Large MPU – Page 1300
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News
UK Government closes film tax relief loophole
Loopholes allowing TV productions to access UK tax relief for films are to be closed, the Government announced in its budget on Wednesday (April 17).The move is expected to stem a rash of TV projects that have accessed the UK's influential 100% tax write-offs under Section 48, leading to calls ...
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Hollywood Ending gets its international fest premiere before Cannes at San Francisco
Woody Allen's latest comedy Hollywood Ending will close the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 2, two weeks before it opens the Cannes Film Festival. It's unusual for Cannes organizers to allow a film to play at another international film festival before it is unveiled on the Croisette but ...
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Joseph Hobel named COO at Infinity
Jospeh Hobel has been named chief operating officer of Infinity International Entertainment, Michael Ovohen's LA-based production and financing outfit which has a non-exclusive deal with German production fund Cinerenta to supervise its funds for US production.Hobel will be based in the LA headquarters of the company and report to president ...
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Joseph Woolf joins entertainment group at GKM
Joseph S Woolf has joined New York-based investment banking firm Gerard Klauer Mattison (GKM) as a prinicipal in its entertainment media advisory group in Los Angeles. Woolf joins GKM from Trowbridge Capital, a financial consulting firm he founded in 2001. Prior to Trowbridge, Woolf helped create the entertainment lending division ...
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Universal completes three-territory deal on Gosford Park
Universal Pictures has completed its acquisition of rights in Germany, Japan and South Africa to Robert Altman's Academy Award-winning Gosford Park from Capitol Films. USA Films, now ironically again a part of the Vivendi Universal media empire, had domestic rights to Gosford Park and grossed over $40m from it.Other distributors ...
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Reviews
The Warrior
Dir: Asif Kapadia. UK/India. 2001. 86minsA poised and confident first feature, The Warrior is an ambitious mixture of morality tale and sweeping adventure set against the spectacular scenery and burning light of Rajasthan and the Himalayas. The absorbing story of one man's renunciation of violence and his quest for peace ...
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Australia to get its first competitive film festival
Sydney Film Festival director Gayle Lake has confirmed that the festival will become a competitive event from 2003, the year it celebrates its 50th birthday, with filmmakers' first or second feature films being eligible. Australia does not currently have a competitive festival.A new directors program was introduced in 1999 and ...
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Vivendi and Kirch troubles impact int'l film sales business
Industry executives around the world were this week weighing up the impact of the unfolding crisis at Vivendi Universal. The ousting of Canal Plus boss Pierre Lescure and the management turmoil at parent company Vivendi Universal has thrown into doubt the ability of Europe's most diverse pay-TV group and the ...
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Japanese distributor launches international film production arm
Japanese film distributor Klockworx is entering the international film production business with the unveiling of its first project, Meher Grougian's Citizen Zero, due to start shooting in Los Angeles in December. Budgeted at $1m, the SciFi thriller about a man who has lost his identity, will be the director's first ...
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German banks provide KirchMedia with Euros 100m
German banks Commerzbank, HypoVereinsbank, Bayerische Landesbank, and DZ Bank have reportedly agreed to provide the crisis-ridden KirchGroup's KirchMedia with Euros 100m working capital to enable the company, which filed for Chapter 11 at the beginning of last week, to continue operations as a going concern. This cash boost will also ...
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Brown steps into vacated SPAA exec director job
Geoff Brown has been appointed executive director of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) following the sudden resignation of Joanne Yates who joined only six months ago. Brown, already involved with the organisation as policy manager in an acting capacity while the incumbent was on maternity leave, is a ...
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Spanish film industry holds breath as pay-TV sector wavers
The Spanish film industry is up in arms over what is seen as a halt in acquisitions at pay TV platforms Via Digital and Canal Plus/Canal Satelite Digital, two of the most important financing sources for Spanish producers and distributors.While the rumours about a stall have been circulating since early ...
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Turkish website protests against Egoyan's Ararat
A Turkish website is protesting against Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's new film Ararat claiming it distorts history and misrepresents Turkish actions. Tipped to premiere in competition at Cannes, the film tells the story of a present-day ethnic Armenian director filming an historical drama about the 1915 uprising of Armenians and ...
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Icon adds Bend It Like Beckham to Oz release line-up
Icon Film Distribution Australia has acquired the rights to UK soccer hit Bend It Like Beckham, directed by Gurinder Chadha. The tentative release date is July in Australia and August in New Zealand. It is generally acknowledged that British films can work as well in the Australian marketplace as US ...
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Venice film festival selects Buschmann for German liaison
Venice Film Festival's new director Moritz de Hadeln has named filmmaker/producer Christel Buschmann as the festival's correspondent for Germany to liaise with German producers wanting to place their films in Venice.Buschmann - who Gibbi-Westgermany (1980), Comeback (1982) and Ballhaus Barmbek - Let's Kiss And Say Goodbye (1988) - is no ...
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MIP-TV receives general approval from mixed market
The MIP-TV market (Apr 14-18) drew to an effective close yesterday as buyers scurried out of town and deal announcements dwindled from a trickle to something closer to a drip feed. But most participants gave the impression of having had a more useful market than they had envisaged.Statistics from MIP-TV ...
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Reviews
The Scorpion King
Dir: Chuck Russell. US. 2002. 92mins.The Mummy franchise lives on in this rumbustious, two-fisted prequel that serves up breathless, B-movie action with A-level production values. Promoted to centre stage, Dwayne Johnson, aka wrestler The Rock, lays down a persuasive marker as a 21st-century action hero and the heady mixture of ...
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Finance chief of KirchGroup holding company steps down
Brian Cook, chief financial officer of KirchGroup holding company, TaurusHolding has left the company after just nine months.In a press communique, the holding stated that the resignation had "occurred now in light of the fact that the restructuring of the KirchGroup of companies is increasingly being managed by the insolvency ...
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Nirgendwo In Afrika leads German Film Award nominations
Caroline Link's Nirgendwo In Afrika has picked up four nominations for this year's German Film Awards (Lolas) which will be presented in Berlin's Tempodrom on June 14. At the announcement of this year's nominees during a gala event in Berlin on April 19, Link's adaptation of Stefanie Zweig's bestseller was ...
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Shaolin Soccer scores at Hong Kong Film Awards
Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer was the big winner at the 21st Hong Kong Film Awards on Sunday night (April 21), scoring seven of the 19 prizes, including best film and best director.Chow also scooped the best actor and best new director awards, while his co-star Wong Yat Fei won best ...