Latest – Page 765

  • News

    Sony Pictures Classics to finance Demme drama

    2007-08-16T06:13:00Z

    Sony Pictures Classics will fully finance Jonathan Demme's upcoming family drama Dancing With Shiva, which as previously announced will star Anne Hathaway. The company holds worldwide rights to the story, which takes place over the course of a wedding as an estranged daughter returns home to her family and ...

  • News

    New Thai production outfit Extra Virgin kicks off with media documentary

    2007-08-16T02:00:00Z

    Thai film-maker Pimpaka Towira has set up a new Bangkok-based production outfit Extra Virgin with former Bangkok International Film Festival programmer Mai Meksawan and former Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) executive Ruengsang Sripaoraya.'The company aims to start with independent and low-budget productions and branch out to a more diverse range ...

  • News

    Film4 partners with Edinburgh theatre for new talents

    2007-08-15T18:41:00Z

    Film4 and Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre are starting a new $59,800 (£30,000) partnership to explore the crossover between theatre and film.The initiative will let Channel 4, Film4 and Traverse select promising new theatre talents to build long-term relationships working in film and television. The programme includes a first-look deal for plays ...

  • News

    LaCour joins Californian bank's entertainment finance arm

    2007-08-14T22:55:00Z

    Bryan J LaCour has joined Union Bank of California'sentertainment-finance group as vice president and manager.LaCour brings more than seven years of experience in banking andfinance and arrives from Comerica Bank, where he served as vicepresident with the entertainment industries group.Union Bank of California's entertainment-finance business has providedcapital to the film ...

  • News

    Pusan Promotion Plan selects 35 projects for 10th edition

    2007-08-14T15:38:00Z

    The Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) has announced the line-up for its tenth anniversary edition. 35 projects from 18 countries have made the final cut, out of more than 200 submissions. Once again the PPP mixes masters and newcomers, including Cannes Camera D'Or winner Bahman Ghobadi, Berlinale Silver Bear winner Wang ...

  • News

    German Minister calls for DFFF to be extended beyond 2009

    2007-08-13T14:53:00Z

    German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck has called for the term of the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) to be extended beyond its initial three-year period of 2007-2009 after seeing its effectiveness in creating employment and income. The incentive scheme was launched on January 1 with an annual budget of $81.9m ...

  • News

    Pathe and BBC Films team for live-action Jungle Book

    2007-08-13T12:25:00Z

    Pathe and BBC Films are working together on a $50m live-action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books. The comedy adventure will start preparations in September 2007 with director John Downer, who has previoulsy worked on nature-oriented films including Pride. Richard Kurti & Bev Doyle (Robin Hood) are writing the ...

  • News

    Eichinger's Baader-Meinhof Komplex begins shooting in Berlin

    2007-08-10T11:34:00Z

    Bernd Eichinger's ambitious production of Uli Edel's Der Baader Meinhof Komplex has begun principal photography in Berlin and will continue shooting later at locations in Munich and Morocco before wrapping at the end of November.This weekend, the adaptation of Stefan Aust's standard work on the Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorism ...

  • News

    Death Note spin-off L to get same-day release across Asia

    2007-08-10T11:29:00Z

    L, the spin-off of the successful Death Note series, is slated to open simultaneously in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan on Feb 9, 2008.The pan-Asian release strategy is the widest of its kind for a Japanese film, with more countries possibly signing on. Previous sequel Death Note 2: The ...

  • News

    Ben Kingsley to head cast of Levine's The Wackness for Occupant

    2007-08-10T00:09:00Z

    Los Angeles-based Occupant Films has cast Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen, Olivia Thirlby and Method Man in its upcoming comedy The Wackness.Jonathan Levine, whose debut feature All The Boys Love Mandy Lane was Occupant Films' hit maiden launch at Toronto 2006 and will now be released ...

  • News

    BBC's Alexei Boltho takes Paramount acquisitions post

    2007-08-09T12:17:00Z

    Alexei Boltho, who is currently business development manager for BBC Films, will take on a newly created acquisitions post at Paramount Pictures International (PPI). As of Aug 20, Boltho will be PPI's Director Co-production and Acquisitions, working out of Paramount 's London headquarters, which will in September move from Hammersmith ...

  • News

    Louis Belanger starts shooting The Timekeeper

    2007-08-08T23:49:00Z

    Quebecois filmmaker Louis Belanger has commenced principal photography on his first English-language feature, The Timekeeper, for Real Chabot of the Coop Video de Montreal. Adapted by Belanger and Lorraine Dufour from the novel by Trevor Ferguson, the film stars Roy Dupuis, Craig Olejnik, Julian Richings, Gary Farmer, Wayne Robson, Gaston ...

  • News

    Brett Morgen works with Courtney Love for new Cobain documentary

    2007-08-08T17:15:00Z

    US director Brett Morgen, whose new feature Chicago 10 screens on Locarno 's Piazza Grande on Friday, has revealed further details of his new 'official' feature documentary about Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of rock band Nirvana who died in 1994. The film, made with Courtney Love's backing, will take ...

  • News

    Open Doors awards go to projects from Syria, Israel and Egypt

    2007-08-08T15:59:00Z

    Projects from Israel, Syria and Egypt received development and production awards today at the Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors co-production forum, which was dedicated to the Near and Middle Eastern cinema. The two grants of $41,890 (CHF 50,000) for development and production, provided by Switzerland's Agency for Development and Cooperation ...

  • News

    Terence Davies among 6 finalists for Digital Departures funding

    2007-08-08T12:37:00Z

    Northwest Vision and Media has selected six finalists in its Digital Departures micro-budget scheme. The six teams now working on scripts and three will be greenlight by an industry panel for funding of $502,000 (£250,000) each. The projects are: documentary Time And The City written and directed by Terence Davies ...

  • News

    Sigur Ros film to get UK theatrical release after Reykjavik premiere

    2007-08-08T12:18:00Z

    Shooting People Films is working with EMI for a planned UK theatrical release of band Sigur Ros' first film, Heima. Lilo & Stitch director Dean DeBlois led the project, using an Icelandic crew. The documentary-style project was filmed at 15 locations last summer during the band's tour of Iceland. The ...

  • News

    Steve Coogan to play Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards on screen

    2007-08-07T18:33:00Z

    Steve Coogan will star in Eddie The Eagle as the eponymous British ski-jumper whose last place ranking in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary endeared him to tens of thousands of fans and came to epitomise British eccentricity and spirit.Producers John Heyman and Rupert Maconick are lining up a January ...

  • News

    Beyond Dreams works with foundation for $20m Buddha feature

    2007-08-07T14:10:00Z

    Beyond Dreams Entertainment of India has partnered with Sri Lanka 's The Light of Asia Foundation, Sri Lanka for a $20m film project on the life of Gautam Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism. Leading Indian director Shyam Benegal will direct the project. The Memorandum of Understanding for the production ...

  • News

    Credit crunch may squeeze slate funders, says Fazio

    2007-08-07T04:03:00Z

    The rising cost of credit in the US sparked by the recent collapse of the mortgage sector has made film financing a more precarious business, according to Deutsche Bank's new global head of media and entertainment structured finance Laura Fazio.'People are concerned that the debt costs around these transactions have ...

  • News

    SVT pulls out most expensive Nordic feature, $30m Arn

    2007-08-06T16:22:00Z

    Swedish public broadcaster SVT has pulled out of Svensk Filmindustri's Arn-The Knight Templar, the two-film adaptation of Swedish writer Jan Guillou's bestselling trilogy of Arn Magnusson, which - with a $30.3m (Euros 22.8m) budget - will become the most expensive feature production in the Nordic countries. 'Unfortunately Svensk Filmindustri cannot ...