Latest – Page 838
-
News
Angelopoulos replaced as Thessaloniki president
Thessaloniki International Film Festival president TheoAngelopoulos and artistic director Michel Demopoulos have been removed fromtheir posts. The move follows a series of sweeping changes to state subsidisedfilm institutions announced today by The Greek Ministry of Culture. Withinfilm circles, the move is regarded as political one that comes just over a ...
-
News
De Palma's Black Dahlia starts Bulgarian shoot
Brian de Palma's long gestating adaptation of James Ellroy'snovel The Black Dahlia, starring JoshHartnett and Scarlet Johannsen, has begun shooting at studios in Sofia for AviLerner's Millenium Film with the German media fund Equity Pictures KG III.The $60m crime drama had originally planned to recreate setsfor 1940s Los Angeles at ...
-
News
Monster movie scores $4.7m pre-sale to Japan
The Host, a big-budget monster movie to be shot by one ofKorea's most respected directors, clinched a massive $4.7m pre-sale to Japan'sHappinet .Pictures at the recent Hong Kong FilMart.The deal, which includes a $1.5m investment stake plusdistribution rights for Japan, is unusually high for a film which is still twomonths ...
-
News
Weinsteins announce departure
Bob and Harvey Weinstein are to leave Miramax, the company they founded 25 years ago.In a statement today, Disney and the Weinstein's confirmed the long-awaited decision. The Weinsteins will stay at Miramax on a non-exclusive basis until September 30 but will begin work immediately on a new as yet unnamed ...
-
News
European indie players move into profit
Three European independentfilm outfits - Germany's Constantin and the UK's Civilian Content and Metrodome- unveiled positive financial results for 2004 this morning (March 30).Leading German producer anddistributor Constantin Film announced 2004 net profits of $9.1m (Euros 7m) onrevenues of $319.8m (Euros 246.9m). This compared with a net loss of $12.8m(Euros ...
-
News
Jordan readies Our Lady for FilmFour
FilmFour,the film division of broadcaster Channel 4, and production company Wild Child Films haveacquired the rights to the novel Our LadyOf The Forest, with Neil Jordan to direct.ConorMcPherson, best known for the acclaimed play The Weir, wrote the screenplay, based on David Guterson's novelabout a troubled teenage girl who claims ...
-
News
Nair begins The Namesake for Searchlight
Principal photography hasbegun in New York and Calcutta on Fox Searchlight's drama The Namesake, which Mira Nair is directing from the novel of thesame name by the Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri.The story follows the trialsand tribulations of a boy and his parents as they relocate from Calcutta to ...
-
News
Wild Bunch pair win Serbian funding
The SerbianMinistry of Culture has announced the winners of this year's film fundingcompetition, with two films backed by France's Wild Bunch receiving state aid.In total, fourprojects were awarded funding. They are:Mamarosh, by writer/director Momcilo Mrdakovic and a co-production with Cinears(Serbia), Yalla Productions and Wild Bunch (France);Charleston And Vendetta (Carlston Za ...
-
News
Spike Lee readies Brazilian music documentary
Spike Lee is to turn documentarian for his next venture behind the camera. Lee is to direct Fusion, a music picture being billed as the director's answer to Buena Vista Social Club.The picture, which will go before the cameras in late May and early June, is a highly polished coverage ...
-
News
Sundream launches with $38.5m production war chest
Sundream Motion Pictures, the new film venture of Hong Kong's pay TVoperator i-CABLE Communication, officially launched today at Filmart.Sundream plans to finance 15-20 feature films with a total investment of$38.5m (HK$300m) over two years.Tsui Siu Ming, executive director, programming services ofi-CABLE subsidiary Hong Kong Cable TV, will head the new ...
-
News
Au cranks up Nana in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's Daniel Wu and Chinese actress Zhou Xun are set tostar in Nana, the feature debut of acclaimed music video director SusieAu which starts shooting tomorrow (March 24) in Hong Kong. Producedby Philip Lee's October Pictures and Au's Handmade Films, the film will be shotin Hong Kong, Shanghai and ...
-
News
First timer Bousman gets Saw 2 directing gig
First-time writer-director Darren Lynn Bousman will directSaw 2, the sequel to Twisted Pictures'2004 horror hit that grossed close to $100m worldwide through Lions Gate.Principalphotography is set to begin on May 2 in Toronto in time for a Halloween releasein North America.TwistedPictures' Gregg Hoffman, Oren Koules and Mark Burg are producing, ...
-
News
Australia's FFC gets involved in Hell
Australia's Film Finance Corporation (FFC) isto invest in Richard Frankland's To Hell And Bourke, only the thirdfeature ever to be made by an indigenous Australian writer/director.Following a board meeting yesterday, the FFC said itintended to finance the film if producer Ross Hutchens can raise the rest ofthe finance and meet ...
-
News
Darclight Films picks up kung-fu drama SPL
Darclight Films, the genre division of Australian-US saleshouse Arclight, has picked up international sales rights outside Asia to WilsonYip's forthcoming SPL.The$3.8m police kung-fu action drama is recently completed and was picked up byDarclight's Gary Hamilton on the eve of Hong Kong Entertainment Expo, the newevent which encompasses FilMart and the ...
-
News
Lions Gate Family Entertainment joins Foodfight!
The fledgling Lions GateFamily Entertainment has announced its first feature project Foodfight!, a 3D animated story about the after-hours antics ofa supermarket that features the voices of Hilary and Haylie Duff.Lions Gate is co-producing with Larry Kasanoff's Threshold Animation Studiosand has acquired North American rights for an autumn 2006 release.Kasanoff ...
-
News
Candy cranks up in Sydney
Principal photography has begun in Sydney on Candy,the big screen debut of theatre director Neil Armfield which stars HeathLedger, Abbie Cornish and Geoffrey Rush.Based on Luke Davies' best seller of the same name, Candyis described by director and co-writerArmfield as "a convention-defying romantic tragedy that is at once inspiringand heartbreaking."Candy ...
-
News
Triad thriller Ah Sou unveiled at Hong Kong's Filmart
Hong Kongproduction outfit Filmko Films announced its first 2005 project at this week'sFilmart: Ah Sou, a US$3m Hong Kong-China co-production by risingdirector Wong Ching Po.Ah Sou, which literally means the big gangster'swife, centres around a 16-year-old girl who gets involved in gang wars andpower struggles. Taiwanese newcomer Annie Liu is ...
-
News
HDNet Films readies drama One last Thing
HDNet Films has greenlightedthe drama One Last Thing, whichrecounts the struggle of a terminally ill young boy and his mother and willstar Cynthia Nixon and Michael Angarano.Barry Stringfellow wrote the screenplay and Alex Steyermark will direct, withHDNet Films co-presidents Jason Kliot and Joana Vicente serving as producersalong with Susan Stover.Todd ...
-
News
New Line announces Final Destination 3 leads
RyanMerriman and Mary Winstead have been cast in the leads for New Line's upcomingthriller franchise instalment Cheating Death: Final Destination 3.An Apr 1 production start has been slated for the story, which takes place sixyears after the events of Final Destination 2 and centres on a high school senior who ...
-
News
Pinewood Shepperton hit by weak dollar, tax uncertainty
The UK's Pinewood SheppertonStudios warned on Monday that its first half results for this year would bedown year on year, citing a weak dollar and an unstable tax landscape in theUK.The studio combine warnedthat the two factors had caused delays in the timing of some key productionsprovisionally booked at Pinewood ...