Large MPU – Page 1972

  • News

    Perrier teams with Palm for film-maker contest

    2002-01-15T07:11:00Z

    Bottled water group Perrier is teaming up with Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures and RES to launch "Perrier Across America", a new initiative for 2002 which will select five film-makers from thousands of submissions and then supply them with vehicles, digital cameras, professional producers and other resources to drive across the ...

  • News

    Miramax unveils Neverland, The Forger

    2002-01-15T07:13:00Z

    Miramax Films has announced two new pictures - it has signed Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) to direct Neverland, the film of Allan Knee's play The Man Who Was Peter Pan and it has acquired the rights to Paul Watkins' novel The Forger and hired Proof playwright David Auburn to adapt ...

  • Reviews

    Hysterical Blindness

    2002-01-15T16:52:00Z

    Dir: Mira Nair. US. 2002. 98mins Despite securing the prized "centrepiece" premiere slot at this year's Sundance, Mira Nair's immediate follow-up to her Venice-winning Monsoon Wedding succumbs to some of the perils involved in adapting stage plays to the big screen - should this made-for-cable film, about the struggles of ...

  • News

    Last Orders opens with limited taster

    2002-01-15T16:54:00Z

    Pathe's Rat Race was the winner amongst this week's melee of new releases in the UK but was still unable to topple The Lord Of The Rings or Harry Potter from their one-two chart positions. The best average recorded by an opener this week was for Metrodome's limited release of ...

  • Reviews

    The Good Girl

    2002-01-15T18:07:00Z

    Dir: Miguel Arteta. US 2001. 93mins.The Good Girl, Miguel Arteta's third feature, represents a step in the right direction for him as a filmmaker, as well as for his star, Jennifer Aniston, best known so far for her part in the TV series Friends. Centring on a thirtysomething woman ...

  • News

    Chinese audiences flock to Big Shot's Funeral

    2002-01-15T19:14:00Z

    Big Shot's Funeral, Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia's production of Feng Xiaogang's comedy starring Donald Sutherland, has earned $4.3m in less than four weeks on release across China, becoming the highest-grossing domestically-produced title in the country's history. Developed and produced as part of the studio's commitment to local language productions ...

  • News

    Internet film piracy set to increase rapidly

    2002-01-15T19:17:00Z

    The volume of film-related internet piracy is higher than previously thought, and could rise further with the anticipated growth in take-up of broadband internet connections.According to Bruce Ward, technical director of Net PD, a London-based company which provides internet protection services for copyright holders, current estimates that there are over ...

  • News

    Dentsu, Tohokushinsha acquire Disney package

    2002-01-15T19:22:00Z

    Dentsu and Tohokushinsha are to jointly acquire exclusive Japanese broadcasting rights to 150 Disney movies and TV series. The deal, set to be finalised soon according to Dentsu officials, covers titles from 1999 to 2001, including The Sixth Sense, Pearl Harbor and 102 Dalmatians, as well as older films such ...

  • News

    24 German films at 25th Goteborg festival

    2002-01-15T19:24:00Z

    The 25th Goteborg Film Festival (25.1. - 4.2.2002) is continuing its tradition of a large German presence and will be presenting a selection of 24 new German films which for the most part were already successful at other international festivals.In the main programme the festival-goers will be shown 14 German ...

  • News

    Paris screenings confirm upbeat French industry

    2002-01-15T23:03:00Z

    The selection of new titles on view at Unifrance's fourth Paris screenings, held January 11-15, reflected the upbeat mood currently being enjoyed by the French film industry, not just at home, but increasingly abroad.Internationally, French films' attendance jumped 122% last year, to some 30 million admissions, according to Unifrance's latest ...

  • News

    MGM plays down rumours of $7bn sale

    2002-01-15T23:07:00Z

    MGM has distanced itself from rumours that it is up for sale following a report yesterday (Jan 15) in the Los Angeles Times saying the company had hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to solicit bids that are due this week. In a statement, MGM said, "As we have stated ...

  • News

    Spielberg gets ShoWest Lifetime Achievement nod

    2002-01-16T00:08:00Z

    Steven Spielberg will be awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award at exhibition convention ShoWest this March. He will receive his award at the annual Gala Awards Banquet which will be held on March 7.Spielberg's sci-fi actioner Minority Report opens this summer for 20th Century Fox (DreamWorks is handling international rights) ...

  • News

    Boeing Digital Cinema retains CAA

    2002-01-16T00:09:00Z

    The Boeing Company has retained Hollywood talent and literary agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for consulting services for the launch of Boeing Digital Cinema, its ambitious network which will be used to transmit first-run movies and alternative programming via satellite and fiber-optic network. CAA will counsel Boeing on the business ...

  • News

    Artisan buys John Herzfeld script Jealousy

    2002-01-16T00:10:00Z

    Artisan Pictures, which is ramping up production under new CEO Bob Cooper, has acquired Jealousy, a comedy script by John Herzfeld as a project for him to direct. Herzfeld's last film was 15 Minutes for New Line Cinema starring Robert De Niro and Ed Burns and he made a splashy ...

  • News

    Erlina Suharjono promoted at Warner Bros Asia

    2002-01-16T00:11:00Z

    Erlina Suharjono has been promoted to the position of vice president, Asia, at Warner Bros Pictures.In her new post, Suharjono will be responsible for supervising distribution and marketing activities in Asia through Warner Bros.' network of affiliate offices and licensees in the region, specifically, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, ...

  • News

    Sundance: Fox woos Girl, Dancer; SPC loves Liza

    2002-01-16T00:29:00Z

    In the second largest dealstruck so far at Sundance, Fox Searchlight Pictures has paid $4m fordistribution rights in North America, Latin America, Australasia, the UK andSouth Africa to Miguel Arteta's The Good Girl, which is being handled by Myriad Pictures and WMA Independent. At the same time, SonyPictures Classics is ...

  • News

    Aardman to make 12 one minute films for the net

    2002-01-16T18:24:00Z

    Acclaimed UK animation studio Aardman has gone into production with 12 new one-minute Wallace And Gromit films, which are to be released later this year on the internet.Meanwhile, the company has announced that its anticipated DreamWorks SKG-backed Wallace And Gromit feature, the script for which Nick Park has been writing ...

  • News

    Gala takes UK rights to African L'Afrance

    2002-01-16T18:25:00Z

    UK indie distributor Gala has acquired UK rights to Sundance title L'Afrance, an African film which will next be seen in Rotterdam and is handled worldwide by Mercure Distribution's Jacques Le Glou.L'Afrance, directed by Alain Gomis and previously selected for Locarno, is the coming-of-age tale of a young Senegalese student ...

  • News

    Premiere World adds Kofler, loses Liberty

    2002-01-16T18:30:00Z

    German entrepreneur Dr. Georg Kofler (pictured) has been enticed back into the Kirch empire to head up the debt-ridden digital pay TV platform Premiere World. At the same time, US cable operator Liberty Media has surprisingly withdrawn an application submitted to the German cartel office for clearance to take a ...

  • News

    Spanish films' home market share up by 90%

    2002-01-16T18:43:00Z

    Spanish films came close to doubling their local market share last year, with a record three films breaking through the watershed Euros 6m (pts1bn) mark, while national cinema admissions set a new global (post-war) record of 13 years' consecutive growth.The annual industry report released by the Spanish Cinema Academy also ...