Large MPU – Page 2067
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News
FilmFour backs Ken Loach's These Times
FilmFour willwork with Ken Loach on his next feature, with a working title of These Times.Loach, whose TheWind That Shakes The Barleyis in Cannes competition, will direct the new film from a screenplay by PaulLaverty.FilmFour is thefirst company on board as co-financiers for the project, which will be producedby Loach's ...
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UK distributor Soda Pictures adds two to team
UK distributor Soda Picturesis growing with the addition of two new staffers. Kevin Owen has joined as theatricalsales manager. In June, Martin Gough will come on board as marketing manager. Owen worked as a film bookerat Artificial Eye and Tartan Films. Gough has a background in distribution andmedia planning and ...
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News
Brazil and Australia deals struck for 3 Needles: The Director's Cut
Canada's Emotion Pictureshas sold Bigfoot Entertainment's award-winning drama 3 Needles: TheDirector's Cut to ForceEntertainment for Australia and New Zealand and California Filmes for Brazil.US rights were recently sold to Wolfe Releasing in partnership with CovingtonUSA.Written and directed by ThomFitzgerald the film tells three separate stories that illustrate how HIVtransmission is ...
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Beyond takes on sales for Broomfield's Ghosts
Beyond Films is to handleworld sales on Ghosts, the newfeature written and directed by renowned British documentary maker NickBroomfield.Ghosts, Broomfield's first dramatic feature since DiamondSkulls, is based on the true storyof the Chinese illegal immigrants who were drowned while picking cockles in aBritish seaside town. The main characters are played ...
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Reviews
Bug
Dir: William Friedkin. US. 2006. 102mins.An old dogtries to show off some new tricks in Bug,as veteran director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) attempts the trickytransfer of a bizarre theatrical hybrid to the cinema screen. The back-to-basicsapproach pays dividends in terms of the intensity of the performances and thesustained sense of ...
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Oz giants get greenlight for joint Sydney cinema
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has greenlit a proposal from Australia's three largest exhibitors - Village Roadshow, Hoyts and Greater Union - to replace their separate cinemas on George Street, Sydney with a site in which they will share the same building, staff, box office and candy bar. ...
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Iran's Farabi tries to foster international co-productions
Iranian film organizationFarabi is championing international co-productions between Iran, Iraqand Afghanistan in order to promote filmmaking in the region.Currently in post is TurtlesCan Fly director Bahman Ghobadi'snew film, Half Moon (Niwe Mung), which has been set up as Iran-Iraq-Austria co-production.The picture is about afamous 80-year-old Kurd musician, who has a ...
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Korea's Mirovision gets Hong Sang-soo's next film
Korea's Mirovision has inkeda deal with local production house bom Film Productions for both domestic andinternational distribution of Hong Sang-soo's next film, Woman On The Beach, which is currently in production.The project marks the firsttime Hong has worked with Bom, one of Korea's leading production houses withcredits including You're My ...
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Reviews
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Dir: Ken Loach. Ire-UK-Ger-It-Sp. 2006.124mins.Given the turbulent events that it portrays, The Wind That Shakes TheBarley is a curiously detached affair. For all the intelligence and craftsmanshipthe director brings to his material, the film conspicuously fails to tug at theemotions in the way that might have been expected. Ken Loach ...
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News
IDT ramps up production on Mean Margaret
Ambitious IDT Entertainmentis ramping up production at its Los Angeles headquarters on its fourthCG-animated feature, Mean Margaret.The story centres on afriendship that develops between a missing young girl and a groundhogcalled Fred.Joe Piscatella and CraigWilliams adapted the screenplay from Tor Seidler's award-winning book.Jane Startz and Cheryl Aboodare serving as producers. ...
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News
Verdone signs on for Manual of Love sequel
Popular Italian comedianCarlo Verdone has signed on to star in the sequel to the Manual ofLove, the hit Aurelio DeLaurentiis-produced titled that earned almost $17m (Euros 15m) at thelocal box officelast year and sold to 15 countries worldwide.Entitled Manual of Love:The Stories, the film will bedirected by Giovanni Veronesi and ...
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Reviews
Paris, Je T'Aime
Dirs: see credits below. Fr-Liech-Switz. 2006. 120mins.That largelyunloved genre, the portmanteau film, no doubt works best in specialised slots -such as that of the opener in the Un Certain Regardsection at Cannes. Fitting the bill as a light, generally celebratory sectioncurtain-raiser, Paris JeT'Aime is a postcard-like, sometimes genuinelycharming, whistle-stop city ...
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News
Horizon strikes genre deal with Media Blasters
Vancouver-based sales agentHorizon Entertainment has signed a deal to handle four titles on MediaBlasters' genre slate.The package includes twoEnglish-language titles: the serial killer horror film Shadow: DeadRiot starring Tony Todd of Candyman; and the occult horror tale Flesh For TheBeast.Rounding out the slate areJapanese pictures The Neighbour No. 13, based ...
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News
Kasander options Chinese novel K The Art of Love
Prolific Rotterdam-basedproducer Kees Kasander has revealed details of his latest projects. Kasandermay be China-bound after optioning K The Art Of Love, the erotic 1930s-set novel by Hong Ying. He islooking for a Chinese director to helm the project.In Cannes this week, it wasannounced that Kasander will co-produce Kill Kill Faster ...
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News
Endgame completes new funding round
Jim Stern's EndgameEntertainment has completed another round of financing, bringing the company'sequity to more than $100m in operating capital.The new financing will allowEndgame greater flexibility to make bigger- budget features and financethird-party projects.The private equity fundlaunched in March 2003 and has converted to a fully operational production andfinancing entity.Its co-financing ...
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Element Films locks 13 deals on The Last Time
John Fremes' Element FilmsInternational (EFI) has closed key deals in Cannes on drama The Last Time starring Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser andAmber Valletta.Fremes is showing footage tobuyers on Michael Caleo's tale of a top salesman who falls for his protege'sgirlfriend. The project is in post-production.Adam Rosenfelt, president ofUS-based production company ...
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ThinkFilm gets US rights to Keeping Mum
ThinkFilm has picked up USrights to the ensemble comedy Keeping Mum, starring Rowan Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith and PatrickSwayze.The company plans aSeptember release on the film, which stars Atkinson as an absent-mindedvicar whose family troubles appear to be solved by the arrival of amysterious housekeeper.Keeping Mum was directed ...
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News
Haneke plans English remake of Funny Games
Revered Austrian auteurMichael Haneke is to take his English-language bow, it was announced in Cannesyesterday. He is remaking his 1997 film Funny Games, but the setting will now be the Hamptons. NaomiWatts is to star.The film is about amiddle-class family on holiday who are terrorised by two young men.Chris Coen ...
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UK financiers gear up to cash flow new tax credit
Nobody yet knows how the UKfilm tax credits (introduced last month) will work in practice, but there isalready evidence of a mini-stampede among British film financiers to cash flowthe new credit. This promises to be a highly lucrative, if short-term,business.One new company, IvanMcTaggart's Meteor Films, is being set up specifically ...
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Garcia, Cassel to star in Annaud's His Majesty Minor
Veteran directorJean-Jacques Annaud has announced plans for his next film, HisMajesty Minor, to begin shooting inSeptember.Starring Jose Garcia andVincent Cassel, the film will shoot in French on a $38m (Euros 30m)budget. Annaud spoke to members of the press on Thursday morning and explainedhis decision to return to the French language ...