Latest – Page 520
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Features
United States - Outsider's view
Mennan Yapo, the German-Turkish director of the newly released thriller Premonition, thinks it is a good thing Hyde Park Entertainment and Sony chose him for the project. "You have this story rooted in Americana about a small town setting with this perfect couple and their children, so it was smart ...
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United States - Shooting range
"Not everyone should have, or wants to have, a film industry," says Jean Prewitt, the president and chief executive officer of the Independent Film & Television Alliance (Ifta). "Countries and communities have to understand why they are doing it."Prewitt has had so many inquiries over the years from countries, states ...
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Industry moves
Kreska's new at YorkKristine Kreska has become the new director of acquisitions and licensing for York Entertainment. She was previously vice-president of feature film sales at BD Fox & Friends, Inc.Vitale steps down at first Look picturesRuth Vitale will step down as president of First Look Pictures on April 30 ...
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Czech Republic - Who wants to be a millionaire'
I Served The King Of England is Jiri Menzel's first feature in more than 10 years.Set during the former Czechoslovakia's fall to the Nazis, the film follows the adventures of a waiter who longs to be a millionaire. It is Menzel's latest adaptation of novelist Bohumil Hrabal's work, following on ...
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Mongolia - Making the long walk to freedom
Shot entirely on location in the Mongolian steppes, Desert Dreams is written and directed by Zhang Lu, a Chinese film-maker of Korean descent. He takes on the story of a mother and son who escape from North Korea and journey to Mongolia. There they encounter a man battling desertification by ...
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Production - AFCI Trade Show 2007 - The world's locations meet in one location
This year more than 200 members of the Association of Film Commissioners International (Afci) are expected to descend on Santa Monica for the 22nd Afci Locations Trade Show 2007. The event runs from April 12-14 and is a key opportunity for the global community of film commissioners to promote their ...
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Features
Playing to the crowd
One of the great debates for international film is why movies so rarely trouble the box office beyond their national boundaries. For all the talk of cultural diversity, the blockage generally comes down to the simple fact of language. Dubbing and subtitles remain a big obstacle.Finding ways to break through ...
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Ancient Greece is the word
300 continues to conquer at the international box office and took a whopping $48.2m at the weekend as it expanded into an additional 20 territories. The Spartan epic was boosted by 241% and had number one openings in all markets, bringing its international total to $79.3m after just three weeks. ...
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Features
Market focus - Double ahead for India
India 's film industry is expected to more than double in value in the next five years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The business will be worth $4.1bn (rup175bn) by 2011, compared to the $2bn (rup84.5bn) it was worth in 2006, according to the report presented at this week's Ficci-Frames conference in ...
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Editorial - Screen says - Open season
One of the more interesting means of assessing the health of an industry is to monitor the buzzwords. It is often far more informative than the tedious Powerpoint presentation in which such little gems are hidden. The right time to catch a piece of business terminology is when it retains ...
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Features
Industry moves
Koh sees the futureFuture Films USA has hired former Fox Searchlight executive Charlotte Koh as its business development executive. Koh will report to Future USA's CEO Simon Horsman.Feeney moves from Animal Logic to ImagiComputer graphics expert Brett Feeney has joined Imagi International Holdings as vice-president of production based in Hong ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Musical Journey
With the box-office success of films like Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster - which grossed $1.2m in the US in 2004 - rock documentaries are proving that they are not just the preserve of a niche market of nerdy music geeks. That, at least, was the thinking behind the recent ...
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Features
United Kingdom - Soho story
Sam Garbarski freely admits that his second feature, Irina Palm, is a cosmopolitan endeavour.He is a Pole, born in Germany and based in Brussels. His backers come from all over Europe. His initial plan was to shoot the film, which he describes as "a non-politically correct, romantic black comedy", in ...
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Features
Not a fare deal
Back in 1998, Luc Besson concocted an idea for a movie that would be sheer mayhem. According to lore, he had in mind nothing more than creating a serviceable story thread on which to hang a lot of vehicular action and the excuse to wreck a lot of cars: he ...
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Features
300 slaughters the competition
Action epic 300 won the battle for international top spot, generating $14.1m in its second weekend. The film expanded into an additional five territories, including South Korea and Hong Kong, across a further 867 screens, giving it a 130% boost. Fox's Night At The Museum continues to attract international audiences ...
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Box Office: Data - Market focus - Movies in the pipeline
Studios have, until recently, been cautious about opening up their catalogues to video downloading, allowing consumers to access films only through current online subscription, download-to-rent and download-to-own models. Fears of piracy have prevented Hollywood from taking a share of the internet pie while user-generated content sites such as YouTube and ...
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In Focus - UK TAX - Feeling the squeeze
I think it's going to get worse before it gets better," admits John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council of the current state of UK film finance.For the world's third-biggest producer of films, the idea that the situation will get worse will not surprise many people. But local ...
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United States - Feeding the distribution machine
In the third-party acquisition business, Sony has long been one of the most active and innovative of the Hollywood studios. Its commitment goes back to the 1980s, when, among other projects, it co-financed Steven Soderbergh's groundbreaking indie film sex, lies and videotape.Now the studio has revamped its acquisition team with ...
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Denmark - Overthrowing the old guard
Based on the memoirs of James Gregory, Goodbye Bafana tells the story of the white South African who guarded Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. But while it is a South African story, the $20m project is directed by a Dane, Bille August, and has an international flavour in terms of ...
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Features
Argentina - Father figure
Talented young Argentinian director Ariel Rotter premiered his first feature, Just For Today (Solo Por Hoy), at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2001.The Wong Kar-wai-influenced film quickly became a festival hit, won a string of local awards, and Rotter prepared to shoot his next feature, The Other.Financing problems set ...