All News articles – Page 3964
-
News
Magnolia's Magnet takes on Toby Wilkins' Splinter
Magnolia Pictures' new genre label Magnet has swooped on its second acquisition in the last couple of days and taken North American rights to Toby Wilkins' directorial debut Splinter. The film is nearing completion and centres on a young couple on the run that finds themselves besieged in a ...
-
News
UPI's Kingdom, Golden Age challenge Ratatouille at the box office
Several overseas releases are in the mix this weekend that could dethrone Ratatouille from the number one international film after four consecutive weekends.Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International's (WDSMPI) animated hit crossed $350m on October 30 and currently stands at $353.2m.The animated hit currently ranks as the company's seventh biggest ...
-
News
UK short festival Encounters partners with Babelgum
After striking partnerships with the Soho Shorts Film Festival and the Giffoni Film Festival, Internet TV platform Babelgum has now struck a deal with the Encounters Short Film Festival.Encounters, which will host its 13th edition this month in Bristol, UK, will now offer festival participants the chance to broadcast their ...
-
News
Fresh heir: Director Jean-Marc Vallee and producer Graham King on the set of The Young Victoria
It is an unseasonably warm mid-October day at Blenheim Palace and under a cloudless blue sky in one of the courtyards of the Oxfordshire stately home, French-Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee prepares for his next shot. He is in the final week of the 10-week shoot of The Young Victoria, a ...
-
News
Awards Countdown - High class of 2007
A glut of English-language movies, probably caused by the flood of equity into the production market over the last two years, will make for an unusually competitive awards season this year.
-
News
Awards Countdown - Best Animated Feature - Year of the Rat
He made the beloved hand-drawn Iron Giant in 1999, he won the Academy Award for The Incredibles in 2004 and this year he delivered one of the best reviewed animated films in the last two decades with Ratatouille. He is probably the most exciting animation director at work today. But ...
-
News
Awards Countdown BAFTA - BAFTA/LA - Star quality
'Evolution not revolution' is how Bafta/LA chairman Peter Morris describes the climate at Bafta's sister organisation in Los Angeles.Morris, a board member for four years, is presiding over his second term as chairman. Nobody acquainted with the personable Scotsman would deny that under his tenure Bafta/LA has further cemented its ...
-
News
Awards Count Down BAFTA - A night at the opera
Bafta has become a master of reinvention. In just a few years, it has elevated the UK's prime awards show into a global attraction. Anyone looking for evidence of its importance as a bellwether for the Oscars should note that eight of this year's major winners went on to repeat ...
-
News
Piracy - Awards Piracy - Screeners: a calculated risk
When it comes to screeners, distributors are having to square the potential piracy risk with the benefits of getting their film in voters’ DVD players.
-
News
Piracy - Deep Impact
When Los Angeles-based independent film sales agent Barbara Mudge was in Russia recently trying to sell a film, she ran into a barrier that was starkly different from the usual distributors' objections about weak plots, lack of stars or price.'The man said: 'I can't buy your movie because it hasn't ...
-
News
EFP creates jury to select Shooting Stars for Berlin
European Film Promotion has changed its Shooting Stars programme by adding a jury to select the actors to be touted.Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus will serve as president of the new jury, who will vote for nine up-and-coming European actors to be presented as Shooting Stars at the 2008 Berlinale.Twenty two EFP ...
-
News
Gerald McMorrow takes on parallel worlds in Franklyn
Franklyn proves to be a tricky film set to visit. The project, which wraps principal photography in mid-November, is not only hard to describe, it is hard to observe without learning so much that the plot twists are spoiled.Early reports had pegged Franklyn as a 'futuristic thriller' but first-time feature ...
-
News
In focus - Will war films win in the gulf'
The Middle East is having its 'Vietnam moment', in celluloid terms at least: the slew of Iraq- and terrorism-themed films coming out of Hollywood is drawing comparisons with the rash of war pictures in the late 1970s.'In The Valley Of Elah, and others like it, are a reaction to 9/11 ...
-
News
Weed leads nominations for Asian Festival of 1st Films
Chinese director Wang Liren's feature debut Weed is the frontrunner at the 3rd Asian Festival of 1st Films (AFFF) with five nominations, including best film and best director. The picture which premiered at Rotterdam this year is about a day-wage worker in Beijing who falls for a prostitute which leads ...
-
News
Persepolis, Unrelated take prizes at London Film Festival
The Times BFI London Film Festival closed last night with its Sutherland Trophy going to Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis.The Sutherland is for the most original and imaginative first feature at the festival.The Sutherland jury said the film was 'an astonishing and courageous film which captures a universal story ...
-
News
Spiderwick Chronicles set for simultaneous IMAX release
Paramount Pictures will release The Spiderwick Chronicles simultaneously in IMAX and conventional cinemas, the companies announced today. The fantasy adventure will be released in the US and Canada on February 15, 2008. The agreement is the fourth between Paramount and IMAX in the past five months. Paramount releases an IMAX ...
-
News
Hot Docs in April 2008 to spotlight Iran and Mexico
Contemporary documentary cinema from Iran will be the focus of National Spotlight programme of the 15th annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, it was announced yesterday. Mexico has been selected for the festival's other national-themed sidebar, the Made In programme. The festival runs from April 17 to ...
-
News
Whistler unveils competition line-up including Continental and Amal
Stephane Lafleur's Continental: A Film Without Guns and Richie Mehta's Amal are among the six titles competing at the upcoming Whistler Film Festival. Continental premiered at Venice and won the Best First Canadian Feature Film prize at Toronto. Amal debuted at Toronto. Other titles in the Whistler competition are Mark ...
-
News
High Point sells Extraordinary Rendition to North America and Latin America
High Point Media Group has kicked off AFM with two new sales for Jim Threapleton's Extraordinary Rendition. The film was sold to North America (BFS Entertainment) and Latin America (LAPTV). Extraordinary Rendition, starring Andy Serkis and Omar Berdouni, is about an innocent man abducted from London and interrogated abroad.'We are ...
-
News
Chengtian acquires 25% stake in Golden Harvest
Beijing-based Chengtian Entertainment Group has reached a deal with Raymond Chow, chairman of Hong Kong 's Golden Harvest Entertainment, to buy his shareholding in the company. Chengtian will pay $26m (HK$202m) in cash for a 24.78% stake and $2.6m (HK$20m) in convertible notes in Golden Harvest from Chow and related ...