All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 223
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Intertainment to focus on hands-on production
Troubled German rights trader Intertainment aims to be more of a "hands on" producer in the future, through such production alliances as the one forged last year with veteran US producer Arnold Kopelson.Speaking at the shareholders general meeting yesterday, Intertainment CEO Barry Baeres explained that, due to the prevailing market ...
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Balian and Wiederspiel quit Tobis StudioCanal
On the eve of this year's Filmfest Muenchen, the German distribution sector has been rocked by the news of the sudden departure of Haig Balian and Albert Wiederspiel from Canal Plus' German theatrical arm Tobis StudioCanal (TSC) "due to insurmountable differences".For the time being, TSC will be managed solely by ...
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German distributors get inaugural culture awards
Distributor Arsenal Filmverleih, Berlin's fsk Kino & Peripher Filmverleih and Rapid Eye Movies in Cologne have each been selected for the Germany government's 2001 Distributor Awards.The German ministry of culture will present the awards in Dresden in October. The prizes, each of which carries $94,000 (DM200,000), were launched by culture ...
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German producers body adds Filmpool to books
Cologne-based production outfit Filmpool has been accepted as the 21st member of recently-launched German producers pressure group Film 20. Current members include Kinowelt Medien, Senator Entertainment, Producers AG, Claussen + Woebke Filmproduktion and Constantin Film.Filmpool has an annual output of more than 200 hours of television programming and won the ...
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Pay-TV channel launches for Germans living abroad
ChannelD, a German-language pay-TV service for ex-pat Germans and holidaymakers in Latin America, the Caribbean and the US East Coast, has been established by six multimedia companies.The partners expect ChannelD will go on air from September 1, 2001 with a mix of bought-in programmes from public and private channels, including ...
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Cologne's TV and film fest announces prizewinners
Screenwriter Ruth Toma, Berlin-based production company moneypenny Filmproduktion and casting director Rita Serra-Roll were among the German film industry figures honoured at the end of the Cologne Conference's eleventh International Television and Film Festival during the Media Forum NRW.The casting award went to Munich-based Rita Serra-Roll, whose most recent credits ...
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Germany's Senator questioned over TV dealings
Senator Entertainment chief executive Hanno Huth defended his company's sale of film rights to two unnamed intermediary rights dealers rather than directly to TV stations at this week's annual shareholders meeting in Berlin.Responding to queries from shareholders about reports in German weekly magazine Der Spiegel and daily national newspaper Die ...
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StudioCanal and Germany's box! line up two titles
Fledgling Berlin-based production outfit box! Film & Fernsehproduktion has added two new German-language projects to its co-development and first look deal with StudioCanal.Producers Philipp Homberg and Andreas Eicher have commissioned author Horst Bosetzky to write a screenplay on the life of Berlin's record jailbreaker Eckehard 'Ecke' Lehmann. The project is ...
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Meyer quits Studio Hamburg's Letterbox
German producer Henrik Meyer is to step down as one of the managing directors of Studio Hamburg's production arm Letterbox Filmproduktion from July 1. Meyer will have an exclusive deal with the outfit as a freelance producer for feature films and TV movies, focusing on developing screenplays with US writers ...
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Germany's Splendid to buy back 10% of stock
Shareholders of Splendid Medien, the German rights trader-producer behind Traffic and The Gangs Of New York, have given the company's board of management the green light for a stock repurchase programme of 890,000 shares.The repurchase, amounting to 10% of Splendid's capital stock, is seen as part of Splendid's strategy of ...
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MEDIA programme gets new admin body for funding
D&S Media Services is to handle applications for MEDIA programme development and training support after winning the contract to run the Technical Assistance Office (TAO) from Brussels.D&S co-founder John Dick will oversee main operations from Brussels. The TAO will continue to have an office for television distribution support located in ...
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German film prize goes to The State I Am In
Christian Petzold's The State I Am In received the top honour of a golden Lola - as the prize is now known - at the 52nd German Film Awards ceremony in Berlin. The award carries a premium of up to $440,000 (DM1m) to be invested in a future project.Oliver Hirschbiegel's ...
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Liberty ties up German cable for Euros 5.5bn
Liberty Media Group has reached agreement with Germany's Deutsche Telekom (DT) to acquire its last remaining six cable television operations - covering 10m connected households - for a reported Euros5.5bn. In addition to 100% of the DT cable companies, Liberty will take over DT's service companies Deutsche Telekom Kabel-Services and ...
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Germany's Brainpool expands overseas web
German comedy powerhouse Brainpool TV has taken another step in its strategy of establishing an international network of companies, acquiring 50% of French light entertainment outfit Show Devant Productions (SDP).Together with its Swiss subsidiary Gregoire Furrer Productions (GFP), Brainpool paid $2.6m for the stake in SDP. Half of this is ...
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Kinowelt shares go into freefall on Neuer Markt
No end seems to be in sight for the downward slide of troubled German media concern Kinowelt Medien's shares, which went into freefall yesterday (June 19) on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt. By the close of business, shares in the company stood 25.37% down on the previous day at Euros2.50.The business news ...
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EM.TV sells Internet interests, Victory takes over
EM.TV & Merchandising has exited from the Internet activities it has concentrated in EM interactive, amidst a restructuring and re-focusing on core businesses.German media fund specialist Victory Media will now increase its stake in EM interactive from 25.1% to 100%. The firm will continue operating as victory.tv under the new ...
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Hannover Leasing to raise $465m for Fox, New Line
Munich-based leasing company Hannover Leasing (HL) has launched seven separate production funds to raise over $465m (Euros540m) in finance for feature projects from 20th Century Fox and New Line Cinema. HL's collaboration with New Line Cinema follows on from last year when the German fund specialist raised a total of ...
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Kinowelt finally secures German TV deal with ZDF
Beleaguered German mini-studio Kinowelt Medien has finally found a TV home for the Wachowski brothers' Warner Bros. action blockbuster The Matrix.The title is among 15 German free-TV premieres - including the animation feature Pokemon - The Film and Amos Kollek's Fast Food, Fast Women - sold as part of a ...
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EM.TV shares slide as Kirch investment in doubt
Shares in ailing German media concern EM.TV & Merchandising hit a 2001 low on Thursday amidst speculation that the Germany cartel office could block the KirchGroup's plans to invest in the company.Speaking to Financial Times Deutschland, an official at the cartel authority was quoted as saying that the office "will ...
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Das Werk raises TV stakes with company acquisition
German post-production specialist Das Werk is expanding is raising its stake in TV production outfit FFP Media by 30% to 81%.FFP, which specialises in handling programme commissions from German broadcasters, is working on four TV movie adaptations of novels by Rosamunde Pilcher and a TV movie based on a Barbara ...