Large MPU – Page 2152
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News
French sales company President Films to be wound up
French foreign sales outfit President Films is set to disappear as France Television Distribution, the film and television rights trading division of public broadcasters France 2, France 3 and France 5, restructures its activities. Following the departure of Hugo Bergson-Vuillaume, former head of President Films who left the company at ...
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Prague Studios to build additional stages
Six months after Prague Studios unveiled refurbished stages and began taking on US productions, the Czech-based firm has announced further plans to extend the facility. Studio executives say construction will begin at the end of this year on four new 2000-meter stages at the Prague Studios complex, to be completed ...
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Independence Day record tumbles to MIBII
Five years after Men in Black took the world by stormmoviegoers clearly still have a taste for alien-zapping, wise-cracking,sharp-dressed secret agents as Men in Black II squashed the competition to set a record five-day haul for the July 4holiday weekend of $90m, according to studio estimates released today. TheColumbia picture ...
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Reviews
Year Of The Devil (Rok d'Abla)
Dir. Petr Zelenka. Czech Republic. 88mins.The opening film at this year's Karlovy Vary festival was another musical -mockumentary by Petr Zelenka, who has already scored in this genre on home ground, both with a television series (Padlock 1982-2007) and the 1996 feature Happy End (Mnaga). Inspired by a concert by ...
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Major result for Minority Report
Sci-fi action-thriller Minority Report has delivered an impressive opening in the UK this weekend for 20th Century Fox.Opening at 426 sites the film scored $5.9m (£3.9m) over the three-day weekend (July 5-7) for a mighty average of $13,844 per site. Added to the $961,190 (£631,502) from 422 sites it claimed ...
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Channel 4 confirms FilmFour closure
The UK's Channel 4 yesterday confirmed that it is to close FilmFour. It is planning to replace the $46.1m (£30m) a year vertically-integrated film division with an in-house development and production operation with an annual budget of around $15.4m (£10m). FilmFour was the UK's larfgest single film financier and was ...
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Japan's Takeshi Kitano wraps Dolls
Dolls, the latest feature from Japanese powerhouse Takeshi Kitano has wrapped principal photography and is set for local release in October by Office Kitano and Shochiku.Made for $2.5m (Y300m), Dolls is the director's 10th feature produced by Office Kitano and financed by a consortium of backers including Office Kitano, Bandai ...
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German film funds face new threat
The future of Germany's film funds has come under further threat with news of proposed tighter regulations by the Federal Ministry of Finance German business daily the Handelsblatt reported that the Ministry of Finance (BMF) intends to consider investors in film funds merely as acquirers of film rights rather than ...
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Austrian Film Institute gets 30% budget boost
The Austrian Film Institute is to get a substantial increase in its 2002 budget from Euros 7.4m to Euros 9.8m, in order to give its national film industry a better profile in the European arena.Austria's Secretary of State for Arts Franz Morak, announced the increase at a parliamentary hearing on ...
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News
Copestake joins Buena Vista International Television
Buena Vista International Television has appointed Steve Copestake as vice president of marketing, reporting to Tom Toumazis, senior vice president and managing director, BVI - TV.Copesake joins BVI - TV from the UK's BSkyB, where he was head of marketing communications.
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News
Former Canal Plus boss Lescure to head Deauville jury
Pierre Lescure former head of Vivendi Universal's pay-TV group Canal Plus, is to head the jury at the 2002 Deauville American film festival, to be held August 30-September 8.Premiere screenings so far announced for the event include:Doug Limon's Matt Damon-starrer The Bourne Identity, Roger Mitchell's Changing Lanes, featuring Ben Affleck ...
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Reviews
Champion
Dir: Kwak Kyung-taek. Korea. 2002. 117minsLike its hero, Kim Deuk-gu, who tried to become Korea's first boxing world supremo, Champion gives a very worthy account of itself, but ultimately fails to deliver a knock-out punch. With sumptuous looks and a determinedly physical central performance by Friend star Yoo Oh-sun, the ...
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News
Ster Century divests Polish and Greek cinema circuits
Ster Century Europe has sold its Polish and Greek cinema operations for a combined Euros 30.6m.The company's four-multiplex Polish circuit, which includes three sites and 37 screens in Warsaw and one site in Wroclaw with 9 screens, has been sold to IT International Cinemas for Euros19.8m.A major multiplex operator in ...
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France's Bac Majestic reveals the identity of its 'white knight'
French distribution group Bac Majestic has revealed the name of its 'white knight': Belgian entrepreneur Michel Litwak and his company Fragum III, who will help turn around the beleaguered company. Bac, which issued a profit warning in May, was seeking a $12.3m (Euros13m) lifeline in order to survive. The lifeline ...
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News
Deepa Mehta plans $10m English-language historical drama
Toronto-based Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta (pictured) is planning to make a $10m English-language feature about the 1914 epic journey by Punjabi immigrants from India to Canada and back on a ship named the Komagata Maru. The film is based on the historical incident of the steamship Komagata Maru that sailed ...
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Edinburgh unveils impressive festival line-up
The 56th Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 14 - 25) will open with the UK premiere of Lynne Ramsey's acclaimed Morvern Callar and close with Christopher Nolan's hit thriller Insomnia.Gala screenings joining previously the announced titles: Tadpole, The Guru, Rabbit Proof Fence, 8 Femmes and Changing Lanes include Mark ...
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Alternative offerings lead to dampened Spirit
As 20th Century Fox's Minority Report stormed to the top of the UK box office with an impressive opening weekend take of $5.9m (£3.9m) - see separate story - the week's other major opener, UIP's Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, saw a disappointing performance.The animated film claimed third place in ...
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Edinburgh unveils full festival line-up
The 56th Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 14 - 25) will open with the UK premiere of Lynne Ramsay's acclaimed Morvern Callar and close with Christopher Nolan's hit thriller Insomnia.Gala screenings joining previously the announced titles: Tadpole, The Guru, Rabbit Proof Fence, 8 Femmes and Changing Lanes include Mark ...
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Latvia joins Poland in EU's MEDIA Plus programme
Following hot on the heels of Poland, Latvia is now the second of the East European countries to become a member of the European Union's (EU) MEDIA Plus Programme.Latvia's Ambassador to the EU signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enable Latvian professionals to participate in the audiovisual programme.Preparations had already ...
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Spain's Admira offloads Argentinian Azul TV
Spanish media house Admira and JP Morgan have finalised the long-mooted sale of Argentina's Azul TV to Argentine consortium HFS Media SA.The sale was prompted by an Argentine regulation which prohibits a single company from owning more than one television channel locally. Admira, the media arm of Spanish telecoms giant ...