All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 138
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Kaaterskill, Jessica Stein win at LA Film Fest
Kaaterskill Falls and Kissing Jessica Stein were the two key prizewinners at yesterdays awards ceremony closing this year's revamped Independent Feature Project/West Los Angeles Film Festival. The event, which kicked off with the world premiere of Ed Burns' Sidewalks Of New York on Friday April 20, screened 51 feature films ...
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Seattle Film Fest to world premiere
21 feature films will receive their world premieres at this year's Seattle International Film Festival including the controversial O recently sold by Miramax Films to Lions Gate Films because of its scenes of shooting in schools. Also unspooling in Seattle will be new films from Alan Rudolph (Investigating Sex), Terry ...
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CTS creates global home entertainment mktg group
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (CTHE) has created a worldwide marketing group under president Benjamin S Feingold reinforcing the global nature of the business and reflecting Sony Pictures' unified domestic and international theatrical organisation under Jeff Blake.Three senior executives have been promoted within CTHE. Robin Russell, formerly executive vice president, has ...
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Neighbor's Dog, Made In France win Avignon/NY Fest
How To Kill Your Neighbour's Dog starring Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright Penn was named Best American Feature and Zakia and Ahmed Boucheala's Made In France was Best French Feature at the seventh annual Avignon/New York Film Festival last week.11 new French and seven new US features were screened at ...
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Driven drives lacklustre US box office with $13.1m
Franchise Pictures' bang-em-up car-racing actioner Driven opened at the number one spot in the North American box office last weekend with an okay $13.1m from 2,905 sites. Directed by Renny Harlin and starring and written by Sylvester Stallone, the movie was poorly received by critics and its opening hardly looks ...
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Senator Int'l makes first pick-up: Das Experiment
Senator International, the new Los Angeles-based sales company run by Joe Drake, has acquired worldwide rights excluding German-speaking Europe and Japan to Oliver Hirschbiegel's surprise hit Das Experiment. Marking the first film picked up by the new outfit since its formation earlier this year, Das Experiment has grossed $7.6m since ...
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MM Media Capital renamed Cobalt Media Group
Two year-old financing company MM Media Capital Partners (MCP) has changed identity, renaming itself Cobalt Media Group in light of its reorganisation as a finance, sales and distribution company. The new name is effective May 1.Founded in 1999 by NatWest/Coutts Bank's Rodney Payne, Hal Sadoff and Myles Nestel with financial ...
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Wind Dancer & Winchester buy Forever pitch
LA-based production outfit Wind Dancer Films has purchased the romantic comedy pitch Forever And A Day by Robert Zappia through its development fund with Winchester Films. Zappia, who wrote the story and screenplay for Halloween H:20 will also write the screenplay. He first worked with Wind Dancer principals Matt Williams, ...
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IFC Films buys domestic rights to The Chateau
IFC Films has acquired domestic distribution rights to Jesse Peretz's digital semi-improvisational comedy The Chateau which had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival this week. Fortissimo Film Sales has international rights.Starring Paul Rudd and Romany Malco as two American brothers who inherit a small castle in ...
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Brando drops out of Scary Movie 2 due to illness
Marlon Brando, who made headlines earlier this month when he agreed to play a cameo role as an exorcist in Dimension Films' Scary Movie 2 for an estimated $2m, has been forced to drop out of the project due to illness."Unfortunately, due to his health issues and unavailability, we must ...
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DreamWorks and TBS strike $350m-$450m deal
In a landmark output arrangement estimated to be worth between $350m and $450m, Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) has entered into a deal with DreamWorks SKG giving TBS entertainment networks US broadcast TV rights to 60 of the studio's films. Touted as the biggest film licensing agreement in the history of ...
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Ricardo Avila to leave Columbia TriStar Italy
Ricardo Avila is to leave his position as general manager of Columbia TriStar, Italy, after 16 years at the company. "It was a hard and difficult decision to make," he said in a statement. "After 16 years with this company in four different countries around the world it really felt ...
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Intermedia buys crime novel for Mark Johnson Prods
Intermedia has acquired movie rights to The Booster, a crime novel by Eugene Izzi, for Mark Johnson Productions to produce. The book was bought to Johnson by producer Louis DiGiaimo who collaborated with Johnson on Donnie Brasco.The Booster is the story of a big time thief who comes out of ...
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Zentropa signs worldwide deal with Universal Music
Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has entered into an exclusive worldwide agreement with Denmark's Zentropa Enterprises to administer its music publishing interests.The deal was struck with Zen Music, the publishing arm of Zentropa. As a result of the deal, UMPG will adminstrate Lars Von Trier's share of the songs from ...
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Leah Weil named general counsel at Sony Pictures
Leah Weil has been promoted to corporate senior vice president and general counsel for Sony Pictures Entertainment with responsibility for all company legal matters. She was previously executive vice president, legal affairs and deputy general counsel.Reporting to Beth Berke, executive vice president and chief administrative officer, Weil is now the ...
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Court dismisses RICO claims against Franchise
Franchise Pictures has won a second dismissal in its acrimonious court battle with Germany's Intertainment Licensing GmbH. On Friday, Judge Carlos Moreno of the US District Court issued an order granting Franchise motion to dismiss Intertainment's claims against it under the Federal Racketeering Influenced And Corrupt Organizations Act (known as ...
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Miramax buys UK, Manhattan close to US on Enigma
Miramax Films has acquired UK rights to Enigma, the World War II thriller directed by Michael Apted which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Intermedia co-financed the film with Germany's Senator Film and handled the UK sales to Miramax.Meanwhile Manhattan Pictures International, the recently formed New York-based producer/distributor run ...
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Universal Focus gets US rights to French smash
Universal Pictures has acquired US distribution rights to Christophe Gans' French blockbuster The Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Le Pacte Des Loups) and will release it under its specialised Universal Focus label in late 2001. The $25m film was acquired from StudiCanal, Universal's sister company in Vivendi, and marks the first ...
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Pacifica acquires Dances With Wolves sequel
LA-based development and production outfit Pacifica Film Development, which is backed by German film fund IMF, has acquired the film rights to the soon-to-be-published novel The Holy Road, the sequel to Dances With Wolves written by original author Michael Blake who will also write the screenplay adaptation.To be published on ...
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Bridget conquers America; Dundee, Freddy only OK
Bridget Jones's Diary vaulted to the top of the North American box office in its second weekend with an appetising estimated $10.53m at 2,211 sites for an average of $4,739 per site. Distributed domestically by Miramax Films, the comedy from Helen Fielding's best-selling novel had opened behind Spy Kids and ...