Large MPU – Page 638
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News
Serkis, Fry join Stormbreaker cast
Andy Serkis and Stephen Fryare the latest stars to join the cast of Samuelson Productions' Stormbreaker,which has just started shooting on the Isle of Man.The $40m-plus teen superspy adventure is based on the first book in the best-selling AlexRider series by Anthony Horowitz.Serkis will play Mr Grin, theunfortunately disfigured henchman ...
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Argentinean admissions plunge in first half of 2005
Cinemaattendance figures in Argentina dropped by an estimated 24.5% in the first halfof 2005, according to provisional figures from Nielsen EDI and Dis-Service.The period saw some 16.8m admissions as opposed to 22.26mover the same period in 2004, the biggest year for Argentine cinema in almosttwo decades. However, audiences are still ...
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News
Zhang Ziyi boards Feng's $15m Banquet
Zhang Ziyi is attached to star in Feng Xiaogang's $15mperiod drama The Banquet which has been set up as a co-productionbetween Beijing-based Huayi Brothers and Hong Kong's Media Asia. Thefilm's stellar cast also includes Feng regular Ge You, hot up-and-comingactress Zhou Xun and Hong Kong star Daniel Wu. Production is ...
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MPA strikes anti-piracy deal with Chinese government
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has signed an agreementwith two Chinese government agencies to co-operate in the fight against China'srampant piracy.China'sMinistry of Culture (MoC) and the State Administration of Radio, Film andTelevision (SARFT) both co-signed a memorandum which aims to help Chineseenforcement agencies to identify pirated movie products.Under the terms ...
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News
Wonderful Place takes top Jerusalem prizes
Eyal Halfon's corrosive view of foreign labor in Israel, Whata Wonderful Place, won two of the top Wolgin awards at the 22ndJerusalem Film Festival.What a Wonderful Place won the best film prizeand the best male performance prize for Uri Gavriel. Earlier this month Eyal Halfon's film won a grand jury ...
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News
Nevins, Yari to co-chair Gotham Awards in NYC
HBO Documentary and Familypresident Sheila Nevins and producer Bob Yari will co-chair IFP's upcoming 15thAnnual Gotham Awards.The awards are scheduled totake place in New York on Nov 30, when three new competitive categories of BestEnsemble Cast, Best Use of the Arts in Film, and Best Film Not Playing at aTheatre ...
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News
Loggerheads, Year win top OUTFEST prizes
Los Angeles Gay and LesbianFilm Festival OUTFEST ended its 23rd festival on Sunday night withan awards night which saw 15 winners headed up by Tim Kirkman's relationshipdrama Loggerheads which won the juriedprize for OUTstanding American narrative.Anahi Berneri'sArgentinian AIDS drama A Year Without Love (Un Ano Sin Amor) won OUTstanding International ...
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News
De Hadeln unveils four films in New Montreal FilmFest
Moritz De Hadeln hasunveiled the first four titles of the New Montreal Filmfest, which opens onSept 18 with the North American premiere of Cedric Klapish's Les PoupeesRusses.The picture follows up onthe 2002 romantic comedy L'Auberge Espagnole and reunites Audrey Tautou, Cecile de France, RomainDuris, and Kelly Reilly.Meanwhile there are worldpremieres ...
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News
Chow Yun-fat hops on board Ann Hui project
Chow Yun-fat is reteamingwith Hong Kong director Ann Hui on the US$5m drama, The Aunt's PostmodernLife, produced by start-up Beijing-based production outfit Cheerland Films.Chow said he would forgo hisusual fee to work with Hui, who directed him in his first critical success,The Story Of Woo Viet, in 1981. Their new ...
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Reviews
The City Of The Sun (Slunecni Stat Aneb Hrdinove Delnicke Tridy)
Dir. Martin Sulik. CzRep-Slovak. 2005. 99mins.At the start Martin Sulik's feature about four unemployedCzech men promises some sort of a social comment on the collapse of EastEuropean industry, with its images of violent clashes between management and redundantworkers.But before long The CityOf The Sun settles into the predictable patterns of ...
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News
Hytner's History Boys starts shooting
Shooting has begun on the film adaptation of AlanBennett's The History Boys. Like the award winning play, the film version will bedirected by Nicholas Hytner from a script by Bennett. The project is financed by DNA and BBC Films anddistributed by Fox Searchlight. The film will shoot for six weeks ...
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News
Kinowelt picks up Palme d'Or winning Child
This year's CannesGolden Palm winner, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's The Child, has beenpicked up by Kinowelt for theatrical release in Germany.Kinowelt has also acquired the homeentertainment and television rights to the drama for Germany and Austria.Meanwhile, German rights for U-CarmeneKhayelitsha, the Golden Bear winner at the Berlinale in February, havebeen ...
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News
Civilian Content expands into UK distribution
Civilian Content, parent company of film financier TheFilm Consortium and sales agent The Works, has launched a new UK distributioncompany called The Works UK Distribution.Industryveteran Mick Southworth and three of his key colleagues from the UK distributionarm of Anglo-US outfit ContentFilm have left to form The Works Distribution. Joining Southworth ...
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News
Arnold takes Red Road with UK Film Council
The UK Film Council'sDevelopment Fund has invested in six new feature projects, including RedRoad from Oscar winning director Andrea Arnold.Arnold, who won this year'sOscar for Best Short Film with Wasp, has been awarded £10,962 for herfirst feature length project. The film is the latestcollaboration between Glasgow-based Sigma Films and Lars ...
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News
Toronto has four world prems in black cinema focus
Wayne Beach's hot USthriller Slow Burn is among fourworld premieres announced in a batch of five pictures celebrating black cinemaadded to the line-up of the 30th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).The picture plays in thespecial presentations programme and stars Ray Liotta as a district attorney whohas one night to exculpate ...
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News
LA's Gersh promotes ten agents to partner
As part of an ambitiousexpansion mandate, LA-based talent agency The Gersh Agency has promoted tenexecutives to partner and announced that longtime senior executive LeslieSiebert has become senior managing partner.The move precedes a periodof planned growth over the next two years that will see construction of a40,000 sq ft headquarters in ...
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News
World premiere of Pray's graffiti doc set for RESFEST
The world premiere of DougPray's graffiti documentary Infamywill take place at RESFEST, which runs in New York City from Sept 15-18.Pray's picture chroniclesthe lives of seven people who are obsessed with graffiti in all its forms, fromvandalism and "tagging" to larger murals sanctioned by local communities."These are intenselypassionate individuals," Pray, ...
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News
Holocaust love story revived and set to shoot in 2006
Atlantic Alliance Pictureshas changed its name to Atlantic Overseas Pictures (AOP) and has revived itslong gestating holocaust drama The Fence (formerly Love Is A Survivor), which is back on track with a European shoot scheduled for early2006.The $10m picture will shootin Hungary, Germany and the UK and is being co-produced ...
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News
Searchlight acquires rights to life story of Notorious BIG
Fox Searchlight has acquired rights to the story about the lifeand death of Christopher Wallace, better known to millions of fans as theinfamous rapper Notorious B.I.G.Notorious B.I.G.'s mother Voletta Wallace will produce the projectalong with the late star's former music managers Wayne Barrow and Mark Pitts.Antoine Fuqua is in talks ...
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News
Helen Loveridge resigns from Seattle Film Festival
Helen Loveridge, who has served as executive director of theSeattle International Film Festival Group (SIFF) since 2003, has resigned her postto return home to England.Loveridge recently guided a successful 31st annual festivalthrough to its conclusion on Jun 12.Former board president and Platinum Lifetime member Deborah Personhas been named interim director ...