All News articles – Page 4444
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Thai martial arts pic smashes box office records
SahamongkolfilmInternational's martial arts flick TomYum Goong has smashed box office records in both Thailand and Hong Kong onits opening weekend.The US$8mpicture, a follow up to Ong Bak thatreunites director Prachya Pinkaew and action star Tony Jaa, has grossed amassive $2.4m (THB98m) after four days of release on a record 243 ...
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Circle Work scores at Oz pitching contest
Afeature called Circle Work by Edwina Exton, a Melbourne-basedactor-turned-screenwriter, has won the high-profile pitching competition heldas part of the annual Australian producers conference.Shedescribed the film as a highly commercial romantic comedy set amid the chaos ofa B&S (bachelor and spinster's) ball, an iconic event in rural Australia. Thetitle refers to ...
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McGregor, Okonedo, examine their Sexual Nature
Scenes Of A Sexual Nature, made for less than £500,000 andstarring 17 of Britain's top actors including Ewan McGregor, Sophie Okonedo,Gina McKee, Eileen Atkins and Hugh Bonneville, is set to wrap next week onLondon's Hampstead Heath.Director Edward Blum's feature debut, Scenes Of A Sexual Naturelinks seven stories and 14 principal ...
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Queensland unveils post-production incentive
TheQueensland Government has added a post-production incentive scheme to the raftof temptations it already offers local and overseas film and televisionproducers who decide to shoot in the North-East corner of Australia.Themove makes Queensland a one-stop production shop, said the Minister for ArtsRod Welford, who announced the scheme when he officially ...
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...as Garcia enjoys acclaim with festival hit
Rodrigo Garcia'sNine Lives proved thehit of the 58th Locarno International Film Festival, with the jury awarding itboth the Golden Leopard grand prize and the best actress award, which wasshared between the film's nine leading actresses.2005 jurypresident, Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, revealed the jury's finaldiscussions went on until 3am. He told ...
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Garcia's Nine Lives takes top Locarno prize
RodrigoGarcia's Nine Lives has becomethe first US film to win Locarno's top award, the Golden Leopard for Best Film,for 14 years.The last US film to win thetop honour was Tom DiCillo's feature debut Johnny Suede at the festival in 1991.Nine Lives, which was the only US title selected for thisyear's ...
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Kindred picks up techno-thriller Phreaker
Musicproducer Joe Nicolo's fledgling boutique distributor Kindred Media Group haspicked up universal rights from Tasty Pixels to Mark Young's techno-thriller Phreaker.The Los Angeles and Pennsylvania-based Kindred plans a limited 2006 release on the story of a digital-age entrepreneur who falls foul of the police and a vicious thug.Eric Wippo stars ...
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Strings director wins backing for dark satire
Danish director Anders Ronnow-Klarlund has won backingfor his follow-up to festival title Strings,called John, Bodil, China and Melanie.The Danish Film Institute (DFI) has invested Euros500,000 in the project which will be produced by Zentropa Entertainment.Ronnow-Klarlund's fourth film is a satire set in a nottoo distant future. A quarter of the ...
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Malkovich lines up Zemeckis project
JohnMalkovich has revealed details of several new projects he is slated to work onduring the next year. The actor producer-director discussed the projects whilegiving a masterclass at the Locarno film festival this week. Chiefamongst these was the revelation that he may be joining the cast of RobertZemeckis' highly anticipated project ...
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San Sebastian adds 13 titles to competition line-up
The Donostia-San SebastianInternational Film Festival (Sept 15-24), now in its 53rd edition, has unveiled13 more predominantly European and Asian features selected to complete thisyear's official competition.Among the high-profiledirectors throwing in their hat are Terry Gilliam, with his Texas-set tale of ayoung girl's fantasy world in Tideland, and Michael Winterbottom's period ...
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Oz opens applications for $15.5m tax fund
The Australian government has called for applications fromlocal companies interested in winning a licence giving them the right to raise$15.5m (A$20m) over the next two years for investment in the film andtelevision industry.Investment inproduction in Australia already delivers a 100% tax deduction but under theFilm Licensed Investment Company (FLIC) Scheme ...
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NatGeo festival includes South African world premiere
The work of indigenous and under-representedminority-culture filmmakers will be celebrated at National Geographic's secondannual All Roads Film Festival commencing in Los Angeles next month.The four-day multimedia event includes the world premiere of EmmaKaye and Eric Oldrin's South African title Beyond Freedom, as well as the US premiere of the Maoridocumentary ...
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Bignardi plans life after Locarno
Locarno's outgoing artistic director Irene Bignardi says she hopes hersuccessor will build on the work of the last five years to give the festivalits own unique place in the international festival landscape.Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily.com, she diplomatically skirtedthe issue of confirming who her successor would be (the name of Frederic ...
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Bleiberg leaves Dream to pursue new vision
DreamEntertainment principals Ehud Bleiberg and Yitzhak Ginsberg are parting ways,with Ginsberg staying on to run the Los Angeles-based production and salesoutfit and former chairman Bleiberg leaving to set up his own venture.Both parties will share rights and jointly sell a number of projects in variousstages of readiness including the upcoming ...
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Island floats to UK, Mexico in foreign rescue mission
Warner Bros Pictures International stable-mates The Island and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory will be the ones to beat this weekendwith a slew of major market debuts.Michael Bay's sci-fi action famously flopped when it launched inNorth America through DreamWorks, but its international prospects look adifferent story.Currently standing at more than ...
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Goal! 2 signs House Of Wax director
Jaume Collet Serra, the Spanish director of Warner Bros' HouseOf Wax, has signed to direct Goal! 2, the second film in MilkshakeFilms' football trilogy. Shooting starts in October in Spain and London. Thetrilogy follows a Mexican boy from Los Angeles to play football in the UK,before transferring to a Spanish ...
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Czech relief as Omen 666 books into Prague
20th Century Fox's The Omen 666 is set to shoot in Praguein the Czech Republic from late October.Prague-based productionoutfit Etic Films will work with Fox on the new instalment in the Omenfranchise, which is directed by John Moore, Etic's head of production VeronikaFinkova told ScreenDaily.com.The Omen 666 joins YoungHannibal: Behind ...
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UK training levy to become mandatory for producers
TheSkills Investment Fund (SIF), the UK film training levy, is to become amandatory payment for producers from next year. SIF is currentlyvoluntary and is collected by training body Skillset. It sees productions shooting in the UKcontribute 0.5% of their budgets up to a maximum of £39,500 into a fund tosupport ...
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Flying Scotsman takes off in Glasgow
Shooting has begun onlocation in Glasgow on The Flying Scotsman, the feature debut of TVveteran Douglas Mackinnon.Thierry Wase-Bailey's newsales outfit Celsius has taken on international sales for the film, which starsJohnny Lee Miller (Melinda and Melinda), with Billy Boyd (The Lord ofthe Rings trilogy), Brian Cox (The Bourne Supremacy) and ...