All News articles – Page 4449
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UK Film Council boss responds to 'unrealistic' Kuhn speech
UK FilmCouncil chief executive John Woodward has written a strongly worded letter toMichael Kuhn following the ex-Polygram Filmed Entertainment boss' speech to UKproducer's association, PACT. In his Mayspeech, titled 'UK Film Crisis And What Can Be Done', Kuhn argued that Britishproducers currently face the "bleakest prospects" since the mid-1980s.In ...
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NBC Universal keeps mum on DreamWorks acquisition report
Studio sources have declined to comment on yesterday's report thatNBC Universal is in talks to acquire live-action unit DreamWorks SKG.According to the New York Post the studios were in the earlystages of talks but a deal was not imminent.DreamWorks SKG issued a statement in which it said any commentsabout a ...
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US studios, exhibitors united on digital cinema standard
Hollywood'svision for a brave new world took a step closer to reality yesterday as leadingstudio and exhibition representatives unveiled an industry standard governingdigital cinema rollout.The move comesmore than three years after studios and exhibitors formed the Digital CinemasInitiative (DCI), the umbrella group charged with devising a set of unanimoussystem requirements ...
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Tartan Films in Great Ecstasy for Clay debut
Indiedistributor Tartan Films has acquired UK rights from Wild Bunch to ThomasClay's controversial Cannes Critics Week entry, The Great Ecstasy of RobertCarmichael. The feature,which is 25 year old Clay's directorial debut, stars newcomers Dan Spencer,Ryan Winsley and Charles Mnene alongside established talents Danny Dyer (HumanTraffic, The Football Factory) and Lesley ...
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Stein named senior vp for Dimension at The Weinstein Co
Matthew Stein has been named senior vice president of productionfor Dimension Films at The Weinstein Company.Stein will continue to work at Miramax in his current position asvice president of production for Dimension until Sept 30, after which time hewill assume his new full-time role at The Weinstein Company.Based in New ...
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Venice unveils full competition line-up
The Venice FilmFestival (August 31-Sep 10) has unveiled its streamlined line-up, whichfeatures a record nine US world premieres, as well as an eclectic mix of HighDefinition titles, documentaries and pictures from celebrated internationalfilm-makers.The main competitionincludes George Clooney's Goodnight and Good Luck, starring Clooney, Jeff Daniels and Robert DowneyJr, Abel Ferrara's ...
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Copenhagen selects ten Euro films for competition
The third Copenhagen International Film Festival (Aug18-28) has unveiled a ten strong line-up of European films for its maincompetition. Danish cinema is represented by by Murk, Jannik Johansen's thrillerfollow up to his caper comedy Rembrandt. German director Andreas Dresen follows up his festivalhit Grill Point with Willenbrock, the story of ...
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Gaumont on the mend with healthy financial results
French majorGaumont has announced its first half figures for 2005 with a healthy 25%increase in revenues compared to the same period last year. The film companyposted revenues of Euros 46.2mn and a profit of Euros 5.3m in the first sixmonths of 2005.Gaumont, whichis coming back into its own following a ...
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Wong Kar-wai's Lady shoot moves back to autumn
Wong Kar-wai's upcoming ALady From Shanghai looks set to moveinto production in the early autumn instead of an originally projected startdate of July.StarNicole Kidman has reportedly re-confirmed her participation in the film whichwill shoot in Russia - most likely St Petersburg - and elsewhere in the west. The film is ...
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UK film distributors boost media advertising spend
UK film distributors are investing more money intomedia advertising according to the Film Distributor's Association (FDA), thetrade body for UK theatrical film distributors. Inthe first six months of this year the territory's distributors spent $139m (£79.8m)on media advertising, a massive increase of 16% over the same period of 2004when $120m ...
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French DVD revenues plateau as prices plunge
French consumers spentEuros 770.3m on DVD and VHS purchases in the first half of 2005, a one percentfall on the same period last year. The total number of units sold was up, however,with a 22.6% increase. The discrepancy can be explained by a shift inpricing. During first half of 2005, ...
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Optimum acquires UK rights to Focus pair
Independentdistributor Optimum Releasing has acquired all UK rights to Rian Johnson's Brickandpurchased UK rights to Jeff Wadlow's Cry Wolf from Focus Features. The deal is the first between Focus andOptimum. Brick was awarded the Special Jury Prize at this year'sSundance Film Festival and is the story of a ...
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Locarno adds two features to official competition
Irene Bignardiis pulling out all stops for her last outing as Locarno's artistic director byselecting another two films for the official competition and bestowing aLocarno Excellence Award on the US actress Susan Sarandon.The twolatecomers just confirmed for the International Competition are Canadian LouiseArchambault's feature debut Familia, which is described ...
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Bay's Island looks for international rescue
As NorthAmerican figures broke over the weekend analysts were quick to label MichaelBay's The Island adisaster. Certainly it isthe director's first domestic flop, but observers largely failed to recognisethe film's strong start in international markets, which more and more oftenacts as a saviour these days. That will be oflittle consolation ...
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Chinese media giant takes stake in Oz film channel
ShanghaiOriental Pearl Group (OPG), owned by China's second largest media conglomerate,the Shanghai Media Group (SMG), is acquiring a stake in Australian TV channeloperator Pan TV, according to local press reports. OPG has signedan agreement to buy the stake but is still awaiting approval from Chineseregulators according to spokesman Hua Wei. ...
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Low budget horror Nailed cranks up in Belfast
Productionhas begun in Belfast on low budget horror feature Nailed from first-timedirector Adrian O'Connell and writer Stephen McAnena. The film,which is set in Brooklyn but being shot entirely on location in Belfast, starsCharles Porter and Sam Sarpong (American History X) as two pettycriminals on the run who hide out in ...
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Media Luna takes on sales for Three Degrees
Media Luna Entertainment has picked up international distributionrights for Florian Hoffmeister's Three Degrees Colder (3° Kaelter) whichwill have its world premiere in the forthcoming International Competition atthe Locarno Film Festival.Starring Bibiana Beglau, Sebastian Blomberg, Meret Becker, Johannvon Bülow, Katharina Schüttler, and Alexander Beyer, the drama among a group offriends reacting ...
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Venice Directors' Fortnight unveils 12 strong line-up
Twelve films from around theworld will screen in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar of the Venice FilmFestival, including Christopher Boe's Allegro, Ticket to Jerusalemdirector Rashid Masharawi's Waiting (Attente), and Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee's C.R.A.Z.Y.The secondedition of Venice Days, an independent sidebar run by Giorgio Gosetti, willfocus on "memory and cultural diversity." ...
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Madagascar wins international weekend with $24.6m take
At the final reckoning, DreamWorks' Madagascar did in fact rule the roost at the weekendinternational box office second consecutive weekend, as revised results fromUIP reveal it grossed an estimated $24.6m.The animated family title, which currently stands at more than$190m, was far ahead of Fox International's Fantastic Four which took $20.3m ...
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Aishwarya Rai enlists in De Laurentiis' Last Legion
Aishwarya Rai has joined thecast of Dino De Laurentiis' The Last Legion, which begins filming inTunisia on August 5. The Bollywood star joins previously confirmed leads ColinFirth and Sir Ben Kingsley. Directed by Doug Lefler, TheLast Legion is a Dino De Laurentiis presentation produced by Martha DeLaurentiis and Raffaella De ...