Large MPU – Page 434
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News
Douglas gets Independent by Nature award at Aspen
Michael Douglaswill receive the 26th Aspen Filmfest's Independent By Nature Award for his"significant contribution to film culture" at the opening night ceremony onSept 29."As a performerand a producer, Michael Douglas has played a significant role in definingcontemporary American film-making at its versatile, risk-taking best,"executive director Laura Thielen said in a ...
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News
Love In The Time Of Cholera headed to the screen
ScottSteindorff's Stone Village Pictures has acquired film rights to Nobel Prizewinner Gabriel Garcia Marquez's acclaimed romance Love In The Time OfCholera.Steindorff will produce and package the project, atypically magic realist tale of unrequited love, before submitting it tostudios and financiers.The deal is saidto be worth more than $1m and, with ...
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News
SAG stages public foreclosure auction for seven films
The ScreenActors Guild (SAG) has taken the unprecedented step of recovering residualsowed by so-called "problem producers" to union members by selling rights toseven films at a public foreclosure auction.As part of SAG'scollective bargaining agreements, producers frequently guarantee payments toperformers and use the film rights as a form of collateral.In thisinstance, ...
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News
Tartan Video USA signs distribution deal with TLA
Tartan VideoUSA, the division of Hamish McAlpine's Tartan Films USA, has signed anexclusive deal whereby Philadelphia-based TLA Releasing becomes the sole US distributorof all Tartan Video USA's DVD and video product.Tartan Video USAis set to launch this autumn and executives expect to release 35-40 titles eachyear on DVD and video, ...
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News
Chaplin's Limelight buys Cannon library of 27 titles
Limelight Films, theLA-based production, financing and distribution company headed up by CharlieChaplin's granddaughter Keira Chaplin, has acquired the remaining CannonLibrary.The 27-title libraryincludes No Place To Hidestarring Drew Barrymore, Rescue Mestarring Stephen Dorf, and The Hitman, which stars Chuck Norris.Limelight owns worldwiderights to the library, while Warner Home Video owns North ...
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News
Telefilm Canada chief resigns for executive vp role at CBC
In a surprise move, RichardStursberg, the executive director of Telefilm Canada, has resigned after onlytwo-and-a-half years to accept a position at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.Stursberg, who was appointedto Telefilm's top job in January 2002, has been embattled of late, havingintroduced a controversial reward system based on a film's performance at ...
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News
New Babelsberg chiefs outline studio strategy
International feature film production is toremain a top priority at the Babelsberg studios, the new owners Carl Woebckenand Christoph Fisser said yesterday.The pair were speaking at a press conferenceafter their first meeting with studio management and representatives of theworkforce.The two owners' first public appearance came asthe news broke that Gerhard ...
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News
Michael Koelmel avoids jail sentence
The court case against Michael Koelmel concluded thismorning (July 22), with the Kinowelt co-founder receiving a suspended sentenceof one year and ten months from Munich's District Court.The courtaccepted four counts of embezzlement and the claim that Koelmel wilfullydelayed the filing of insolvency. However, Koelmel was cleared of fraud.In addition to ...
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Reviews
She Hate Me
Dir: Spike Lee. US. 2004. 138 mins.There is not a more fascinating - and exasperating -film-maker working today than Spike Lee. He is one of the few directors whosecontrol of the medium is so assured and his style so elegant that a viewercan't help but be sucked into his world. ...
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News
Festival debut for Book Group director
AnnieGriffin, the writer and director of award-winning UK TV show The Book Group,will make her feature debut with Festival, an ensemble comedy set duringthe annual Edinburgh Festival.Daniella Nardini, Clive Russell, Deirdre O'Kane, ChrisO'Dowd and Stephen Mangan head the cast of the £1.8m feature which is financedby the UK Film Council ...
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News
Roma Studios ravaged by fire
A fire hasravaged Roma Studios, destroying the set of ABC's ancient Rome series, Empireand a large part of the studio.It took 12fire engines five hours to extinguish the fire, which destroyed an area of2,800 square metres. Damage is estimated to in the region of 'tens ofthousands of Euros,' according to ...
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News
Former BVI chief Zapata takes over at DeAPlaneta
Former BVI chief AlvaroZapata has been appointed executive president of Grupo DeAPlaneta, the giantproduction-distribution company established by Italy's DeAgostini and Spain'sGrupo Planeta in 2000.Taking over from GiorgioSbampato, Zapata, who spent the last 12 years with BVI as vice President forSpain and Portugal, will oversee all the group's activities in theatrical,video, ...
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News
Zidi, Schatzberg, Robert among Montreal Film Festival jurors
French filmmakerClaude Zidi will head the eight-person international jury at the 28thMontreal World Film Festival, August 26 to September 6. The director of suchfilms as Les Ripoux, LesSous-doues and their sequels as well as AsterixEt Obelix, Zidi hasworked with the pantheon of France's onscreen talent, including GerardDepardieu, Philippe Noiret, ...
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News
Spurlock stands up before Congress with Super Size Me presentation
Super Size Me writer-director Morgan Spurlock isteaming up with members of the US Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine(PCRM) in a special screening and anti-obesity presentation before Congresstoday (July 23).The film-makerplans to address lawmakers on Section 1428 of the Commonsense Consumption Act,more commonly known as the Cheeseburger Bill, which if passed ...
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News
Thunderbirds ready to go on 600 prints in UK
Universal-Working Title'slive action version of the hit 1960s television series Thunderbirds gets its global launch in the UK this weekend,opening through UIP on 600 prints on Jul 23.Universal executives havehigh hopes for the family-friendly adaptation, and it will be intriguing to seehow diehard fans of the series receive this radically ...
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News
Producers of Sexual Dependency found Periscope
David Guy Levyand Gregory Leonarczyk, who produced Rodrigo Bellott's Bolivian smash SexualDependency, have formedthe independent production company Periscope Entertainment in Los Angeles.Backed by private equity,the partners and financial investors plan to develop and produce three to fourpictures a year with budgets ranging from $2m-15m, and will also providecompletion funds.Levy will ...
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News
Lions Gate starts Diary Of A Mad Black Woman
Principalphotography began in Atlanta, Georgia, this week (July 21) on Lions Gate'scomedy Diary Of A Mad Black Woman.Adapted by Tyler Perry from his hit play of the same name,the project is set in an affluent community and centres on a devoted wife of 20years who flips out when she discovers ...
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News
Master composer Jerry Goldsmith dies in LA at the age of 75
Jerry Goldsmith,the avant-garde Hollywood composer who earned more than a dozen Academy Awardnominations and won the Oscar in 1976 for The Omen, died in his Beverly Hills homeyesterday aged 75 after a long battle against cancer.Among hisoriginal score credits were Chinatown, Planet Of The Apes, Papillon, Patton, Basic Instinct and ...
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News
Hudson & Welland together again on rugby tale
ScreenwriterColin Welland and director Hugh Hudson, the team behind 1981 Oscar winner ChariotsOf Fire, are gettingback together again to make rugby movie Harder They Fall with John Daly, former Hemdale boss andnow running another new company Typhoon Entertainment, producing.Former Welsh international rugby star Mark C Thomascreated the story and set ...
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News
Kidd's PS to open Venice Critics' Week
PS I Love You, Dylan Kidd's follow-up to Rodger Dodger, will open Critics' Week at the upcoming Venice Film Festival(Sep 1-11).The romantic comedy, written by Kidd and Helen Schulman,stars LauraLinney as a 38-year-old admissions director at New York's ColumbiaUniversity who believes that her former boyfriend has been reincarnated.Earlier this month, ...