All articles by Jonathan Romney – Page 48
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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 ...
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Canary Islands gets second film commission
Tenerife's local government has formed a film commission to encourage international productions to shoot on the island.The Tenerife Film Commission (TFC) is 40% backed by private industry on the island but the local government controls 51% through the Society to Promote Foreign Tourism (SPET). The Canary Islands, of which Tenerife ...
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Germany's Primacom plans digital launch
Germany's third-largest cable operator Primacom is launching a digital pay-TV platform in May. The yet-to-be-named service will offer more than 80 channels, pay-per-view, internet and other services. Primacom currently serves almost 1.4 million households, mainly in the former East Germany, and claims just under 1 million active subscribers. The digital ...
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Intertainment signs $22m deal with Spain's Manga
Germany's Intertainment has signed a $22.4m multi-picture deal with Spanish distributor Manga Films. Under the terms of the deal, Manga takes Spanish first-run, free-TV rights to several Franchise pictures that Intertainment has co-financed or acquired through its output deal with the company, including Art of War, starring Wesley Snipes, the ...
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FFC, AtomFilms give shorts theatrical outing
Independent distribution outfit the Feature Film Company (FFC) has teamed up with Seattle-based Internet distributor AtomFilms to secure a number of short films a theatrical outing in the UK.The deal, sealed by overseas outpost AtomFilms Europe, is the first UK theatrical deal the Seattle outfit has secured for its short ...
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Filmax launches Galician animation studio
Spain's growing mini-studio The Filmax Group has joined with post-production laboratory Filmtel and a Galician capital risk fund to launch animation producer Bren Entertainment. The new outfit, which describes itself as an 'animation factory', will service both Filmax-originated projects as well as those from other producers from both Spain and ...
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Grade consortium buys Pinewood for $99m
After announcing yesterday that it has sold Odeon Cinemas to private equity financier Cinven, the UK's Rank group today confirmed the sale of British film studio Pinewood Studios to a consortium headed by former Channel 4 boss Michael Grade for $99m (£62m). The deal sees Grade become chairman of Pinewood ...
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Visionview taps Berliner Bank's Robbins
Veteran UK film and television financier Jim Reeve has ramped up his financing outfit Visionview with the appointment of Steve Robbins.Robbins joins Reeve's outfit from Berliner Bank where he has spent the last seven years, most recently as the bank's head of media finance.The duo will work side by side ...