Large MPU – Page 3180
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Features
United States - Water Works
Director Jay Russell has already brought two well-loved books to the big screen, in his 2000 family film My Dog Skip and in his 2002 fantasy Tuck Everlasting. But it took a leap forward in special-effects technology for him to pull off The Water Horse: Legend Of The Deep, based ...
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Features
Botswana - Production Number One
It is fitting that when he started filming, Anthony Minghella did not know if The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency would end up as a feature or a TV film. After all, this is a director who made his international name as an Oscar winner for such sweeping cinematic epics ...
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Features
Turkey - Road movies
For the last 13 years Basak Emre and Ahmet Boyacioglu have been bringing world cinema to the farthest corners of Turkey. Their European Film Festival on Wheels, running since 1995, starts in late autumn in Ankara, then, for the following month, stages repeat performances of the programme in at least ...
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Features
International - UPI builds up a global village
David Kosse is now celebrating a full year as president of Universal Pictures International (UPI), and he will tell you it has been a challenging ride.While he is no stranger to the company - Kosse has been head of UPI's London operation since 2003 - this is the company's first ...
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News
Awards Countdown - Best director - The visionaries
1. TIM BURTONSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet StreetBurton has a Bafta nomination under his belt for Big Fish in 2003 and was nominated for the feature animation Oscar for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. But bearing in mind his films have grossed several billion dollars between them, he is ...
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Features
Awards Countdown - Best Documentary - Rewriting the doc rule book
Michael Apted knew he was in for some flak when he went to meet the documentary film-making communities of Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco late last year.But the chairman of the documentary branch executive committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) thought the meetings ...
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Features
Awards Countdown - People - Awards People
SARAH POLLEYThe Away From Her director talks to Peter Bowen about the film's long journey from story to screen.While making films seems second nature for Sarah Polley - she started acting at age six and making short films in her teens - she took more than six years to write ...
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News
Search for business models undermines digital progress
The term 'business model' has been haunting the film industry all year. It has been a given in any conference presentation and a must at market and festival discussions.The reason for this ubiquity is easy to understand. However great the raw data appears for this year's box office or however ...
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News
Romania, Israel and Lebanon: the emerging territories of 2007
The emergence of a body of critically acclaimed work from Romania, Israel and Lebanon, has been among the more surprising developments of 2007.Cannes was a watershed for the three nations. The Palme d'Or awarded to 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, Cristian Mungiu's harrowing drama about an illegal abortion ...
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News
Robert De Niro set for tribute at San Sebastian
Robert De Niro has confirmed his acceptance of the second Donostia Award for career achievement at this month's San Sebastian International Film Festival.De Niro will be presented with the award on September 29th by Spanish actor Javier Bardem. De Niro also stars alongside Gerard Depardieu in Bernardo Bertolucci's Novecento, which ...
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News
2007 review: Hollywood looks for local heroes
These are dynamic times for Hollywood's overseas business. The studios' international infrastructure is evolving to accommodate a trend that has been around for years and is poised to explode. By the end of 2007, local-language releases such as The Orphanage (El Orfanato) in Spain, Saawariya in India and Dororo in ...
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Features
International - Warlords on the rise
Chinese heavy-hitter The Warlords was this weekend's highest non-US entry to the international chart, helping boost the top 40 revenue by 17.3% week-on-week.The period epic, directed by Peter Ho-sun Chan (Perhaps Love, Three), opened at number five at the weekend with a $12.5m take, for a $14.4m total including previews. ...
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Features
The International view - The wheel: re-invented
From the beginning, the film industry has revelled in reheating its past and serving it up again and again and again. Great film-makers from John Ford to Kon Ichikawa have remade their own films and sometimes that exercise has expanded or embellished on an original.There are literal remakes and sequels, ...
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News
Eurimages supports 15 European co-productions
At its Dec 16-18 meeting in Paris, the Eurimages Fund board signed on to support 15 feature films for a total amount of $7m (Euros 4.925m). The projects getting funding are: Adalet - Ali Ozgenturk (Turkey, Hungary) Desert Flower - Sherry Hormann (Germany, Austria, France) Joueuse - Caroline Bottaro (France, ...
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News
Feng's Assembly enjoys strong opening in China
Feng Xiaogang's war movie The Assembly grossed $2.03m (RMB15m) on its opening day in China yesterday, according to producer and distributor Huayi Brothers Pictures. The figure equals the record set by Zhang Yimou's 2006 hit, Curse Of The Golden Flower. The film, which opened on Thursday (Dec 20), was released ...
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News
Hollywood hope turns to Middle East petro-dollars
In their unending quest to spend other people's money, Western film producers and studios have spent the last couple of years becoming conversant in the languages of Wall Street and the hedge-fund world. Now, just as those wells become exposed to the sub-prime mortgage morass, these same producers are learning ...
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News
Seven number one openings for I Am Legend
I Am Legend consolidated on last weekend's promising launch in Asia with seven new number one debuts through Warner Bros Pictures International (WBPI) that contributed to an estimated $25.3m weekend haul from 15 markets.The sci-fi horror adaptation currently stands at $54.3m and is well poised to build throughout the holiday ...
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News
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets strikes box-office gold in US
Buena Vista's National Treasure: Book Of Secrets proved too strong for the competition in a crowded weekend and launched at number one withan estimated $45.5m. Nicolas Cage reprises his role as a treasure hunter who this time investigates the truth behind President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Helen Mirren, Jon Voight and ...
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News
Argentinian cinema-going falls 2.5% in 2007
Cinema attendance figures in Argentina dropped by an estimated 2.5% in 2007. The period saw 34.5 million admissions as opposed to 35.4 million in 2006, according to provisional figures from Nielsen EDI and Dis-Service. Hollywood blockbusters took a 82.1% share of the market (79.3% in 2006), local productions logged 9% ...
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Reviews
Aliens Vs Predator: Requiem
Gory but uninspired sci-fi action mixes with dull human drama in Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, a sloppy follow-up to the summer 2004 hit that first pitted Fox's two iconic space monsters against each other on the big screen. While fans of the contemporary Alien vs Predator comic books and videogames ...