Large MPU – Page 644
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News
Locarno lands BAK support for the next three years
Switzerland's Federal Office of Culture (BAK) hasannounced that it will extend its annual $935,000 (CHF 1.2m) support to the Locarno International Film Festival for another threeyears.The news comesshortly before this year's event opens on August 3 with KetanMehta's TheRising - Ballad Of Mangal Pandey.The grant represents12 percent of the festival's ...
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News
Grosvenor Park weighs in behind Highlander trilogy
The new trilogy of Highlander films being prepared byDavis-Panzer Productions and Sequence Films are to use a "one-stop"financing structure created by Grosvenor Park.Highlander V,budgeted between $12-$14m, is due to start shooting in Lithuania inOctober. Although there will be some Lithuanian backing, Grosvenor Park is effectively fully financing theproject. Bret Leonard ...
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News
Zhang Yimou to chair Tokyo Film Festival jury
China's Zhang Yimou will chair the jury for the18th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival (October 22-30) with hisnew film, Riding Alone ForThousands of Miles, opening the proceedings.Miles stars Ken Takakura as anelderly Japanese man who journeys to a provincial city in China to film a traditional Beijing opera ...
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News
Capitol gains Zoetrope slate
UK-based Capitol Films has linked with VCL and MGM to handle international sales on the American Zoetrope slate that the German company agreed to co-finance and distribute internationally prior to Cannes.The pact encompasses 10 films over three years, with MGM handling North American distribution through United Artists Films. The three ...
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Reviews
Stealth
Dir:Rob Cohen. US. 2005. 119mins.RobCohen's latest big-budget B-movie has the cheesiness of the director's XXXand The Fast And The Furious but none of the saving graces that helpedturn those two outings into entertaining as well as widely appealing summerhits. An airborne action adventure with a US military setting and the ...
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News
UK announces new tax proposals: Section 42 to go
The UK Government has signaledits intent to do away with Section 42 as well as Section 48 in a set of long-awaitedproposals for new tax incentives for the British film industry. In future, low-and high-budget films would be bedealt with under a "single coherent regime".At the same time, theDepartment for ...
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Wedding Crashers finally takes domestic box office crown
New Line's Wedding Crashers roared to the top of the domestic charts and passed $100m inits third weekend as Sony's high-tech action romp Stealth virtually stalled on take-off and openedweakly in fourth place on $13.5m.Disney's superhero family picture Sky High opened well enough in third place on$14.6m, while Warner Bros' ...
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News
Wedding Crashers tops box office against three newcomers
New Line's Wedding Crashers roared to the top of the domestic charts and passed $100m inits third weekend as Sony's high-tech action romp Stealth virtually stalled on take-off and openedweakly in fourth place on $13.5m.Disney's superhero family picture Sky High opened well enough in third place on$14.6m, while Warner Bros' ...
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News
Charlie has spectacular $13.1m opening in UK
Life is sweet for Warner Bros Pictures International as asensational UK debut helped Charlie And The Chocolate Factory dominate the markets outside NorthAmerica over the weekend.Tim Burton's Roald Dahl adaptation grossed an estimated $19.8m onmore than 2,300 screens in 15 countries for an early international cumulativetotal of $36.3m.However there was ...
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News
Colonna leaves The Firm to join Brillstein-Grey
Sarah Michelle Gellar’smanager JoAnne Colonna has left The Firm to join the senior ranks ofBrillstein-Grey Management.Colonna, whose other clientsinclude Andy Garcia, Brittany Murphy, Brendan Fraser and Anna Paquin, servedsix years at Artists Management Group (AMG) and The Firm, which eventuallyacquired it, as co-head of the talent department.It is understood she ...
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Reviews
The Dukes Of Hazzard
Dir: Jay Chandrasekhar.US. 2005. 102 mins. Itwould have been easy just to make fun of The Dukes of Hazzard, the supremely corny early eighties US TV seriesabout Bo and Luke Duke, two young buck good ole boys from deep in the heart ofGeorgia. Surprisingly though, this Warner Bros/Village Roadshow big ...
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News
UK announces new tax proposals: Section 42 to go
The UK Government has signaled its intent to do awaywith Section 42 as well as Section 48 in a set of long-awaited proposals fornew tax incentives for the British film industry. In future, low- andhigh-budget films would be be dealt with under a "single coherent regime".At the same time, the ...
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News
Da Vinci Code set to join Maltese influx
The Malta FilmCommission Act, which came into force on July 15, has already attracted a raftof high-profile international films to the island, led by Steven Spielberg's Munichand now a confirmed one-week shoot for The Da Vinci Code thisNovember.Under the terms of theAct, the Malta Film Commission is empowered to grant ...
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News
F For Film takes Friday
French seller F For Film has acquired world rightsto the French/Belgian co-production Friday Or Another Day (Venredi Ou UnAutre Jour), a last-minute entry to Locarno's International Competitionline-up.Directed by Yvan le Moine (The Red Dwarf),Friday stars Philippe Nahon, Hanna Schygulla and Ornella Muti and is a freeadaption of the Michel Tournier ...
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News
Thailand's SF Cinema City gears up for IPO
Thailand's second-largestcinema chain SF Cinema City is gearing up for a public listing on the country'sstock exchange in the first quarter of 2006.The money raised through theIPO will be used for expansion. SF is set to invest $53m (baht 2.2 bn) in fivenew cinema complexes in 2006.More than half of ...
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News
Green light for Germany's $110m venture capital fund
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has greenlit a $110m(Euros 90m) venture capital fund for the German film industry and will reservethe necessary financing in his planned national budget for 2006. According to guidelines which have just been made public,the fund would be able to grant conditionally-repayable loans of up to 20% ...
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News
Lady Vengeance smashes Korean box office records
Park Chan-wook'sVenice-bound Sympathy For Lady Vengeance has notched the highestgrossing opening weekend in South Korean history, narrowly beating out lastyear's record-breaking Tae Guk Gi.The film, the finalinstalment of Park's so-called "revenge trilogy," which also includesOldboy (2003) and Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (2002), sold 1.46mtickets between July 28 and 31, amounting ...
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News
Mueller says he'll resign if no market at Venice
Venice festival chief MarcoMueller has said that he will not carry on unless there is a firm plan toestablish a film market on the Lido.Mueller, who will see arecord nine US premieres at Venice this year, told Screendaily:"I have no hesitation in saying I can't continue in Venice unless we ...
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News
RAI set to confirm new president today
Italian public broadcasterRAI is set to confirm the appointment of Claudio Petruccioli as its newpresident today. The appointment will end a 15-month management crisis at theheavily politicised broadcaster.Petruccioli, 64, a memberof Italy's Democratic Party of the Left, is a former head of the parliamentarywatchdog that oversees RAI.RAI's last president,left-wing journalist ...