All News articles – Page 4982
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Kirk Douglas signs to The Illusion for Entitled
Kirk Douglas has joined the cast of The Illusion for production house Entitled Entertainment, it was announced today (Jan 22) by partners James Burke and Scott Disharoon. Burke and Disharoon, along with Kevin Weisman and Anahid Nazarian, will serve as producers on the film, which marks actor Michael Goorjian's directorial ...
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Spice Factory options Ondaatje's Forgotten Games
UK production outfit Spice Factory has optioned the rights to The Forgotten Games, an original screenplay by David Ondaatje based on the true story of the British Olympic ice hockey team's controversial participation in the 1936 Winter Olympics in Nazi Germany. Ondaatje also plans to direct the film which is ...
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Huge selection as full Panorama line-up is unveiled
Over thirty feature films have been selected for the final Panorama section (Main Programme & Specials) of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-14), which will open with Emir Kusturica's production Jagoda In The Supermarket (Jagoda u Supermarketu) (pictured) by Dusan Milic.Some 26 of the full-length films are world premieres, ...
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Soft Money - The newcomers
Like a Japanese ronin, independent film-producers are rarely able to settle down with a cosy financier for very long. Samurai warriors without a master, they are forced to roam the lonely planet in search of the ever-shifting treasure chests that will bankroll their good deeds. The reason is simple: private ...
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Zentropa to cut staff by 25%
Danish production company Zentropa is to cut a quarter of its staff; while local authorities investigate a number of its subsidiary companies.Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Lars von Trier's Zentropa is set to lose 20 out of a total of 80 of its staff in the weeks to come.At the same ...
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Theatrical distributor Cinemac launches in Colombia
Despite a 40% dip in admissions over the last two years, a new distributor has launched in Colombia in a bid to introduce more independent cinema to the country. Under the banner Cinemac, the new indie plans to release three to four titles a month, starting with Victor Salva's Jeepers ...
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Question mark hangs over Irish film industry
The near-demise of the Irish Film Board last year has placed a question mark over the future direction of the Irish industry.It was the nightmare before Christmas, really. During the seasonal party time it emerged that the Irish Film Board had come within a hair's breadth of abolition in a ...
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Miramax tracks down Station Agent at Sundance
Marking its first Sundance Film Festival acquisition this year, Miramax Films beat out several other rivals to pick up all English speaking territories and Italian rights to The Station Agent, a small, intimate character study from first-time director and screenwriter Tom McCarthy that appears in dramatic competition here.Although no price ...
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Arclight takes international on Dentists
Gary Hamilton's Arclight Films has picked up international rights to Alan Rudolph's The Secret Lives Of Dentists which screens this week in the premiere section of the Sundance Film Festival after its world premiere at Toronto last September.Manhattan Pictures has domestic rights to the film which was produced by Holedigger ...
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Forum of New Cinema line-up finally unveiled
Fifty two films from 24 countries have been selected for the Forum of New Cinema at next month's Berlin International Film Festival. Directorial debuts by young filmmakers from Argentina, China, Japan, Mozambique, Hungary, the United States and Thailand together make up almost a third of the entire programme. Twenty-six of ...
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Vivendi Universal closer to selling US entertainment assets
Vivendi Universal, the European media conglomerate which owns Universal Studios and StudioCanal, has moved up a gear in its attempt to dispose of its US entertainment assets. According to reports, Vivendi Universal has appointed lawyers to help it unwind its relationship with Barry Diller, the former Fox chief who oversees ...
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Barrandov Studios to be re-nationalised'
Czech Barrandov Studios owner Moravia Steel has brushed off government suggestions that the Prague film complex might be re-nationalised, with Moravia Steel supervisory board chairman Tomas Chrenek saying he had only read about the suggestion in the press and had heard no official word from the government about the proposal. ...
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Takeshi Kitano eyes blind swordsman project
Takeshi Kitano will direct and star in a feature film version of the Japanese Zatoichi film series, playing the title role of the blind masseur and master swordsman. The original series of films, starring Shintaro Katsu, began in 1962 and ran for 26 episodes, until 1989. It has long been ...
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City Of God to open Mar Del Plata festival
Fernando Mereilles' City Of God will open the upcoming Mar del Plata International Film Festival (March 6-15), the oldest film festival in the Americas.Artistic Co-ordinator Miguel Pereira announced that Meirelles' critically acclaimed film will screen out of competition, as will the selection for the closing night - Spanish director Carlos ...
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Jeremy Thomas returns to UK distribution
Leading UK producer Jeremy Thomas is returning to UK distribution some 15 years after launching Recorded Releasing with Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.Thomas is close to taking a stake of around 20% in Optimum Releasing, the independent UK distributor which has been steadily building a reputation with canny specialist releases ...
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Kinderfilmfest international jury announced
The Berlinale's Kinderfilmfest has announced its International Jury which will award the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Grand Prix.The five jury members are:German director Christina Schindler (Rinnsteinpiraten); Norway's Lars Berg (winner of the Grand Prix and the Crystal Bear for Glasskar last year); Ricardo Casas, director of Uruguay's Festival Internacionale de Cine para ...
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Scorsese, Polanski make shortlist for the DGA Award
Golden Globe winner Martin Scorsese received the second boost in two days to his Oscar campaign when he was today (Jan 21) named among five nominees for the top Directors Guild of America (DGA) award, a near iron-clad barometer of Academy Award success. Fresh from winning his first Golden Globe ...
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Talk To Her triumphs at Bangkok
Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Her took both best film and best director prizes at the first competitive edition of the Bangkok international film festival.The fifth edition of the festival ended last night, with other Golden Kinnarees awarded to Michael Cain for best actor for The Quiet American, Kati Outen received ...
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Berlin completes competition line-up
The remaining five films in competition add significantly to the Asian content of this year's Berlin festival and put increased emphasis on the Holocaust.The new additions, which complete the line-up, are headed by Chinese-German co-production Blind Shaft (Mang Jing), a first feature by documentary director Li Yang. The film about ...
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Two Towers breaks Italian opening record
New Line International's The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers scored the biggest bow of all time in Italy over the weekend as it opened on a staggering $9.4m. The second instalment of Peter Jackson's J R R Tolkien adaptation averaged $11,773 from 800 screens after opening on Jan ...