Large MPU – Page 1432
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News
Italian comedy brings festive local box office cheer
Defying global patterns, Italian comic sensation Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo's new film, The Legend Of Al, John And Jack has knocked Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets off the number one spot at the local box office just one week after its release.The Legend of Al, John And Jack ...
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Indian megastar cast in Bollywood Pride And Prejudice
Indian megastar Aishwarya Rai is to star in Pride And Prejudice - The Bollywood Musical, the all-singing, all-dancing take on Jane Austen's novel from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder ChadhaChadha confirmed that Rai, best known outside India for Cannes title Devdas and winning Miss World, has agreed in principle ...
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News
'Extraordinary' Kinderfilmfest expected
Films from South Korea, Finland, Israel, Germany and Japan are among the first seven titles confirmed by the Berlinale Kinderfilmfest's new director Thomas Hailer for a programme which, in his words, "promises to be both diversified and extraordinary."Two films have been invited from Finland: Arto Koskinen's The Handcuff King (Kahlekuningas) ...
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Toy Story 2 set for digital release
Five European exhibitors plan a digital release of Toy Story 2 from February 2, which will mark the first time a major studio film has been released digitally outside North America. The unprecedented venture is co-sponsored by Disney and Technicolor's digital projection company Real Image.France's Gaumont and Bert/Claeys Group will ...
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News
Australian Competition Commission protects indie exhibitors
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has stepped in to protect cinema owners not part of the country's exhibition troika, The issue in question is the future of cinema advertising or, more specifically, of the only national provider of these services, Val Morgan. Village, Hoyts and Greater Union, which ...
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UK's PACT appoints Planalp as director of film
UK producers body PACT has appointed Ronnie Planalp as director of film following Bertrand Moullier's exit earlier this year.Planalp was formerly EMI's senior vice president of new media/business development, Europe. She will have overall responsibility for PACT's film strategy, working with the PACT executive team, the PACT film policy group ...
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News
Eichinger joins Constantin Film supervisory board
Bernd Eichinger is being lined up to succeed Commerzbank's Franz Jung as a member of Constantin Film's supervisory board from January 1, 2003.Eichinger, who built Constantin Film up into Germany's most successful independent production and distribution house over the two decades since joining the company in 1979, had served ...
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News
Zidi prepares to shoot Super Ripoux
French director Claude Zidi will next month start work on the second sequel to 1984 hit Le Cop (Les Ripoux), his comedy about two corrupt policemen. The new episode, titled Super Ripoux, begins shooting on Jan 21 in and around Paris and will see the re-teaming of Philippe Noiret and ...
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News
Andrew Mason appointed to FTO board
Producer Andrew Mason has been appointed to the board of the New South Wales Film and Television Office (FTO) for three years. Although best known as someone who shepherds offshore films such as The Matrix through Australia, he has also been building a local production business. Mason replaces Laurie Patton, ...
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Toronto critics hail Adaptation
SpikeJonze's Adaptation has beennamed the best film of 2002 by the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA), with Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love and Alfonos Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien as runners-up.Adaptation received three other prizes: Nicolas Cage was namedbest actor for his two roles as twin brother screenwriters, Chris Cooper ...
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Film comedy gets own gong show
As the North American awards season gathers pace the USComedy Arts Festival (USCAF) and HBO have got in on the gong-giving act byannouncing that next year's ninth annual event will feature the inauguralComedy Film Honours. The awards will recognise Studio Comedy Film, Independent ComedyFilm, First-Time Director and the Entertainment Weekly ...
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International skew to 2003 Sundance writers lab
The Sundance Institute has announced the 12'signature' projects, a third of them originated from outside theUS, which will participate in the upcoming Screenwriters Lab, which takes placein Utah next month. The Lab gives participating writers the opportunity to developtheir screenplays through workshop sessions with a stellar cast of leadinginternational screenwriters ...
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News
Winchester mulls sale option as shares slump
UK-based Winchester Entertainment has effectively put itself up for sale, saying it is considering "strategic options".UK distributor Helkon SK is seen as a possible buyer after earlier this year buying a 3.67% stake in the AIM-listed company, which this week declared half-way losses on continuing operations of $10m (£6.3m). Winchester ...
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Reviews
Extreme Ops
Dir: Christian Duguay. Ger-UK. 2002. 93mins.Some effectively shot extreme skiing and snowboarding footage is the primary excuse for Extreme Ops, an otherwise pretty cheesy, virtually plot-free Euro-American action romp with a mid-level cast of youngsters and older hands from the British, German and US film and TV worlds. The long-completed ...
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News
Jacob re-appointed as Cannes president
Gilles Jacob was yesterday re-appointed as president of the Cannes Festival.Jacob has been at the festival for nearly 25 years and was its head selector for over 20 years. He relinquished the head selector job two years ago, handing over to Thierry Fremaux (artistic director) and Veronique Cayla (managing director), ...
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Italy's Mediaset takes control of Spain's Telecinco
Italy's Mediaset has agreed to pay Euros276m to Spanish media conglomerate Grupo Correo Prensa Espanola for an additional 12% stake in Spanish broadcaster Telecinco.Mediaset - controlled by the family of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi - thereby ups its interest in the broadcaster to a majority 52% while Grupo Correo ...
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Post-Soviet Russia film wins at Taiwan documentary fest
A film about a remote but beautiful area of post-Soviet Russia, On The Edge Of Time: Male Domains In The Caucasus, was awarded the grand prize at this year's Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF), which was held in Taipei from December 5-15.Produced by Germany's Applause Film Media, the 90-minute film ...
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News
Chicago heads Golden Globe nominees
Miramax musical Chicago has emerged as front-runner in nominations for the 60th annual Golden Globes, with a total of eight nods - just ahead of Stephen Daldry's The Hours which is nominated in seven categories.Other multi-nominated films include Spike Jonze's Adaptation with six nods and Alexander Payne's About Schmidt and ...
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Globes circle round Chicago, The Hours
The dark and sometimes twisted streak running through so many of this year's Golden Globe nominations confirms what the pundits have been declaring for weeks now: that the awards pendulum has swung firmly back towards more rarefied audience tastes and away from the popcorn entertainment most often identified with Hollywood. ...
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ContentFilm takes world rights on low budget Oz pair
Ed Pressman and John Schmidt's ContentFilm has put up a substantial advance against world rights for the first two low-budget digifeatures being developed by new filmmakers under producers Andrew Mason and Lizzie Bryant of Sydney-based City Productions.Local support has come from the Ten Network via a television presale and, in ...