Large MPU – Page 1697
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News
Cecchi Gori steps down from running family empire
In a surprise move, Vittorio Cecchi Gori has stepped down from day-to-day running of the Italian film and television company his father set up in the 1940s. The move marks the end of family management of the company, which Vittorio Cecchi Gori took over when his father Mario died in ...
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Gilliam's Grimm starts 17-week Prague shoot
Terry Gilliam's $75m Brothers Grimm kicks off its 17-week shoot in Prague today, with Matt Damon, Heath Ledger, Lena Heady, Peter Stormare and Jonathan Pryce in the main roles. The shoot will travel around the Czech Republic for the next two weeks, with Czech castle- and cathedral towns including Krivoklat, ...
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Belgian success heralds local production boom
Flemish filmmaker Tom Barman's feature debut Any Way The Wind Blows has become the strongest opener in Belgium in the last year, clocking up around 14,000 admissions on 12 screens for distributor Cineart since its release on June 18.A combination of good reviews, excellent word-of-mouth and the song Summer's Here ...
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Had To Be Made Festival teams with VSDA for independent market
The VideoSoftware Dealers Of America (VSDA) and the Had To Be Made Film Festival(HTBMFF) have teamed up to launch a new video/DVD mini-market at this year's2003 VSDA Home Entertainment convention in Las Vegas (July 29 to 31)."VSDApartnered with Had To Be Made to bring industry professionals together toconnect and find ...
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LA's Panettiere, India's Biswas team to co-produce films
VincentPanettiere's new LA-based production company Thistle Productions is teaming upwith Indian producer Anamika Biswas and her AB Exports to co-produce at leastthree films.The films willbe financed by Biswas through AB Exports and she will serve as executiveproducer on them; Panettiere will act as producer.The titles are: TheAgenda, a thrillerwritten by ...
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Berlin film festival to launch co-production market
Next year's Berlinale (February 5-15 2004) is to launch a co-production market associated with its second Berlinale Talent Campus.Speaking exclusively to Screendaily, Berlinale chief Dieter Kosslick explained that "we won't attach any conditions to the projects pitched by the young talents whereas certain criteria will have to be fulfilled for ...
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News
Angels sequel disappoints, Hulk plummets
After six weekends of movies opening on grosses of over $50m,Columbia's Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle proved somewhat of a disappointment at this weekend's boxoffice in North America with just $38m in three days. A marketing blitzfeaturing the three lead actresses in the film Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymoreand Lucy Liu ...
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News
Little steps back from First Look, Lischak is new president
Robbie Little, who foundedOverseas Filmgroup 23 years ago, is stepping back from day-to-day operations ofthe company now known as First Look Media to focus on production through hisown outfit The Little Film Company.Bill Lischak, who has beenat First Look since 1988, first as CFO and later COO as well, has ...
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Reviews
This Girl's Life
Dir: Ash. US. 2003. 101 mins. A star is born in This Girl's Life, the fourth independent feature from maverick Brit director Ash (Bang, Pups). Her name is Juliette Marquis, a stunningly beautiful newcomer whose magnetism and self-assuredness shine off the screen and indeed outshine the movie itself. Looking like ...
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Reviews
Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines
Dir: Jonathan Mostow. US. 2003. 109 mins. He's back alright, but how big an audience will come back to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator 12 years after the franchise's previous instalment, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, became a $500m global smash' The good news for distributors Warner and Sony is ...
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News
Three films nominated for Berlin Today award
2002 Student Academy Award winner Grace Lee (Barrier Device) is among four filmmakers - and three films, nominated from over 110 entries from all over the world to have the chance to make a short film about the German capital for the Berlin Today Award.While Korean-American Lee's project will ...
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News
Almodovar adds Oscar nomination to glory list
Pedro Almodovar's route to the Oscar podium came one step closer this morning as his All About My Mother ended a year of awards glory and won an Academy Award nomination for foreign language film of the year.The film marks Spain's 18th foreign language film Oscar nomination and could be ...
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News
Rogard appointed to head French writers' union
Independant French film veteran Pascal Rogard has been named managing director of France's writers' union, the Societe des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD). Rogard will take up the post on January 1, 2004 after the departure of current chief Olivier Carmet.Rogard is currently head of the union of French film ...
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News
Messier awarded Euros 20m in VU severance pay
Just as Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou finds himself sitting pretty atop several substantial offers for the company's entertainment assets, he's also got an old familiar thorn poking him in the side.Former Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier has been awarded upwards of Euros 20m in severance pay by a New York ...
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German producers form Heimatfilm production company
Stefan Telegty and Helmut Hartl of Munich-based commercials production house Embassy of Dreams have joined forces with Cologne producer Bettina Brokemper to establish the film and TV production outfit Heimatfilm to develop and produce features by new German directors and European co-productions as well as act a service producer in ...
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News
Spanish Mystery tops Moscow film festival
The 25th Moscow International Film Festival closed on Sunday night with the grand prix going to Spanish director Miguel Hermoza for La Luz Prodigiosa (The End Of A Mystery) a drama set at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Koktebel a Russian road movie about a young boy ...
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Loach's Fond Kiss secures tax funding
Ken Loach's current production, Ae Fond Kiss, has secured just over 40% of its $5m (£3m)budget through UK tax fund Azure.The funding comes in Azure's traditional form of equity and a traditional sale and leaseback under the UK's Section 48 tax deferral mechanism. The production, the third in Loach's Glasgow ...
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New Zealand introduces incentive for big budget films
The New Zealand Government has announced that producers who choose New Zealand as a location for their big budget projects will be handed back 12.5% of their production expenditure. Those spending $30m (NZ$50m) locally will automatically qualify for the grant, but if the local expenditure is $9m-$30m (NZ$15m-NZ$50m) it must ...
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Haut Et Court adds Cantet-connected pair
Haut Et Court, the French production company behind competition film Tiresia and anticipated Un Certain Regard picture Who Killed Bambi, has cast Swimming Pool-star Charlotte Rampling in the new psychological drama by hot shot Laurent Cantet. The film, Heading South (Vers Le Sud) is an adaptation of the novel of ...
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German exhibitors threaten UIP boycott
A group of German exhibitors is threatening to boycott UIP's forthcoming releases of The Hulk (3 July ) and Sinbad (24 July) because of the introduction of a new rental system which sees the percentage cut taken by the US major rising to 55% for the release of Van Helsing ...