Large MPU – Page 1528

  • News

    Chrysler Film Festival winner starts shooting in US

    2003-10-17T04:00:00Z

    Filming began in Virginiathis week on Jeff Wadlow's directorial debut Living The Lie, the winner of the first Chrysler Million DollarFilm Festival in 2002.Doug Liman'sentertainment company Hypnotic is producing in association with Chrysler, withUniversal set to release in spring 2004.The thriller centres on agroup of older boarding school children caught ...

  • News

    And the 11 most influential cinematographers of all time are...

    2003-10-17T04:00:00Z

    The names of the 11 mostinfluential cinematographers of all time as voted by members of theInternational Cinematographers Guild (ICG) will be unveiled on a 'wall offame' at the opening of the ICG's new national headquarters inHollywood on Nov 8.Billy Bitzer, JordanCronenweth, Conrad L Hall, James Wong Howe, Sven Nykvist, Vittorio ...

  • News

    Latest screener meeting proves inconclusive

    2003-10-17T04:00:00Z

    A telephone conference callbetween MPPA chief Jack Valenti and top brass from the US majors and other MPAAsignatories to discuss the screener ban ended inconclusively yesterday (16) asall parties agreed to resume talks at a later date.Sources said the partiesagreed to disagree following a lengthy discussion in which the ramifications ...

  • News

    FRANCE

    2003-10-17T00:00:00Z

    It's a rare, thing when there are relatively no changes in the French box-office from one week to the next. Especially considering the fact that the number one film had a pretty un-extraordinary showing in the US. The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen continues at number one followed by the same ...

  • News

    HONG KONG

    2003-10-17T00:00:00Z

    While Edko Films' Korean title The Classic continues to hold a top ten position in Hong Kong after 10 weeks on release and a cumulative gross of $686,689 (HK$5.4m), a new Korean title performed less well upon opening last week.Distributed by Golden Scene The Uninvited opened fourth during the week ...

  • News

    FINLAND

    2003-10-17T00:00:00Z

    The sex-hungry teenagers in American Pie 3 kept the local hit Sibelius from re-claiming the top spot on the chart, and had a strong opening with as many admissions on its 25 prints as last week's topper Bad Boys II had on 45. Cinema Mondo's release of the Hong Kong ...

  • News

    Alan Parker issues statement on European cinema

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    Next week's promotional launch of his new novel has forced the UK Film Council's chairman Sir Alan Parker to decline the invitation to participate in the European Film Summit at the Munich Media Days on October 22, but he has nevertheless taken the time to issue a personal view on ...

  • News

    German private TV offers to double film funding

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    Germany's private broadcasters have offered to more than double their annual voluntary contributions to the German Federal Film Board (FFA) to Euros 12m over the next five years until 2008.Juergen Doetz, president of the commercial television interest group VPRT, indicated during a public hearing on the revised German Film Law ...

  • News

    France increases film, television funding

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    Elaborating on culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon's presentation of France's 2004 cultural budget in late September, France's National Cinema Center (CNC) has issued its funding details for the coming year.As previously noted on ScreenDaily.com the overall budget for film and television jumps to Euros 504.3m for 2004. That figure represents a ...

  • News

    AFM: US buyers say only maybe to AFM titles

    2000-02-28T11:23:00Z

    It's slim pickings for North American buyers at this year's AFM, with only a handful of titles creating any sort of buzz. But at least one film looks likely to sell - USA Films is understood to have put in an offer on BBC Films/Pandora Cinema's Maybe Baby - and ...

  • News

    9-hour Chinese documentary wins Japanese festival

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    West Of Tracks, (pictured) an acclaimed 9-hour documentary about the decay of an industrial city in Northeast China, emerged a triumphant winner at the 2003 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan. Well-received US documentary Stevie by Steve James, director of the Oscar-nominated Hoop Dreams (1994), took home the ...

  • News

    Weeping Camel trots into THINKFilm fold

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    North American independentdistributor THINKFilm has acquired all North American rights to ByambasurenDavaa and Luigi Falorni's The Story Of The Weeping Camel, Mongolia's first official foreign languageAcademy Award entry that was one of the surprise hits of Toronto.THINKFilm plans a spring2004 release for the film, which has just been nominated for ...

  • News

    New European Market being created for January 2005

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    As if there weren't already enough international film and television markets, yet another new event has been created to entice programme acquisition executives away from their offices with news of the European Programmes Market (EPM) in France's Deauville from January 28-30, 2005.Although the event will be running simultaneously with the ...

  • News

    Cucinotta wraps two Italian features

    2003-10-20T04:05:00Z

    Italian star Maria Grazia Cucinotta, who shot to fame in Il Postino, has just finished shooting two Italian features.The Sicilian actress stars alongside Brooke Shields and Chevy Chase in Mariti In Affitto (Husbands For Rent), a comedy about a man who leaves his his wife and children and home on ...

  • News

    LA critics cancel annual awards following screener ban

    2003-10-20T04:00:00Z

    Bringing pressure to bear onthe screener ban issue to boiling point, The Los Angeles Film CriticsAssociation has announced that it will cancel its annual awards this year"unless there is a timely rescinding of the ban on screeners."The group of critics met onSaturday and approved a motion which put forward the ...

  • News

    Streep to receive AFI Lifetime Achievement Award

    2003-10-20T04:00:00Z

    Meryl Streep will receive the American Film Institute's (AFI) 32ndLife Achievement Award at a tribute gala in Hollywood on Jun 10, 2004."Meryl Streep is one of the great artists in the history ofAmerican films," Sir Howard Stringer, chair of the AFI board of trustees, saidin a statement."Her talent, range and ...

  • News

    Pie sequel makes it five $100m grossers for Universal International

    2003-10-20T04:00:00Z

    Universal became the first studio to release five $100m-plusinternational grossing films in a single year as American Pie: The Wedding reached the mark over the weekend.The comedy sequel grossed $6.5m from 1,730 sites in 32 countriesfor an estimated $100m running total.8 Mile, Johnny English, The Hulk and 2 Fast 2 ...

  • News

    Box office massacre for Texas Chainsaw Redux

    2003-10-20T00:00:00Z

    Platinum Dunes' horror remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre slaughtered the opposition as it openednumber one on an estimated $29.1m over the weekend. Platinum Dunes is the lowbudget film outfit of mega-budget director Michael Bay which has a productiondeal at Ted Field's Radar and therefore Focus Features handles sales of itsfilms. ...

  • Reviews

    Singing Behind The Screens (Cantando Dietro I Paraventi)

    2003-10-20T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Ermanno Olmi. Italy. 2003. 100 mins.Years ago, David Thomson wrote "A question mark hangs over Ermanno Olmi, as if he needed some gust of passion or surrealism to free him from the aspirations of realism". This gust began to blow in Olmi's last film, The Profession Of Arms, and ...

  • News

    Financial backing flows into Spain's Manga Films

    2003-10-20T00:00:00Z

    Spanish media veteran Enrique Cerezo has taken a 16% stake in Barcelona-based distributor and producer Manga Films, underwriting a Euros 6m capital increase through his Video Mercury Films.Separately, Manga has also signed a Euros 10m loan with the Catalan Finance Institute (ICF), boosting the company's current financial resources to Euros ...