answer".The Los Angeles office that Loughran ...
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Features
United States - Water Works
Director Jay Russell has already brought two well-loved books to the big screen, in his 2000 family film My Dog Skip and in his 2002 fantasy Tuck Everlasting. But it took a leap forward in special-effects technology for him to pull off The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep, based ...
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Features
Awards Countdown - Best Documentary - Rewriting the doc rule book
Michael Apted knew he was in for some flak when he went to meet the documentary film-making communities of Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco late last year.But the chairman of the documentary branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) thought the meetings ...
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News
Profile: Liz Mackiewicz of Arclight Films
When she officially joined Arclight Films just before last November's American Film Market, Liz Mackiewicz brought a wealth of experience to the Los Angeles-based international sales and finance company.While Arclight may have established itself as a significant international sales player in its first five years of operation, its new executive ...