All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 229
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Constantin results exceed expectations
German producer-distributor Constantin Film has exceeded its sales forecasts according to provisional results, with group turnover increasing by 80% to Euros116m.Theatrical distribution accounted for the bulk of Constantin's 2000 sales - Euros53m - thanks to the successful releases of films such as American Pie, The Sixth Sense, Harte Jungs and ...
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Thoeren quits Ufa to focus on producing
Veteran producer Konstantin Thoeren is exiting his post as managing director of Ufa International Film & TV Produktion at the end of this week. Thoeren told ScreenDaily that he will now concentrate on producing through his own outfit Patrola Films Inc, based in Munich and Los Angeles, although he will ...
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Babelsberg beefs up production division
Germany's Studio Babelsberg has expanded its in-house production division in a bid to attract more big-budget international productions to the legendary production facility. The studio's CEO Rainer Schaper announced during the Berlin Film Festival that production manager Udo Happel, who has most recently supervised Jean-Jacques Annaud's Berlin opener Enemy At ...
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Ferch to star in Iceland's Seagull's Laughter
German actor Heino Ferch, who recently headlined SAT1's East-West drama The Tunnel, is to play one of the leads alongside Margaret Vilhjalmsdottir and Ugla Egilsdottir in Icelandic director Agust Gudmundsson's next project The Seagull's Laughter (Mavahlatur). The film, which starts shooting in Iceland from February 26, is being executive produced ...
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Bavaria sells In July, Fandango to Japan
Germany's Bavaria Film International has sold Fatih Akin's In July (Im Juli) to Japan's Tokyo Theatres, and Matthias Glasner's Fandango to Japan's Gaga Communications.In July, a Bulgarian-German-Turkish co-production, is a romantic comedy and road movie which follows a journey from Hamburg to Istanbul. Director Akin is serving on this year's ...
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Peppermint acquires Italy's Domenica
German rights trader Peppermint has picked up German rights to Italian director Wilma Labate's Domenica which is showing in the Panorama section of this year's Berlin Film Festival. Starring Claudio Amendola, Domenica Giuliano and Annabella Sciorra, the film centres on a police inspector, who doesn't have a daughter, and an ...
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Leading German producers form lobby group
Constantin Film's Bernd Eichinger, Kinowelt's Rainer Koelmel and Road Movies' Uli Felsberg are among 16 leading German film and TV producers banding together to form a producers lobby group.Dubbed FILM 20, the group will focus on representing the film and TV production sector when dealing with broadcasters, public funding bodies, ...
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Murath, Brunckhorst share German Script Prize
Two scripts - Clemens Murath's Schatten Des Jaguar and Natja Brunckhorst's Wie Feuer Und Flamme - were awarded this year's German Script Prize, worth a total $47,000 (DM100,000), by Germany's state minister for culture Julian Nida-Ruemelin.Murath's thriller is to be made as a European co-production, with Filmline's Arno Ortmair ...
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E-M-S, Sunfilm strike video distribution pact
German video and DVD company E-M-S New Media has forged a distribution partnership with Munich-based video distributor Sunfilm.Under the terms of the agreement, Sunfilm will handle distribution of E-M-S video and DVD titles in the rental market, while E-M-S will do the same for Sunfilm titles in the sell-through sector. ...
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DCPF joins Media Programme in German Equinoxe
Columbia TriStar's German production arm, Deutsche Columbia Pictures Filmproduktion (DCPF), is setting up a German outpost of the French scriptwriting workshop Equinoxe which has supported 150 screenplays since its inception in 1993.Equinoxe Germany is being established by DCPF executive Ellen Winn Wendl, producer Huelya Sancar and lawyer Martin Heller. Sancar ...
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KC Medien boards StudioCanal's Ginostra
Germany's KC Medien will co-finance French director Manuel Pradal's Ginostra, currently shooting in Italy with Harvey Keitel and Andie McDowell in the leads, as part of its informal producing partnership with France's StudioCanal.The film, produced by Jean-Francois Fonlupt's Emotion Pictures and also backed by France 2 Cinema, is an English-language ...
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Germany's Box! unwraps trio of deals
Berlin-based production outfit Box! Filmproduktion has struck output deals with theatrical distributor Tobis StudioCanal and Bavaria Media, and is to become a production partner of media venture capital company Producers' AG. The deal with Tobis StudioCanal(TSC), which co-produced and distributed Box!'s first feature Edward Berger's Female2 Seeks Happyend, initially ...
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Senator, Odeon exit internet activities
Germany's Senator Entertainment and Odeon Film are planning to pull the plug on their respective internet businesses. In unrelated announcements, both blamed the difficult internet market.Last autumn, Odeon gathered its internet activities into Odeon New Vision, but plans to sell some activities and close down the division within two months. ...
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Uruguay's 25 Watts lights up Rotterdam
Uruguayan directors Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll's 25 Watts, about a group of bored teenagers in Montevideo, clinched one of the three VPRO Tiger Awards, along with the Movie Zone Award, at this year's Rotterdam International Film Festival.The other two Tiger Award winners, who each receive prizes worth Euro10,000, ...
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Fake UK doc gets Colombian treatment
Colombian production outfit Tucan Productions is developing a feature inspired by the case of UK broadcaster Carlton Television's fake 1996 documentary The Connection, which claimed to have uncovered a new heroin route from Colombia to British school playgrounds.The Deal (El Trato) is to be directed by Colombian filmmaker Francisco Norden, ...
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StudioCanal's German arm boards second project
The German production arm of France's StudioCanal, StudioCanal Produktion, is to co-produce Robert Schwentke's directorial debut Tattoo, it's second project following Edward Berger's love story Frau 2 Sucht Happy End.StudioCanal's German theatrical arm, Tobis StudioCanal (TSC), has set an autumn 2001 release for the thriller, which has been shooting ...
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FFA supports Wortmann, Egger projects
New features by Soenke Wortmann, Urs Egger and Joseph Orr are among the projects awarded almost $2.4m (DM5m) production support by the Berlin-based German Federal Film Board (FFA) in its latest round of funding.Wortmann's Cologne-based production company Little Shark Entertainment received $481,000 (DM1m) for his football film about the German ...
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CinemaxX embarks on $9m cost-cutting programme
The board of German exhibitor CinemaxX has agreed to a "massive programme of reducing costs" which should lead to a $9.6m (DM20m) improvement in its results. The company also said that it now plans to focus on the German market, and will only pursue expansion abroad "in co-operation with a ...
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Svankmajer to be awarded Freedom Prize
Veteran Czech filmmaker-artist Jan Svankmajer is to be presented with the Andrzej Wajda/Philip Morris Freedom Prize by Polish director Wajda at a special ceremony in Berlin's Academy of Arts on February 11.The presentation will take place as part of the Freedom Film Showcase of films from Central and Eastern Europe ...
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Cinema Novo launches production fund
Bruges' Cinema Novo Film Festival, which focuses on films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, has announced initial steps towards its long-awaited production fund for feature films from the southern hemisphere.On the occasion of Bruges being a "European Capital 2002", Cinema Novo will award two post-production grants - each worth ...