All News articles – Page 4680
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Focus takes int'l on Cronicas
Focus Features has picked upinternational rights to Cronicas, theserial killer drama starring John Leguizamo and Leonor Watling screening in UnCertain Regard tomorrow. John Sloss's Cinetic Media is handling North Americansales.Shot in Ecuador by directorSebastian Cordero, Cronicas was produced by Producciones Anhelo's AlfonsoCuaron and Jorge Vergara. Focus also handled sales on ...
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Miramax makes Grimm German deal
Miramax International has made its first German sale in two years,clinching a deal on Terry Gilliam's TheBrothers Grimm with Concorde Film.The company is selling all territories on the film,budgeted in the $80m region, including those territories in which ittraditionally handles its own pictures such as Germany, UK, France, Spain,Australia and ...
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Dear Wendy goes to Japan
After a two day bidding war,Thomas Vinterberg's Dear Wendy hasbeen sold to Wise Policy of Japan by Denmark's Trust Film SalesWritten by Lars VonTrier, it is a contemporaryEnglish-language film set in the US about a group of young pacifists who becomeobsessed with guns. It is currently in post-production.
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Locarno to focus on Mekong Delta
Film-makers from the Mekong Delta region will be at thecentre of this year's Locarno festival (4-14 Aug). The festival's Open Doorssection will host a delegation of directors from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia whowill present a selection of their previous films and attempt to match theircurrent projects with financiers and distributors ...
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Lions Gate wraps up Japanese horror package
Lions Gate Films has boughtworldwide distribution rights to the six-film horror package of films byproducer Taka Ichise dubbed J-Horror Theater.The franchise of films is bysix Japanese horror masters - Takashi Shimizu who made The Grudge, Hideo Nakata (TheRing, Dark Water), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure,Pulse) and screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi who wrote the ...
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Sundance to introduce world cinema competition sections
Sundance FilmFestival organisers are raising the profile of international films with theintroduction in 2005 of the World Cinema Competition, which will present twoawards alongside the Independent Feature Film Competition for US independents.Jury prizes willbe awarded to the best of 16 entries in the World Cinema Dramatic Competitionand the best of ...
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Shrek producer turns to Europe to bankroll Vanguard slate
Vanguard Films,the production company headed by Shrek 2 and Shrek producer John Williams and Neil Braun, is exploringEuropean investment sources to bankroll an initial slate of five animationfilms.The long-termfinancing pact is aimed at building on the company's foray into theindependent sector with Valiant, Happily N'Ever After and Space Chimps.Braun told ...
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Shikiya named svp marketing and distribution at MGM
Steven T Shikiya has beennamed senior vice president of marketing and distribution at MGM, assuming alarge portion of the former duties of Danny Rosett, who was recently named UApresident.Shikiya will oversee allfinance, planning and operational support for the domestic theatrical marketingand distribution groups for MGM Studios and UA, reporting to ...
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Media Asia revs up Initial D with Infernal Affairs talent
Hong Kong productionpowerhouse Media Asia has confirmed the directors and cast for its big-budgetcar racing drama, Initial D, which reunites key talent from its hugelysuccessful Infernal Affairs trilogy.As expected, InfernalAffairs directing duo Andrew Lau and Alan Mak will direct the US$8m comicbook adaptation, which is scheduled to start shooting in ...
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AFM increases stakes in autumn market battle
The fight to be thepredominant autumn market stepped up a gear with the AFM's announcement that ithas over 200 companies committed to exhibit at the Loews in Santa Monica thisautumn (Nov 3-10)."We've had a tremendousresponse from AFM exhibitors. Our new alliance with AFI Fest will make theupcoming AFM bigger and ...
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Spice Factory taps into South Africa
Jason Piette andMichael Cowan's Spice Factory has joined forces with South Africa's Film Afrikato co-produce films with South Africa, which is seen in the UK as a burgeoningco-production partner.The deal comes asthe UK and South Africa are expected to forge an official co-production treaty.Spice Factory, a highly active co-producer and ...
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Almodovar toys with trio
Spain's El Deseo is preppinga new English-language drama from director Isabel Coixet for an autumn shootprior to cranking up Pedro Almodovar's as-yet undecided next film in 2005.Almodovar, whose latestfeature, Bad Education (Mala Educacion) inaugurates Cannes, has threescripts in development, according to producer Agustin Almodovar. The directoraverages one film every two ...
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Media Asia dials up Feng's Phone, Thieves
Premier Hong Kong studio Media Asia has picked upinternational sales rights to Cell Phone, the most recent film by one ofChina's most accomplished directors' Feng Xiaogang. The smash hit complementsthe group's burgeoning star-driven production slate which is unveiled atCannes.Cell Phone, a light-hearted drama about thea TV chat show host (Cannes ...
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Assassination Of Nixon proves popular
Senator International hascompleted key territory sales on Niels Mueller's The Assassination OfRichard Nixon which stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Don Cheadle andscreens in Un Certain Regard on May 17.UGC has taken the film forFrance, Lucky Red for Italy and Wise Policy for Japan, while Senator hasextended its sales agency ...
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Baeres 'had to destroy' Intertainment
The wild ride ofIntertainment Licensing CEO Rudiger "Barry" Baeres took a solemn turn onTuesday as Baeres described the collapse of his company to a jury in a SantaAna, California federal courtroom.Testifying inIntertainment's $100m film-budget fraud lawsuit against Franchise Pictures andits CEO, Elie Samaha, Baeres recounted how he became a pariah ...
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BBC's Tweenies head for the big screen
Arclight hasstarted selling international rights to the feature film version of hit BBCchildren's television show, Tweenies.The $15m familycomedy starts shooting in the UK this September for release summer 2005. It is being co-produced by Tell Tale Films,Spice Factory and UK tax fund Movision, which will also co-finance.The film has beenwritten ...
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Billie Piper falls into Spirit Trap horror
British popsinger-turned-actress Billie Piper is to star in Spirit Trap, a horrorfilm set to start shooting this month for the UK's Archangel Filmworks andSpice Factory.Directed by DavidSmith from a script by himself and Phil O'Shea, the film is set in an Englishtownhouse where an evil legacy haunts a group of ...
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Boorman heads Rai Cinemas' English-language drive
Italy's Rai Cinema is liningup a John Boorman Roman epic as part of move to bankroll a slate of Englishlanguage features, and is also backing new Italian projects from Cannesveterans Marco Bellocchio and Pupi Avati.John Boorman is in talks todirect an adaptation of Marguerite Yourcenar's historical novel, Memoirs OfHadrian, a ...
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Liam Neeson mulls Breakfast
Neil Jordan hasapproached Liam Neeson to join the cast of his upcoming black comedy BreakfastOn Pluto.Neeson would playthe father of the main character, a boy who flees Ireland to end up as atransvestite prostitute in London, who will be played by rising Irish starCillian Murphy.Jordan, whostarts shooting for Pathe Pictures ...
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British talent headlines Moviehouse slate
UK-based sales company Moviehouse Entertainment has struck a three-film partnership with Subotica Entertainment, the Irish producer of Sundance success Song For ARaggy Boy.