Latest – Page 804

  • News

    Chambers heads to New South Wales

    12 January 2007

    Tania Chambers has been named chief executive of the New South Wales Film and Television Office, the government film agency in the Australian state that hosts the most production in the territory. She will relocate to the east coast from the opposite side of the country, once she has stepped ...

  • News

    Memento partners with ID and acquires Angosto

    11 January 2007

    France 's Memento Films has joined with ID Distribution to create a partnership which will see the two companies work together on acquisitions, international sales, production and French distribution. Memento principals Emilie Georges and Alexandre Mallet-Guy and ID Distribution's Isabelle Dubar have combined their teams and are planning to 'take ...

  • News

    Arclight sets up Australian production office with US to follow

    11 January 2007

    Sales agent Arclight Films has appointed former Instinct Entertainment producer Nigel Odell to set up a Melbourne-based office to produce and co-finance Australian films. It will establish a US production office in the near future under Harrison Kordestani, who is already based there. Arclight wants to work with bankable Australian ...

  • News

    Paramount creates new creative structure as Berman steps down

    11 January 2007

    Paramount Pictures threw out the book on Hollywood corporate structure yesterday [Jan 10], choosing not to replace departing president Gail Berman and creating instead a creative triumvirate that will report directly to Brad Grey.Apart from the chairman, the three people now charged with setting the slate are Scott Aversano, the ...

  • News

    Violin to be played as Korean-Chinese co-production

    11 January 2007

    Korean entertainment company Vision Link Global is developing a $50m co-production entitled Melanie's Violin, based on Chinese author He Ning's novel of the same name, dubbed the 'Asian Schindler's List'. The company, which is headed by former M&A consultant Lee In-hyung, aims to raise 60% of the film's budget through ...

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    Novelist Connelly to co-write Equalizer script with Lankford

    11 January 2007

    Bestselling author Michael Connelly and Terrill Lee Lankford have signed on to co-write the screenplay for The Equalizer for The Weinstein Company (TWC).Paul McGuigan will direct the story based on the hit television series of the same name about Robert McCall, a highly trained former covert operative who becomes a ...

  • News

    37 projects selected for Berlinale Co-Production Market

    10 January 2007

    New feature film projects by Joe Dante, Reza Bagher, Wang Chao, Srdjan Koljevic, Sarah Polley and Luigi Falorni are among a total of 37 projects selected from 25 countries to be presented at the Berlinale Co-Production Market (Feb 11-13) which is now in its fourth year. This year's Official Projects ...

  • News

    Chaiken, Dungan team for LA-based production outfit

    10 January 2007

    Producers Jennifer Chaiken (My Flesh And Blood) and Sebastian Dungan (Transamerica) have launched Los Angeles-based 72 Productions.Backed by a private equity fund dedicated to the acquisition and development of feature film projects, 72 Productions arrives with four projects in the pipeline.The Perfect Hour is a period drama being produced with ...

  • News

    Summit's Mr & Mrs Smith pilot gets greenlight from ABC

    10 January 2007

    US TV network ABC has greenlit production on Mr & Mrs Smith, based on Summit Entertainment's hit thriller starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that grossed more than $470m worldwide.Regency TV will produce the pilot in association with Dave Bartis and Doug Liman's Dutch Oven Prods. Summit Entertainment's Patrick Wachsberger ...

  • News

    US music star Abdul boards Bratz: The Movie for Arad, Crystal Sky

    9 January 2007

    Paula Abdul will star in and play a key creative role in Bratz: The Movie, Arad Productions and Crystal Sky's upcoming film based on the hit fashion doll line. Lionsgate holds US rights Shooting is set to begin in February in time for an August 2007 release.Abdul, a bestselling singer, ...

  • News

    New players at the table

    9 January 2007

    If the story of 2006 was realignment, reorganisation and box-office recovery, 2007 should be about attracting new investment. After a year of recovery at the box office, there is suddenly a feelgood factor about film again. Some of it may be exaggerated, of course, just as the 2005 slump was ...

  • News

    'Retired' Besson plans two Arthur sequels

    9 January 2007

    Despite his recent comments to the contrary, Luc Besson will direct two sequels to his current hit Arthur And The Minimoys. Besson said he was overjoyed with the success of Arthur which has enjoyed more than 5 million admissions in France since its December release.'So, I am going to direct ...

  • News

    Canadian producers call ACTRA strike 'illegal'

    8 January 2007

    The Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) says that today's strike action by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is illegal. ACTRA set a deadline for 12 am January 8 and, while negotiations continued past that deadline, at a press conference this morning, ACTRA chief ...

  • News

    Shutt, Jones join Participant as marketing chiefs

    8 January 2007

    Participant Productions has pulled off a coup by signing Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones as executive vice presidents, marketing.The new arrivals, whose accomplished track records include top marketing positions at four major studios, will strategise and orchestrate marketing on all Participant ventures. They report to company president Ricky Strauss.Based in ...

  • News

    Coolidge, Leno join Igor voice cast for Exodus, TWC

    8 January 2007

    Jennifer Coolidge and US talk show host and stand-up comic Jay Leno have joined the voice cast of Exodus Film Group's upcoming CG-animated feature Igor.Coolidge, currently on screen in the ensemble comedy For Your Consideration, will play the village vixen Sybil, while Leno will voice Malaria's conniving ruler King Malbert.The ...

  • News

    Caetano set for $10m drug war epic Leopard

    8 January 2007

    Acclaimed Uruguayan-born film-maker Israel Adrian Caetano, whose Chronicle Of An Escape was a hit in Cannes competition last year, is to direct $10m Argentina/France/US co-production Leopard In The Sun. The film is based on Laura Restrepo's best-selling 1993 novel about a feud between two Colombian drug families which escalates into ...

  • News

    Canadian actors on strike but not picketing

    8 January 2007

    Canadian film and television performers are in an official strike position this morning as last-ditch talks failed between the performers guild, the Alliance of Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), and producers represented by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) and the Association de producteurs de films et ...

  • News

    Nigel Cole to direct Eloise for HandMade

    8 January 2007

    Calendar Girls director Nigel Cole has signed on to direct HandMade Films' planned feature Eloise In Paris. The Eloise In Paris feature is based on the book of the same name, adapted by Janet Brownell and Erin Joslyn. The live-action feature will shoot in 2007 on location in Paris, New ...

  • News

    Kim draws Breath with Ha, Chang Chen

    8 January 2007

    Maverick Korean director Kim Ki-duk started shooting his 14th film, Breath, over the weekend (Jan 5). The production is Kim's second with up-and-coming Korean actor Ha Jung-woo, on the heels of his Karlovy Vary opener Time. Ha starred in last year's Cannes Un Certain Regard title The Unforgiven, directed by ...

  • News

    Big films shooting in 2007

    7 January 2007

    AvatarTwentiethCentury Fox is handling James Cameron's sci-fi feature about aparaplegic war veteran brought to another planet, Pandora, inhabited bya humanoid race with their own language and culture. It will shoot inCanada in February.Bond 22Pre-production work for this film began before Casino Royale started filming.The story for Bond 22 (provisional title)is ...