Large MPU – Page 1356
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News
Unbreakable broken as local comedy hogs number one
Homegrown comedy Chiedimi Se Sono Felice (Ask Me If I'm Happy) has largely eclipsed Hollywood fare such as Unbreakable at the Italian box office, grossing $3,040,867 in its fourth weekend from 269 theatres.Co-directed by and starring local comic trio Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, the film has taken a massive $23m ...
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News
Japan's Toei readies SFX-laden ninja picture
Japan's Toei and Kadokawa Shoten Publishing are teaming to make Red Shadow, an effects-heavy ninja film based on a popular 1960s comic.Music video and commercial director Hiroyuki Nakano is to shoot the project for a summer 2001 release, making it Toei's big film of the season. The director's 1998 feature ...
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News
Sogecable takes stake in Canal Technologies
Spanish multimedia group Sogecable has taken a 3.23% stake in France's Canal Plus Technologies in a deal valued at Euros 49.7m.The acquisition was made jointly with Sony and Thomson Multimedia for an overall 9.7% share in Canal Plus Technologies, a leading digital TV technology provider. As part of the deal, ...
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News
RTL exits German pay-TV sector
Luxembourg-based RTL Group has withdrawn from the German pay-TV sector, exercising an option to sell its remaining 5% stake in pay-TV channel Premiere to majority shareholder KirchGroup. RTL's sale price of the Euro 124m holding follows its disposal of a 45% interest in the loss-making pay-TV operation to Kirch for ...
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Reviews
The Pledge
After the honorable failures of The Indian Runner and The Crossing Guard, Sean Penn makes a quantum leap forward with his third directorial effort, The Pledge, an intriguing murder mystery that's also effective as a psychological character study. Heading a splendid cast, Jack Nicholson, who also starred in Crossing Guard, ...
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News
Cineartists postpones Neuer Markt flotation
Munich-based production entity Cineartists Entertainment has postponed its planned flotation on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt following the recent plunge of Frankfurt's Neuer Markt.Cineartists was at the end of this month due but now aims to go to the market in the second quarter of 2001. Cineartists' interests include US film and ...
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News
Hit Komiker takes three nods for Swiss film awards
Box-office hit Komiker took three nominations including Best Feature Film for the annual Swiss Film Award, which will be announced during on January 24.Komiker was also nominated for Best Actress for Stefanie Glaser and Best Actor for Pinkas Braun. Also vying for best feature are Denis Rabaglia's Azzurro, Xavier Koller's ...
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News
Winterbottom firms cast for 24 Hour Party People
Ascending British actor John Simm has been cast as Bernard Sumner, frontman of seminal British music group New Order, in Michael Winterbottom's Manchester club scene film, 24 Hour Party People.Simm, who previously appeared in Winterbottom's Wonderland and Justin Kerrigan's clubland drama Human Traffic, joins Paddy Considine, who will play the ...
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News
Helkon's Peppermint appoints Daniel Otto as buyer
High-profile film buyer Daniel Otto is to become head of acquisitions at Helkon-backed sales and finance outfit Peppermint. Otto joins the outfit after four years of acquisitions in the film department of KirchMedia. Peppermint was established in March of last year, with a slate focused primarily on TV programming, but ...
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News
Murdoch readies float for Global Networks
News Corp is reported to be moving ahead again with plans to float off its satellite holding division, Sky Global Networks.According to unconfirmed wire reports, News Corp is pressing ahead with preparations for the flotation in parallel with ongoing talks to acquire US satellite giant DirecTV, from Hughes Electronics. The ...
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News
Billy Elliot opens Brussels International Festival
Stephen Daldry's crowd pleaser Billy Elliott is to open the 28th Brussels International Film Festival, which is being held from January 18 to 27.The ten-day festival will close with Elle Chouraqui's tale of war-torn former Yugoslavia, Harrison's Flowers, starring Andie McDowell. The competitive event offers a Euros 80,000 top prize ...
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News
Connery has Highland fling with Queen Of Scots
Sean Connery is set to throw his weight behind the long-gestating Scottish period epic Mary, Queen Of Scots.Fountainbridge Films, the Scottish actor's production outfit, is set to board the lavish period piece, which is set up with co-financiers BBC Films and Intermedia. Intermedia already has a production pact with Fountainbridge.Acclaimed ...
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News
MCP taps Levine as new creative affairs head
MM Media Capital Partners has hired Jackie Levine, formerly head of development at Michael Douglas' Furthur Films, as its head of creative affairs. She will be based in MCP's Beverly Hills office.Her appointment follows the recent hiring of Lakeshore International's Peter Rogers to head up international sales and distribution operation ...
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News
IFP Spirit Awards nominate Requiem, Chuck & Buck
Miguel Arteta's Chuck & Buck, Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream and Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count On Me have each received five nominations for the 16th Annual IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards. The Independent Feature Project/West announced the nominees in Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls, ...
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News
Time Warner, AOL merge with new media conditions
Controversial new media conditions hit Time Warner and America Online as the price for the last piece of regulatory approval for the two company's proposed merger.The US's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave its approval for the takeover - the last clearance necessary for the $105bn deal to go ahead - ...
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News
Unbreakable proves indestructible in Hungary
Unbreakable smashed recent box office opening records in Hungary last weekend, earning $184,979 from 24 screens.The supernatural thriller recorded the second highest three-day opening of all-time, behind 1999's Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace with $310,900. Released through Intercom, the Buena Vista International title took a mighty screen ...
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News
Loews Cineplex heads for corporate distress
Cash-strapped Loews Cineplex has retained a leading corporate distress specialist, indicating that the exhibitor is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection.New York-based Loews Cineplex has opened its books to investment bank GE Capital so that it can prepare a so-called "debtor in possession" financing structure. Under "debtor-in-possession" guidelines, the debtor ...
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News
Dancer, Bench, Italian split Danish Oscars
Lars von Trier's Cannes winner Dancer In The Dark, Per Fly's The Bench and Lone Scherfig's Italian For Beginners led the nominations for Denmark's Oscar equivalents, the Robert awards.The trio secured ten nominations each in a year when award nominations for Danish films proved as competitive as the fight for ...
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News
Tele-Muenchen, Concorde pact with Studio Hamburg
Studio Hamburg's feature production arm, Studio Hamburg Letterbox Filmproduktion, has signed a three-picture co-production and distribution deal with Tele-Muenchen Group and its distribution arm, Concorde Film.Heading the trio of titles is Widerstand Der Herzen, the next project from internationally-renowned German director Margarethe von Trotta, which marks her first feature since ...
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News
Advertising plunge hits UK exhibition sector
UK cinema advertising revenues plunged last year as major advertisers pulled out of the sector completely or scaled back dramatically, according to new figures from monitoring service ACNielsen MMS.UK exhibitors took $116m for the period January to November 2000, down from $125.8m for the same period in 1999. The rare ...