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Norway goes crazy for documentaries
Following the runaway success of Knut Erik Jensen's 2001 musical documentary Cool And Crazy, a slate of new Norwegian documentaries are enjoying both critical and commercial success at home.The Norwegian Film Fund has just awarded $371,000 to local production outfit Barentsfilm for director Knut Erik Jensen's (pictured) new theatrical documentary ...
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UK documentary scheme emerges from Edinburgh
A proposed pilot scheme to boost UK theatrical audiences for documentaries was unveiled at Edinburgh during the closing weekend of the Film Festival.Inspired by the Docuzone initiative in the Nederlands and growing figures for the Sheffield Touring Festival, the scheme, titled Docuspace, is ultimately intended to devise a dedicated exhibition ...
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Epic Matrix shoot wraps in Oz as runaway production levels rise
The 12-month Sydney shoot of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions has just wrapped, leaving the legacy of a $110.6m contribution to the state economy and a host of titles lining up to shoot in production-friendly Australia. Brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski shot the futuristic films simultaneously and will ...
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Vinterberg to direct von Trier's Dear Wendy
Two of Denmark's most acclaimed filmmakers, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg - who together fathered the influential Dogme95 movement - are once again joining forces. Vinterberg is to direct the von Trier scripted Dear Wendy, a contemporary English-language film set in the US about a group of youngsters ...
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UK's Ealing Studios to revive St Trinian's comedies
Ealing Studios, the historic UK film studio at the centre of a £50 million redevelopment plan, is reviving the classic British comedies of St Trinian's.Producer and Ealing co-owner Barnaby Thompson confirmed that Rupert Everett may play the dual roles originally played by Alastair Sim in 1954's The Belles Of St ...
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Redford/Mirren thriller takes Dutch producer to new level
Dutch producer Pieter Jan Brugge is to take his career to a new level when he makes his directorial debut with the thriller The Clearing. According to Dutch sources, the story of a rich businessman kidnapped by a former employee will star Robert Redford and the UK's Helen Mirren as ...
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Red Light Runners shelves plans to raise UK tax vehicle funds
Red Light Runners, the crime thriller that recently made headlines when it announced a cast including Michael Madsen and Minnie Driver, is understood to have shelved plans to raise its budget through UK tax financing vehicle the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS).The film, which is understood to have sent at least ...
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IFC shuts down micro-budget production arm
IFCEntertainment announced that its low-budget Los Angeles-based production armNext Wave Films is to immediately cease operations as a separate divisionwithin the company. The closureprompted a warning from outgoing Next Wave president Peter Broderick, who saidthere was a "crisis" in independent film distribution that wasstopping most independents from reaching their target ...
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Effects gurus launch Uncharted Territory production outfit
The Academy Award-winning special effects team of Volker Engel (Independence Day) and Marc Weigert today announced the formation of their new production company, Uncharted Territory. Based in Los Angeles, the duo plan to make story-driven motion pictures with cost-effective blockbuster effects. Uncharted Territory's first feature, the action adventure Coronado,recently wrapped ...
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Moonstone to handle Kaige's Together for worldwide sales
MoonstoneEntertainment announced today that it will start representing Chen Kaige's Together for worldwide sales ahead of its galaworld premiere at next month's Toronto International Film Festival. The latestfeature from Kaige, whose previous credits include the Miramax-released Farewell,My Concubine - willshowcase under the festival's Masters Series banner on September 10 and ...
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Revolution renames Lopez, Fiennes romance
RevolutionStudios has changed the name of its romantic comedy The Chambermaid, starring Jennifer Lopez and RalphFiennes, to Maid In Manhattan. The picture wasco-produced by Shoelace Productions and directed by Wayne Wang, whose previouscredits include Smokeand The Joy Luck Club.Lopez plays amaid in a first class Manhattan hotel who is mistaken ...
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Diageo finances African feature
Brewing giant Diageo is attempting to cash-in on the widespread popularity of Michael Powell, a fictional journalist and star of its recent pan-African TV campaign for Guinness, by financing a $3m (£2m) feature film based around the character.The action thriller, which has just started principal photography on the outskirts of ...
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Powerhouse, Steeple pact on The Sailmaker
PowerHouse Studios has signed a deal with Steeple Distributions to co-produce two feature films in association with Arama/Zegna Pictures. Steeple will provide funding for the two projects via a $132m letter of credit issued by the Bank of New York.The first co-production will be Shimon Arama's The Sailmaker. To be ...
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Swiss film industry gets $33.3m production support
The Swiss film industry will receive $33.3m (CHF 50.4m) production support over the next three years with the signing of a third expanded Audiovisual Pact between public broadcaster SRG SSR idee suisse and the Swiss film industry in Locarno this week.The new pact will see SRG SSR providing a ...
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Distinguished Features to shoot Dead Bodies, premiere Puckoon
Dead Bodies, the debut feature from young Irish company Distinguished Features and director Robert Quinn, will start principal photography in and around Dublin on September 1.The film will be the first project to avail of the Irish Film Board's Low Budget Feature Initiative, announced at the Galway Film Fleadh in ...
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Columbia TriStar snaps up rights to Japanese sci-fi Returner
Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group has bought worldwide rights, outside Asia, to Returner, a sci-fi thriller expected to be one of the big Japanese films of the year.Although Hollywood has taken a greater interest in Japan in recent years, the purchase by a major studio of worlwide rights to a ...
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Japan banks on period dramas to woo international market
Japan is targeting the international market that swooned over Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with at least seven new youth-oriented period dramas in various stages of production.Following 1999's boardroom coup, Shochiku's new management team, led by Nobuyoshi Otani, has dramatically beefed up the company's slate and is now investing $35m to ...
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NYC's No Borders co-production market unveils full line-up
A total of 36 projectshave been accepted into No Borders, the international co-production section ofthe IFP Market that will run from Sept 27-Oct 4 in downtown Manhattan. In additionto the 13 previously-announced international entrants, No Borders will includenew works from US indie veterans Jay Craven and Barbara Hammer, the firstdocumentary ...
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Walden Media secures Peacock to pen first Lewis outing
Emmy Award winning writer Ann Peacock has signed on to pen Walden Media's forthcoming adaptation of C S Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Peacock, who won an Emmy for her adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying for HBO, will write the screenplay for the ...
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Luther biopic follows El Crimen Del Padre Amaro in wide release pattern
Following the news that Mexico's El Crimen Del Padre Amaro, about a priest's affair with a young woman, is to get the country's biggest ever national release; now a $20m German/US co-production plans to get the story of Martin Luther and his relationship with a former nun on to 1,200 ...