All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 135
-
News
Tiger scores second biggest US DVD launch
Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has become the fastest selling DVD title in Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's history since its release in North America on June 5. The title has sold an estimated 1.5 million units with a 60% sell-off in its first week. On its first day of ...
-
News
German companies team to produce Ramones pic
German production outfits Red Beat Pictures and Indigo Filmproduktion have teamed up to acquire the rights to produce Too Tough To Die, a biopic of punk band The Ramones and its late lead singer Joey Ramone, with LA-based Capture Film Inc.Co-written and to be co-directed by German film-makers Peter Thorwarth ...
-
News
Finder's Fee wins top audience prize at Seattle
The Seattle Film Festival concluded its 27th event yesterday with a ceremony at which awards determined by local audiences were handed out. Prizes - dubbed the Golden Space Needle Awards - were determined from the 200 feature films screened over the epic 25-day running time of the festival.Jeff Probst's US ...
-
News
Tomb Raider's a smash: $48m opening for Paramount
Paramount Pictures' movie-of-the-video-game Lara Croft: Tomb Raider made a big impression at the North American box office at the weekend, taking a massive $48.2m despite across-the-board bad reviews. The movie is the third consecutive hit for director Simon West after Con Air and The General's Daughter and confirms its Oscar-winning ...
-
News
Fox Searchlight boards Boyle's 28 Days Later
Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired worldwide rights to 28 Days Later, the next film from director Danny Boyle and producer Andrew Macdonald, continuing 20th Century Fox's relationship with the British film-making duo after A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and The Beach (2000).The $15m film is to be co-financed by Searchlight ...
-
News
Miramax sues Abraham over remake rights
Miramax Films has filed a complaint in the New York District Court against English producer Eric Abraham, claiming that Abraham fraudulently inflated the prices for remake and/or sequel rights to 1995 foreign-language film Kolya and yet to be released Birthday Girl, starring Nicole Kidman."It has now become apparent," says the ...
-
News
Swordfish tops US box office, Shrek still hot
Warner Bros' R-rated action thriller Swordfish was number one at the North American box office over a static weekend, taking an OK $18.4m over its first three days on release although the generally poor reviews for the film and heavyweight action competition next week from Tomb Raider don't bode well ...
-
News
Universal downsizes LA international division
Universal Pictures, which distributes its films in international territories through the London-based United International Pictures (UIP), has downsized its Los Angeles international marketing and distribution department laying off six staff members. In addition, Thomas Castaneda, the much-liked veteran vice president of international publicity, has resigned.The move continues the studio's integration ...
-
News
Showcase closes deals on thriller Pendulum
LA-based producer/distributor Showcase Entertainment has completed a raft of deals on its thriller Pendulum during and after this year's Cannes Film Market. The film stars Rachel Hunter and James Russo and was produced by Blue Thunder Films and On Deck Productions; it was directed by James D Deck.Buyers included Videoville ...
-
News
Scorsese, Philips team up for widescreen promotion
Martin Scorsese has teamed up with Philips Consumer Electronics to launch a global education campaign designed to provide consumers with a clear understanding of widescreen-formatted television (16:9) and to promote the viewing of movies on widescreen versus standard television size.The campaign, dubbed "See What You've Been Missing", shows how widescreen ...
-
News
Actress Fiorentino countersues Germany's Art Oko
US actress Linda Fiorentino filed a response and cross-complaint yesterday in the Los Angeles Superior Court action brought against her by Art Oko Film, the German production company of abandoned film Till The End Of Time. Art Oko sued Fiorentino earlier this year claiming that she "held production of the ...
-
News
George Lucas to get 11th BAFTA/LA Britannia Award
The British Academy Of Film And Television Arts Los Angeles (BAFTA/LA) will give its annual Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence In Film to George Lucas. The award will be presented during a gala event in LA on Nov 10.Since the mid-1970s, Lucas has directed and/or produced nine films on ...
-
News
Chuck Speed leaves Regent, sets up consultancy
Chuck Speed, senior vice president of business affairs and finance at Regent Entertainment, is leaving the company to form his own consulting practice in entertainment finance and related matters. Stephen P Jarchow, Regent's chairman and CEO, has entered into a consulting and first look agreement with Speed, who will number ...
-
News
Steve Mertz promoted to senior vp at Warner Europe
Steve Mertz has been promoted to senior vice president, legal and business affairs, and general counsel - Europe for Warner Bros, from his previous position as vice president and general counsel - Europe.In his new post, Mertz will head Warner's European legal and business affairs department, managing the team of ...
-
News
De Luca named production chief at DreamWorks
Michael De Luca has been confirmed as the new head of production at DreamWorks Pictures, ending weeks of speculation as to whether the former New Line production chief would join the DreamWorks fold. De Luca reports directly to DreamWorks Pictures co-head Walter Parkes and studio principal Jeffrey Katzenberg.De Luca takes ...
-
News
Shrek gives Pearl Harbor a run for its money in US
Buena Vista's Pearl Harbor clung on to the top spot at the North American box office in its second weekend with a three-day take of $30m, but was closely followed by the dazzlingly successful Shrek from DreamWorks, which in its third weekend, took $28.4m. The Michael Bay-directed blockbuster fell over ...
-
News
DreamWorks announces theatrical Shrek sequel
DreamWorks SKG has announced a theatrical sequel to Shrek, its blockbusting animated movie which has already grossed in excess of $110m after just two weeks on release in North America.Writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who penned the film, have been hired to write the sequel, it was announced in ...
-
News
AMC says it will close 249 more US screens in 2001
Publicly traded US exhibitor AMC Entertainment is to close 249 screens this year in addition to the 66 it has already said it will close. The closures come the day after AMC reported a $63.6m net loss for the fourth quarter ending March 29 on revenue of some $290m.Losses in ...
-
News
Hedwig to open Outfest, All Over The Guy to close
Hedwig And The Angry Inch, the New Line Cinema-backed rock opera musical which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, will open this year's Los Angeles Gay And Lesbian Film Festival aka Outfest on July 12.The film, which also screened at the Berlin Film Festival, will be released in the US ...
-
News
New Line ties up Burger King for Lord Of The Rings
New Line Cinema has signed a massive promotional agreement with Burger King to support the Dec 19 worldwide openings of The Fellowship Of The Ring, the first in its keenly awaited Lord Of The Rings trilogy.The deal is the single largest promotional arrangement New Line has ever reached with a ...
