All articles by Mike Goodridge – Page 145
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News
Cast Away No 1 but Traffic flies high $14.9m
USA Films' critical favourite Traffic opened on a high in its first weekend of wide release.The Steven Soderbergh picture secured the highest screen average in the top ten - $9,991. Taking the number three spot, the film grossed $14.9m from 1,510 theatres.That result surpassed the expectations of many who had ...
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Winchester, Wind Dancer seal three-year deal
Wind Dancer Films, the US-based production company behind What Women Want and hit sitcom Home Improvement, has cemented its relationship with UK/US production and sales outfit Winchester Films.The two companies have struck an overall three-year development and co-production deal on a new slate of pictures. Winchester will provide development funds ...
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News
Fireworks, Goldwyn buy US on UK's Greenfingers
Fireworks Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films have reteamed to jointly acquire US rights to Greenfingers, the British comedy starring Helen Mirren and Clive Owen.The film, which world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September, will be distributed through IDP, the distribution joint venture between Fireworks, Samuel Goldwyn and ...
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Miramax adds two new Italian directors to the fold
Miramax Films has closed two separate multi-picture deals with Italian directors Gabriele Muccino and Davide Ferrario to develop and direct both English and Italian language productions.First picture to go under Muccino's deal will be Miramax's remake of Cedric Klapisch's Paris-set, French-language breakthrough hit, Chacun Cherche Son Chat (When The Cat's ...
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Sundance adds Campers, Stranger to fest lineup
The Sundance Film Festival has announced two surprise screenings which will be added to the 2001 lineup - Daniel Waters' Happy Campers and Cheryl Dunye's Stranger Inside.Happy Campers, financed and distributed worldwide by New Line Cinema, is the directorial debut of Waters. It stars Brad Renfro, Dominique Swain, James King, ...
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News
Robino joins MGM as s'r vp, worldwide promotions
Mary Goss Robino has been named senior vice president, worldwide promotions, at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) after ten years at New Line Cinema. Reporting to Gerry Rich, president of worldwide theatrical marketing for MGM, she will be responsible for developing creative marketing and promotional partnerships and tie-ins related to all the company's ...
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BVI tops 2000 international league with $1.307bn
Buena Vista International (BVI) grossed $1.307bn in 2000, marking it out as the top performing international distribution company of the year. Buena Vista was also the number one performing distributor in North America with a total of $1.1bn for the year.It is the sixth consecutive year that BVI has crossed ...
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Artisan, Marvel cast Ray Park as Iron Fist
Artisan Entertainment has signed Ray Park, who played Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace and Toad in X-Men, to play Iron Fist in its screen version of the Marvel Comics character. John Turman, whose credits include Buck Rogers In The 25th Century and The Incredible ...
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News
Cast Away tops $109m after only 11 days
Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson demonstrated their huge star power over the Christmas and New Year holiday weekends, notching up megahits in the form of Cast Away and What Women Want respectively. Accompanied by excellent reviews from most North American critics, Cast Away opened with a powerhouse $39.9m opening over ...
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2000 domestic box office breaks all-time record
The North American box office reached a record $7.45bn in 2000, up 2% from last year's $7.31bn, according to early estimates from box office data organisation ACNielsen EDI which is scheduled to reveal its final figures tomorrow.The record had looked unlikely earlier in the year after a disappointing summer (down ...
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Allegations fly between Franchise & Intertainment
Franchise Pictures has fought back against German distributor Intertainment Licensing, filing its own suit in the Superior Court of the State of California and issuing a second statement on Friday (Dec 22) saying that it was shocked at Intertainment's public revelations.Meanwhile Intertainment issued its own statement on Friday, explaining the ...
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News
Franchise fires back at Intertainment allegations
United International Pictures (UIP) chairman Paul Oneile and president Andrew Cripps have both renewed their contracts with the company, taking them through to 2006. The move comes as UIP enjoys a strong year, having already grossed $1.7bn this year thanks to films such as Shrek, Bridget Jones Diary and American ...
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Franchise to file suit against Intertainment today
Franchise Pictures has announced that it will file suit against Intertainment Licensing GmbH, Intertainment AG and Barrie Baeres in Los Angeles County Superior Court this morning. Details of the suit will be revealed during the morning.According to Franchise, the LA-based independent production company headed by Elie Samaha, Franchise had previously ...
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ShowBIZ Data restages Sundance Interactive Lounge
Business-to-business entertainment website ShowBIZ Data Inc is to stage its Interactive Lounge concept at the Sundance Film Festival in January for a second year running. The lounge, based at Harry-O's on Main Street, will host online and offline services for the independent film-making community including distribution, production, marketing and educationActivities ...
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Constantin bonds with IFG for multiple films
Germany's production outfit Constantin Film has closed a multi-picture agreement with LA-based completion bond company International Film Guarantors (IFG) under which IFG will be Constantin's principal completion guarantor. The first film to be overseen by IFG's Los Angeles office is the comedy Slap Her, She's French which began shooting in ...
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Broadcast Critics name Crowe, Roberts best of 2000
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), the largest film critics group in North America, has announced its winners for the sixth annual Critics' Choice Awards to be presented on Jan 22 in Los Angeles.Only one award remains undecided - Best picture for which the BFCA has put forward 11 nominations; ...
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Reviews
All The Pretty Horses
Dir: Billy Bob Thornton. US. 2000. 117 mins.Prod co: Miramax Films, Columbia Pictures. US dist: Miramax Films. Int'l dist: Columbia TriStar. Exec prods: Sally Menke, Jonathan Gordon. Prods: Billy Bob Thornton, Robert Salerno. Scr: Ted Tally, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. DoP: Barry Markowitz. Prod des: Clark Hunter. ...
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Reviews
What Women Want
Dir: Nancy Meyers. US. 2000. 126 mins.Prod cos: Icon Productions, Wind Dancer. US dist: Paramount Pictures. Int'l sales: Icon Entertainment International (+ 44 20 7494 8100). Exec prods: Stephen McEveety, David McFadzean, Carmen Finestra. Prods: Nancy Meyers, Bruce Davey, Matt Williams. Scr: Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa from a story by ...
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News
What Women Want breaks all-time December record
Mel Gibson's first stab at romantic comedy What Women Want was exactly that, with a massive estimated $34.4m opening over the weekend and over 60% of the audience consisting of women. Distributed by Paramount but sold internationally to independent distributors by Icon Entertainment International, the film could stand to become ...
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LA Critics declare Crouching Tiger Best Picture
Ang Lee's Chinese-language epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon increased its chances for consideration in major Oscar categories when it was named Best Picture of 2000 last night (Saturday) by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys was runner-up for best picture.However, not even Ang Lee could beat ...