Large MPU – Page 1790

  • News

    Mar del Plata continues despite cash crisis

    2002-02-21T18:25:00Z

    Argentina's Mar del Plata International Film Festival will push ahead this year despite the country's deep economic crisis. 'We need to keep the festival going even more than ever, it would be a shame if it lost its A-list festival status as a result of its cancellation, ' said ...

  • Reviews

    The Cockettes

    2002-02-21T20:25:00Z

    Dir: David Weissman & Bill Weber. US. 2002. 99mins.This marvellously evocative documentary was a clear audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, and was equally well-received at its Panorama screening in Berlin this week. A bidding war for US rights is underway and international arthouse buyers are also likely ...

  • News

    Denmark's DFL to develop system for Microsoft

    2002-02-21T22:16:00Z

    Denmark's Digital Film Lab (DFL) has moved into a new direction with a contract from Microsoft Corp./LA to develop the implementation of High Definition in a future version of the Windows Media Player. 'To be recognised as the right partner to carry out development for Microsoft has been a very ...

  • News

    Oz pay-TV players call for Hollywood price sanity

    2002-02-21T22:19:00Z

    Kim Williams, the new chief executive of Australia's dominant pay-TV player Foxtel, has called on the Hollywood studios that supply his industry to stop "pricing us into oblivion."Instead, Williams asked his US film suppliers to work with the Australian pay TV sector to find a new commercial model that replaces ...

  • News

    Culkin kills for Party Monster role

    2002-02-21T23:56:00Z

    Macauley Culkin is in final negotiations to star as Michael Alig in Party Monster, the movie about the notorious murdering New York party promoter that is being produced by Killer Films and sold internationally by Fortissimo Film Sales. Ed Pressman and JohnSchmidt's ContentFilm has also come on board as co-financier ...

  • News

    Miramax sells to two new German distributors

    2002-02-22T00:06:00Z

    Miramax International has closed two new distribution deals in Germany with buyers it has never sold movies to before: Andreas Klein's Splendid Medien and AndreasFallscheer's brand new outfit Falcon Entertainment.Splendid boughtGerman rights to James Mangold's Kate & Leopold starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman,while Falcon took rights to David Zucker's ...

  • News

    Sony gets Basic instinct for Travolta thriller

    2002-02-22T00:16:00Z

    John McTiernan'sBasic starring John Travolta has finally found a domestic home in Sony PicturesEntertainment. The costly military thriller was fully financed by Intermedia andproduced with Mike Medavoy and Arnie Messer's Phoenix Pictures and OrbitEntertainment Group. Basic, whichwill be released in North America through Columbia Pictures, had been considereda risky proposition ...

  • News

    StudioCanal stalks international rights to Cherish

    2002-02-22T00:31:00Z

    StudioCanal isclose to acquiring international rights to Cherish, the $4m comic stalker thriller that premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival this year and was promptly sold toFine Line Features for North America distribution.Produced by Johnny Wow and Mark Burton and directed by Finn Taylor (Dream With TheFishes), the ...

  • News

    Amelie's Jeunet honoured at ShoWest

    2002-02-22T00:35:00Z

    Jean-Pierre Jeunet, directorof the Academy Award-nominated Amélie - the most successful French film everreleased in North America - will be honoured at ShoWest next month with theInternational Achievement in Filmmaking Award. He will receive his award inperson on March 4th, at the International Day Luncheon. Amélie's latest honour were its ...

  • News

    First Look to steer Loach's Navigators in US

    2002-02-22T00:41:00Z

    First Look Pictures (FLP) has struck a deal with UK-basedsales outfit The Works to buy North American distribution rights to Ken Loach'sThe Navigators, which played at theVenice Film Festival last year. FLP is planning a summer theatrical release for the film whichwill then go to video and DVD through First ...

  • News

    Fonlupt dives into Kormakur's The Sea with Flach

    2002-02-22T00:45:00Z

    Former Ciby 2000 executiveJean-Francois Fonlupt's Emotion Pictures is teaming with Blue Eyes Productions for The Sea, the nexteffort from 101 Reykjavikdirector Baltasar Kormakur. Eric Lagesse, head of Flach Pyramide International, whorecently picked up the film for global sales enthuses, 'It'ssomething hot from a cold place!' Indeed, the film is anIceland-set ...

  • News

    Jackie Chan sci-fi actioner tops Media Asia slate

    2002-02-22T01:00:00Z

    Media Asia, under the new management of hotels andentertainment investor Peter Lam, has unveiled a far-reaching development slatefor 2002-3, headed by $40m Jackie Chan picture, Titanium Rain, a sci-fi action title. The futuristic picture has atimeframe of over 400 years and is set in China and outer space. Production isdue ...

  • News

    Artist House buys Morvern Callar for Japan

    2002-02-22T01:03:00Z

    Artist House, the Japanese publishing group, is set to make an imprint both as both new buyer and seller. It has already acquired Japanese rights to LynneRamsay's Cannes-bound Morvern Callar and is now embarking on its own production of TheTesseract, starring Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Saskia Reeves.Along with its specialistfeatures arm ...

  • News

    Queen Of The Damned reigns over North America

    2002-02-24T22:03:00Z

    Queen Of The Damned, Warner Bros' film of the Anne Rice novel, topped the box office in North America over the weekend with an estimated $15.2m take on 2,511 screens. Based on the third book in Rice's Vampire Chronicles, the $30m film is notable as the last film role for ...

  • News

    Optimum raps with Biggie & Tupac, Lawless Heart

    2002-02-24T22:32:00Z

    UK independent distributor Optimum Releasing has acquired the UK rights to veteran documentarian Nick Broomfield's Sundance hit, Biggie And Tupac, in a deal struck with Luc Roeg of the Artists Independent Network . Lions Gate Films has domestic rights on the film.The film investigates the still unsolved murders of rap ...

  • News

    Female Gangster flick clicks with Japan's KNACK

    2002-02-24T22:37:00Z

    Sales house Cineclick Asia has secured a major Japanese deal on one of its bigger titles and is now shooting to become a heavyweight player outside its native Korea.It sold Japanese rights on female gangster tale My Wife Is A Gangster to KNACK, a company more usually associated with animation ...

  • News

    Klockworx girds for Iron Ladies' return

    2002-02-24T22:40:00Z

    Japan's Klockworx has become the first buyer to commit to Iron Ladies: The Early Years, the new picture to be handled by Fortissimo Film Sales.The film, to be directed by Yongyooth Thongkonthun, is both a sequel and a prequel to his smash Thai comedy The Iron Ladies. The original film ...

  • News

    Nothing Is Everything for Hadida's Metropolitan

    2002-02-24T22:46:00Z

    Senator International has sold French rights on the Vincenzo Natali directed Nothing to Samuel Hadida's Metropolitan Filmexport. The film, which Senator is financing with Japan's Klockworx, is currently in pre-production while Natali finishes Company Man for Pandora and Miramax. A May start is possible.The Canadian Natali has seen his ...

  • Reviews

    Walking On Water

    2002-02-24T22:53:00Z

    Dir: Tony Ayres. Australia. 2002. 90 mins.An exploration of premature death and how to grieve for a loved one who had lived outside of a conventional family, Walking On Water resembles Longtime Companion (1990) and similar independent American films to emerge from the Aids epidemic in the early Nineties; it ...

  • News

    Myriad on the road with Coppola's Zoetrope

    2002-02-24T22:55:00Z

    Myriad Pictures and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope unveiled three new films yesterday to be financed and sold in international territories by Myriad, which has taken over the ten-picture Zoetrope slate from financially troubled VCL. United Artists handles domestic rights on the film.They are Zoetrope's long-delayed On The Road, a ...