All articles by Martin Blaney – Page 234
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Wenders rockumentary to roll in March
A March 11 start has been scheduled for Wim Wenders' next film, Vill Passiert, a feature-length documentary about veteran German rockers BAP (Screendaily, Feb 11).Produced by Cologne-based production outfit Screen:Works and public broadcaster WDR with backing from Filmstiftung NRW, the film is described by Wenders as "a small road movie" ...
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X-Filme launches German distribution label
X Filme Creative Pool, the production company behind German hit Run Lola Run, has launched a distribution label along with a new development slate that includes its first non-German production.The new label - X Verleih - plans to release 4-8 films a year. Its first release will be the next ...
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CineMedia strikes co-prod deal with UK's Own2Feet
Following its entry into licence trading last month (Screendaily, Jan 26), expansionist German post-production entity CineMedia Film is becoming involved in international co-production through a strategic partnership with UK producer Own2Feet Productions.Under the terms of the deal, struck between Own2Feet and CineMedia production subsidiary TaunusFilm-Produktion, the two partners will each ...
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Wachs set to exit Babelsberg post
Studio Babelsberg chairman Friedrich-Carl Wachs has shocked the German film industry by announcing that he plans to quit his position at the end of the month.Speaking at a hastily-convened press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, Thierry Potok, managing director of Babelsberg owner Vivendi's German property and services division, said ...
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German admissions break records as revenues fall
Cinema admissions in Germany reached a new record last year, climbing from 148.9m to 149m, according to statistics from Berlin-based German Federal Film Board (FFA). However, at the same time, box office revenues fell by 1.2% from $807m (DM1.6bn) to $797m (DM1.58bn) because of a drop in the average ticket ...
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KCMedien, CineArtists board Stone's Beyond Borders
German film fund KC Medien and Munich-based film finance packager CineArtists are backing Oliver Stone's next feature Beyond Borders, which will be partly shot on location in Europe. The film, about medical organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, is the third project to receive backing from KC Medien following its change of ...
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Le Studio to run with Tykwer's Princess
French production and distribution giant Le Studio Canal Plus has picked up international sales rights to The Princess And The Warrior (Der Krieger Und Die Kaiserin), the latest project from Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer. Princess, produced by Stefan Arndt's X-Filme Creative Pool, is completed and due for ...
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Wenders changes tune with German rockumentary
Wim Wenders, whose latest film The Million Dollar Hotel opened this year's Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday night (Feb 9), has acquired a taste for music documentaries after his success with Buena Vista Social Club. Wenders has confirmed that his next project will be a feature-length documentary about German 'rock ...
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Naumann opens new bag of funding measures
German culture minister Michael Naumann has unveiled a package of measures to strengthen the federal government's culturally-oriented film funding programme.Naumann, whose film funding budget was raised this year from $7.75m (DM15.5m) to $9m (DM18m), is directing more money at script development with sums of up to $50,800 to be paid ...
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Lisowsky jumps from DreamWorks to Universal
Dirk Lisowsky has been appointed managing director of Universal Pictures Video Germany, replacing Haig Balian who headed up both theatrical and video operations for Universal in Germany before the decision to channel theatrical product through UIP.Lisowsky previously managed DreamWorks' operations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to that he held ...
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MTM to shoot biopic of student leader Dutschke
Munich-based production outfit MTM cineteve has successfully bid for the film rights to the biography of legendary student movement leader Rudi Dutschke.The biography - entitled Dutschke: We Had A Barbarically Lovely Life - was published by his widow Gretchen Dutschke in 1996. Urs Egger, whose credits include Opera Ball, will ...
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ProSieben, Sat1 mull collaboration options
German commercial broadcasters Sat1 and the ProSieben Media Group are considering forming a joint family of channels according to ProSieben's new chief Urs Rohner.The two groups are understood to be examining three scenarios. One involves Sat1 being brought into ProSieben with Sat1's shareholders becoming shareholders in ProSieben; while another sees ...
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Horror scores in German market
As Scream 3 breaks records in the US, the horror genre is making its mark in Germany - and this time for a locally produced film. Anatomie, written and directed by hot young Austrian Stefan Ruzowitzky, attracted 320,000 cinema-goers over its opening four-day weekend. Making almost $2m (DM4m) from 386 ...
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Fox to release Prokino slate in Germany
German independent distributor Prokino and 20th Century Fox have entered into an exclusive strategic cooperative alliance which will see all of Prokino's future releases being distributed by the US major, starting with Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labours Lost. Branagh's Shakespeare adaptation, which is showing at this year's Berlin Film Festival in ...
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Kinowelt picks up two from Checkpoint Berlin
Kinowelt International, the foreign sales arm of German media concern Kinowelt Medien, has acquired international rights to Hansjoerg Thurn's Love Never Fails (Marmor,) and Peter Keglevic's Falling Rocks (Stein Und Eisen).The films are the first two projects from young Berlin-based production outfit TTD Checkpoint Berlin. The company was founded a ...
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Muratova to receive Wajda Freedom Prize in Berlin
Russian director Kira Muratova, whose credits include the 1990 Berlin Special Jury prize winner The Asthenic Syndrome, will receive the first Andrzej Wajda/Philip Morris Freedom Prize at the Berlin Film Festival on February 13.Wajda, whose film Pan Tadeusz will receive a special screening at Berlin, will present the prize to ...
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Parallax, Road Movies' Princesa cranks up in Milan
Production has started in Milan on Henrique Goldman's Princesa, a three-way co-production between the UK's Parallax Pictures, Germany's Road Movies Filmproduktion and Italian distributor BIM.The film, which is Road Movies' fifth collaboration with London-based Parallax after films such as Ken Loach's Land And Freedom and Carla's Song, centres on the ...
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Apollo Media lines up Beresford, Cookson projects
German film fund Apollo Media, launched last November (Screen International, Nov 19, 1999), has unveiled its debut slate which includes new projects from Bruce Beresford, Stephen Cookson, Christine Lahti and Tomy Wigand. An April start is being slated for Bruce Beresford's long-gestating project, the $12m melodrama Alma - Bride Of ...
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Clooney, Wenders in frame for Golden Cameras
Actor George Clooney and German director Wim Wenders are among the names who will be honoured at the 25th Golden Camera Awards (Feb 8), on the eve of the Berlin Film Festival (Feb 9-20).Wenders' film The Million Dollar Hotel is opening the 50th Berlin Film Festival, and also featuring in ...
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Deutsche Telekom, Kirch plan Internet alliance
Deutsche Telekom and the KirchGroup are planning an alliance for cable television and the Internet, according to a report in Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper stated that Deutsche Telekom was considering an investment of more than DM500m ($253m) for a 51% majority stake in Kirch's research and software subsidiary Beta Research, ...