All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 231
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News
Sony acquires chunk of expanding BKNI
Children's animation producer-distributor BKN International (BKNI) has sold in principle a 3.8% stake to Sony Pictures Family Entertainment as the German company gears up for expansion in the US and Asia.The sale follows BKNI's acquisition of a programme library and Los Angeles production studios for $28m from BKN, effectively marking ...
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Albis Leasing takes control of Apollo Media
Germany's largest independent leasing fund specialist, Albis Leasing, has taken majority stakes in two subsidiaries belonging to private media fund, ApolloMedia, which backed this year's Sundance Film Festival opener My First Mister. As part of the transaction, which must still pass its supervisory board, Albis has acquired a 70% stake ...
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EM.TV plays down KirchGroup impasse reports
Executives at Germany's beleaguered rights trader and merchandising concern EM.TV have played down wide-spread reports that talks with media concern the KirchGroup are on the rocks.EM.TV spokesman Michael Birnbaum was quoted by Financial Times Deutschland as saying that there were "no problems which do not overstep the normal level". He ...
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Germany's CineMediaFilm merges internet arm
CineMediaFilm, one of Germany's first integrated media corporations, is merging its internet subsidiary Film.de with Heidelberg-based internet marketing platform kinokasse.de.CineMedia will receive a 25.1% shareholding in the online marketing venture. Film.de already boasts two million page impressions a month, while, along with more traditional concepts such as online booking, kinokasse ...
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Endemol sells back stake in Germany's G.A.T.
Munich-based TV production house G.A.T. Film- und Fernsehproduktion has bought back the 49% stake Dutch entertainment concern Endemol Entertainment acquired in the company three years ago.According to the specialist media newsletter Der Kontakter, the move was prompted by Telefonica's take-over of Endemol last year. That move was also followed by ...
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German fund doubles for international drive
The regional German film fund of Baden-Wuerttemberg, currently supporting the FilmFour-majority financed Buffalo Soldiers, is to almost double its annual spend to $10m as it seeks to attract further international productions.Fund organiser Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Wuerttemberg (MFG) has also launched a scheme whereby young producers can access a $1m fund ...
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Tele-Muenchen chief readies pay-TV push
German media mogul Herbert Kloiber is reportedly readying a digital pay-TV channel to go on air this summer.Tentatively titled TM-TV, the service is expected to screen action, adventure and science fiction genres. According to German press reports, Kloiber is planning the service with ex-TM3 managing director Jochen Krohne. The operation ...
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TEAM raises $50m production fund for TV projects
US producer-distributor TEAM Communications Group is a launching a $50m TV production fund entitled TEAM TV Fund following a pact with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).TEAM, which is listed on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt and the US NASDAQ exchange, has put up $ 5m of its own capital for ...
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Tele-Muenchen, Concorde pact with Studio Hamburg
Studio Hamburg's feature production arm, Studio Hamburg Letterbox Filmproduktion, has signed a three-picture co-production and distribution deal with Tele-Muenchen Group and its distribution arm, Concorde Film.Heading the trio of titles is Widerstand Der Herzen, the next project from internationally-renowned German director Margarethe von Trotta, which marks her first feature since ...
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Hit Komiker takes three nods for Swiss film awards
Box-office hit Komiker took three nominations including Best Feature Film for the annual Swiss Film Award, which will be announced during on January 24.Komiker was also nominated for Best Actress for Stefanie Glaser and Best Actor for Pinkas Braun. Also vying for best feature are Denis Rabaglia's Azzurro, Xavier Koller's ...
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Cineartists postpones Neuer Markt flotation
Munich-based production entity Cineartists Entertainment has postponed its planned flotation on Frankfurt's Neuer Markt following the recent plunge of Frankfurt's Neuer Markt.Cineartists was at the end of this month due but now aims to go to the market in the second quarter of 2001. Cineartists' interests include US film and ...
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RTL exits German pay-TV sector
Luxembourg-based RTL Group has withdrawn from the German pay-TV sector, exercising an option to sell its remaining 5% stake in pay-TV channel Premiere to majority shareholder KirchGroup. RTL's sale price of the Euro 124m holding follows its disposal of a 45% interest in the loss-making pay-TV operation to Kirch for ...
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Eichinger's Constantin confirms Perfume adaptation
Constantin Film chief Bernd Eichinger has beaten off rival bids from several directors and producers to acquire the exclusive film rights to Patrick Sueskind's international bestseller, Perfume; the story of a murderer.Once linked to Stanley Kubrick, Sueskind's 1985 German novel has been translated into 37 languages and was voted Book ...
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Berlin confirms Enemy At The Gates as opener
The Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed that it will open next month with Jean-Jacques Annaud's $90m Stalingrad epic Enemy At The Gates.The true-life story set against the battle of Stalingrad stars Jude Law, Ed Harris, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz and Bob Hoskins, plus local talent such as Matthias Habich ...
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Germany's Das Werk takes over Centropolis Effects
European digital post powerhouse Das Werk has established a key presence in the North American market by taking over Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's Los Angeles-based facility Centropolis Effects (CFX).Emmerich and Devlin, who launched the company in 1996 to handle digital effects on Independence Day, will receive a 4% stake ...
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Germany's e-m-s buys into two more media outfits
German DVD company e-m-s new media, the publicly-listed concern which bought into film rights trader Advanced Medien in December, has taken stakes in TV production house AZAWAKH and multimedia company get.Dortmund-based e-m-s has taken a 30% interest in AZAWAKH to develop formats for exploitation on TV and DVD. Named after ...
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Barry Levinson, Intermedia stike first-look pact
The true-life story which inspired the classic novel Moby Dick is the first project in an exclusive first-look deal announced on Friday between uber-indie Intermedia and Barry Levinson and Paula Weinstein's US production outfit Baltimore/Spring Creek Pictures.The partners are working on an adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick's National Book Award-winner, In ...
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Kinowelt gets investor as Koelmels sell 4.9%
German mini-major Kinowelt has gained a new long-term investor after Munich Re Insurance Group's acquisition of 1.2m shares - equivalent to 4.9% of the media concern's capital stock.The shares were bought from Kinowelt founders Michael and Rainer Koelmel. According to an adhoc announcement, the proceeds from the sale will be ...
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Splendid balks at acquiring further IEG shares
Germany's Splendid Medien has decided not to exercise an option to acquire further shares in its US production subsidiary IEG.Taking up the option on 2% of IEG's stock would have made the German concern majority shareholder with a 51% stake. In an adhoc statement to Frankfurt's Neuer Markt, Splendid said ...