Large MPU – Page 4040

  • News

    Dutch cable giant files for bankruptcy protection

    2002-09-30T00:00:00Z

    United Pan-Europe Communications (UPC), the Dutch cable giant, today (Mon, Sept 30) filed for bankruptcy protection allowing it to push through a Euros2bn recapitalisation programme.Under a revised version of a recapitalisation plan originally put together in July, parent company UnitedGlobalCom will take a 65.5% stake in the new company ...

  • News

    Film Council, IFC Films board Intermission

    2002-10-01T04:00:00Z

    JohnCrowley's ensemble drama Intermission, which started shooting in Dublin on Aug31, has sealed a£550,000 ($863,000) investment from The Film Council's NewCinema Fund and a US distribution deal with IFC Films.Crowley, anaward-winning theatre director whose latest play On An Average Day starring Woody Harrelson and KyleMacLachlan, is currently running in London's ...

  • News

    Porchlight takes on sales of Random Harvest's War Bride

    2002-10-01T04:00:00Z

    UK production outfit RandomHarvest has closed a deal with Los Angeles-based PorchLight Entertainment to handleworldwide sales in all remaining territories for the drama War Bride, which is due for release in the UK on Nov 29through Miracle Communications. The 2001 Anglo-Canadian co-production hasalready secured distribution deals in Japan, South Korea, ...

  • News

    Walden strikes two-year alliance with Disney

    2002-10-01T04:00:00Z

    Walden Media, the NewYork-based production outfit run by Cary Granat and backed by PhilipAnschutz's The Anschutz Company, has signed a two-year first-look NorthAmerican distribution deal with The Walt Disney Studios (TWDS). The dealfollows from two separate project deals between the two companies: Disney hadpreviously acquired North American and UK distribution ...

  • News

    Minority Report is Cruise's best ever opener in Italy

    2002-10-01T04:00:00Z

    Fox'sMinority Report enjoyed a strongItalian bow over the weekend, debuting at number one with a $2.78m gross from397 screens in what was a personal best in the territory for Tom Cruise. Thestar did the pre-launch publicity rounds in Rome last week with director StevenSpielberg, helping him pass his previous best ...

  • News

    Kaurismaki boycotts New York festival in anti-American protest

    2002-10-01T00:00:00Z

    The New YorkFilm Festival suffered the loss of yet another top-flight internationaldirector from its 40th anniversary edition as world politicsintruded on the prestigious event.After learning that Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami hadbeen prevented from attending the festival last week because of US visaproblems, Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki decided against flying in ...

  • News

    BVI scores $14m international weekend with Signs

    2002-10-01T00:00:00Z

    Buena Vista International's Signs dominated the international markets over the weekend with a $14m haul that should see it cross $100m by the middle of the week and sets it on course for a projected $200m international total. The sci-fi drama directed by M Night Shyamalan and starring Mel Gibson ...

  • Reviews

    Sweet Home Alabama

    2002-10-01T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Andy Tennant. US. 2002. 108mins. The $37.5m opening of Sweet Home Alabama over the weekend in North America confirms the superstar status of its lead actress, the 26-year-old Reese Witherspoon, whose soaring popularity now ranks her as one of Hollywood's most bankable opening acts. Indeed, there's no question that ...

  • Reviews

    Pure

    2002-10-01T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Gillies MacKinnon. UK. 2002. 96 minsAn exceptional performance from child actor Harry Eden provides the heart and soul of Pure, an unflinching portrait of the unbreakable bond between a drug-addicted mother and her loving son. Returning to territory familiar from his work on award-winning television projects like Needle and ...

  • News

    Perdition goes wide but doesn't make it to the top

    2002-10-01T00:00:00Z

    All eyes were on 20th Century Fox's Road To Perdition this weekend as it expanded nationwide following a strong 32 site London platform release a week ago. But while Sam Mendes' drama took a strong $2.05m (£1.3m) from its 369 sites, showing a good average of $5,548, it had to ...

  • News

    China's film industry reforms stalled in run-up to Party Congress

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    With all policy decisions and initiatives on hold until after the Communist Party's 16th National Congress next month, it looks as if China's long-awaited second distributor won't be launched until the beginning of next year at the earliest.The new entity, which is set to break China Film Corp's monopoly in ...

  • News

    Norwegian sales agent backs two southern hemisphere projects

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Norwegian sales agent BV International Pictures has penetrated yet another corner of the globe by signing for a film in Australia and another in New Zealand. The UK/New Zealand co-production Castle Of Lies starring James Caan and the Australian road movie/comedy Thunderstruck are both grounded in reality but there the ...

  • News

    Benigni to record English-language version of Pinocchio

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Roberto Benigni will use his own voice to dub the English soundtrack for the international version of his new film, Pinocchio, which is released this Friday in Italy and on Christmas day in the US.The comic's wife, Nicoletta Braschi, who plays the fairy godmother in Benigni's adaptation of the Carlo ...

  • News

    Sundance to champion European cinema

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    The Sundance Film Festival is set to become a platform for European filmmakers, according to festival director Geoffrey Gilmore, speaking at the Holland Film Meeting in Utrecht.While admitting that he only had "a modest goal" and was not intending to create "a European-focused festival per se", Gilmore declared that he ...

  • News

    Rialto and Arclight team for Roger Dodger

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Rialto Entertainment, the only New Zealand company that distributes films in Australia, and Australia's newest sales agent, Arclight Films, have co-acquired what they describe as one of the few buzz films from the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, namely the New York comedy Roger Dodger.The story of a schoolboy's attempt ...

  • News

    Mira Nair to launch film training lab in Uganda

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Internationally acclaimed director Mira Nair is planning to create a 'film lab' in Uganda, inspired by the Sundance Institute's training initiative, to offer four East African and four Indian students six weeks of tuition.Speaking during her Cinema Militans Lecture at this year's Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht, Mair explained that ...

  • News

    Wales paves way for new international film studio

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Plans for a film studio complex in Wales received a boost yesterday, when the Welsh parliament scrapped its main objection to the project. Based in the south Wales valleys, the 350-acre development - called Dragon International Studios - is hoping to be built on a former opencast coal site near ...

  • News

    Murdoch finally agrees Telepiu takeover terms

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has agreed to buy the financially crippled Italian pay-TV operation Telepiu from Vivendi Universal through a cash-and-debt agreement worth Euros893 million.News Corp said it would pay Euros470 million in cash for Telepiu and will assume Euros423 million worth of the outfit's debt.The deal, which is expected ...

  • News

    Caine gets AFI FEST tribute, Quiet American gets US premiere

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    AFI FEST 2002, the AmericanFilm Institute's Los Angeles film festival, will honour Michael Cainewith a special tribute at this year's event which takes place Nov 7 to 17this year. The tribute includes an on-stage interview with the double Oscar-winningactor (Nov 16) as well as a short retrospective of his films ...

  • News

    London's Imperial War Museum wins IDA preservation award

    2002-10-02T04:05:00Z

    The Imperial War Museum(IWM) in London will receive the 2002 International Documentary Association(IDA) Preservation and Scholarship Award at the 18th annual IDADistinguished Documentary Achievement Awards on Dec 13 in Los Angeles. Themuseum's keeper of the film and video archives Roger Smither will acceptthe award.Founded in 1917, the IWM wasmandated by ...