Latest – Page 817

  • News

    Production wraps on Aussie thriller The Tumbler

    2006-06-11T20:30:00Z

    Shooting has just wrapped onAustralian thriller The Tumbler whichgives Stacey Testro, executive producer on the Saw horror franchise, her first credit as a producer.Testro and Marc Gracie, whoalso directed the Chris Thompson script, are producing the low-budget pictureunder the Stacey Testro International and Mondayitis banners."It harks back to the US ...

  • News

    Bertolucci readies adaptation of Bel Canto

    2006-06-09T15:36:00Z

    BernardoBertolucci is lining up a new drama inspired by thereal events surrounding the hostage crisis at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996.Bertolucci's first film since 2003's The Dreamers is an adaptation of Ann Patchett'snovel, Bel Canto. It is set in an unnamed SouthAmerican country where an elaborate birthday ...

  • News

    Kapakas starts shooting Uranya in Crete

    2006-06-09T11:18:00Z

    Writer-director CostasKapakas has started shooting his second feature Uranya in Crete.Kapakas is shooting in the village of Fres.The comedy is set in a small mountaintown in 1969, when US Vice President Spiro Agnew visits, the town gets itsfirst TV, the village eccentric searches for treasure, and teenage boys flockto an ...

  • News

    Magnet Films to start UK shoot for In Your Dreams

    2006-06-08T14:42:00Z

    UK-based Magnet Films willstart production June 14 on romantic comedyIn Your Dreams.The $5.8m (£3.15m) projectstars Dexter Fletcher, Parminder Nagra,Linda Hamilton, Sarah George, Elize Du Toit and Robert Portal.Gary Sinyoris writing, directing and producing. Also producing is Jonathan Weissler. David Frost and Michael Rosenberg are on board asexecutive producers. The film ...

  • News

    Ruby Red Chequer finishes UK shoot

    2006-06-07T10:37:00Z

    Writer/director Jan Dunn and producer Elaine Wickhamof Medb Films have completed shooting for theirsecond feature film, Ruby Red Chequer.The project stars Bob Hoskins, JosianeBalasko and Jody Latham in the story of a Britishwidower who falls for his foreign neighbour. The 19-day shoot started in Kent on May 10.Dunn says the ...

  • News

    UK producers plan remake of The House On Straw Hill

    2006-06-05T17:43:00Z

    New London-based production company De Naray Sothcott Entertainment plans to shoot its first featurethis summer. The project is a $1.5m remake of 1975 British horror film The House On StrawHill. Bob Keen, who has worked asa crewmember on Hellraiserand Dog Soldiers, will direct. Jonathan Sothcott and Constantine de Naray will ...

  • News

    UK's Firefly plans film about Beslan tragedy

    2006-06-05T15:29:00Z

    UK production company Firefly Films is developing a feature film about the2004 Beslan School tragedy. The tentative budget is planned at about $9.4m (£5m) and alate 2007 or early 2008 shoot is planned in Europe. Screenwriter Richard Lasser is developing the script and a director will bebrought onto the project ...

  • News

    Ledger, Weisz set to make Dirt Music with Noyce

    2006-06-02T15:00:00Z

    Heath Ledger and RachelWeisz have agreed to play the star-crossed lovers in an adaptation of the TimWinton novel Dirt Music, to bedirected by Phillip Noyce on home soil from March 2007.Weisz won the Academy Award forbest actress this year for The ConstantGardener - and had her first childyesterday - while ...

  • News

    UKFC, Pathe and BBC start new development fund

    2006-06-02T12:25:00Z

    Pathe and BBC Films areworking with the UK Film Council's Development Fund to launch a new fund todevelop film projects. The parties have committed aminimum of $560,000 (£300,000) for the fund's first 12 months - $280,000 (£150,000)from the UK Film Council and $140,000 (£75,000) each from BBC Films and Pathe. ...

  • News

    Universal plans new VeggieTales film

    2006-06-01T12:24:00Z

    UniversalPictures is planning an early 2008 worldwide launch for the next VeggieTales film. CG animated feature The Pirates Who Don'tDo Anything - A VeggieTales Movie is being developedwith family media company Big Idea and the franchise's creative team of Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. Nawrocki will direct based on a ...

  • News

    IMG to buy UK production company Tiger Aspect

    2006-06-01T11:00:00Z

    IMG Media has struck a deal to acquire London-based production company TigerAspect Group, including its subsidiaries Tigress, US-based TTP and film division TigerAspect Pictures. Termsof the deal weren't released, but IMG Media will finance theacquisition with capital from its US-based parent company IMG. Thisdeal follows IMG unit TWI's recent acquisition ...

  • News

    Huayi Brothers' Matrimony wraps in Shanghai

    2006-06-01T00:00:00Z

    Teng Hua-tao's The Matrimony (working title), producedby Beijing-based Huayi Brothers Film Investment, has wrapped after a two-monthshoot in Shanghai.Starring Leon Lai (Seven Swords) and Rene Liu (A World Without Thieves), the $2.5m filmis a supernatural thriller set in 1930s Shanghai. The story follows a recently-wed couple whosemarriage is in trouble ...

  • News

    Sullivan plans modern take on The Magic Flute

    2006-05-31T18:20:00Z

    FollowingKenneth Branagh's UK adaptation of The Magic Flute, which is inpost-production now, Canadian producers Sullivan Entertainment are planningtheir own feature based on the classic opera. Thisversion is set during Mozart's 250th birthday celebrations in contemporary Salzburg, where a young singer is castin the lead of a production of The MagicFlute ...

  • News

    Elena Anaya joins cast of The Floating World

    2006-05-26T04:00:00Z

    Goya nominee Elena Anaya hasjoined Wintertime Films and Walker Films' Australian Outback-set drama TheFloating World.The Spanish actress willstar as a grieving widow who embarks upon ajourney of self-discovery andlearns disturbing truths about her past.Ben Mendelsohn and VinceColosimo round out the key cast.John Winter wrote anddirected and is serving as producer ...

  • News

    Israel Film Fund backs new film from Koshashvili

    2006-05-25T04:00:00Z

    The Israel Film Fund hasannounced that it is boarding a raft of new projects. The Fund will pump morethan $300,000 into $5m drama Kishta,by director Dover Koshashvili and producers Marek Rozenbaum and EdgardTenenbaum.Meanwhile, the Fund hasalready committed $400,000 to Lebanon, produced by Einat Bikel and executive produced by France-based AlainGirard ...

  • News

    Czech producers protest funding cut in Cannes

    2006-05-25T04:00:00Z

    Czech producers in Canneshave reacted with dismay and fury to yesterday's decision by the Czech Parliamentto kill off the long-awaited law to boost Czech production support.To register their anger, theCzech film delegation attending the Cannes Film Festival shut down the Czechstand at 5 pm yesterday for the remainder of the ...

  • News

    Scottish producers criticise Scottish Screen

    2006-05-25T04:00:00Z

    Scottish producers in Canneshave issued a stinging rebuke to national film agency Scottish Screen over itsdelay in revealing its long-term plans for feature film production. "Again and again(in Cannes), we have been asked what is happening with Scottish Screen. We don't quite know," said Mark Cousins of 4 Ways Productions. ...

  • News

    Lazio starts Italy's fourth regional film fund

    2006-05-25T04:00:00Z

    The long drought that hashit Italy's traditional film financiers is spurring the country to find newways of bolstering its film industry.As such, the Lazio regionaround Rome will become the fourth region in Italy to establish a filmfund.The $12.8m (Euros 10m) fund,created along the lines of France's Ile de France fund, ...

  • News

    Julian Richards prepares for Summer Scars

    2006-05-25T04:00:00Z

    Prolific British filmmaker Julian Richards, whopreviously directed The Last Horror Movie, has completed the financing of hislatest project.Summer Scars, Richards'sfourth feature, is billed as "a dark psychological thriller about a gang ofschool truants held hostage in the woods by a psychopath."Kevin Howarth (who also played in The Last HorrorMovie) will ...

  • News

    Hunchback planned as $10m UK-Poland co-production

    2006-05-24T04:00:00Z

    Producers Nik Goldman and Max Ryan are setting up a$10m UK-Poland co-production for a new adaptation of The Hunchback of NotreDame.The project, entitled Hunchback,will star Ryan, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Said Taghmaoui, StevenBerkoff and Jack Ryan. Battlefield Earth's Roger Christianwill direct.The 10-week shoot will take place this summer inKrakow and ...