Latest – Page 844

  • News

    IRELAND Production Listings - January 25

    2005-01-25T00:00:00Z

    PRE-PRODUCTIONAURORA ISLAND(Magma Films [Irl] Art Oko Film [Ger]) Co-prods: Future Film [UK]. Budget:Euro5m. Backers: Buena Vista [Ger]. Dist: Buena Vista (Germany) and Moviehouse(UK). Thriller. Exec prods: Ralph Christians, Stephen Margolis, Michele Berk.Prods: Karel Dirka, Clodagh Freeman. Dir: Peter Medak. Scr: Agatha Dominik,Robert Newton. DoP: Elemer Ragalyi. Prod des: Michael Pickwood. ...

  • News

    UK production spend plummets in 2004

    2005-01-20T04:00:00Z

    Spending by US productionsshooting in the UK plunged by more than 30% last year, according to annualfigures from support body the UK Film Council.The news follows this week'sfigures from Screen International showing that the number of local filmsshooting also slipped by around 40%. Counting all productions,the Council calculated that spending ...

  • News

    De Laurentiis, Cinecitta acquire Moroccan studio

    2005-01-20T00:00:00Z

    Legendary Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis and Rome's CinecittaStudios are teaming up as joint owners of a sprawling new studio facility inOuarzazate, in southern Morocco.Standing over 371 acres of land, the studio will be one of theworld's largest, with two shooting stages of 19,380 square feet each. The DinoDe Laurentiis-Cinecitta ...

  • News

    UK film starts fall 40% in 2004

    2005-01-19T04:00:00Z

    James Bond, Jude Law perioddrama Tulip Fever, and a big-screen adaptation of BridesheadRevisited all failed to get off the ground last year as UK productionlevels crashed.As the industry was hit bytougher tax laws and a scaling back at traditional sources of funding such asFilmFour, the number of indigenous UK films ...

  • News

    Crying all the way to the bank

    2005-01-18T04:00:00Z

    The Japanese appetite forweepies - originating in the early days of Kabuki theatre - remainsundiminished, and local producers are counting on this cinematic staple to paydividends in 2005.What producers have beendiscovering, with the runaway success last year of Isao Yukisaka's romanticdrama Crying Out Love In The Centre Of The World ...

  • News

    French production levels dip in 2004

    2005-01-18T04:00:00Z

    French filmproduction levels dropped slightly in 2004 according to new figures from localindustry body the CNC.Last year, 203films were produced or co-produced of which 167 were co-productions of Frenchinitiative.This represents a4% drop from 2003 when 212 films were produced or co-produced with 183co-productions instigated by the French.However, 2004 was still ...

  • News

    Jackson to direct Lovely Bones

    2005-01-18T00:00:00Z

  • News

    Fellowes to adapt best-selling novel Snobs

    2005-01-17T04:00:00Z

    Oscar-winning British writerJulian Fellowes (Gosford Park) is to adapt his best-selling novel Snobsfor UK television - having been commissioned by the BBC's Gareth Neame.The novel, published lastyear, is a comedy about a middle-class woman on the make, trying to gatecrashinto high society circles. It is likely to be made into ...

  • News

    Stillking awarded Euros 100,000 development grant

    2005-01-17T04:00:00Z

    Prague based productionservice company Stillking Films has received a Euros 100,000 Media Plus grant,which it will use to develop five projects over the next three years.The first of these is titledRevolutions Per Minute. Set in the Czech Republic, the film tells thestory of a manufacturer of vinyl LPs, whose business ...

  • News

    Recycle marks new direction for Universe, Matching

    2005-01-17T04:00:00Z

    The Pang brothers latesthorror film Recycle, now shooting in Thailand, marks the beginning of along-term co-operation between Hong Hong's Universe International Holdings andThailand's Matching Motion Pictures.The $5m picture reunitesDanny and Oxide Pang with Lee Sin-je, star of their international breakout hit TheEye. Lee plays a writer who discovers that events ...

  • News

    JAPAN Production Listings - January 17

    2005-01-17T00:00:00Z

    JAPAN - January 17 PRE-PRODUCTION TOUCH (Toho)Dist (Jap): Toho. Based on a hit comic book, a feel-good love story of highschool students. Prod: Hideyuki Honma. Dir: Isshin Inudo. Main cast: MasamiNagasawa . Shooting starts in Japan in late March 2005.Contact: Toho, (81) 33213 6821 YAMATO (OTOKOTACHI NO YAMATO)(Toei)Dist (Jap): Toei. ...

  • News

    UK's Celador Films commissions stress management comedy

    2005-01-14T05:00:00Z

    The UK's Celador Films'Christian Colson and Ivana MacKinnon have commissioned first-timewriter-director Ben Gregor's script, Principles Of Calmness. The deal, brokered byGregor's agent Jago Irwin at PFD, sees Gregor currently workshopping the firstdraft of his script before it goes to second draft and then into production.Principles Of Calmness is a comedy ...

  • News

    Random Harvest teams with Hammer, Winston on horror deal

    2005-01-14T04:00:00Z

    In a move underliningthe growing market for quality, low-budget horror, British production andfinancing outfit Random Harvest is starting a new Enterprise InvestmentScheme (EIS) Company, Harvest PicturesIII, with Hammer Films and LA-based Stan Winston Productions.Harvest Pictures IIIwill back new horror films from Hammer, Stan Winston and Four Horsemen Films(Random Harvest's genre ...

  • News

    Korea's Kim Ki-duk shoots The Bow

    2005-01-14T04:00:00Z

    South Korean director KimKi-duk has opened shooting on his 12th feature film, a low-budget production tobe titled The Bow.Following a highlysuccessful 2004 in which he won Best Director awards at Berlin and Venice for SamaritanGirl and 3-Iron respectively, Kim began shooting his latest workwith little fanfare on a remote island ...

  • News

    Fiennes to star in Coetzee adaptation Disgrace

    2005-01-13T04:00:00Z

    Australian productioncompany Wild Strawberries has secured Ralph Fiennes to play the lead in itsfeature adaptation of 1999 Booker Prize winning novel Disgrace, writtenby J M Coetzee. The politically chargedstory will be filmed in South Africa, where it is set. Fiennes will play atwice-divorced academic in Cape Town who retreats to ...

  • News

    ProSiebenSat.1 signs Spyglass output deal

    2005-01-13T00:00:00Z

    Germany's ProSiebenSat.1Group has signed a license agreement with US production outfit SpyglassEntertainment covering all German-language free-TV rights for titles going intoproduction from this year onwards. The agreement will includethe much-anticipated adaptation of Arthur Golden's best-selling novel MemoirsOf A Geisha which is being co-produced by Spyglass with Columbia Picturesand DreamWorks. Commenting ...

  • News

    Italy pins hopes on local directors for 2005

    2005-01-10T04:00:00Z

    While the run-up to Christmas has once again been boosted by the releaseof blockbuster Italian comedies, only a handful of homegrown films have managedto gross more than Euros 1m - which is considered the benchmark for a strongrun at the box office - since September. Nevertheless, the local industry isconfident ...

  • News

    ITALY Production Listings - January 9 2005

    2005-01-08T00:00:00Z

    ITALIAN LISTINGS -January 9 2005 PRE-PRODUCTION ADIUS, LA FESTA E'FINITA(Verdecchi Film) Backer: Fondo di Garanzia. Word gets out in high-flying Romansociety that a well-known Italian singer-songwriter is to make his comeback -despite the fact that his death was officially announced in 1980. Prod:Alessandro Verdecchi. Dir: Ezio Alovisi. Scr: Ezio Alovisi.Contact: ...

  • News

    HanWay takes on Kidulthood sales

    2004-12-22T04:00:00Z

    UK-based sales agency HanWayFilms has acquired international distribution rights to Kidulthood, aLondon teenage gang story that marks the debut of a promisingwriter-director-producer trio.The film, which combines alove story, rites of passage and a tale of retribution, wrapped this week underthe direction of Menhaj Huda, a former commercials and TV director.Produced ...

  • News

    Ontario boosts production tax credits

    2004-12-22T00:00:00Z

    Ontario-based producers andservice providers received an early Christmas gift as the province increasedthe labour-based production tax credits for foreign and domestic productions.Effective Jan 1 2005, the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit for foreignproductions will increase from 11% to 18% and the Ontario Film and TelevisionTax Credit for domestic productions will ...