All News articles – Page 4677
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Trio team for new Belgrade film studio
UK-basedtax financier Grosvenor Park, Serbian media group Pink International andWashington-based government lobbyist OCo International have partnered toco-produce a slate of horror films and build a new $20m film studio inBelgrade.Theinitial five low-budget productions will be set up as internationalco-productions accessing Serbian tax credits that the partners expect to beintroduced this ...
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Saddle Club set for big screen
Australia's CrawfordProductions and Canada's Protocol Entertainment are preparing to shoot afeature that is based on the hit TV series TheSaddle Club, which is currently screening on Discovery Kids in the US and,when last screened in Sydney, attracted an astounding 95% of all five to12-year-olds at its peak.Matt Carroll, who was ...
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Focus boards Onimusha
Samuel Hadida's Davis Filmshas enlisted Focus Features to handle sales outside of France and Japan to Onimusha, the ambitious live actionmovie of Capcom's best-selling video game. Hadida will produce the film basedon the game created by Keiji Inafune.Davis sister companyMetropolitan Filmexport will handle distribution in France, while GagaCommunications, which is ...
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Paris boosts film funding
France's Ile de Franceregion - the area that incorporates Paris and its environs - has announced itwill increase its available film funding by Euros 2m to Euros 12m next yearwith a view to bumping the total up to Euros 15M over the course of the next fewyears.The existing Euros 10m ...
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Seville, Capri team for Canadian releases
Two Canadian distributors -the newly formed Capri Films Releasing and Seville Pictures - have announced atwo-year distribution deal for theatrical releases serving French and EnglishCanada.Under the terms of the deal,Capri will service all Seville releases in English Canada, with Sevillereleasing all Capri films in Quebec.Discussions between Capri'sTony Cianciotta and Seville's ...
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Shochiku engineers Casshern sales
Japanese major Shochiku is reporting strong sales interest in sci-fititle Casshern, about a futuristicworld where biologically-engineered humans attempt to take over the earth.Contracts have already been signed with unnamed distributors for the UKand Portugal, and head of international business Masaki Koga says he is innegotiations for almost all major territories.The ...
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SPC flies with Zhang's Daggers
Sony Pictures Classics hasacquired North American rights to Zhang Yimou's House Of Flying Daggers which is screening in Cannes on Wednesdayout of competition.The epic action romancestars Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau and is produced by Bill Kong,whose Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragonwas also an SPC release, and Zhang Yeiping.House ...
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Euro tax financiers spread their wings
Led by UK players, Europe’s tax fund managers are diversifying their operations into new territories and new spheres of activity.Future Film, which has risen over £1bn of tax-backed film finance, yesterday announced that it is launching a fully-fledged German tax fund. The move follows the UK government’s February 10 clampdown ...
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Super sales for Fortissimo
Fortissimo Film Sales is on course for its best ever market."If we close everything that we expect by the end of the month we will exceedlast year's annual turnover," said company co-chief Michael J Werner.Its controversial documentary Super Size Me is close to selling out. Completed deals on thepicture are ...
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Gayet named as Jobson's Woman
Rising Frenchactress Julie Gayet is to star in British director Richard Jobson'ssupernatural love story Woman In Winter.UK seller ParkEntertainment, which is handling Jobson's ThePurifiers and its follow-up The OnlyOnes, has acquired international rights. Shot digitally, the film beginsproduction in Edinburgh in November with the support of Adobe.The story,written by Jobson, ...
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Merchant Ivory goes Latino
Merchant Ivory Productions(MIP) has acquired rights to Peter Cameron's novel City Of Your Final Destination and it will be James Ivory's nextfilm as a director after The WhiteCountess which is shooting later this year. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala iscurrently writing the screenplay.Talking to Screen in Cannesyesterday, MIP's Ismail Merchant said that ...
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Golden Harvest takes Grudge to Taiwan
Taiwan is now on the acquisitions radar for Hong Kong majorGolden Harvest.It has picked up Taiwanese rights to The Grudge, the English-language remake of Japanese chiller Ju-On being sold by SenatorInternational.Golden Harvest has previously licensed rights to the picturefor Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The move may pre-empt expansion of ...
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Tartan names Schreiber as US video president
Tartan USA has named AndrewSchreiber president of Tartan Video USA, a division of the new US distributorset up by Hamish McAlpine of Tartan Films in the UK.Schreiber joins Tartan afterten years at Playboy Video where he was vice president, international sales,and a stint running his own consultancy Forward Marketing.The home ...
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Van Helsing bearing down on $100m international
Official figures released yesterday (17) confirm Universal's VanHelsing grossed $24.5m on 5,121 screens in 41 territories in its secondweekend for a $95m industry running total.The picture added $23m from 4,876 screens in 38 UIP territoriesfor an $88.9m UIP total, while Russia, the Philippines and Iceland amassed$1.5m from 245 through third ...
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FINLAND 18 May
As expected the all-star monster get-together Van Helsingcouldn't hold the fort against Wolfgang Petersen's boys in skirts Troyepic, which had a massive 62 prints and a solid Euros 4,255 screen average.However, the most impressive screen average was The GirlWith The Pearl Earring's Euros 8,857 on just one print, which moved ...
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DENMARK 18 May
Nothing changed at the top of the Danish box-office chartthis week as none of the new releases had a chance of challenging the rule ofStephen Sommers' all-star monster get-together Van Helsing - despite the fact that it dropped 54% and had aadmission screen average as low as 236.But neither House ...
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UK/IRELAND 18 May
UIP's Van Helsingheld on to the top spot in the UK and Ireland over the weekend, in the absenceof any tough competition.The film grossed a further £2.4m between Friday and Sundaygiving it a cumulative gross of £9.6m so far.However, Troy's £89,286 from its single screenplatform in London's West End, indicates ...
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Initiative awards six completion grants
US-basedcharitable foundation Global Film Initiative has awarded six $10,000 completiongrants to film-makers from the developing world to be used with finishingproduction and post-production costs.The titles are: Manuel Niero Zas' story of a young man building ahouse in The Dog Pound (Uruguay), Albertina Carri's tale of anincestuous affair between siblings in ...
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Canadian film and video industry hits record
Canada's film and video industry saw a record-high $2.36bn(C$3.3bn) in revenues domestically and internationally in 2002-2003, up 8% fromthe year previous.According to numbers released by Statistics Canada, distributorssold a record $1.14bn (C$1.6bn) in DVD and video cassettes while the nation'scinema circuits saw a near 15% rise in revenues, reaching $331.2m ...
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Osher named COO at Columbia Pictures
Industry veteran Bob Osher has been named chief operatingofficer of the Columbia Pictures Motion Picture Group and began working at thestudio's Culver City-based lot yesterday (17).Osher's dutiesincludeoverseeing business affairs and physical production for the studioand he will report to Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman Amy Pascal, workingalongside co-presidents of production Doug ...