Latest – Page 1201

  • News

    Fox Searchlight pays $4m for US rights to The Wrestler

    2008-09-08T17:09:00Z

    After a cautious start sorely lacking in buzz and domestic deal-making, TIFF sprang into life yesterday as Fox Searchlight paid $4m for US rights to Darren Aronofsky's Venice Golden Lion winner The Wrestler.Searchlight beat out bids from Lionsgate, Sony and Overture Films before it closed the deal with CAA in ...

  • News

    Finneran named senior consultant at Sundance DFP

    2008-09-08T16:00:00Z

    SILVERDOCS festival director Patricia Finneran will move over to the Sundance Institute as the Documentary Film Programme's senior consultant, New York, commencing on November 1.Finneran replaces Bruni Burres, the long-time executive director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, who is moving to a full-time position as executive producer at ...

  • News

    ContentFilm laughs along with Mike Judge's Extract

    2008-09-08T06:10:00Z

    ContentFilm International has acquired international sales rights to Mike Judge's comedy Extract starring Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Ben Affleck, Clifton Collins Jr, TJ Miller, Kristen Wiig, Dustin Milligan, JK Simmons and Dave Koechner. The film started shooting Aug 25 in Los Angeles.Bateman stars as a factory worker whose life is ...

  • News

    CMG seals three-picture deals with Poland, Turkey

    2008-09-08T06:00:00Z

    Edward Noeltner's Cinema Management Group has closed sales on its key Toronto sales titles Zambezia, Killer Bean Forever and The People Speak.Poland's Vison Film and Turkey's Film Pop acquired rights to the trio. The animated feature Killer Bean Forever is based on Jeff Lew's short Killer Bean 2: The Party, ...

  • News

    Fortissimo strikes Maximum Canadian deal for Disgrace

    2008-09-08T06:00:00Z

    Fortissimo Films continues its strong Toronto sales with a Canadian deal for Steve Jacobs' Disgrace with Maximum Film Distribution.John Malkovich stars in the adaptation of JM Coetzee's lauded South-Africa set novel, about a disgraced professor who is confronted with violence on his daughter's rural farm. The deal is for all ...

  • News

    Jessica Alba to star in Marilyn Agrelo's Invisible Sign

    2008-09-08T06:00:00Z

    Jessica Alba will star in Silverwood Films and iDeal Partners Fund's modern fable An Invisible Sign Of My Own, which Kimmel International chief Mark Lindsay will introduce to buyers here and Endeavor is representing for North America.Marilyn Agrelo, who scored a hit with the 2005 Sundance documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, ...

  • News

    C.R.A.Z.Y.'s Vallee sets up Shoe Business

    2008-09-08T06:00:00Z

    Jean-Marc Vallee, the multi-award winning filmmaker behind 2005 Quebecois smash C.R.A.Z.Y., is setting up his next production, Shoe Business, a comic drama set at the height of the 1970s disco craze.Vallee will produce the film on an estimated $6.6m-$9.4m (C$7m-C$10m) budget through his C.R.A.Z.Y. Films production shingle, although he is ...

  • News

    Stewart Till buys Icon as foundation for international network

    2008-09-08T06:00:00Z

    Stewart Till's company Stadium has agreed a deal to acquire the international operations of Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey's Icon Group comprising sales outfit Icon Entertainment International, the UK and Australian distribution operations and the Majestic Films & Television library. The deal is subject to due diligence.The acquisition marks the ...

  • News

    Bangkok Dangerous is top of lacklustre domestic weekend

    2008-09-08T04:19:00Z

    Nicolas Cage stands atop the domestic box office charts following a typically lacklustre post-Labor Day weekend that saw the action thriller Bangkok Dangerous launch at number one through Lionsgate on an estimated $7.8m.There were no other new entries in the top ten as DreamWorks-Paramount's comedy Tropic Thunder ranked second on ...

  • News

    Strong international weekend for Universal led by Mamma Mia!

    2008-09-08T04:05:00Z

    Universal's musical adaptation Mamma Mia! led the international pack at the weekend and is nearing $300m following an estimated $15m haul through UPI from 3,493 sites in 39 territories that raised the tally to $280.1m.Mamma Mia! overtook The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian to become the fifth biggest grossing international ...

  • News

    Venice FIPRESCI prizes go to Goodbye Solo, Inland (Gabba)

    2008-09-07T21:17:00Z

    Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo, which is screening at TIFF through September 11, took the FIPRESCI international critics prize in Venice, as best film in Horizons and International Critics' Week.The FIPRESCI prize for the international competition went Inland (Gabbla) by Tariq Teguia. Inland is about present-day Algeria, through the experiences of ...

  • News

    Millennium comes on board Norton-starrer Leaves In The Grass

    2008-09-07T20:54:00Z

    Millennium Films has boarded the $9.5m Edward Norton comedy Leaves InThe Grass after the financing deal set up through New York-based Barbarian fell apart in the summer.Tim Blake Nelson will start shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, on September 22 to take advantage of state tax incentives and Millennium's facility in the ...

  • News

    Celluloid takes international to Soul Power, Ocean buys France

    2008-09-07T20:50:00Z

    Celluloid Dreams has acquired all international rights from Submarine to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's documentary Soul Power following its world premiere here and has concluded a deal in France with Ocean.Celluloid is weighing up other offers from the UK and Australia, among others, and expects to close further deals this week. Submarine ...

  • News

    Canadian Film Centre launches actors' training programme

    2008-09-07T18:30:00Z

    The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is launching Canada's first professional training program for established screen actors. The scheme, set to launch in autumn 2009, will offer advanced onscreen performance training to up eight experienced Canadian actors. Its principal backers are CanWest and the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation.The training will explore ...

  • News

    Carmody plans 3-D project Evil Dead: The Musical

    2008-09-07T07:00:00Z

    Producer Don Carmody and partners are in negotiations with Spidermandirector Sam Raimi to bring to the screen the musical version of the formerhorror meister's Evil Dead films, Evil Dead: The Musical.Conceived by George Reinblatt, Christopher Bond, Frank Cipolla and Melissa Morris, the camp stage interpretation of Raimi's cult classic horror ...

  • News

    K5 on board for world sales of zomcom Wasting Away

    2008-09-07T07:00:00Z

    UK- and Germany-based sales company K5 International has acquired Matthew Kohnen's Wasting Away for worldwide sales.The US 'zomcom' feature, uniquely presented from the zombies' perspective, has picked up awards at ScreamFest, New Beijing, Festivus and Zompire.K5 spotted Wasting Away at Sci-Fi London and K5's Bill Stephens, Daniel Baur and Oliver ...

  • News

    Visit Films closes five-picture deal with Australia's Beyond

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    Ryan Kampe and Sylvain Tron's New York-based Visit Films has closed a five-film deal here with Beyond Entertainment in Australia.Beyond has acquired rights to Hannah Takes The Stairs, LOL and Kissing On The Mouth by Joe Swanberg and Dance Party USA and Quiet City by Aaron Katz.'With deals like this, ...

  • News

    Maximum Films takes the world on Control Alt Delete

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    Maximum Films International has picked up worldwide sales rights on Cameron Labine's feature debut Control Alt Delete. Maximum Films Releasing will distribute in Canada. The slacker comedy makes its world premiere at TIFF on Wednesday in the Canada First! programme.Set at the turn of the century when Y2K scared the ...

  • News

    JCVD director El Mechri recruits Paradis for Midwife Crisis

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    As Gaumont racks up major sales on TIFF Midnight Madness opener JCVD, that film's director Mabrouk El Mechri is finalising the original script this month for his next project, offbeat romantic comedy Midwife Crisis.Gaumont will again produce, with New York's Forensic Films also on board. Vanessa Paradis is attached to ...

  • News

    Gale Ann Hurd picks up remake rights to Quebecois hit Nitro

    2008-09-07T06:00:00Z

    LA-based production powerhouse Valhalla Motion Pictures has acquired English-language remake rights to the Quebecois street racing action hit Nitro.The film, produced by Pierre Even of Montreal-based Cirrus Communications and directed by Alain Desrochers, earned $1.2m on its opening weekend in Quebec in 2007, besting Live Free Or Die Hard and ...