Latest – Page 1341
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Sale-and-leaseback funding caught in UK tax clampdown
The UK government will make no exception for sale-and-leaseback funding arrangements under new tax rules, it was confirmed today.On Friday, a Treasury briefing effectively closed the door on so-called GAAP finance schemes, which some estimates suggested could have raised up to $3.5bn this tax year. Click here to see Revenue ...
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Ira & Abbey, Ice Cream, I Scream are top winners at USCAF
Robert Cary's romantic comedy Ira & Abby won the 13th US Comedy Arts Festival's (USCAF) best feature and Yuksel Aksu's Turkish comedy Ice Cream, I Scream was named best foreign feature.Other winners at USCAF, which ran in Apsen, Colorado, from Feb 28-Mar 4, were Tom DeCillo for best director for ...
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Lantos faces lawsuit over In Praise Of Older Women
Canadian producer Robert Lantos is facing a lawsuit over potential profit-sharing from his 1978 production In Praise Of Older Women. The suit has been brought by the author of the book on which the film was based, Stephen Vizinczey. According to a report in the Toronto Star newspaper, Vizinczey sold ...
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US animator Laika plans Oregon animation campus
Animation studio Laika Inc has selected Portland-based TVA Architects to design a state-of-the-art feature animation campus to house Laika's burgeoning entertainment division.TVA Architects has begun work on a multi-phase master plan beginning with four buildings scheduled to open in late 2009. The Laika campus will be located on 30 acres ...
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Wild Hogs director Becker sells comedy pitch to Dimension
Comedy director Walt Becker has followed up the success of Wild Hogs, which opened at number one in the US last weekend, by selling a comedy pitch to Dimension Films.The company will develop and produce Runt, based on a story idea by Becker and David Gallagher about twin brothers who ...
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Equinoxe saves Everything's Gone Green from THINKFilm limbo
Montreal-based Equinoxe Films has picked up Canadian distribution rights to Paul Fox's Everything's Gone Green, one of the Canadian titles left in limbo by the sale of its previously contracted Canadian distributor THINKFilm. THINKFilm was acquired in October by LA-based entrepreneur David Bergstein, effectively ending the company's status as a ...
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First Look Studios still reeling after sudden departure of Winterstern
An air of uncertainty hovers over First Look Studios following the abrupt departure of co-chairman of the board and chief executive officer Henry Winterstern.Friday's move came as a surprise to many observers and throws into question Winterstern's ambitions to acquire Millennium/Nu Image.This morning a spokesperson said it was 'business as ...
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Berlin mayor to host LA presentation of German Federal Film Fund
Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit and members of regional film funding body Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg are flying in to LA to explain the new German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).The delegation will meet with LA-based film-makers to present the incentive, which offers a 20% rebate on every Euro spent, and will also discuss ...
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Vicki Cherkas joins Picturehouse as evp of operations
Vicki Cherkas has left GreeneStreet Films after six years and joined Picturehouse as senior executive vice president of operations.Cherkas will report directly to Picturehouse president Bob Berney and assumes responsibility for company operations, which encompasses overseeing productions and acquisitions deals, running daily business operations, and liaising with New Line and ...
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Wild Hogs is a smash for Disney with $38m opening
The Walt Disney Company scored its biggest March opening as the ensemble comedy Wild Hogs stormed to the top on an estimated $38m.John Travolta - enjoying a career best first weekend - stars with William H Macy, Martin Lawrence and Tim Allen as suburban bikers who go in search of ...
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Ghost Rider stays top in international markets with $16.3m take
Ghost Rider continued to blaze a trail across the international arena as it dominated the market for the third consecutive weekend.The comic book adventure grossed an estimated $16.3m through Sony Pictures Releasing International (SPRI) from approximately 4,000 prints in 56 territories and now stands at $60.7m with $100m well within ...
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Baron Cohen gets Israel Film Festival achievement award
Borat creator Sacha Baron Cohen has been chosen to be the inaugural recipient of the outstanding achievement award at the 22nd Annual Israel Film Festival.The British comedian will join fellow nominees Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal and Israeli actress Gila Almagor at the opening night gala award dinner on ...
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Screen Index up 8% with continued boom in Italy
Local films helped push collective global box office takings of nine territories up 8% last weekend compared to the same weekend last year, according to Screen International's Screen Index. Italy continues to surge and was up 51.8% year-on-year thanks to the success of Fausto Brizzi's sequel Notte Prima Degli Esami ...
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SPRI's Ghost Rider blazes into UK, Japan, Brazil
Ghost Rider is expected to dominate the international arena for a third consecutive weekend as it prepares to launch in three major markets.Sony Pictures Releasing International's (SPRI) comic book adaptation has amassed $41.3m so far and this weekend rides into the UK and Brazil on Mar 2 on 350 and ...
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EFP supports eight European features at Mar Del Plata
European Film Promotion's Film Sales Support progamme is supporting eight European films at the Mar Del Plata Film Festival. The festival, which runs March 8-18, is one of seven festivals supported by FSS. Sales agents are given grants for promotional costs of up to $6,609 (Euros 5,000) per film. As ...
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Dukakis, MacLaine reteam for Ash's Poor Things
Olympia Dukakis is in talks to join Shirley MacLaine on the dark comedy Poor Things, in what would be their first on-screen reunion in nearly 20 years.The pair last starred together in 1989's box office smash Steel Magnolias. This time around the tone is very different: Poor Things is inspired ...
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Blindsight continues to see sales for Little Film Company
Little Film Company has concluded major territory sales at the European Film Market to Robson Entertainment's documentary Blindsight.The film, which won the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, sold to TAO Cinemathek (Germany), Phantom Films (Japan), Conquest Films (Brazil), and Quality Films (Mexico).Rights also went to Svensk ...
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Paramount veteran Ciccone to head 42West's west coast division
Susan Ciccone has joined 42West to head its West Coast film marketing division. Ciccone will leave her current position as vice president of publicity at Paramount Pictures, where she has served for nearly eight years, and assumes her new role in mid-April.She will work out of the company's Century City ...
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Tarantino to present Grindhouse festival at LA cinema
Heralding the Apr 6 release of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's double feature Grindhouse, a Los Angeles repertory cinema will host Quentin Tarantino Presents the Los Angeles Grindhouse Festival 2007 from Mar 4-Apr 30.The event at the New Beverly Cinema will screen more than 50 exploitation films from the 1970s ...
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Lives Of Others gets English-language remake from Mirage, TWC
Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack will produce an English-language remake of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's foreign-language Oscar winner The Lives Of Others for The Weinstein Company (TWC).The film-makers will serve as producers under their Mirage Productions label, which has renewed its exclusive first-look deal with TWC. It remained unclear last ...