All News articles – Page 5105

  • News

    Spanish media giants agree to merge their pay-TV operations

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Spain awoke this morning to the prospect of a dramatic revolution in its media landscape, with the announcement that industry giants Grupo Prisa and Telefonica have agreed to merge their pay-TV units. According to the terms of the deal, which must now be approved by both groups' administrative boards, as ...

  • News

    Hamilton and Syrmis greenlight Arclight

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    After spending weeks meeting with practically every producer in the country, Gary Hamilton and Victor Syrmis have at last announced what must be the worst kept secret in the Australian film industry: the pair are establishing a new Sydney-based sales agency and production company called Arclight Films. This means that ...

  • News

    De Palma's Femme Fatale seduces French audiences

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Brian de Palma's latest feature, the French-US co-production Femme Fatale, recorded a healthy start on its world debut in France. The thriller, which has secured an eleventh-hour out-of-competition Cannes screening on May 25, sold 220,000 tickets (equivalent to $1.1m) in its opening week to May 7.The film, which takes place ...

  • News

    First Australian pick-up for France's Flach Pyramide

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    French sales house Flach Pyramide International has made its first major investment in Australian filmmaking, taking international rights to writer/ director Kathryn Millard's debut feature Travelling Light Millard's acclaimed one-hour film Parklands - Cate Blanchett's big screen debut - sufficiently impressed the sales agency, which is known ...

  • News

    NZ film body pulls plug on four films at Larry Parr's Kahukura Productions

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    The New Zealand Film Commission's (NZFC) Alan Sorrell has confirmed that it was "reluctantly concluded" today that the government agency is unable to find a way to complete four films caught in a financial melt-down at producer Larry Parr's Kahukura Productions. The films include director Grant Lahood's Kombi Nation, Adam ...

  • News

    International buyers are hot for Son Of The Bride

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Oscar nominated Argentine film Son Of The Bride (El Hijo De La Novia), currently on limited release in the US via Sony Pictures Classics (SPC), has already been sold to a slew of territories prior to its world market premiere at Cannes. Neil Friedman's LA-based Menemsha Entertainment which acquired international ...

  • News

    Helkon severs TV ties with Buena Vista International

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    The German outpost of Buena Vista International (BVI) and local distributor Helkon have formally ended BVI Television's representation of Helkon titles in German speaking territories.In fact , at the end of last year, Helkon had unilaterally announced that the arrangement with BVI was over, as the US major failed to ...

  • News

    Canada's Remstar signs output deal with Chesler/Perlmutter

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Montreal-based distributor Remstar has signed a two-year multi-picture output deal with Toronto-based Chesler/Perlmutter, the first such deal the production company has secured in three years. The two-year pact, which includes development funds, will give Remstar first look for Canadian distribution of upcoming titles including the recently completed Tempo In Paris, ...

  • News

    Graham Chapman life story to be filmed by HippoFilms

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    LA-based independent production outfit Hippofilms has optioned rights to the life story of late British writer/actor Graham Chapman, a founder member of Monty Python. David Eric Brenner of Hippofilms is to direct and co-script the film.The film will address Chapman's early years at Cambridge and medical school, his struggles with ...

  • News

    Max Film wraps Rose's debut Menopause

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Canadian producers Roger Frappier's and Luc Vandal's Max Film is close to wrapping production On Comment Ma Mere Accoucha De Moi Durant Sa Menopause (which translates roughly as "how my mother gave birth to me during menopause"). The debut film by director/screenwriter Sebastian Rose, the comedy tells the story of ...

  • News

    Dream Work takes top prize at Oberhausen shorts fest

    2002-05-09T00:00:00Z

    Austrian filmmaker Peter Tscherkassky's visual poem Dream Work won the Grand Prize at this year's Oberhausen International Short Film Festival (May 2-7)The jury awarded two other prizes to Stephane Elmadjian's Je M'Appelle and Luciano Larobina's documentary Los Zapatos De Zapata, while the Arte Prize for European Short Film went to ...

  • News

    Magnolia acquires Interview With The Assassin

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    Eamonn Bowles' Magnolia Pictures has acquired all North American rights to Interview With The Assassin, the directorial debut of Neil Burger about a man who alleges that he is the second gunman in the shooting of JFK.The film will have its world premiere at the 1st annual Tribeca Film Festival ...

  • News

    Cannes adds two heavyweights to special screening programme

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    The Cannes festival filled out its special, out-of competition screenings programme with two heavyweight additions, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones and Brian De Palma's Cannes-set thriller Femme Fatale.George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones will be shown twice in the Salle Bunuel ...

  • News

    Cannes adds two heavyweights to special screening programme

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    The Cannes festival filled out its special, out-of competition screenings programme with two heavyweight additions, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones and Brian De Palma's Cannes-set thriller Femme Fatale.George Lucas's Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones will be shown twice in the Salle Bunuel ...

  • News

    German cinemas report boost in box office, drop in admissions

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    Box office receipts at German cinemas increased 6.3% year-on-year to Euros 271.4m in the first quarter of 2002 - although admissions slipped by 2.2% (1m) to 45.2m, according to official figures released by the German Federal Film Board (FFA).The FFA explained that the discrepancy between revenues and admissions was probably ...

  • News

    Anouk Aimee to head Cannes' France Culture Prize jury

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    French actress Anouk Aimée, who starred in Claude Lelouch's 1966 Acacdemy Award-winner A Man And A Woman, will chair the jury of the France Culture prize, to be awarded during the Cannes film festival.The prize, which crowns both a French and a foreign 'film-maker of the year' is to be ...

  • News

    Ali G gets high in Netherlands chart

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    UK hit Ali G IndaHouse debuted outside its home territory last weekend, storming straight to the top of The Netherlands' chart.Distributor UIP launched the comedy, which is the feature debut for Sacha Baron Cohen's alter ego, in The Netherlands on May 2 and recorded an impressive four day debut of ...

  • News

    Ambiel resigns from Expand Images

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    Dominique Ambiel, board chairman of Vivendi Universal's French television production division Expand Images, has resigned. His departure, over differences in the management of the company, was followed by board member Xavier Gouyou-Beauchamps.StudioCanal's CEO Richard Lenormand will announce a replacement . Ambiel, a former advisor to right-wing culture minister Francois Leotard ...

  • News

    Asian films are focus of two out of three new Oz FIPRESCI awards

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    Australia's three major east coast festivals - Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne - will each present a prize under the FIPRESCI banner from this year. The Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) instigated the move and has begun recruiting the local component of the three three-person international juries.The Melbourne International Film ...

  • News

    Stowe takes starring role in BVI, Random Harvest's Octane

    2002-05-08T00:00:00Z

    Madeleine Stowe is to star in Octane, the first production through the partnership between Buena Vista International and UK tax-based financier Random Harvest.Also in the cast are Norman Reedus, Bijou Phillips, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Mischa Barton. The production, made under Random Harvest's genre label Four Horsemen Films, starts shooting next ...