All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 234
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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Luxembourg-based RTL Group has withdrawn from the German pay-TV sector, exercising an option to sell its remaining 5% stake in pay-TV channel Premiere to majority shareholder KirchGroup.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 ...
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Kinowelt attacks RTL, Kirch buying tactics
Germany's Kinowelt Medien has slammed local broadcasters RTL and the Kirch Group for supposedly having an understanding akin to a "gentlemen's agreement" after passing on films from Kinowelt's $300m Warner Bros package.According to local newspaper Financial Times Deutschland, Kinowelt co-president Michael Koelmel said that the two groups of TV channels ...
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BKN International plans US, Japanese expansion
German children's animation producer and distributor BKN International (BKNI) is in final talks to acquire an animation studio in the US by the end of this year as part of its ambitious strategy of international expansion.Speaking at this week's shareholders' meeting, CEO Nadia Nardonnet said that in addition to the ...
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Media[netCom] to launch second VoD trial
Blair Witch Project, Ghost Dog and John Carpenter's Vampires are among an initial 200 features that will be offered by Germany's media[netCom] during its second set of video-own-demand (VoD) trials at the end of January. The trials will initially be launched in 25 test households in the Hamburg suburb of ...
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Germany's F.A.M.E. to open London outpost
German film and music production house, F.A.M.E. Film & Music Entertainment, is launching a 100% owned London-based subsidiary, F.A.M.E. UK, on Jan 1, 2001, to develop and produce English-language features.The Munich-based company is expected to appoint a UK film professional to head the operation, which is currently the responsibility of ...
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Intertainment, Franchise talk terms
Munich-based licence trader Intertainment is renegotiating its pan-European output deal with Elie Samaha's LA-based Franchise Pictures, which is thought to have soured after resulting in a string of flops.In a statement released Tuesday (December 19), Intertainment said that its subsidiary Intertainment Licensing had entered into negotiations with Franchise: "to clarify ...
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Helkon subsidiary wins Heimatfilm contract
Germany's home-grown genre, the Heimatfilm, which was popular in the 1950s with stirring tales of love and adventure set against the backdrop of Alpine landscapes, is to be dusted down and updated by Helkon Media's majority-owned TV production house, Sonne, Mond und Sterne.The Munich-based outfit has won a $13.7m (DM30m) ...
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Alsaska.de, England! among Max Ophuels nods
Esther Gronenborn's Alaska.de, Achim von Boerries' England! and Philip Groening's L'Amour, L'Argent, L'Amour are among 19 features from German-speaking territories which have been nominated for the $27,500 (DM60,000) Max Ophuels Prize. The award will be given out during the Max Ophuels Prize Film Festival, which take place in Saarbruecken, Germany, ...
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Advanced Medien chairman open to friendly takeover
Further ownership changes could be on the cards for Germany's Advanced Medien according to executive board chairman Christophe Montague, who has said that he is not excluding the possibility of a friendly takeover of the company.In an online chat with Financial Times Deutschland this week, Montague added that a takeover ...
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German internet provider joins Kinowelt in B.TV
Leading German internet service provider Web.de has joined mini-major Kinowelt as a shareholder in regional broadcaster B.TV Television, by acquiring a 9.94% stake in the Baden-Wuerttemberg-based channel.The move makes Web.de, which reaches 5.4 million users, the first German internet player to become directly involved in television.B.TV can be received by ...
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Munich prosecutor launches probe into EM.TV
Brothers Thomas and Florian Haffa and other executives at troubled German media concern EM.TV & Merchandising are being investigated by Munich state prosecutor Manfred Wick for alleged breaches of securities law.EM.TV spokesman Michael Birnbaum declared that the books of the licence trader would be open to the investigating authority as ...