Large MPU – Page 1031

  • News

    McDougal to plough Metro Tartan's Fields

    2000-10-24T19:41:00Z

    UK-based distribution to production concern Metro Tartan is readying to shoot its Martin Amis adaptation London Fields after securing Charles McDougal as director.McDougal, whose previous credits include UK TV show Queer As Folk, is to direct the project this spring in the UK. Producing duties fall to Chris Hanley, whose ...

  • News

    Shoreline starts 3-D animated feature The Living Corpse

    2008-07-22T23:33:00Z

    Sales and production company Shoreline Entertainment has commenced production in Los Angeles on its first 3-D animated feature The Living Corpse.The film is financed by Shoreline and independent investors and based on Buz Hasson and Ken Haeser's cult comic book of the same name about a zombie who embarks on ...

  • News

    Oscilloscope buys domestic rights to Wendy And Lucy

    2008-07-22T23:36:00Z

    New York-based Oscilloscope Pictures has picked up North American rights to Kelly Reichardt's road movie Wendy And Lucy, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.Oscilloscope plans a December 10 release at Film Forum in New York City followed by a national expansion in early 2009.The film is based on ...

  • News

    Impact Film Festival to launch in US during political conventions

    2008-07-23T00:02:00Z

    Fair trade, the national debt, stem cell research and Hurricane Katrina are among the topics covered in the upcoming Impact Film Festival, a four-day event that will take place during each of the Democratic and Republican Conventions in Denver and Minneapolis.Screenings include the world premiere of Jessica Gerstle's stem cell ...

  • News

    Studio Ghibli's Ponyo claims Japanese summer box office crown

    2008-07-23T04:20:00Z

    As expected, director Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea claimed the number one spot atJapan's box office over the three-day holiday weekend (July 19-21), earning $14.84m (Y1.58bn) on 1.25 million (1,251,207) admissions Distributor Toho opened the Studio Ghibli film on 481 screens, the widest ...

  • News

    A&E veteran Ryan Harrington joints online distributor IndiePix

    2008-07-23T11:12:00Z

    Ryan Harrington, formerly of A&E IndieFilms, has been hired as the new head of New York-based Internet distributor IndiePix.The recently launched IndiePix allows indie film-makers to submit their films for distribution via the virtual stuiod and monitor sales online.At IndiePix, Harrington will be responsible for overseeing all film-making relations and ...

  • News

    Young people's charity launches competition for six shorts

    2008-07-23T11:25:00Z

    Get Connected, a UK charity to provide help for young people, is launching Nobody's Perfect, a new website for young writers, actors and film directors.Aspiring film-makers aged 16-25 can submit films, scripts or music to be shown to professionals in the industry. The site will have a contest to produce ...

  • News

    Virtual world VizWoz scores major studio film content

    2008-07-23T11:32:00Z

    UK virtual community VizWoz, popular with kids and teens, has signed on some key film content partners.The VizWoz virtual cinema includes content from Paramount, Walt Disney, Universal and Twentieth Century Fox.The studios will promote their summer blockbusters with previews, film clips, trailers and interviews.Films promoted in the community include Wild ...

  • News

    Brazilian, Polish producers team for Ziembinski documentary

    2008-07-23T12:33:00Z

    Brazil and Poland will be co-production partners on Ziembinski, a documentary about the Polish director and actor regarded as one of the founders of the modern Brazilian theatre in the 1940s. The Warsaw-based production company Kalejdoskop will team up with Plateau Producoes and Urszula Groska Producoes, both from Sao Paulo, ...

  • News

    Venice Critics' Week to screen debut of Gomorrah co-writer

    2008-07-23T14:46:00Z

    The 23rd edition of Critics' Week, at the 65th edition of the Venice Film Festival, will include seven world premieres in competition.The programme, unveiled today by the Italian FIlm Critic's Union, spans the globe from Turkey, Bosnia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, France, Italy and China. All are first films.Highlights include the debut ...

  • News

    PiFan's genre projects market has successful first edition

    2008-07-23T15:39:00Z

    The Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF)'s inaugural projects marketwrapped today (July 23), with participants agreeing that it had been an 'energy cluster' of an event. Running concurrently to the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan), the four-day 'It Project'event isAsia's first projects marketto focus specifically on genre films.US director ...

  • News

    MBP backs Sides with second fund

    2000-10-24T19:45:00Z

    German finance house MBP has launched its second tranche of investment, through which it will back Istvan Szabo's $10.5m Taking Sides amongst other projects. The Munich-based outfit plans to raise up to $42.7m (DM100m) from German individuals seeking to lessen their tax burden by the end of 2001. Taking Sides, ...

  • News

    Cinelan strikes deals with Telegraph, Channel 4

    2008-07-23T16:47:00Z

    Cinelan, the company devoted to short documentary films, has struck an online syndication deal with Telegraph Media Group and telegraph.co.uk.Cinelan, which launched in February, said the move kicked off its UK syndication drive for its library three-minute non-fiction films.The company's collection includes the likes of Steve James' Paradise Regained, Jessica ...

  • News

    Hugh Welchman's BreakThru to work with ITV

    2008-07-23T16:53:00Z

    BreakThru Films, the UK independent production company that won an Oscar for its short Peter And The Wolf, has struck a collaboration with ITV Productions.The deal will let BreakThru and ITV collaborate creatively and commercially when 'it is mutually beneficial for both parties.'BreakThru, founded by Hugh Welchman, hopes to devleop ...

  • News

    JCVD to kick off Midnight Madness at Toronto

    2008-07-23T17:01:00Z

    Jean-Claude Van Damme's comeback contender JCVD will make its international premiere as the opening night film of the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Muscles from Brussels plays a down-and-out version of himself suddenly thrust into one of his own action films. The late-night cult sidebar ...

  • News

    Shine Group, New Regency team for new UK-based Shine Pictures

    2008-07-23T19:49:00Z

    UK-based Shine Group and US producer-distributor New Regency have formed Shine Pictures, a UK-based company that will develop and produce broad commercial films for the global marketplace.Shine Group CEO and chairman Elisabeth Murdoch and New Regency's co-chairmen Bob Harper and Hutch Parker will head the jointly owned venture while Shine's ...

  • News

    Netflix closes down Red Envelope Entertainment

    2008-07-23T19:58:00Z

    Netflix has closed down its all-rights acquisitions venture Red Envelope Entertainment (REE) and feature production activities, citing a desire to focus on its core business of online distribution.REE's key staff of four including acquisitions and distribution chief Liesl Copland will be moving on.The division bought more than 120 films during ...

  • News

    As Britdoc kicks off, survey finds TV docs are more popular in UK

    2008-07-24T06:00:00Z

    UK audiences regularly watch documentaries on television, but are much less consistent consumers of the format on DVD or in the cinema.A survey commissioned to tie in with the UK's third annual BRITDOC festival - which launched yesterday and continues until Friday -- found that 48% of UK adults regularly ...

  • News

    Lionsgate signs three-year first-look deal with Tyler Perry

    2008-07-23T23:21:00Z

    Lionsgate has signed a three-year first-look deal with Tyler Perry, whose warm-hearted family comedies launched with Diary Of A Mad Black Woman in 2005 and fuelled one of the studio's biggest success stories in recent years.Perry will provide at least three additional films to Lionsgate following the fiscal 2009 release ...

  • News

    US PGA signs cooperation agreement with Spanish Producers Group

    2008-07-23T23:24:00Z

    The Producers Guild Of America's (PGA) international committee has signed a deal with the Spanish Producers Association (FAPAE) following months of talks.The semi-formal arrangement will allow PGA and FAPAE members to exchange information and ideas and seek assistance on projects.The international committee recently signed similar agreements with Jordan, Denmark, Singapore ...