Large MPU – Page 791
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News
Korean summer box office heats up
South Korea's mid-summer season is proving to be quite competitive at the box-office, with four local pictures and two Hollywood films waging an intense competition for screens and viewers.Korean feature Singles currently sits atop the Seoul charts in its second week, having drawn 95,000 admissions over the two-day weekend on ...
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Bayside Shakedown 2 smashes Japanese records
Bayside Shakedown 2, the sequel to a 1998 hit cop thriller, recorded the best-ever opening for a Japanese film, following its July 19 release on 400 screens. In its first three days the film grossed $15.7m(Y1.8bn) on 1,260,934 admissions. The previous record holder, Hayao Miyazaki's animated smash Spirited Away, earned ...
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News
Bayside Shakedown 2 smashes Japanese records
Bayside Shakedown 2, the sequel to a 1998 hit cop thriller, recorded the best-ever opening for a Japanese film, following its July 19 release on 400 screens. In its first three days the film grossed $15.7m(Y1.8bn) on 1,260,934 admissions. The previous record holder, Hayao Miyazaki's animated smash Spirited Away, earned ...
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Dumas-Zajdela appointed to CNC funding role
Frederique Dumas-Zajdela has been named president of the commission of France's CNC which deals with approving feature films for state funding. Dumas Zajdela manages local production house Noe Productions and will take over the CNC functions from Margaret Menegoz who was recently named president of French film export body Unifrance. ...
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Reviews
The Rage In Placid Lake
Dir: Tony McNamara. Australia. 2002. 90mins.Let's get some misassumptions about this comedy feature debut from writer/director McNamara and Australian rockstar/actor Ben Lee out of the way. Firstly, it is not related to Fox's 1999 crocodile feature Lake Placid. And secondly, lead character Placid Lake (played by Lee himself) displays none ...
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Studios look to consolidate summer box office takings
With upcoming international releases thin on the ground in the major territories this weekend, several films stand to consolidate their running totals.The French release of international hit Johnny English is cause for interest. The comedy, which has taken $117.3m to date internationally for UIP, was unable to repeat that success ...
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Notting Hill, East Is East win at Empire awards
Notting Hill was voted Best British film at the Empire Film Awards, which took place today in London, while East Is East deservedly scooped best debut for director Damien O'Donnell. The Best Film award went to US blockbuster The Matrix, and best actor to Irishman Pierce Brosnan.Stars including Oscar-nominee Michael ...
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InDigEnt taps Mark Christopher for film # 11
Mark Christopher whose lastfilm was the 1998 nightclub drama 54 is the latest director to sign on to make a low-budget film forInDigEnt, the digital video collective created by New York-based IFCProductions' Jonathan Sehring and Caroline Kaplan, producer-director GaryWinick and Cinetic Media's John Sloss.Christopher will make theoffbeat comedy Pizza, the ...
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Valenti hails US trade agreements with Chile, Singapore
Motion PictureAssociation of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti hailed another blow toworldwide piracy yesterday (24) as Congress passed two trade agreements withChile and Singapore.The agreements,passed by members of the US House of Representatives, eliminate tariff andcustoms barriers to US entertainment products and pave the way for strictenforcement of copyright standards.'Today'saction ...
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News
O'Connor to head HBO US theatrical releasing arm
HBO Films hascemented its theatrical ambitions with the launch of a domestic releasing armsupported by a distribution partnership with Fine Line Features, the specialtydistribution division of HBO's AOL Time Warner sister company New LineCinema.United Artistsmarketing chief Dennis O'Connor has been brought in to head up the newunit - called HBO ...
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News
Woods tipped to take Irish Film Board post
Mark Woods, an expatriate Irishman based for many years in Australia is being strongly tipped as the new CEO of the Irish Film Board following Rod Stoneman's departure in September. However, a spokesperson for the Irish Film Board has refused to give air to the unofficial news, which has had ...
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News
Obituary: John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger, the Oscar-winning director of Midnight Cowboy, died on Friday, near his home in Palm Springs, California. The British-born, veteran film-maker, suffered a debilitating stroke in December 2000, from which he never fully recovered. Recent weeks had seen the 77 year old's health deteriorate significantly.Schlesinger, along with Tony Richardson, ...
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News
Comcast mulls Vivendi Universal bid
Comcast, the US cable giant, may be poised to join the race to buy the US entertainment assets being sold by Vivendi Universal. These include Universal studios, cable channels including Sci-Fi and theme parks.According to several US press sources, including the Wall Street Journal, Comcast has expressed to Vivendi a ...
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News
Ster Century sells off UK exhibition circuit
Ster Century, the South African-owned UK and Ireland cinema circuit, has been sold to Aurora Holdings, a UK-based outfit whose partners include ex-Ster Century Europe managing director Mike Ross.Ross, who will now become CEO of Ster Century, would not comment on the value of the deal, which was backed by ...
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News
Italian distributors contest 'inaccurate' admissions data
The Italian box office is growing at a healthy rate, says Richard Borg, the newly-appointed head of Italy's national distributors union, UNIDIM, describing as "inaccurate" previously released data showing that industry figures had dipped in the first semester of 2003.Earlier this week, Cinetel data showed that ticket sales had dipped ...
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News
Nesher returns to Israel to shoot End Of World
Avi Nesher, one of the most promising Israeli filmmakers of the seventies who moved to US in the early eighties and stayed there for close to 20 years, is now putting the final post-production touches to his first Israeli film since The Rage And The Glory (1984). Nesher is the ...
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Estonia pins hopes on Names In Marble follow up
Kristian Taska, the young writer-producer who broke the Estonia box-office record with his feature debut Names In Marble, is in the final weeks of shooting his highly anticipated second film, We Won't Sleep Tonight. It is the first of its kind to be shot in both Estonian and English language ...
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Reviews
The Legends Of Rita
Dir: Volker Schloendorff. Germany. 1999. 101 mins.Prod cos: Babelsberg Film Production, Mitteldeautsches Filmkontor, MDR. Int'l sales: Bavaria Film International. Prods: Arthur Hofer, Emmo Lempert. Scr: Wolfgang Kohlhasse, Volker Schlondorff. DoP: Andreas Hofer. Ed: Peter Przygodda. Main cast: Bibiana Beglau, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl, Harald Schrott.Volker Schloendorff, veteran of the New ...
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News
Dimsey steps down from Film Victoria after seven weeks
Ross Dimsey, the general manager of industry development and investment at State Government agency Film Victoria, has stepped down after a mere seven weeks in the job. Those who are closely involved are being tight-lipped about what exactly happened. A statement released by Film Victoria says that the role was ...
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Good Bye, Lenin! tops 6m German admissions
After 23 weeks on release in Germany, Wolfgang Becker's tragicomedy Good Bye, Lenin! has now passed the 6m admissions mark and clocked up over Euros 36m in box office takings.The X Filme creative pool production now qualifies for a Golden Screen with star Award, sponsored by the German exhibitors association ...