All articles by Leon Forde – Page 11
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Consolidation stabilises UK exhibition market
The UK exhibition sector is moving towards more of an even keel after the uncertainty of the last couple of years, with industry consolidation beginning to stabilise a rapidly saturating market, according to a new report.Fears that the UK cinema industry could face a US-style meltdown because of over-expansion were ...
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Spean Bridge emerges as potential UCI investor
Vivendi Universal is looking to pull out of United Cinemas International (UCI) - its international exhibition joint venture with Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures.A report in the Financial Times on Wednesday (April 10) said that Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier was looking to make an exit from UCI in order to lower Vivendi's ...
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Village Roadshow sells three more cinema circuits
As part of its drive to re-structure its exhibition arm, Village Roadshow has sold its cinema interests in Thailand, Malaysia and India, consisting of some 135 screens across 19 sites. Village Roadshow has recently been stripping back its under-performing exhibition interests in a bid to restore the company's profitability. The ...
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Metro Tartan takes My Kingdom for UK release
The UK's Metro Tartan has acquired Don Boyd's Liverpool-set gangster film My Kingdom, starring Richard Harris and Lynn Redgrave.The film, one of the last backed by the now-defunct Sky Pictures, is a modern interpretation of the King Lear story, transposed to the criminal underworld of Liverpool, where the film was ...
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UK's Random Harvest launches horror label
UK production outfit Random Harvest has launched a new label to focus on horror and thriller titles aimed at the 16- to 21-year-old multiplex audience.Dubbed Four Horsemen Films, Random Harvest is aiming to produce between three and five films per year through the label, and says that negotiations are at ...
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UK gets new Comedy Shorts scheme
As part of a short film scheme created last August, The Film Council's New Cinema Fund and FilmFour's experimental arm FilmFour Lab have teamed with Elisabeth Murdoch's film and television company Shine Entertainment to produce the Comedy Shorts Scheme.Aiming to form links between TV and cinema industries by finding and ...
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UK's Film Council development fund backs 20
UK support body the Film Council has announced its latest round of single film project investments through its Development Fund, including new films from cult director Richard Stanley and Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen.Twenty projects have received a combined total of£329,241, bringing the number of individual investments in single projects ...
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UK production continues despite actors' dispute
The dispute over secondary payments for actors between UK performers' union Equity and UK producer's body PACT may be entering its eighth week, but as yet there is little sign of any ill-effects in the UK production sector.Equity has so far agreed 14 separate feature film strike waivers with producers, ...
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Aardman to make 12 one minute films for the net
Acclaimed UK animation studio Aardman has gone into production with 12 new one-minute Wallace And Gromit films, which are to be released later this year on the internet.Meanwhile, the company has announced that its anticipated DreamWorks SKG-backed Wallace And Gromit feature, the script for which Nick Park has been writing ...
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Internet film piracy set to increase rapidly
The volume of film-related internet piracy is higher than previously thought, and could rise further with the anticipated growth in take-up of broadband internet connections.According to Bruce Ward, technical director of Net PD, a London-based company which provides internet protection services for copyright holders, current estimates that there are over ...
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Brosnan stays on board for Bond films 20 and 21
Pierce Brosnan has revealed that he plans to play James Bond in another film, which will take the Irish actor's tally of Bond appearances to five.Speaking at a press conference at Pinewood Studios, where the still-untitled 20th Bond film is gearing up to start shooting on Monday (Jan 14) Brosnan ...
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Another large-screen operator secures its future
In the week that beleaguered large-format operator Imax Corp. put itself onto firmer financial ground by repurchasing $42m of its own debt, another large format operator in the tight North American exhibition market has secured its future.Iwerks Entertainment yesterday completed its previously announced strategic merger with SimEx, which sees Iwerks ...
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Capitol Films hires Wallace as US consultant
London-based sales outfit Capitol Films has appointed veteran film executive Ronna Wallace as the company's consultant in the US, in a bid to strengthen the company's interests across the Atlantic.Based in New York, Wallace will acquire films and projects at script stage for Capitol, as well as representing a selection ...
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UK film production spend down in 2001
UK production spending fell by nearly 10% in 2001, with much of the drop blamed on the shadow cast by the threat of a summer SAG strike, according to research compiled by Screen International.Screen International's 2001 figures - which include every feature shot in the UK or abroad produced by ...
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Till appoints his executive team at Signpost Films
Stewart Till has announced that his ambitious new worldwide film production and distribution company will be called Signpost Films, and has confirmed a string of London-based executive appointments, including Nicole Mackey and Darryl Iwai.Till, formerly president of London-based Universal Pictures International and head of international activities at the defunct Euro ...
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Pathe gets Deathwatch for UK from Odyssey
Pathe Distribution has picked up UK rights to the British supernatural horror Deathwatch (working title) from Ralph Kamp's newly-formed independent sales company Odyssey Entertainment.The debut production from Film And Music Entertainment (F&ME), the UK-based international production and acquisitions wing of Germany's FAME, stars Billy Elliot's Jamie Bell and was written ...
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Local film releases on the rise in Europe
The number of locally-produced films released annually is on the increase across Europe, with homegrown films now accounting for an average 16% of new releases, according to new figures from Screen Digest. This compares to just 12% a decade ago.Unsurprisingly, France is Europe's strongest market for domestically produced films. In ...
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2001 cinema admissions rise across Europe
UK cinema admissions hit 156m in 2001 according to Screendaily estimates, surpassing industry expectations and making it the most successful for nearly 30 years. Other major European territories mirrored the UK's near 10% admissions increase.Despite a below-par first quarter in the UK - which saw admissions down 8.7% year-on-year - ...
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Indian film breaks UK box office record
While box office titans The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone were dominating the nation's screens over the festive break, another titan in its own right was setting box office records elsewhere.After just three weeks on release, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie ...
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Untitled 03 among recipients of UK Premiere Fund
The UK Film Council's Premiere Fund is investing £500,000 in acclaimed director Mike Leigh's Untitled 03, currently in development. Details of the subject of the film, produced by Simon Channing-Williams of Thin Man Films and set to shoot in 2003, are typically sketchy. Traditionally, Leigh does not work ...