Latest – Page 713

  • News

    Toronto's Filmport officially open for business

    2008-08-21T02:19:00Z

    Toronto's long-awaited mega-studio, Filmport Studios, was officially opened today. Filmmaker David Cronenberg was on hand for the event alongside Toronto mayor David Miller and Filmport president Ken Ferguson.The facility is the largest studio complex outside of Los Angeles and lays claim to the continent's largest purpose-built sound stage: 45,900 sq. ...

  • News

    Screen Australia hands out funding to four projects

    2008-08-19T09:59:00Z

    Australian director Simon Wincer, who made the iconic US miniseries Lonesome Dove, is saddling up for a new feature that will carry his trademark: plenty of horses. The Cup, an against-all-odds true story featuring Australia's most famous horse race, was one of four films that won investment from Screen Australia ...

  • News

    Pusan Promotion Plan reveals line-up of 30 projects

    2008-08-19T07:58:00Z

    The 11th Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) has announcedthe official line-up for this year's projects market - 30 projects from 17 countries selected from 200 submissions. The line-up includes work from China's Zhang Yuan, Japan's Sabu and Chinese-Korean filmmaker Zhang Lu. Of note, Lee Chang-dong (Secret Sunshine) will not only be ...

  • News

    Thomas Turgoose takes lead role in Tom Harper's Scouting Book

    2008-08-19T06:05:00Z

    Rising UK actor Thomas Turgoose has signed on for the lead role in Tom Harper's feature debut The Scouting Book For Boys.Turgoose, who has drawn rave reviews in This Is England, Somers Town and Eden Lake, will play a troubled teenager who helps a young girl run away from home.Jack ...

  • News

    Bona Group set toraise $30m in second funding round

    2008-08-19T03:49:00Z

    Beijing-based producer-distributor Bona International Film Group is set to raise $30m in its second funding round from venture capital groups Sequoia Capital China and SIG Asia Investments. The funding comes ahead of a planned overseas listing for Bona Group, which is the holding company of distributor Polybona, talent management company ...

  • News

    Paul Hogan keen to make Charlie & Boots for Instinct

    2008-08-18T15:12:00Z

    Two of Australia's leading film comics, Paul Hogan from the 1986 worldwide hit Crocodile Dundee fame, and Shane Jacobson from the 2006 local Kenny are the likely leads in Charlie & Boots, which secured a promise of investment today from Screen Australia.Although not signed, producer David Redman said they are ...

  • News

    Northern Soul feature Souled Out starts five-week shoot

    2008-08-18T12:45:00Z

    Northern Soul-era coming-of-age story Souled Out starts shooting today for five weeks.The cast features Martin Compston, Alfie Allen, Craig Parkinson, Nichola Burley, Felicity Jones, Brian McCardie, Jo Hartley, Pat Shortt and Huey Morgan.Shimmy Marcus is directing for Ipso Facto Films and Dreamfinder. The project is shooting on location in Stoke-on-Trent, ...

  • News

    Taiwan's NDF to back Hou Hsiao-hsien's Assassin

    2008-08-18T10:59:00Z

    Hou Hsiao-hsien's long-awaited martial arts fantasy The Assassin has become the first film to secure direct investment from Taiwan's National Development Fund. The script is based on a fantastical Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.) short story about female assassin Nie Yinniang who can conjure horses out of folded paper and transform ...

  • News

    Fox Japan ramps up local production with Gunjo

    2008-08-18T06:34:00Z

    20th Century Fox Japan has unveiled details of its latest foray into local feature film production with drama Gunjo (Ultramarine), starring Masami Nagasawa.Based on a popular serialised novel by Ayako Miyagi, the story depicts the spiritual recovery of a woman who returns to her father's home in Okinawa after her ...

  • News

    Noel Clarke teams with Lionsgate UK for sci-fi project 83

    2008-08-18T06:00:00Z

    Adulthood writer/director/star Noel Clarke is working with Lionsgate UK to develop his next project, 83.Lionsgate UK announced earlier this year that it planned to co-produce and co-finance two to three British features per year; there are three other previously announced films in development but 83 could be the first to ...

  • News

    Alcon acquires film rights to graphic novel Cryptozoo Crew

    2008-08-15T22:30:00Z

    Warner Bros-based Alcon Entertainment has acquired rights to Jerry Carr and Allan Gross' graphic novel Cryptozoo Crew and the script adaptation from Joe Gazzam.Cryptozoo centres on a member of a secret organisation charged with protecting the identity of rare animals classified as cryptids who teams up with a beautiful doctor ...

  • News

    Davis, Harris, Fox attached to star in The Cellar

    2008-08-15T22:28:00Z

    London and Los Angeles-based Cool Hand International has optioned the psychological horror script The Cellar from writer-director John Gary and has attached Lucy Davis, Jared Harris and Emilia Fox to star.Brian Cox is also confirmed for a cameo role in the tale of a group of wedding guests who get ...

  • News

    Irvine Welsh to shoot darts mockumentary feature

    2008-08-15T16:11:00Z

    Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh is gearing up for production of his directorial debut feature, Good Arrows.The mockumentary-style comedy was written by Welsh and his frequent collaborator Dean Cavanagh.The original screenplay is about a darts player who falls from grace in the in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. The old coal mining ...

  • News

    Danny Huston, Novakovic, Roberts join Edge Of Darkness

    2008-08-15T10:02:00Z

    Danny Huston, newcomer Bojana Novakovic and Shawn Roberts have joined Mel Gibson and Robert De Niro in GK Films' thriller Edge Of Darkness, which is due to begin filming in Massachusetts later this month.Based on the BBC mini-series of the same name, Edge Of Darkness will be directed by Martin ...

  • News

    In Focus: Britta Knoller and Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    Hans-Christian Schmid could not have wished for better timing to start shooting his latest feature project, the English-language political thriller Storm, about the aftermath of the Balkan war.Just a week earlier, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic had been apprehended after 13 years on the run.Storm (working title), which began ...

  • News

    Canadian festivals - Telefilm plays the Canada card

    2008-08-15T00:00:00Z

    In July, Telefilm Canada introduced a new regime for its festival funding. In essence, eligible Canadian film festivals will be required to increase the number of Canadian films they screen in order to qualify for funding.The issue came up at the opening press conference of Montreal's World Film Festival (Wff). ...

  • News

    Andrzej Wajda begins work on new film Tatarak

    2008-08-14T15:12:00Z

    Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda began filming this week on a new feature, Tatarak.Producers told ScreenDaily.com that filming began on location in Grudziadz in northern Poland and will continue until the end of September.Wajda and Polish author Olga Tokarczuk have adapted the script from a novel by Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz and from ...

  • News

    Oberli's The Murder Farm to star Jentsch, Bleibtreu

    2008-08-14T13:53:00Z

    German actress Julia Jentsch, the star of Malgoska Szumowska's Locarno competition film 33 Scenes From Life, is to appear with Monica Bleibtreu in Swiss director Bettina Oberli's next feature The Murder Farm (Tannöd), which begins shooting in the Sauerland and Eifel regions of Germany from September.The $5.6m (Euros 3.8m) co-production ...

  • News

    Max & Co producers declare bankruptcy after megaflop

    2008-08-14T11:11:00Z

    A dark cloud descended on Swiss cinema at this week's Locarno Film Festival with the news that Lausanne-based producers MAX-LeFilm and Cinemagination have been forced to declare bankruptcy after the flop of their $27.5m (CHF 30m) animation feature Max & Co. Billed as the most expensive Swiss film of all ...

  • News

    IFP No Borders selects 37 projects for co-production market

    2008-08-13T22:25:00Z

    IFP has unveiled the 37 projects selected for the No Borders International Co-Production Market that will take place during the 30th Annual Independent Film Week, set to run in New York from September 14-19. Now in its 14th year, No Borders is designed to connect US and international narrative ...