All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 141
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Hannibal still heads US box office; Graceland weak
Franchise Pictures' violent actioner 3000 Miles To Graceland and Fox's costly animated/live action mix Monkeybone failed to make much of an impression at the box office which was led for the third week by MGM's smash chiller Hannibal. However the status quo is in for a shock next Friday as ...
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IEG directs Traffic to Japan, Australia
Initial Entertainment Group (IEG) has closed its last two remaining territories on Steven Soderbergh's Oscar contender Traffic, selling Japanese rights to Nippon Herald and Australian and New Zealand rights to Village Roadshow.In addition, IEG's CEO and president Graham King has closed a deal with Korea Pictures Co for Korean rights ...
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Summit spears diva Britney's first film project
Pop diva Britney Spears is the latest American megastar on offer to international buyers courtesy of Summit Entertainment which has boarded her first feature film. The as yet untitled film is being financed by her record label Jive Records and is set to start shooting next month.Summit Entertainment had no ...
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Miramax circles cult Japanese sci-fi fantasy
Continuing its buying spree of international films, Miramax Films is in the final stages of picking up domestic rights to Japanese sci-fi fantasy Avalon directed by Mamoru Oshii whose credits include cult movies Ghost In The Shell and Patlabor. The film, which - bizarrely enough - was shot in Poland ...
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AFM buyers adapt quickly to Spike Jonze
Intermedia and Good Machine International (GMI) have closed a raft of sales on Adaptation, the new movie from director Spike Jonze which stars Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper. Columbia Pictures will release the film in North America; sister company Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group has taken it for ...
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Del Toro, Rush join Intermedia's Assumption
Two of this year's Oscar nominees Benicio Del Toro and Geoffrey Rush, together with acting legend Vanessa Redgrave, are all lining up to star opposite Juliette Binoche in Intermedia's period drama Assumption Of The Virgin.Directed by Walter Salles, the film stars Binoche as a nun lured away from her convent ...
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Franchise labels latest accusations
Franchise Pictures' chairman Elie Samaha and president/COO Andrew Stevens yesterday responded to the latest charges in the lawsuit against them by Intertainment Licensing, labelling the accusations as "preposterous."Intertainment amended its suit on Tuesday to include Imperial Bank as a defendant, alleging that Imperial not only knew that the budgets on ...
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Sullivan launches feature film division
Canadian TV production and distribution outfit Sullivan Entertainment has launched a feature film division to develop, produce and finance its own productions to be distributed through Sullivan Entertainment International. The division kicks off with The Piano Man's Daughter starring Stockard Channing and Christian Campbell. Whoopi Goldberg is executive producer.The company, ...
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Winchester breaks more Hearts with deals
Winchester Films has closed two more major territories on Heartbreakers, the all-star comedy which MGM will release domestically on March 23. Dall'Angelo Pictures has bought Italian rights on the film and Buena Vista International has taken Australian rights. Starring Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Jason Lee and Ray ...
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Romero thriller shakes Ricky's Bon Bon
Latin singing superstar Ricky Martin is close to signing to star in his feature film debut in The Assassination - a political action thriller being directed by George A Romero and co-starring Oscar nominee Ed Harris, James Coburn and Anthony Quinn.. Set to start shooting in April, The Assassination is ...
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Erik Christenson promoted to run Myriad/J&M sales
Eric Christenson has been promoted to executive vice president, sales and distribution, at Myriad Pictures, from his previous position as senior vice president of acquisitions and distribution.Christenson will oversee all aspects of the sales and distribution team at Myriad and London-based J&M Entertainment; both Myriad and J&M are owned by ...
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Lions Gate acquires Tom Hanks-produced comedy
Lions Gate Films has acquired worldwide rights to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a comedy produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman's Playtone Productions.Based on the autobiographical stage show by Nia Vardalos, the film is directed by Joel Zwick, produced by Hanks, Goetzman and Hanks' wife Rita Wilson and stars ...
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Destination Films closes after 2 1/2 years
Destination Films, the mid-budget domestic distribution company founded in 1998 by Steve Stabler and Brent Baum, closed down at the end of last week after an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful run of releases.The company was funded by an insurance-backed $100m funding arrangement through a wholly owned subsidiary brokered by Willis ...
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Mark Litwak resigns as chairman of Reelplay.com
Entertainment attorney and producers rep Mark Litwak has resigned as chairman of Reelplay.com, an internet virtual marketplace for buying and selling film rights.The resignation comes after a series of lay-offs last week at Reelplay which was launched in Oct 1999 as a showcase for film trailers, promotion reels, synopses, stills, ...
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Original cast returns for Stuart Little 2 in March
Columbia Pictures has set the cast for Stuart Little 2, the sequel to its monster smash from 1999 which grossed $140m in North America and $160m in international territories.The film will start production in March under director Rob Minkoff with original cast members Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathan Lipnicki ...
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Mark Litwak resigns as chairman of Reelplay.com
Entertainment attorney and producers rep Mark Litwak has resigned as chairman of Reelplay.com, an internet virtual marketplace for buying and selling film rights.The resignation comes after a series of lay-offs last week at Reelplay which was launched in Oct 1999 as a showcase of film trailers, promotion reels, synopses, stills, ...
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Miramax signs development deal with The Onion
Miramax Films has signed a first look agreement to develop scripts and features with The Onion, an online-offline publisher of satirical news which was formed in 1988 in Madison, Wisconsion, and has quickly become a cult source of satire amongst college audiences with a weekly readership of 1 million viewers. ...
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Warner Bros launches Harry Potter website today
Warner Bros will launch the official Harry Potter website www.harrypotter.com (www.harrypotter.co.uk in the UK) today (Feb 16) in anticipation of the release of the film Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone in December.The site is planned as a community forum for Harry Potter fans across the world and is inviting ...
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13 French films screen at March Rendezvous in NYC
The annual New York festival of new French films Rendez-vous with French Cinema will take place March 9-18 with 13 new films in the lineup. Screening at the Walter Reade Theatre, the festival will be attended by among others Daniel Auteuil, Isabelle Huppert, Chantal Akerman, Xavier Beauvois, Jean Becker and ...
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Summit lines up Insomnia, Servicing Sara for AFM
Summit Entertainment has picked up two major studio projects for international distribution at AFM - Insomnia, a remake of the Norwegian thriller which Al Pacino is circling for director Christopher Nolan, is to be distributed domestically by Warner Bros, while Servicing Sara, a comedy starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley, ...