Large MPU – Page 1236

  • News

    Cinemark embarks on alternative programming

    2001-08-07T19:52:00Z

    In an exploratory move which will test the viability of alternative programming in cinemas, US circuit Cinemark Theatres has announced plans to screen a live concert by US rock band Sugar Ray in a handful of its US theatres. The band's August 15 concert in Georgia will be broadcast live ...

  • News

    Irreversible re-teams Bellucci and Cassel

    2001-08-07T20:22:00Z

    Real-life couple Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, lately seen in French film-maker Christophe Gans' hit title Brotherhood Of The Wolf, are joined again in Gaspard Noe's Irreversible, which started shooting at the end of July.In Irreversible, which is Noe's second film after the award-winning horror Seul Contre Tous (I ...

  • News

    Germans dominate Montreal line-up...

    2001-08-08T05:05:00Z

    Four German titles, including new films from Joseph Vilsmaier and Roland Suso Richter, will make their world premiere in Official Competition at the Montreal World Film Festival, from Aug. 23 to Sept. 3. Competing against the four is two-time Montreal Grand Prize winner Majid Majidi. The Iranian filmmaker returns with ...

  • News

    Sixth Sense producers reteam with Shyamalan

    2001-08-08T05:44:00Z

    Producers Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Sam Mercer have re-teamed with writer-director M Night Shyamalan for his next project Signs which is being backed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Marshall, Mercer and Shyamalan will be producers, with Kennedy executive producer.The film, which follows Unbreakable (2000) and The Sixth Sense ...

  • News

    London sales exec Horley leaves Summit for Myriad

    2001-08-08T05:47:00Z

    Samantha Horley, former vice president of international sales at Summit Entertainment, has joined Myriad Pictures as London-based senior vice president of international distribution.She will report to Eric Christenson, executive vice president of sales & distribution based in Los Angeles, and manage the distribution operations in London. She will be responsible ...

  • News

    FilmFour teams with Elmore Leonard

    2001-08-08T05:52:00Z

    The UK's FilmFour Ltd has bought film rights to Tishomingo Blues, the 37th novel by Elmore Leonard which will be published by Harper Collins in Feb 2002. Leonard will serve as a producer on the film and a full creative partner on the project with FilmFour.The project, which was brought ...

  • News

    Aardman's Tortoise vs Hare back on track

    2001-08-08T20:47:00Z

    Aardman Animations is to appoint Rob Sprackling and John Smith, two of the UK's hottest script talents, to write the next draft of its DreamWorks SKG-backed Tortoise Vs Hare. Aardman last month halted production of the $40m Richard Goleszowski-directed claymation picture citing story issues (Screen Daily, July 9). At the ...

  • News

    Mexico heats up as location choice for gringos

    2001-08-08T20:52:00Z

    Mexico's film commission has revealed that it expects up to 40 foreign films to be shot in the country during 2001 - a gigantic leap from the mere six features shot there just five years ago.Leading the production frenzy is Miramax Films' Frida, a pet project of Mexican actress Salma ...

  • News

    Film Council and FilmFour's UK shorts schemes

    2001-08-08T20:58:00Z

    The UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund for low-budget films has partnered with FilmFour's FilmFour Lab to launch four short film schemes.The two operations are each investing £250,000 a year into the schemes - Cinema Extreme, Comedy Shorts, Internet/Viral Shorts and the Completion Fund. The schemes, which may change in ...

  • News

    Warner Village Cinemas' millionth online ticket

    2001-08-08T21:01:00Z

    Warner Village Cinemas UK, a division of Warner Bros. International Theatres, has sold its millionth online ticket, through its website (www.warnervillage.co.uk), just two years after launch.Since going live in July 1999, the system, which was conceived and created in-house, has posted a 20% year-on-year rise in online bookings, and there ...

  • News

    FilmFour signs first-look deal with Pipedream

    2001-08-08T21:10:00Z

    FilmFour has signed a first-look deal with Pipedream Pictures, the production company of Lee Thomas and John McKay, the hot film-making team behind its sell-out Cannes title, Crush.The duo, seen as two of the strongest, commercially-oriented new film-makers in the UK, are also moving forward on the £10-£15m comedy Knickers. ...

  • News

    Life As A House to premiere at Toronto Festival

    2001-08-08T21:12:00Z

    Irwin Winkler's Life as a House will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival it was announced August 7. One of the festival's gala presentations, the film stars Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas. Life as a House is billed as a poignant, multi-layered and often humourous ...

  • News

    Canadian provinces offer film shooting incentives

    2001-08-08T21:20:00Z

    With confusion still surrounding the status of Australia's tax laws for film investors, Canada could profit from international productions seeking an alternative tax-friendly location - especially now that its provinces are offering special incentives.The weakness of the Canadian dollar, skilled crews and good locations have long drawn foreign and local ...

  • News

    Brazil and Germany revive co-production accord

    2001-08-08T21:24:00Z

    It has been nearly two years since Brazil and Germany forged a co production agreement but nothing much has emerged from it. To revive the dormant accord, the Goethe Institute of Sao Paolo and production and sales company for Brazilian films, Levine Film have organized a co production workshop slated ...

  • News

    RAI launches on-demand channels in Italy

    2001-08-09T00:58:00Z

    RAI Click, the Italian joint venture TV on-demand service set up by RAI and multimedia publisher e.BisMedia has launched over broadband cable, according to a report in Cable Europe.RAI Click, which is 60%/40% owned by the two companies respectively, will see RAI programming transmitted over a fibre-optic IP network which ...

  • News

    UK studios suffer decline in Hollywood production

    2001-08-09T22:59:00Z

    The investment by Hollywood productions shooting in the UK has plummeted by more than 65%, according to figures from the British Film Commission. The total value of overseas productions to start shooting in the UK in the first six months of 2001 crashed to $109m as UK studio facilities were ...

  • News

    Kinowelt's Arthaus could lose its boss Fabritus

    2001-08-09T23:06:00Z

    The unravelling of German media group Kinowelt Medien has taken a further twist this week with reports spreading through the German distribution sector that Juergen Fabritius, managing director of Kinowelt's arthouse distribution arm, Arthaus Filmverleih, has left the company ahead of plans to fold Arthaus into the mainstream Kinowelt Filmverleih. ...

  • News

    Nordisk and TV2 launch 'Director's Cut'

    2001-08-09T23:11:00Z

    Danish major Nordisk Film and national broadcaster TV2 have formed a pact to produce feature films with an average budget of $1m (DKR8.5m). Titled 'Director's Cut' the project has four directors already attached - veterans Morten Arnfred and Birger Larsen, and newcomers Tomas Villum Jensen and Christoffer Boe, the latter ...

  • Reviews

    The Others

    2001-08-09T23:13:00Z

    Dir Alejandro Amenabar. US-Spain. 2001. 103 minsSumptuously crafted, with moody eeriness and almost surreal visual imagery, Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar's The Others is a terrific supernatural thriller that builds and sustains its considerable suspense, without ever relying on violence or special effects. Cast in a role she was born to ...

  • News

    Bingham Ray, new UA head

    2001-08-09T23:25:00Z

    In 1999, when Bingham Ray sold his stake in October Films - the company he co-founded with Jeff Lipsky - he came to several conclusions. One was that he was keen to produce. Another that he would think twice about getting into any more partnerships. The other was that maybe ...