Large MPU – Page 494
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News
IFTA top brass renew contracts until 2009
Jean Prewitt will continueas president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based IndependentFilm and Television Alliance (IFTA) and Jonathan Wolf will continue asexecutive vice president of IFTA and managing director of the AFM.Both executives have signed new three-year contracts that will run through 2009following a unanimous decision by the ...
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Sony crosses $1bn at domestic box office
Powered by the successesof The Da Vinci Code, Click, and the current number one picture TalladegaNights, Sony Pictures Entertainmenthas crossed $1bn at the domestic box office for the fifth consecutive year.The result gives thestudio unique distinction of being the only one in Hollywood to gross more than$6bn since 2002.Sony is ...
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FilmFour backs Irish comedy Garage
FilmFour is on board for Irish film-makers LennyAbrahamson and Mark O'Halloran's follow-up to theiraward-winning comedy Adam & Paul.O'Halloran wrote and Abrahmsonwill direct Garage, about asmall-town misfit. The new film will star Pat Shorttand Anne Marie Duff. The project willshoot for six weeks starting Aug 14 in Ireland. The filmmakerswill again ...
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Star in talks to buy stake in India's Hathway
Rupert Murdoch's Star TV is in talks to acquire a 20% stake in Indian cable operator Hathway Cable & Datacom as part of its plan to re-enter the Indian cable industry.If the talks are successful Star will gain access to a broadband network capable of delivering internet and cable TV ...
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Reviews
Pulse (Kairo)
Dir: Jim Sonzero. US. 2006. 86mins.The latest Americanisedremake in the still-burgeoning J-horror trend arrives in the form of thestrident and melodramatic Pulse, anonsensical thriller devoid of unified menace which quickly devolves into arather silly series of stylised, desultory jolts andartificial peril.With its dogged,demo-focused television advertising campaign and an absence of ...
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Rushes Soho Shorts gives top prize to Tom Harper's Cubs
The eighth Rushes SohoShorts Film Festival wrapped in London on Aug 4. The festival's winners were the AscentMedia short film award for Tom Harper's Cubs;the Vue animation award for Run Wrake'sRabbit; the ARRI newcomer award toJonathan Hopkins for Goodbye Mr Snuggles;the Sony Media music video award for TheDenial Twist for ...
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Sarah Goodwin joins UK sales company Independent Film Sales
Sarah Goodwin has joinedLondon-based Independent Film Sales (IFS) as salesand marketing manager.Goodwin previously held a similarpost at Vine International Pictures, where she worked on projects fromdirectors such as Peter Greenaway, Alan Rudolph andTerry Jones. The sales company's slate includesPaul Andrew Williams' London To Brighton, David Mackenzie's Hallam Foe and Marc ...
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Shochiku promotes Matsumoto to head film division
Japanese studio Shochikuannounced today several changes in the top management of its motion picturedivision. Chiefly, Teruki Matsumoto has been promotedto managing director of the filmed entertainment division. In the position Matsumotowill oversee all production, development and distribution of feature films. He will report directly to Shochiku president Junichi Sakomoto,who himself ...
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Peep Show team to shoot feature Magicians
The team behind the UK TV hit Peep Show is gearing up to shoot its first feature, Magicians, which will start principalphotography in the UK on Aug 20. The comedy is about a double act of magicians whofall out and become rivals years later. It will shoot on location ...
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Metrodome launches children's DVD label
UK-based distributor Metrodome's home entertainment division has launched a new labelfor children's entertainment. The budget label MiniMetro will focus on distributing children's films andTV programmes to UK retailers. The label launches inSeptember, following on a separate launch of another home entertainment label,In2Film. That division will seek to exploit library titles ...
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News
San Sebastian plans Emigrants retrospective
The 54th SanSebastian International Film Festival (Sept 21-30) will offer a programmedevoted to films about emigrants.Theretrospective will screen about 30 films on the topic in a range of genres andstyles. The classictitles include Louis Malle's Alamo Bay;Elia Kazan's America, America; Bernardo Bertolucci's Besieged; Goran Paskaljevic's SomeoneElse's America; Luchino Visconti's RoccoAnd ...
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Tribeca and Rome festivals announce collaboration
TheTribeca Film Festival (TFF) and the Rome FilmFestival have officially announced their collaboration.Duringits first edition, Rome, which runs Oct 13-21,will screen a selection of films that were shown at Tribecaearlier this year. The names of the films will be announced in coming weeks.Tribeca will screen several of Rome's films during ...
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Reviews
Severance
Dir: Christopher Smith. UK. 2006. 95mins.The latest in a seemingly endless cycle of newBritish horror films, Christopher Smith's Severanceis slick, funny and determinedly superficial and derivative. The screenplay(co-written by Smith and James Moran) is leavened with sub-Viz humour, satirical asidesabout office politics and the arms trade, and self-parodicjokes. Smith, who ...
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News
Gaumont to start Bensalah's Big City
French major Gaumont has announced the start of shooting on Djamel Bensalah's Big City,a western starring a cast of children ages 8 to 14.Principal photography willcommence on Aug 14 in Alberta, Canada before movingto Bulgaria. Adult co-stars in the film,which is set in the American west of the 1880s where ...
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Australian film-makers win tax battle
Screen writers, actors, up-and-coming producers and others at the low salary end of the Australian film industry are breathing a sigh of relief following the Federal Government's decision to give them the same tax exemption that they recently gave to farmers.An earlier draft of Australia's new tax bill stated that ...
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La Consultation lands French and Swiss deals at Locarno
Helen de Crecy'sfirst feature-length documentary LaConsultation on the world of private medicine has been sold to Xenix Filmdistribution for Switzerland and to Ad Vitam for France.The dealsfor the film, which is showing in Locarno's Filmmakers of the Present section, was negotiated byCaroline and Stephane Rousselfor the Arturo Mio production company ...
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Frederic Maire already looking forward to 60th Locarno
With his firstedition as artistic director coming to a close on Saturday (Aug 12), Locarno's Frederic Maire isalready looking ahead to the festival's 60th anniversary in 2007.Speakingexclusively to ScreenDaily.com, Maire revealed thatthe festival will be organizing a tour of 30 important competition films frompast years by such directors as Spike ...
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Vue to launch Adventure Film Festival
Vue Cinemas is organizing a UK nationwidedigitally projected film festival. The Adventure Film Festival will run Sept11-23 with a five-night programme at 55 Vue Cinemas around the UK. The themed nights will be Endurance, Storm Force, Ocean Adventure, HighAltitude and On-The-Edge. Selected sites will hold a one-day festival combiningfilms from ...
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Toronto premieres hit another crescendo
The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled anotherraft of world and international and North American premieres, with new filmsfrom Christopher Guest, Marc Forster, Roger Michell and Darren Aronofsky. Also in the mix is a joint world premiere with the VeniceFilm Festival of Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Mozart's opera The MagicFlute.Two ...
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Distant Horizon's Prey gobbled up by TWC
The Weinstein Company (TWC) has picked up North American rightsfrom Distant Horizon to Darrell James Roodt's safari thriller Prey.Bridget Moynahan, Peter Weller, Jamie Bartlett and Carly Schroederstar in the story of American tourists who get lost in an African game reserveand find themselves at the mercy of lions.Roodt, who previously ...