Large MPU – Page 734
-
News
VCL commits titles to Germany's first VoD service
Munich-based video distributor VCL Film + Medien is backing the launch of Germany's first Video-on-demand (VoD) television service.VCL has licensed 100 titles from its extensive home entertainment catalogue to Marburg-based [netCom], which begins testing of its service later this month and hopes to have a more commercially viable service delivered ...
-
News
Bac launches foreign sales arm
Frenchdistributor Bac Films has officially launched a new sales outfit to be calledBac Films International, the company announced Monday.Thedepartment will be run by Silvere Moreau, who will work to sell theatrical, TVand video rights to foreign distributors. Bac said the objective would be tohandle international sales on six films per ...
-
News
AFM reports record numbers of films, exhibitors
A record 435films including a record 278 market premieres are confirmed for the 25th AFMwhich takes place Nov 3 to 10 in Santa Monica, said organizing body IndependentFilm & Television Alliance (IFTA) yesterday.The line-upincludes 38 titles in official selection at the AFI FEST, the annual event withwhich AFM teams up ...
-
News
BVI takes another $4.5m from The Village including $1m in Greece
Buena Vista International's mystery The Village raised its international running totalby an estimated $4.5m to $121.5m at the weekend, powered by a record debut fordirector M Night Shyamalan in Greece.The picture opened top in the Mediterranean territory on $1m, morethan twice as big as the director's previous biggest launch for ...
-
News
I, Robot still top in Japan as Fox International passes $1bn
Fox International executivessaid yesterday (11) the distributor passed $1bn in ticket sales this year,adding that further details would be released later this week.Sci-fi thriller I, Robot, one of Fox International's key drivers in 2004, added anestimated $2.8m on 761 screens at the weekend for a $182.6m cumulative total.The picture stayed ...
-
News
AUSTRALIA 12 October
In its third weekend on release Shark Tale was top ofthe pops at the box office with a gross of A$1,707,044 from 289 screens forUIP. Despite having spent only 18 days in cinemas, its total gross of nearlyA$12m is second only to that of TheBourne Supremacy's A$15m, which has taken ...
-
News
NEW ZEALAND 12 October
The homegrown In MyFather's Den can hold its head high as a result of its first weekend incinemas, which comes after considerable festival exposure this year bothlocally and abroad. It grossed NZ$184,793 from 20 screens for Hoyts to claimthird place.It was one of two openers in the top three but ...
-
News
DENMARK 12 October
Although last week's local chart topper Kings' Game retaineda better box-office screen average (DK34,005), My Sister's Kids In Egypt took the lead with its massive 90 printrelease - and a DKK31,566 average. The family-children's film, which was pannedby the critics, is the third in the successful series, and like the ...
-
Reviews
Arsene Lupin
Dir. Jean-PaulSalome. Fr-UK-Spain-It. 2004. 132mins.At Euros 23m, ArseneLupin is one of the most expensive French films of the year, with sumptuoussets, lavish costumes, picturesque locations and spectacular camerapyrotechnics. But there is little else to recommend it: certainly not thescreenplay, which never quiet makes up its mind what it wants to ...
-
Reviews
Butterfly (Hu Die)
Dir: Yan Yan Mak, HongKong. 2004. 124minsA well-crafted butpainfully earnest lesbian coming-of-age drama, Hu Die attempts inunconvincing fashion to combine the personal and the political. Using flashbackand newsreel footage, it makes constant reference to the protests leading up tothe massacre in Tiananmen Square in 1989, when students stood up against ...
-
News
GERMANY 12 October
Takings may have slipped week-on-week by 20%, but OliverHirschbiegel's The Downfall stillreigns supreme at the German box office for the fourth week in a row - just.The World War II drama received serious competition from Steven Spielberg's The Terminal which grossed $3.3m from502 screens and had the weekend's best screen ...
-
News
DiCaprio linked to Miramax sci-fi thriller
Leonardo DiCaprio's unexpected attachment to Dimension Film's Librium has allowed that sci-fi project to proceed with plans to shoot certain scenes this coming Summer in the same Bucharest Parliament building that once housed the reviled Communist tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu.According to a statement released on Monday by the Deputies Chamber board, ...
-
Reviews
Brides (Nyfes)
Dir:Pantelis Voulgaris. Gr. 2004. 128minsGreekveteran Pantelis Voulgaris takes audiences on a long, slow voyage in Brideswhich, while mostly shot in English, is unlikely to travel far from its homeport for overseas markets.WithBarbara De Fina and Martin Scorsese as producer and executive producerrespectively, the film might attract international attention, but distributorswill ...
-
News
New Line, Internationalmedia to tap new German equity
New productions by New Line and Internationalmedia are setto benefit from financing provided by two German private media funds.Having previously worked with Paramount Pictures on Mission: Impossible 2, Shaft and Rules Of Engagement, German fund specialist Alcas has launched theMACRON Filmproduktion GmbH & Co. Projekt 1 KG fund to raise ...
-
News
Pan-Asian network to promote location shooting
The Asian Film Commissions Network (AFCNet), a linking oforganisations in Asia that provide shooting support services, received itsofficial launch on Sunday at the Pusan International Film Festival.The network's major goals are to encourage information sharingamong members, to collaborate in marketing the Asian region as an attractiveshooting location, and to encourage ...
-
News
Oscar-hopeful Burman prepares Family Rights comedy
Daniel Burman, whose film El Abrazo Partido (The Lost Embrace) is currently Argentina'scandidate for the foreign languageOscar, is now preparing a comedy entitled FamilyRights.Set in the world of lawyers, the Euros 3m comedy will focuson the relationship between a father and son. The film will once again teamtogether El Abrazo ...
-
News
Cassandra joins burgeoning FAME slate
Saul Metzstein (Late Night Shopping) is to direct Cassandra At The Wedding for Film andMusic Entertainment (FAME), the prolific UK-based production outfit run by SamTaylor and Mike Downey. Written by Peter MIlligan, Cassandra is a comedy about two identical female twins whosepersonalities are very different.This will be Metzstein'ssecond film with ...
-
News
Mrs Henderson Presents begins London shoot
Christopher Guest has joinedJudi Dench, Bob Hoskins and Pop Idol winner Will Young in the cast of StephenFrears' Mrs Henderson Presents.The Heyman-Hoskinsproduction has just started shooting in London for Pathe Pictures and BBCFilms. Set in pre-World War II London, the true-life story tells how Soho'sWindmill Theatre takes advantage of a ...
-
News
Korea's film investors assess future options
South Korea's film financing sector faces grave challenges,yet paradoxically may rank as the world's most vibrant, according to opinionsexpressed at a panel discussion at the Pusan International Film Festival.Titled "A Study on Korean Film Financing", the seminarcanvassed the opinions of local industry representatives including KimJangwook, Executive VP of Show East ...
-
News
UK/IRELAND 12 October
British director Gurinder Chadha scored another hit at theUK box office this week as her take on Jane Austen, Bride And Prejudice, opened top of the chart.The romantic comedy's excellent $3m (£1.7m) launch may notquite have matched the debut of Bend It LikeBeckham, the director's 2002 smash which launched the ...