All articles by Jonathan Romney – Page 46
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Media Luna launches joint venture sales company
Cologne-based sales agent Media Luna International Film Sales has joined forces with four German production houses to launch an expanded theatrical sales outfit Media Luna Entertainment (MLE).This week's Media Forum NRW in Cologne provided the backdrop for the launch of the new company which will be managed by Ida Martins, ...
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Atlas picks up Constantin's Harte Jungs
Germany's Atlas International has picked up worldwide sales rights to Constantin Film's latest German box office hit, Ants In The Pants (Harte Jungs), directed by Marc Rothemund.The comedy, about a teenage boy's sexual awakening, is being unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival where it will be screened with English subtitles. ...
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Murdoch buys 34% of Germany's TM3 channel
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is buying a 34% stake in German TV-channel TM3 from Germany's Tele-Muenchen Group for $168m, taking over the operation 100%.Despite repeated denials that he was considering the move, Tele-Muenchen managing director Herbert Kloiber is reportedly selling his stake after repeated attempts to find an audience for ...
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Keil calls for revamp of German funding system
Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg chief Klaus Keil has called for a rethink of the German public film funding system in the light of German media companies' successful IPOs.Writing a guest column for the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Keil asked whether films that that can now be "freely financed at any time", ...
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Downtown picks up Belgium's Molokai
UK distributor Downtown Pictures has acquired UK rights to Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien, which screened last week in London at the "United Tastes of Belgium" showcase (March 31-April 5).Downtown is planning an autumn release for the film, about a Belgian priest on the Hawaiian island Molokai, which stars ...
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Hofer surfaces at BW Film Academy
Former Studio Babelsberg Independents (SBI) chief Arthur Hofer has been appointed artistic head at the Baden-Wuerrttemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. He succeeds Albrecht Ade who founded the academy in 1991.Hofer resigned from his Babelsberg post last month citing the resignation of studio boss Friedrich-Carl Wachs as a reason for his ...
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Naumann cuts Export Union funding
The German Film Export Union's efforts to promote German cinema abroad have been dealt a blow by the decision of federal culture minister Michael Naumann to cut its financial support by $104,500 (DM215,000) this year.The Munich-based promotion agency said in press release that the reduction in the culture ministry's contribution ...
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Junkersdorf slams Germany's proposed media law
Producer Eberhard Junkersdorf, chairman of the German Federal Film Board (FFA)'s administrative council, has lashed out at German finance minister Hans Eichel for his planned revisions to legislation governing private media funds in Germany.Speaking in Berlin at an event where the FFA distributed almost $12.7m (DM25.4m) of retroactive support to ...
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Hofer set to quit Babelsberg
Germany's Studio Babelsberg has been rocked by the news that a second executive - Arthur Hofer - is to exit the production centre near Berlin, following the departure of studio boss Friedrich-Carl Wachs at the end of February (Screendaily February 14).Hofer, who moved Babelsberg from Munich's Bavaria Studios in 1997, ...
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EM.TV confirms Formula One deal
Aggressive German merchandising and production empire EM.TV & Merchandising has confirmed that it has agreed with Bernie Ecclestone to acquire 100% of Speed Investment. The deal gives EM.TV a 50% stake in SLEC, the holding company which owns all Formula One motor racing activities.EM.TV paid $712.5m in cash and a ...
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Germany's 4Kids jumps on flotation bandwagon
NASDAQ-listed US children's entertainment outfit 4Kids Entertainment is floating on the German stock exchange as part of a dual listing. The New York-based vertically-integrated concern was prompted to go public in Germany by the "extraordinary success" of its children's animation series Pokemon in the territory. The programme, which is aired ...
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Constantin enters international TV production
Bernd Eichinger's Constantin Film is expanding into production of international TV event programming with a $20m two-part adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's international sword and sorcery bestseller The Mists Of Avalon.The two-parter is to begin shooting in the Czech Republic, Scotland and Hungary from next month under the direction of ...
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Kinowelt mulls investment in Kloiber's TM3
Aggressive German media group Kinowelt is considering taking over Rupert Murdoch's 66% stake in Munich-based channel TM3 as a means of gaining access to a broadcast outlet according to German press reports.Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel quoted Kinowelt CFO Eduard Unzeitig as saying that "an entry in TM3 would be ...
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BKN International raises $60m from IPO
Children''s animation producer and distributor BKN International raised $59.5m (euros61.2m) from its IPO on Frankfurt''s Neuer Markt last week. The German subsidiary of US concern BKN Inc will use a portion of proceeds from the sale to increase its European production capacity by opening a European studio with facilities in ...
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Drefa to exit Progress Film Distributors
Drefa Media Holding, a subsidiary of Leipzig-based public broadcaster MDR, is planning to sell its 37.5% stake in the recently privatised East German Progress Film Distributors.Progress holds global exclusive rights to more than 6,000 feature films, documentaries and animation films produced by the former DEFA studios between 1946 and 1990. ...
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Sony, Dubbing Brothers team up for German launch
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and French dubbing specialist Dubbing Brothers have unveiled plans to build a $4.5m (DM9m) state-of-the-art digital facility at the Babelsberg studios outside Berlin.SPE will take a 25% stake in the venture - which is called Dubbing Brothers Germany (DBG) - and contribute technical expertise and ...
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Kirch Group sets up holding company
German media mogul Leo Kirch has put the final pieces of Kirch Group''s restructuring in place. As of April 1, former KirchVermogensVerwaltungs assumes a new role, and user-friendlier name, when, as KirchHolding, it becomes the central holding company. At the same time, the three managing directors of the Kirch Group ...
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CineMedia set to board Becker studio project
Aggressively-expanding German post-production group, CineMedia, is in talks to co-produce a $65-75m adaptation of an unnamed best-selling novel, to be directed by City Hall director Harold Becker.The move marks CineMedia's first foray into international feature production and brings the Munich-based company one step closer to its stated aim of becoming ...
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Antena 3, Fox ink five-year output deal
Twentieth Century Fox International Television and Antena 3 have entered into a five-year output deal which includes future feature films as well as titles such as Independence Day, Romeo & Juliet, The Full Monty and There's Something About Mary.The deal also includes new television series such as Angel, Roswell and ...
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Top auteurs give support to human rights fest
An initiative to create a multi-territory festival aiming to use film to promote awareness for human rights issues has garnered glittering support from the film industry. Dubbed Europa-Europa, the start-up event has brought together a leading director from each participating country's industry with the inaugural edition aiming to draw attention ...